"George" wrote in message
a mighty strange summer & autumn here across the ditch in the (usually
well watered) Waikato. From late January through to early May stuff all
rain.

That's a long stretch without rain for 'usually well watered'.

Maybe a few mm dribbled out from the sky. The second summer drought in 3
years. A severe soil moisture deficit. The last 3 plus weeks however the
heavens have opened and the moisture deficit is well and truely gone. But,
with winter just around the corner and coinciding with the rain, field
mushrooms have sprung up around the place. We normally get them in about
late march and into Autumn. I picked some off the back lawn the weekend
just gone. Nothing queerer than weather, not even folk.

Well weather patterns certainly have turned queer, but then so have people
when it comes to ignoring changing patterns :-))

Lets hope next summer and Autumn are better.