Random Musings: Scent of Spring

I don’t know what spring has been like in your part of the world but it has been weird in mine. Much warmer and wetter than usual which has resulted in the most lush green look I’ve ever seen Canberra sport.

This last week has been a bit cooler with a lot of rain. Yesterday it truly poured down, areas around me were flooded and rooves caved in. But today the sun broke through the clouds to make for a warm, humid atmosphere, something we aren’t used to in the nation's capital.

I try to get out for a lunchtime work most days. Today was the first day I’d managed this week, but what a day to get out and about. The warm, humid air made the scent of nature around me truly profound. As I walked along I could smell the rich, dark earth, the fresh growing grass, the sweetness of honeysuckle.

We rely on our eyesight as our primary sense, sometimes to the detriment of the others. However, as I walked along today I was so aware of how the world smelt it was almost overwhelming. 

I paused for a moment, closing my eyes and drew in an even deeper breath to fill my head with the heady scent of spring. It was a small perfect moment in an otherwise unremarkable day. And sometimes that is all we need. One perfect moment to make a whole day a good one. 

Random Musings: Autumn in Canberra

Today is grey, cold and windy. A shot of winter as autumn draws to a close in Canberra. But overall it has been a gorgeous autumn, with plenty of clear blue skies, warm days and cool nights.

I love the fact that we have 4 seasons in Canberra and I really can't pick any as my favourite because they are all glorious in their own way. However I do believe that Canberra looks its best mid-Autumn when all our trees are putting on a stunning display of colour.

My Instagram feed has been packed with beautiful photos of Canberra, the autumn trees and particularly glorious sunsets we have had of late. We have enjoyed walks on warm afternoons under multi-coloured trees. Moving around the city has been a journey through a landscape filled with colour.

But the weather is changing. Today is a sign that the season is wrapping up. The leaves are dropping, bare branches form beautiful silhouettes against the sky, it is time to transition to winter. And as I say goodbye to the divine colour of autumn, I'm already looking forward to open fires, slow cooked meals and an excuse to wear my extensive scarf collection, because if autumn is the season of colour, I think winter is the season of comfort. Bring it on!

A walk in the country

S and I like to walk up the hill to visit my parents.  It is great exercise plus we tend to get tea and coffee and fed when we arrive (a yummy apple strudel today).

This afternoon we walked up, quite warm in the sunshine but after drinks and cake it had got to sunset before we left.  We walked along briskly, noticing how quickly the temperature had dropped and commenting on how different the perspective is from the car trip, or even walking in the other direction.  As we walked S suddenly stopped and said "Is that a wombat, or a wombat shaped bush?"  Sure enough it was a wombat!

As we walked further along we came across a mob of kangaroos on our path and that is not to mention the myriad of gorgeous birds we saw on our journey.

It was one of those walks that reminds me how privileged we are to live so close to nature.  Just a lovely little afternoon.

Early Morning Walks

I'm led to believe that there are people who really enjoy exercise.  Who actually look forward to it, in fact are addicted to it.  I am not one of them.  Dance is my exercise of choice because it is so fun I don't really notice I'm exercising at all.  But at the moment I'm only managing one dance class a week and if I intend to keep up my chocolate intake (which I sincerely intend to do) other exercise is required.

I also understand that there are some people who leap out of bed early in the morning full of joie de vivre.  Again I am not one of them.  I eye my alarm with a mixture of horror and loathing as cheery breakfast radio announcers spring to life.  Inevitably I spend at least 5 minutes contemplating excuses as to why I can just have a lie in.  How really I don't need to get up.  My knee/back/neck hurts.  It is probably too cold/dark./scary outside.  But eventually reality wins out, I lever myself out of bed, put on my walking shoes and head out for a solid 20 minutes hard work.

Some people report a feeling of euphoria after they have exercised.  They talk about how great they feel, fighting fit and ready to face the day.  The best I can say is that I feel awake, ready for a shower and later in the day, completely deserving of my post lunch chocolate hit.

However despite my grumble bum attitude to early morning walks, there are a few things that I really do enjoy about being up that early.  I get to see the sun rise, lighting tiny droplets of dew on the grass like a million fairy decorations.  The world has a still quiet, calm, stillness to it.  The air is cool and fresh and delicious.  Sleepy animals, kangaroos, cows, birds, the occasional rabbit, poke their heads up to watch me march by.  The few people I pass say hello, but mostly it is just me and the rhythm of my footsteps.  It is a quiet time, a peaceful time, almost like meditation and despite my initial early morning bad mood, I do finish my walk feeling calmer and more centered.

And then of course there are those blissful mornings when I wake up to rain - no one could possibly expect me to go for a walk in the rain could they?

Growing Your Own

It has been a strange summer.  A few hot weeks in November promised record heat, but in reality my airconditioning has spent far more time off than on this season.  Every now and then we have had a couple of days of proper summer but in between the weather has been remarkably cool, even cold.  Just a few weeks ago we had an overnight temperature of 1.4 degrees C and a day where if you took into account the wind chill factor it was 4 degrees - in January!

As a result my poor garden is confused.  The maple trees have twice started to turn their leaves red, only to decide to green them up again.  And my tomatoes which took off like crazy in November went on hiatus for the longest time.  But now, despite the weather, they are producing like crazy and I'm loving it.  There is nothing quite like a burstingly red tomato straight off the vine and my vines have produced enough that I've been able to supply my parents with more than one bag full of them.

My garden is quite tiny, but it is productive.  As well as the tomatoes, I've got cucumbers, lemons, spinach, rocket and lettuce plus a heap of herbs - lemongrass, bay, basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage and mint.  It is so incredibly satisfying to wander out the back and pick a few leaves of this, a sprig of that, a lemon, a bunch of tomatoes.  At the moment the salad I have for lunch each days includes quite a bit of home grown produce and I'm sure it tastes better for it.

There is quite a movement encouraging people to grow their own food.  In Australia we live on some of the most productive land.  Everything you grow means that much less has to be grown with industrial fertaliser, transported, handled multiple times etc.  We will always need our farmers, but we sure can help feed ourselves.

I dream of one day having a giant veggie garden and I'm sure it will happen, but in the meantime just the small amount I produce makes me very happy in deed.

Wattle

In the midst of the coldest days of winter, when the fog hangs low, the frost lies thick and the night is heavy on both ends of the day, the wattle flowers.  Those luminous yellow balls of sunshine light up the cold winter landscape and you know that summer is on its way.  The sight of it glowing from the dull countryside lightens my heart as soon as I see it.

Bare branches

One of the many things I love about winter is the look of bare branches against the sky.

In some ways, the starkness emphasises the cold.  They are often grey and you look through them to the frosty sky.  Birds sitting in them look exposed, and the wind whistles through rather than rustles as it does in summer.

I love being able to see the structure of the tree, how different they all look without their leaves.  I especially love it when you can suddenly see a bird's nest exposed that come spring will disappear once again into the foliage and be filled with babies.

The lack of leaves changes the view too.  Longer vistas open up.  New perspectives on old scenes.

Experiencing things like this is one of the joys of living in a place which really does experience all four seasons.

A new hope

A new year. New possibilities, new hopes, new wishes. The first of the year is when I usually find myself thinking of the year ahead and hoping for all that it might bring.

Newness was all around me today it seemed, even down to the luck of seeing a rosella feeding its baby. The parent had been chirruping at me to fill up the bird feeder - although from the lipstick stains on its beak it had obviously been helping itself to my parent's boysenberries! And I quickly realised why when my attention was drawn to it feeding a young one. Big enough to fly but still cloaked in the green feathers of a baby rosella, the sight of it really reinforced the feeling of this day in particular as being another beginning. It is such a privilege to see nature in its glory like that.

A new life, a fresh start, the future reaching out ahead. The perfect start to a new year.

Dolphins

One of the gorgeous things about being by the sea is the chance to see really lovely wildlife. This evening we had the joy of watching a really large pod of dolphins playing in the waves.

It had been a beautiful day but this afternoon it clouded over and stormed. After awhile the rain cleared but the sea was still stormy and gray, the surfers had disappeared and the beach was empty. It was then looking out the window that we noticed a pod of dolphins surfing. They were having the best time leaping out of the water, catching the waves and just hooning it up. One was doing leaps where it twisted about almost onto it's back. There were heaps, maybe 30 in the pod.

Eventually they must have discovered a school of fish which diverted their attention but for that time when they were leaping, playing itnwas just joyful to watch.

After the rain

It has rained, boy has it rained. Facebook is full of references to the arc, streets have been flooded, houses inundated. But for the first time in who knows how long, definitely since long before we started paying attention, today the dams are 100% full.

And as if to celebrate, this afternoon the clouds parted and the sun streamed down. All the rain nourished plants glowed luminous green. The flowers lifted their heads which had been weighed with water and beamed colour, the air is warm and humid and so clear and clean.

In the distance bulbous clouds, white and grey still hang, full of promise in the air, but between them, the clear blue sky and the warm afternoon sun showed what a beautiful summer there is to come.

What a sight to behold!

Taking a breath

I've had a bit of a stressful day. Delayed flights, led to tense waiting, rushing to get where I needed to be, fitting too much into not enough time.

But as I rushed very late from the airport to my business engagement, I took a moment to stop and take a deep breath. The rain had finally stopped and I paused beneath a gum tree, heavy with blossom. The rain had brought out the deep, cleansing scent of the tree and it filled my head with a calm that had been missing.

It was a great moment to stop and get some perspective on a frustrating day and I entered the event in a good frame of mind and without the tension that had filled the day.

Sun on the roses

This morning I opened my curtains to a beautiful sight. My backyard is full of roses. They were coated with a thick layer of dew from yesterday's rain which had caught the rays of the rising sun. Each leaf, bud, flower and stem was outlined with a glowing silver edge as the dew and sun combined. No jeweller could ever recreate the brilliance of this morning, even with the most sparkly of diamonds and the sight lifted my heart.

It really was a gorgeous morning. Canberra looks stunning at the moment, with rolling green hills, lush gardens and full lakes. It was beautiful and sunny, with everything glowing green and sparkling clean after the rain. There were a few clouds about, but they only served to create a marbled effect of shadows over the mountains, allowing shafts of sunlight to highlight particularly verdant areas of hillside.

What a glorious way to start the day.

A room with a view

Have you ever worked somewhere without a window? Where all day you sit in artificial light, air conditioning, remote from the natural world?

I have a couple of times and I find it incredibly draining. Particularly in the winter months when you often arrive in fog, leave in darkness and it feels like you never get to see the sun.

Well a couple of weeks ago I got to move into an office with a window - and not just any window, one that opens! I sit with my back to it, but it still fills my area with natural light, and a short 180 degree pivot and I can look out at a tree about to burst into leaf, a footpath, the pigeons nesting on the next building and down a long street. There is always something happening, something to look at. In those moments when you need a brain break, it is perfect.

Plus, on a gorgeous day like today, you can open the window and get bursts of fresh spring air in the room.

So I really appreciate my new office and its wonderful window.

A breath of fresh air

After a long and often brain teasing meeting, I took a step outside the office today to clear my head with some of that lovely fresh spring Canberra air.

Clean air is something that we take for granted in Australia. How often do we really think about the beautiful fresh, clean air we get to breathe? But we should. I've been to some terribly polluted countries. I remember a day in Hong Kong when the air pollution was so great that you couldn't see Kowloon, the pollution had brought visibility down to just a few hundred meters. And being in La Paz where you could see the smog hanging over the city like a dense fog. When you get a lungful of that stuff it feels thick and uncomfortable.

So as I took a deep breath of crisp, fresh air, it just reminded me how lucky I am to live in such a place.