Winter… that is a surprise

It is November… no wait it is May… but it is cold… so it cannot be May…   …but it is.

That does sound confusing, well we are as confused as it sounds, in a funny sort of way.  There is no harm here but it is interesting that our brains are hard wired in a certain way after repeating the same routine over and over for say about 40 odd years.  At work I keep talking about the summer, for me that is June, July and August when all the flower bloom, the vegetables grow and our industry starts its cycle but that is over there so after a brief moment I realize that for us here now it is winter.

Winter in Melbourne is interesting, it does get cold if you are conditioned to the climate here, we do get near freezing temperatures at exceptionally cold days but around the 5C mark is as cold as it gets, during the day peak temperatures do get to low double digits, so it is cold enough to warrant light winter clothing.  I have seen people walk around on a nice, clear 18C day with coats and gloves that has to do with the conditioning I believe.

Here in Victoria we also have alpine country, a four hour drive north east of Melbourne there is a whole snow and ski resort, we have not been there yet but the season officially starts next week on our Queen’s Birthday and we are planning to take Ben to see snow again.

The days are also much shorter, so it does get dark by the time I arrive back home in the afternoon and if you live in suburbia, like we do, there is very little activity to be had as opposed to the summer when there was enough light and we used to go to the beach or bicycle riding.

What surprises me though is that houses here in Melbourne for the most part are not really geared up to this weather as they lack proper insulation and efficient heating.  Housing is a subject though that I will write about separately.

Related articles

• Shivering through our coldest start (theage.com.au)