Summer Lovin’ in a Sun-Soaked Country

I packed light for my return to a Melbourne summer, leaving my winter woolies with my partner, who would be shivering in minus 30degrees while I sweltered in 30plus temperatures, or so we thought. As it turned out, my partner has been shivering more than usual back in Edmonton due to a malfunctioning heater and even more malfunctioning plumber called Biff. Meanwhile, I have been surprised by 10 degree temps, wishing that I had brought my red flannelette pyjamas with me. Now I know very little about geography, meteorology or climate change, but I’m wondering if the melting polar ice caps are somehow bridging the gap between the hemispheres, so that one day in the near future there will be little disparity in weather patterns of Melbourne and Edmonton. For goodness sake, it was snowing here in the Alpine regions, with temps as low as minus 20degrees! And to think some people suggested I was coming back here to escape the cold!

But this post isn’t just a rant about rainfall or cold weather, although I could quite easily have a whinge about the canopy of grey that is adding to an already drab and dreary emotive season. As much as I am over the cloud cover and relentless rainfall, I do love falling asleep to the lullaby performed by the rooftop pitter-patter. And I did giggle when I (accidentally) drove my little ‘zoom zoom’ through a puddle, sending up a huge spray into the faces of pedestrians. Sorry folks, but that’s what you get for standing too close to the curb during a freak summer deluge. To be fair, they were Millennials, a generation who are probably unfamiliar with rainfall of this kind, as Victoria has been in drought for about a decade. The problem is that we have gone from one extreme to the other, and the farmers are suffering. Dorothea McKeller summed it up nicely in her patriotic poem ‘My Country’, Australia is indeed a sunburnt country, a land of ‘droughts and flooding rains’. Enough about the rain. Here it comes again. As much as we might complain, we all secretly love Melbourne for its famous ‘four seasons in one day’, don’t we. As long as we can be guaranteed a couple of traditions. Like warm days for the summer of cricket and tennis, and Australia defeating the English in the forthcoming boxing day test at the MCG. Oh how I would love to see the Pommies win that one. But I’ll save that for another post.

Apart from sunny days sipping cool drinks on an outdoor patio, the other markers of a typical aussie summer are of course, cricket and the beach and the classic combo of beach cricket. On my first day back in town, the weather was actually quite atypical, a balmy 25 degrees. Driving along the beach road, from Sandringham to St.Kilda, I stopped to take some snaps for the benefit of my snow bunny buddies back up north. The bathing boxes by the bay are a colourful Melbourne icon, hard to believe they cost almost as much as a loft in downtown Edmonton. Definitely not a piece of real estate that I shall be investing in. According to the weather bureau it won’t be long before we are slappin’ on the sunscreen and slippin’ on the swimming cossie to have a refreshing dip in the ocean. Hopefully this summer we won’t be swamped by bluebottle jellyfish, like we were earlier in the year when millions of the stingers infiltrated popular beaches in Melbourne and Sydney. I guess it could be worse, we could be swamped by millions of American tourists, if the ‘Oprah Effect’ starts to work its magic. I am heading down the Great Ocean Road this week, for a pre-Christmas retreat, and shall be testing the waters, so check back later for a full report. I know my partner will be keen to know how many potentially poisonous and dangerous creatures might lie in wait for her arrival.

photo by Fiona Wilkinson

While on the topic of dangerous and deadly critters, I heard that there are plagues of locusts and mosquitos currently gracing our greener pastures. I recall many a summer, desperately trying to sleep on a hot and humid night, covered with merely a sheet while mozzies buzzed in my ear. And school trips to Queensland, with the bus ploughing through clouds of locusts, their guts splattered on the windscreen in a random display of roadkill. On a more pleasant note, the other night the familiar sounds of an Aussie summer floated through the open windows of a church hall, along with the gentle scent of jasmine. I was at a live performance of a local soulsong choir and as twilight descended, their voices were accompanied by a cicada song. Immediately I was transported to my younger years, with fond reminiscences of summers spent in the park, playing cricket until sunset before going out with my team-mates for a margherita at the local mexican restaurant. For me, the cicada song is distinctly Australian, associated with camping trips, the smell of freshly cut grass and the sound of leather hitting willow. And glorious summer days that seemed to last longer than the innocence of a child.

In some respects, summer in Australia is not all that dissimilar to summer in Canada, especially when it comes to socialising and drinking at outdoor venues. The main difference of course is/was the heat. And then the rains came and the snow started falling in December. The other day I drove through heavy rain into the city for a night out with mates. The venue was packed, the music was pumping and the alcohol was flowing, along with the gutters. The rooftop patio employed an extra awning and heaters for the comfort of patrons and a grand time was had by all. While gazing over a Melbourne skyline and shivering in my Northface sweater (thanks to my partner for insisting that I bring it back with me), I was reminded of those hardy Canadians, who spectate and participate in the Grey Cup Football Finals in outdoor, uncovered stadiums, sliding through the snow for a touchdown and holding their ice cold Molson beer with their wooly mittens. I suppose this post is about the shared sentimentality of summer, a tribute to those cherished summer days that linger in our hearts and minds, long after the warmth has left the land. It is about enduring the cold, gloomy winters, holding onto the hope that the clouds will one day clear away, while looking forward to the sights, sounds and smells of summer. More than anything, it is about the everpresent longing to spend endless summer days and nights with the one you love.

Related Articles

• Victoria’s white Christmas (theage.com.au)
• It’s looking a lot like … winter (heraldsun.com.au)
• You: Locusts land on Melbourne commuters (earthtimes.org)
• Boxing Day bonanza (theage.com.au)