Summer/Winter

When I grew up in Sydney I loved the summer, but didn't much like the winter. I loved the local swimming pool and in my teens went to the beach when I could, although being from the western suburbs it was rather a long excursion to get to the beach!

I've lived in Queensland since 1986, except for a short time from January 1990 until December 1992 when I lived in Melbourne.

Over the past sixteen years in Queensland I've become accustomed to the climate. I live in a rural area and the maximum and minimum temperatures can vary from those in Brisbane by four degrees either side of the temperatures in Brisbane at the time, up in summer and down in winter.

Summers when I first moved here were pretty dry. The first summer in the rural area the house had just been built and we'd moved in. I had to have ceiling fans installed because it was quite warm some days, but there wasn't much humidity, and I could always open the windows up all around the house and get cool breezes in the evenings, or there'd be a ripper summer storm to cool things down. Heat waves only lasted a day or two and there'd be a pleasant day after that to recover from the heat. The hot westerly winds were the worst thing.

When looking at plants for the garden I liked many that were available from the Forestry Department of Qld. They were cheap, too. I particularly liked one called wilga. Unfortunately I was told that it was a brigalow tree and it was too humid where I lived to grow it. Pshaw. Whatever! There was no humidity where I lived. What WERE they talking about? Well, the past summer has been the most humid for a while. The few summers before that were a similar pattern, but I can't remember not being in drought in the sixteen years I've lived here, except for a time in 1996 when there was a flood in May and a couple of other years when we had good rain hereabouts.

This year has been horrendous as far as humidity, and now I know what the Forestry bloke was on about the wilga. Maybe I'm getting old and feeling it more, but it's been unbearable (last year had it's humid days, but nothing like the weeks of humidity here this past summer).

Winter up here is hardly noticeable, where in Sydney it was awful. Winter here is usually dry, cool at night, cold in the mornings and warm in the days. Usually about 24C or 25C. I laugh when I see people in the city wearing heavy coats and gloves... but then again, I drive to work every day, and barely notice the cold. Out of the warm house with a fire and into the car. I don't even know it's cold until I get to work and someone tells me!

I'm looking forward to winter this year. I't's been unbearable having such a long, humid summer this last season. So, because I've always loved summer and now I look forward to winter, I suppose I must be acclimatised to living here!