Autumn

I am used to Autum being a month of gradual coldness creeping up, leaves dropping from trees and life and nature taking on a gradual browness as life goes into hibernation. Autumn in Melbourne this year has been strange! Because of the ongoing severe drought here, the earth already was brown, leaves on trees burnt by the scorching sun and grass shrivelled and dead from the lack of water. Even some of Melbourne's oldest trees have died this summer, unable to hang on in the overwhelming dryness.

Now that Autumn has arrived and the heavens are beginning to open a little, things are beginning to look a little green again. Today on our usual Monday morning walk, the children and I noticed how green the grass verges looked and how even some flowers were daring to peep out a little. Autumn is bringing with it, not a drab greyness but a new sense of life and hope.

Over the weekend, parts of Victoria that have not recieved rainfall in months celebrated as large downpours fell on their land and in their resevoirs. Water tanks are full again and my friends that enjoy gardening are celebrating a reprieve from having to bucket 'grey' water out of their showers! Despite the weather man's pessimistic warnings that the rainfall was barely noticed in the main resevoirs and the definate desision by Melbourne's government of stage 3a water restrictions coming in in April, people's spirits could not be dampened as we watched the rain fall this weekend. After tempratures of 35 plus on Friday we were all enjoying snuggling up in our big thick jumpers, under our umbrellas, in the chilly 16 degrees of yesterday. (My dad informs me that he was playing golf in shorts in 16 degrees the other week- but I think we must have been talking about different 16 degrees!)

I'm sure that eventually autumn will feel like autumn and will roll into a drab winter, but for now I am enjoying this cool change and the sense of new life that it brings.

ENjoy spring, those of you in the northern hemisphere and I will enjoy a peculiarly springish autumn in the south,

Love Helen***