Fickle Spring

As long as I can remember, I haven’t been able to decide which season I liked more: Spring or Fall. Speaking purely about the nature of the season’s nature, I enjoy the cool warmth and new growth of Spring, and the warm chill and turning colors of Fall. I like that perfect temperature that is warmer than winter, but cooler than spring.

I could spend the rest of this blog telling you in what ways I think this correlates with the things that I think are me. And you likely know by now, that would be easy for me to do. But that is not what I want to speak on now. I guess I should not be surprised how different an Australian Spring is, but this lack of spring is exactly what I want to comment on. Yes, I am going to while away an hour or so talking to you about the weather.

There really is no spring here. Admittedly, this is not the typical Australian spring, but even as atypical as it is, I think it is fair to say that what the Aussie calls spring, is very different from what I do. The weather recently has been very fickle. One Monday a few weeks ago, it went from high 80s to low 60s in a matter of about 3 hours! A week or so after that, we went through a heat wave that was the worst Australia has seen that early in the season for quite a few years. For about 10 days the temperature stayed above 35 degrees C (95F), and on more than one occasion it reached over 40 degrees C (104F). At one point, I saw the temperature (not the forecast, but the actual temperature that I was walking along the street through) was 43C (109F).

This heat is a dry heat. Generally speaking, I think a dry heat more comfortable than a humid heat, but I have never experienced a dry heat like that. I was going for a short errand down Rundle Mall. I stepped into the corridor into a furnace, but stepping out onto the street was worse. It also happened to be a windy day, so when I turned the corner of the ally I stepped into a wind tunnel that must surely be similar to the experience of walking in the Sahara. The wind was so dry that I felt my skin lose all moisture within 30 seconds of stepping outside.

Moving on, the heat wave was followed by a few clear blue days in low 30s. The day Laura left then turned into yet another stage: cold and rainy. The temperature was in the mid to low 20s again and it rained on and off for the rest of the weekend. It was actually pretty good timing for bad weather, if you ask me. The first few days after my exams were over were good days to just blah-out, just laying around in the apartment watching rented DVDs.

Anyway, the sky is blue, and although it is a bit cold to go to the beach, I expect it will warm up soon. I’m not a big fan of this spring. The temperature and weather have fluctuated too much. But I think the biggest reason for my dislike of this spring was the lack of what I consider a true winter. The winter was too warm for spring to feel THAT much different. And for whatever reason, I have not noticed the new growth as much as I usually do. But on the bright side, I only have to wait another 5 months before my next spring!

Cheers!