The nastiest thing about hot weather is hot nights. Here in Tassie we normally escape that sort of thing, as overnight temps are usually in the single or low double digits. But not last night. Last night the coolest we got was 17 degrees, and when I was woken at 1:30 it was because it had gone up to nearly 20 degrees. This is not part of the rules here, weatherwise. Still, it could be worse, I could live in Queensland still... We still seem to be hanging in there for cooler (relatively) weather tomorrow with only 25 forecast, but with strong winds and 16 overnight, so the fan may once again grace the bedroom (wish I had a ceiling fan ...). The wind has picked up, the fire-brigade have washed their truck, so we might be in for an interesting 24 hours. I took advantage of this Indian summer to give the wood-heater another going over - loosening the damper and giving it a good oiling, banging the flue down a few times to loosen up and dislodge anything that might have accumulated and evaded the brush, you know the sort of thing. As the flue was being re-seated on the heater a large giant took a few loud steps down the slope of the roof outside, alerting me to dislodged mortar from around the flue. So once the wind dies down (and it is a dry day) I will be up on the roof sorting that out, apparently. It seems that this might be the source of the raindrops that keep hitting the top of the burner and leaving rust pits on it. I decided to try drying a few of the prune plums. After all, with 35 degrees and a windy day it seemed as good a lot of weather as we are likely to get this side of winter, and so a very few are currently sitting on the grill of the roasting pan outside in the sun and wind. They do seem to be shrivelling a bit, but will clearly need a lot more work once I bring them inside. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that prune plums are free-stone in habit, have a lime green flesh, and don't taste as bitter as I expected. If anything, they don't taste of much at all. Presumably drying them intensifies the flavour. Though the present humidity is more likely to lead to mildew than dried prunes. Anyway, this lot is doomed to become chilli plum sauce, so I am not that concerned. A little more firewood has been stacked and/or brought indoors in preparation for the cool change they keep promising us, the tomatoes remain green and the cabbage whites are having a field day with the remaining savoys, broccoli and cauliflower plants (which will hopefully take off once the weather cools down a bit). Trout for dinner tonight!!