Seasons of the World!

Sorry to have been absent for a while.

I feel like I was whizzing around the world so quickly, that I temporarily spun myself clean off!

Canterbury Gardens, Melbourne looks a picture

Haha, I’m back now after a British spring and a Aussie autumn all within a few weeks. Next month I will add in a Russian summer and a Melbourne winter. How crazy is that?

I’m sure there are studies which can tell me the effect of plunging yourself into all the seasons of the year in a few weeks. I often wonder what the consequences are on mind, body, and soul? For the most part, I love it, but I do have to work hard at being grounded … and remembering on waking where in the world I am. My nightmares are about forgetting to pack a coat when needed!

My idea of a perfect day is being back with the crazy poodle taking him for walks. He is none too pleased with the whole coat thing as you can see.

The Crazy Poodle in autumn, nights getting darker, leaf crunching and wearing a raincoat!

There was a certain amount of retraining to be done, which was exhausting as it involved several nights of insisting he slept in his bed in the laundy and not someone else’s bed. May be I’m just mean? He has also claimed residence on all sofas. Here he is on the garden chairs. I know, cream cushions a dreadful idea. In my defence, they were chosen long before we had a dog with muddy paws!

At least the dog has thrived since we left for Bangkok, albeit with a new personal ‘they give me an inch and I’ll take a mile’ personality! The goldfish in the pond were not so lucky. A combination of the water levels getting low and the kookaburras in the neighbourhood and they have disappeared…

                                            Where have the goldfish gone?

Seeing the world through my familiar seasons is comforting to me. It is nearly twenty years since we first arrived in Australia and having everything back to front seemed a bit weird at first. The kids used to say a hot summer Christmas didn’t feel right. I agree. I am not alone clearly as Christmas in July is a much loved Aussie celebration, where families get together around the fire and the full turkey works are laid on.

Of course, when the rest of the world is plunged into the depths of a cold, flu and coughing season, I have always loved January in Australia! The beach, the sunshine, the tennis!

There is a retirement plan in the planning stages never to have a winter of discontent.  But after eighteen months of the most full-on summer every day in Thailand. I’m having a rethink!

I don’t have that seasonal comfort in Thailand, it does have seasons. I have noticed two: hot and hot and wet! There is little respite, it’s a life of permanently living in a blast furnace. I started craving jumpers, log fires, gloves, red noses even de-icing the car would be a novelty.

A Melbourne autumn has been a great escape. It’s a treat to wear jeans and jumpers and to wrap up in winter coats. To wake in the morning to the tune of the ducted floor heating stirring into action, rather than sleeping with the constant hum of the air conditioner.

Bangkok, although we have seasons of sorts, we are in the middle of the ‘don’t forget your brolly, and don’t wear your best shoes’  in case you get caught in a monsoonal downpour up to your middle…

What is your favourite season? Are there any seasons you would like to avoid, or do you like seeing the changes in nature? Anyone seen my brolly?

Have fun whatever the weather in your part of the world!