Life on Mars

Talk about a red sky in the morning. Sydney woke up to what might be its first-ever dust storm this morning. This is how things looked about 15 minutes after sunrise. Instead of the white-yellow glare of a low sun, everything looked deep red, like we were on Mars.

Eeerie is the only word to describe the feeling of waking up with all your windows glowing red. Our breakfast radio announcer ventured 'spooky' as well as 'eerie', and no-one would disagree. And he's playing songs by Dusty Springfield, Slim Dusty, etc. Nice touch!

About five minutes later the light brightened slightly, and this is the scene on the street. The dust has been blown here by fierce, strong winds emanating from the centre of the continent, and the winds here are howling this morning. The weather bureau says to expect gusts of 100km/h (60mph).

Looking the other way down the street and it's just like when it's foggy, except that it's red. The street lamps are glowing, and as cars drive by their headlights send out pinky red beams in advance.

Looking from the back of the garden to the house, and the southern sky, and my lungs are hurting. I suffer from mild asthma, and even five minutes out in that stuff and I'm short of breath. So, for me, it's inside to blog about it all, use the puffer and stay away from the dust. You can taste it in your mouth, and it's unpleasant.

Well, here at the Garden Amateur blog I am sure some readers must get sick of me blathering on about the beautiful Sydney climate, but today it's deadly. Be glad you're not here! Strong winds all day, lung-damaging dust choking everyone, traffic chaos everywhere, and if those gales work up, I am sure some beautiful plants and trees will be blown down. I'm not really sure if this is Sydney's first dust storm, but I've been here 55 years and it's my first one. And that concludes the weather report from Mars, Australia.