Doctor, Doctor, we have a case of extreme heat!

Melbourne has been too hot to do anything but flake out in front of the fan today. For the past two days I've felt like an Emergency Room doctor sprinting round dealing with garden crises.
'Nurse, this blueberry bush looks critical! We need to mainline some fluids, STAT!'
So now many more of my plants have empty milk cartons with small irrigation holes dug in next to them, hopefully providing enough water at a slow steady pace to keep them alive. We spent a morning at the Brotherhood of St Laurence on Sunday, where we bought a washing machine, wardrobe and dining room table. I've been very grateful for the washing machine already, not just because I don't have to lug a few kilos of clothes to the laundromat, but because I can pour the rinse water all over the garden and watch it spring back to life.

Yesterday was slightly cooler, so I spent the day trying to fit all of our new furniture into the house. The old men who delivered it nearly had a heart attack bringing the wardrobe upstairs, so I had to shove that around to where I wanted it, I moved all the couches in the living room to make way for the table and just generally did painful lifting, pushing and pulling movements. I also cleared out a number of cupboards that had been hidden behind couches for years. I live in one of those glorious old houses which has been used as a student share house for decades, so digging around in cupboards always yields some finds. Our bathroom and my study now have hideous bright blue and purple curtains that look like a runaway circus tent, but at least they help keep the heat out. I also found useful bowls and cooking pots, and about 20 more tupperware lids (just to complement our already extensive range of lids without containers.) But at least I managed to feel productive while staying inside our comparatively cool house.