Imagine … living in a place where it’s never cold!  Every single day, you can leave your jumper/jacket/cardigan at home because you know you’ll never need it!  Sounds like bliss, right?  Wrong!!!  After ten and a half years of living in perpetual summer, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for the infinite variety that is Victorian weather.

There is real joy in getting reacquainted with such meteorological diversity.  It reminds me in tangible ways that everything is just for a season.  We’re now well and truly into autumn and the nights are turning cooler; the warmer days are becoming fewer and further between.  I don’t mind though because I’ve had a wonderful time soaking up the bright summer days (and occasionally hiding in a darkened, air-conditioned room when it’s really too brutal to venture out) and now I’m ready for the briskness that is winter.  If it was winter all the time, I doubt I’d embrace it; likewise that endless summer I mentioned at the start of this post.  It’s the relative brevity and the changes, that make each season special and wonderful.

Shady grapevines in the village donning their autumn colours

Autumn in Australia “officially” begins on 1 March – though I’m not sure that Mother Nature holds much brook with such man-made officialdom.  I marvel at the things I take notice of now that I’m older, that once would have completely escaped my attention.  Like the huge shift in the position of where the sun sets each evening.  Over a period of only about four weeks I observed that the setting sun moved pretty much from one extreme of my view, to the other (a not insubstantial expanse of horizon).  The time it sets (and rises) has altered dramatically too.  A couple of months ago, it was light before 5.30am and a lovely long, lingering twilight meant nightfall was delayed till at least 9pm.  Now, darkness is chased away only a little before 7am and the evening pulls down the blinds by 7pm.  I revel in marking the passage of time in these ways, though it’s a reminder too of how quickly the years are passing by.  We’re hurtling towards our own winter at a breath-taking pace!

Low cloud in the valley makes for a magical view on an autumn morning

The cooler weather bring the pleasure of snuggling under the doona at night, and tucking toes into slippers in the mornings. This week we’ve had the central heating checked and serviced; we know it won’t be too long before we’ll be cranking it over for the first time this season.  We survived the latter half of last year’s chill with an extra blanket on the bed and flannelette sheets but we know that an entire winter will call for serious reinforcement:  an electric blanket.  I’m watching the shops for the arrival of new stock so I can buy and prepare.

Although we’re now a month into autumn, the message was underlined last week when I pulled out the cucumber and zucchini plants as they came to the end of their productive lives.  After months of eating their fruits practically daily (and preserving plenty for consumption through the winter), it’s hard to imagine we won’t be able to wander up into the garden and pick them fresh, as we need them.  Ironically, the MOTH discovered this week that he loves zucchini and corn fritters and I now find I’ll have to buy zucchini to make them!!  The tomatoes are still going – there’s enough warmth yet in the sun and the

Practicing comfort food – under that sea of onion gravy are rissoles and homegrown vegetables!!

soil, though I expect some of the latest new, green tomatoes will never get to ripen.  One last crop of lettuce is making a pretty, frilly green splash up there too.  But now the pumpkin vines are taking center stage as they sprawl enthusiastically up the rock retaining wall behind the veggie garden.  Brussels sprouts, broccoli and red cabbage are already gathering strength from the last throes of sunshine in the soil; they’re a good, sturdy size and we’re looking forward to winter meals with our favourite brassicas.

This week has also seen me surveying the fairly pitiful state of my winter wardrobe.  It’s a meager collection, mostly amassed over the past couple of years when I travelled home from Manila for visits.  A jumper here, a jacket there, a new pair of jeans or closed-in shoes, were enough to get me by for a two week visit and even through the final couple of months of last year’s winter, when we returned for good.  But that just won’t cut it this year, as we prepare to live through the real deal – the entire cold season – and I’m just going to have to go shopping soon 🙂  As a counter to that, I probably don’t have a feasible excuse for ever buying summer clothes again.  Or summer shoes and sandals, for that matter.  My love of footwear (just like that other famous female who lived in Manila) is almost legendary, and a story for another day…

In the meantime, I plan to enjoy the glorious autumn weather.  I love all the seasons and after a year of separation from any of them, I’m always happy to welcome each one back.  But if I had to name a favourite, autumn would probably be it.  It’s golden, still mild but with crisp evenings and mornings, and mellow –  like the year’s weather has finally got it all figured out. Spring is wonderful but much more temperamental, not quite mature.  And of course, there’s always the old joke about Melbourne’s changeable weather:  anyone who says Melbourne has four seasons in one day obviously hasn’t spent a whole day there!