goodbye hot, dry summer and hello lovely autumn

Look how green the grass is already, after just two bouts of rain this autumn! The groundsmen must have done some great preparation during summer, so the soil could take up the rain when it eventually came.

But what are these strange long white poles leaning on the fence?

And what about these deep holes in the ground?

It must be time for the footy to start. Aussie Rules, of course. So they'll need four posts, two to mark goals and two to mark behinds.

Rain!

Only one day after posting a photo of Penny in a 'pretend' puddle, I was able to get a shot of her in a real one! Hooray for rain. The resilient plants are already sending out new growth. (I don't have the heart to whisper to them that it's too late for summer growth and that winter might be around the corner. Let them enjoy growing for a little longer.)

hot summers and dry grass

It has continued hot here, unseasonably warm for the beginning of autumn, so we're still tending to go out walking early in the day. Penny feels the heat, so she was glad to find a big puddle on the grass at one of our regular parks this morning.

It was interesting to see that she put her belly into the water but didn't roll over. I think she cools herself through her belly and her paws.

The water sits on the top of the grass when the groundsmen water, and I think it's because the topsoil was removed when a water harvesting system was built under the ground in this area. 

We often see lines of disturbed soil across the playing fields, and one groundsman told us it's so that the water might penetrate to lower levels. You can see that the grass grows in lines around these spots.

Some areas have to get special attention.

Thank goodness for all the hard work the turf specialists put in. Otherwise the whole area would look like this part that isn't maintained.

a whole month since I posted

Wow! I was amazed to see I haven't written anything about Penny's life for a whole month. I guess the hot summer weather has made us lazy. The last few weeks have consisted of lazing around most of the day, walking either super early (By my standards, anything before 10 am is super early, lol) or late in the cool of the evening.

Penny's lumps and itches are not bothering her at the moment, as far as I can tell. She's taking one and a half Cetirizine each day, with the aim of settling any allergies, and we put Apex lotion on her itchy areas a couple of times a day when needed.

So, not much to report... which is good, from my point of view.