Winter arrived last week with a vengeance and there was even frost on some of the cars as the sun was getting up. I still cycled to work but had to stop a couple of times to wipe the snot from me nose. With the wind chill it would have been below freezing for sure, but still managed to wear the shorts.

Last weekend Stuart and Catherine came up to help me with the old tree in the back garden. I had started to remove the lower branches last week but the rest of the tree was just too big for me to tackle on my own, plus the fact that Stuart has a bit of experience with this lumberjack nonsense. What a difference a chain saw makes.

After three or four hours the tree had been reduced to bits and pieces scattered around the garden. The yellow sawdust was everywhere and I did feel rather sorry for what we had done to the old tree, but I am sure that once spring arrives for real it will begin to grow once more.

It was a good day to fell the tree; the sun was shining and it was only around 20c and so it was easy to work in. The best part I guess is that we managed to do all this without anyone being hurt or causing any significant damage to my shed or fence.

The Indian curry we went for in the evening tasted absolutely delicious and was the perfect way to finish off a very cool winter’s day for us lumberjacks.

The next morning the sun was up and the temp was cool, another beautiful day and so we went to Boonah to have a look at the Clydesdale horse event which turned out to be very good, the highlight for me was the ice-cream and apple crumble.

On Monday it seemed as if winter had finished only after one week. The temperatures had once more increased to double figures overnight, which is a bit of a shame because I do enjoy these fresh mornings.