Sydney Seasons

Opening up the main door onto the balcony this morning, I noticed the trees in my street are showing the first signs of bud-growth. Living on the second floor, I can literally reach out and touch them. One of the reasons why I love living in this street so much is the obvious seasonal change. During winter, my street has a wonderful starkness about it; during summer, the street has a wonderful lushness about it; spring embodies growth and autumn sees the street dumped in a huge amount of leaf litter.

I first felt the seasonal change yesterday morning when I walked out the front door. Suddenly, the slight chill in the air that has characterised the last few months, had been replaced by a warmth that went right through my clothes, through my skin and into my bones.

I love the way the seasonal change in Sydney co-incides, oddly enough, fairly closely with the calendar month. Although in many other parts of the world they define seasonal change along with the equinox, here in Sydney it pretty much happens on the first day of the month. And not just at spring, as the same thing seems to happen at other times of the year, too, and it’s odd to think about why. Although there are many theories about seasonal variation in Australia, including notions that some regions have up to seven or eight distinct seasons, here in Sydney at least we seem to have our seasons change on or about the first day of the month.

And of course, we recognise that with official calendar recognising seasonal change occuring on the first day of the month, though it has been theorised the regimentation derives from the early days of the colony, with the change from the summer to winter uniforms for the military. Anyway…

So yeah, spring is officially here, according to the calendar month, and according to the environment.

…and summer’s one the way. And I’m on holiday. I’ll be travelling a bit over the next month, but if you’re in Sydney, you can probably expect a lunch invitation sometime soon.