It's Bubbling Again!

The weather over the next day or so will remind us of our time in Melbourne.  We expect a hot 33 today with a blustery northerly.  And then there is to be a southerly change overnight with rain and a much cooler 24 tomorrow.  This is a mammoth fluctuation in max temperatures for this part of the world.

Along with the southerly change we have been told to get ready for rain as well!

I just couldn't help myself with this photo I took this morning on my bike ride.  I get out a little earlier nowadays and it is just magnificent riding along pathways such as the one in the photo.  I managed my 12.5 bike ride and my swim all over by around 8:15 this morning.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

As the title suggests, the brew I put on yesterday is bubbling away perfectly.  I was a little apprehensive as the brew was a "Black Ale" and I was using "Dark Brown Sugar", a combination which usually commences the brewing process a lot more slowly than a standard ale and white sugar.  The standard recipe can be bubbling in a matter of hours while a black can be 6 or 8 hours before any action commences in the air-lock.

Friday Drinks will be here again because of the hot weather.  The pool is a good spot to sit and enjoy a convivial or two.  Ian and Kerrie are popping over.  John has a former colleague's retirement function to get to.

The pavers in the backyard weren't a good buy as a pool surround.  We weren't given the full information on how to look after them.  The salt water and sun's UV will try most surfaces in this part of Australia.  The 'top' is wearing off many of the pavers exposing the aggregate in the concrete.  This is something we notice but is something we need to point out to visitors if ever a comment is made.

Ideally we should have been sealing them every couple of years. When they were first laid we were advised that sealing them was up to us and not a prerequisite for their ongoing maintenance.

Around the corner a guy is having a couple of his concrete areas treated with "covercrete'.  This adds a new surface and coloring to the concrete.

It does require being sealed every couple of years but this is straight forward with the right product and equipment and can be done in under an hour.

The guy doing the covercrete job popped around and had a look at our job.  He suggested not re-doing the paver area under the patio where everything is fine. He said that if I really wanted the job done he recommended to do all the areas around the pool.

Except for the pool edging, we would lose the 'paver' look.  This photo may give an idea of the outcome.  He would 'mark out' the paver outlines around the pool with a stencil to retain that paver look.  He quoted around $1500 to do the job.

We aren't in a hurry to do anything just now so we will think about it as a possible task for 2014.