Monday, October 05, 2009

Rain stopped play

They say you get grumpier as you get older. I think it could be true, but it’s all Australia’s fault! Brief synopsis: arrive back, have a dust storm, have a freezing cold and damp first weekend, gets temporarily sunny and warm for one day when you can’t really appreciate it because you’re stuck in work writing about some rubbish or other, then it gets to the second weekend and it rains lots and isn’t particularly warm either! Pah, what happened to this famous Australian weather? Whoa is me and so on.

Despite everything pointing to the contrary (including possible snow in the forthcoming week) it is spring, time to plant some greens in the garden while the spots of rain are fewer and farther between. The apple tree in the garden is in beautiful blossom, not that I’ve been out there to appreciate its beauty much. And the BBQ is still awaiting its first sizzle of summer. Meanwhile, over in the Botanic Gardens where the plants are generally much better looked after, things are flowering all over the shop, and when the rain eases, the birds chirp and the fragrant smells permeate, things are that much better. Cue overuse of the macro button.







Saturday night the clocks changed, moving us an hour forward, only you can’t enjoy the light evenings much when it is so darn miserable! It was a long weekend to allow us to adjust to the time difference and by Labour Day Monday I was super keen to escape and get out to see Australia for a bit. The day actually started a bit brighter, so, deciding I’ll save the coast for warmer weather, I invested two hours of reasonably quick but boring driving to take me to the Southern Highlands. Where it started raining and thunder rumbled, cancelling my plans for an extended bushwalk along the east rim of escarpment around Fitzroy Falls. The falls were unsurprisingly functioning nonetheless, pictured many times before but I don’t think with my latest camera and its wider angle lens.

And so, having come all this way I was not going to just turn round and head back so I drove a little further up the road on a pilgrimage, where all Australians must go to fulfil their patriotic sense of duty. Bowral, the home of Sir Donald Bradman complete with Bradman Oval and Museum. The museum was full of cricketing gems, the kind of place absolute fanatics would love, packed with battered old balls and baggy greens, scathing comments about the legitimate genius English tactic of bodyline and not too much dwelling on the fact that the great man just missed out on his 100 average. The boy from Bowral done good.



It would have been lovely with the sun filtering through the blossom, watching a game of cricket on a warm spring day, but the reality is I drove back through rivers of water for a time and returned to one of the blackest clouds ever over Canberra to do some out of hours unpaid work (yes, on Labour Day), and eat a disappointing takeaway dinner! The forecast, beyond the potential snow midweek, is for sun next weekend. I don’t trust them though, those weather people, they’re sneaky. If I don’t get to use my BBQ soon I will go insane!

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