Hot, Dry and Dusty

We've now been back in Adelaide 5 weeks. To a large extent we've plugged back into life here at school, church, Liz's work and the house (I return to work tomorrow so that will be a major change). We've got a house full of furniture and our stuff both from before and from the USA and places we visited while away. But there are a few noticeable changes.

Adelaide is brown. Like Arizona is brown. Due to the increased heat in summer and water restrictions, there are very few lawns left that are green. I'm doing my best to bring part of our front lawn back to life, but it will be a slow process. To date, Adelaide has had 1mm (that's 1/25th of an inch) of rain for the calendar year (normally it's over an inch by now). What this all means is that it is an incredibly dusty place. We recently opened the windows in the house one night during the hot spell to cool everything down and are still cleaning the dust and dirt off everything! I bought a car last week and it has taken less than a week for it to be covered in dust and dirt even though we store it undercover. And of course there are restrictions in how it can be washed!

The kids are all back into music lessons and Sam is playing B Grade cricket with his school (a separate post will appear). We're back at church as well, but we're yet to commit to anything as of yet.

Adelaide itself has changed very little in the two years we were away. The trams now block the rest of King William Street and part of North Terrace.

After regularly travelling large distances, we are yet to leave the Adelaide environs since arriving back. We may venture as far as Kangaroo Island for a holiday later this year, but our plan is for a very quiet year. We'll see how that pans out.