Wednesday, March 17, 2021

My City Of All Seasons

 There's a saying about my home town of Melbourne - if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. And that's one of things I love about it. For me, the idea of living somewhere that has the same weather day in, day out, would be boring. 

We've just clicked over from Summer into Autumn/Fall and I have to say that March is really the best month for beautiful weather. I spent most of the day out today and the sky was blue and the temperature was 23C/74F. Absolutely glorious. We have a family (child's) birthday in a park on Sunday and it's going to be 26/77F which will be perfect to be outdoors.

If you judge Summer by how hot it is, our Summer was almost non-existent - and that's pretty much the way I like it. Summer can get crazy hot here with temps soaring into the 40s/104. Tooooo hot. Some people love the heat, but I'm certainly not one of them. Days over 30/85 I'm inside with the air con on! But because it's Melbourne we know a change will always be on the way. I just love it when the dark clouds roll in, the thunder rumbles and the big raindrops start falling. You fling all the windows and doors open and just let the coolness sweep through the house. Bliss! 

We're also lucky in Melbourne that we have easy access to great beaches, both bay and ocean beaches

so there's somewhere that suits everyone (even a nude beach or two if that takes your fancy). I'm absolutely in the suburbs, but my closest bay beach is only say 40 minutes away or a good surf beach an easy two hour drive. Truly blessed.

As an absolute pluviophile (rain lover), I don't have any issues with winter. If it's raining, that great. I an watch it and listen to it and sometimes (if no one is watching and it's not freezing cold) just stand in it and enjoy how it feels on my skin. The temperature these days (unlike when I was a child) doesn't dip below zero, but it gets close sometimes but the beauty of Winter is that you can snuggle up inside with woolly clothes and heating (ideally an open fire, but we don't have one of those). Perfect curl up on the couch and read weather and I don't mind it at all.

One thing Melbourne doesn't have in Winter is snow, We have rain and wind and hail but no snow. As much as I know people who have to live with and deal with snow say it's a pain in the butt, just once I'd love to experience a snowy Winter. When I wrote my Christmas romance 'Unwrapped' I really enjoyed having a vicarious snowy winter when I stranded my heroine with her hunky hero in the middle of a snow storm. Of course I had to write from imagination, but I really wished it was me making snow angels with the hero and his daughter. Oh well, a white Christmas is still on my bucket list. (click cover to meet Ry and Holly!)

And then we have Spring - such a beautiful time of the year. It's a feast

for the eyes when all the new growth comes in after Winter. The bare trees green up again and all those glorious Spring flowers bloom. Once again this year I will TRY to grow some spring annuals (petunias, cosmos, alyssum, marigolds) so we can have a riot of color in pots on the front porch. But while I do good with things in garden beds, I inevitably kills whatever I put in pots so my vision of a Spring showcase of flowers might not quite get there. I suspect I should put my time into writing rather than horticulture.

Whatever the season, I'm glad I'm in Melbourne. I might have the air con on one day, then the heating the next , but that's what makes it special. And makes it HOME.

Check out all Andra's books HERE.

3 comments:

Judith Ashley said...

Andra, Melbourne and Portland have the changing weather in an instant in common although we do have snow some winters. And standing in the rain? I've done that also...used to always go walking in the rain when in college. But as our weather has changed and it is so much hotter for many more days than when I was growing up, I've also just stood on my back deck in the rain when we finally get some in late summer or early fall.

Thanks for sharing what makes your home city so special!

Shannon said...

Thank you for sharing your beautiful town with us. Americans know Melbourne and it’s fabulous food from various travel shows, and the Melbourne Cup, but I think we know it best from Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. There’s something so charming about Melbourne.

Maggie Lynch said...

I agree with you, Andra, that weather that remained the same year round would be boring. However, weather that is always at extremes is too much for me. Like Judith, I live in the Pacific Northwest which does have defined seasons and snows occasionally--usually not so much it ruins the week. I like the differences in time, darkness and light, cool and warm. Howevever, I would prefer that temperatures stay above freezing and below sweating if you move. For me that is between 34F/1C and 85F/29C. I can even stand the warmer temps IF it cools down at night and we can naturally regulate the indoor temp with opening and closing windows.

I haven't been to Melbourne except to switch planes in the airport. The two times I've been to Australia were in Perth which has it's own unique feel, different from the east coast cities.