Ground Hog Day

Perth is a nice city but there was one thing about it that started to drive me crazy after living there for so many years - the weather! Every night at 7pm the forecaster would repeat exactly the same phrases over and over. “Tomorrow will be sunny and fine and 24 degrees”. (Celcius of course). Week in, month out, year after year after year.

Now a little sunshine is nice, but man I really started to feel like Bill Murray living Groundhog Day over and over and over there. “What’s tomorrow gonna be like?” “Hmmm, same as frickin yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that..”

That’s what I like about living here in Europe and amongst the high mountains especially. We get awesome thunder and lighting storms; we get beautiful spring days with white fluffy clouds; nice cold winters with enough snow to go skiing but not so much that your drive-to-work vehicle has to be a snowplough! There are spring sun showers and autumn downpours, but spread between enough sunshine and lovely days to make it all wonderful. Basically, we have weather...

When I was a little tacker growing up I read all these kids books that were mostly from northern hemisphere publishers. About when the autumn wind would blow and it was time to put on rain coats and scarves and galoshes and tramp in the puddles. Winter was the time to make snowmen and snowballs and then drink hot chocolate at home after a walk through the forest listening to the Robin Red Breast in the snowflake covered trees. And spring was a time to watch the trees and flowers come to life again and see the birds start to sing. Something that isn't as obvious in Perth where the unique flora and fauna is mostly perennial.

Each day here is a postcard and a surprise and much like Monet in the French countrysidepainting haystacks in the ever changing light, the same beautiful vista here can have a hundred different visages depending on the time of year.

I just love it and when no one's looking...I jump in the puddles!