Some rain or just very little.......the story of our recent summer precipitation.

Hello Friends, I write this month to tell you how lucky we have been with the weather over summer (make no mistake I write entirely in regards to how the weather affected our plants we have nurtured around the station areas).

The following rainfall totals from the BOM website, recorded as having fallen in Viewbank our closest site are only a guide to exactly what landed in Eaglemont but you will see a pattern I promise!

Dec 2023  :-  64mm

Jan 2024 :- 110mm

Coming off a Spring of good rain one would think a reasonably mild summer was going to be a doddle for our Australian natives. But wait!

Feb 2024 :- 3.2mm

March 2024 :-3.6mm

Thank goodness for the good rain over the first two months of summer and April  :-119mm. While we did lose some plants over the Big Dry, I would like to thank those Friends who worked hard to refill our 2 litre water bottles in their crates and kept most of our plants alive. Unfortunately May 2024 :- 26mm so far, is proving a bit disappointing and you may soon see our water bottles out again over early winter, please feel free to empty them, especially onto the younger plantings!

On a completely different topic, I would like to give you an update on our memorial seat for John. As you can see it has been completed and the brass plaque fitted.

We all thought that the seat looks so good we would have to make some kind of cover to keep the worst of the weather off the beautiful Silky Oak timber. So we got to work making a laser light cover similar to what is on top of the fairy houses.

We are hoping this will keep the rain off the seat (those months when mother nature decides to give us some rain!) and make it a truly usable and restful space in Sherwood Road.

We also hope to have a some sort of ceramonial opening when then seat is installed, possibly a Saturday morning with invitation to the Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School grade 4 students. If anyone has any ideas please contact me.

regards Stephen Lake