Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Travelogue: Australia – …But It's A Wet Cold…


In the American southwest there is a specific city (which shall remain nameless - sorry, Phoenix, no mention for you in this week's blog) that is fond of reminding you that although their average temperature is somewhere between the temperature of an industrial blast furnace and the actual surface of the sun, at least "…it's a dry heat!"

"Great!" I found myself thinking the last time I was there – it was August. "So, I'm not poaching, I am baking. Thanks for the clarification!"

Here the problem is opposite in both ways. The cold here is a miserable drizzly, wet cold. I think perhaps I can see where the state to the north of here "New South Wales" got its name. It may be lovely, but when it is wet and miserable, it is really wet and miserable.

Since the front moved through this past weekend, the weather here has been cold and damp and then lovely in turns. I am glad that I packed for both summer and winter. Though, to be fair, the winter here is much more like one that I might expect to encounter in Miami than in Minneapolis. It is cold and damp, but it is not a brutal cold. It is not the biting, harsh, freeze-your-breath-while-it's-still-in-your-lungs cold that you get in the American Midwest.

Still, with the proliferation of interesting plants and wildlife, it is worth the cold and wet! That's why God invented galoshes!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you are enjoying the weather!

Don Bergquist – 09 August 2011 – Canberra, ACT, Australia

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