"Officially", on the basis of the imported European four season convention, we've moved from summer into autumn in this part of the Southern Hemisphere.
Less officially, based on the Kulin people's seasons in the Dandenong Ranges, a bit to the east, we've left the dry season (Biderap) for Iuk, or eel, season. Of course, because we're actually on the plains, not the in the hills, the dry season would be expected to extend a little longer, but we've had some relief. Not much, enough to register about 2 mm in our newly bought and installed rain gauge (just an old fashioned, tapered and graduated receptacle) a few days ago, although half of that was possibly the dog trying to drink out of what he saw as a new, deep, skinny and utterly impossible outdoor drinking bowl, and enough this afternoon to much up the clothes drying, but not enough to register in the rain gauge.
Our last remaining cat (and, coincidentally, the first we got, a decade ago - two of the five we had have passed, three moved out with my partner's daughter, and the elderly [much older] lady cat who moved in when we joined households also passed at a venerable age) doesn't like the rain, as the birds often fly out of the back yard. Those birds, incidentally, are why all our cats are indoor cats: we used to joke about opening the blinds being turning on the TV for our cats, and that the TV always had a nature doco on it, and lately we've commented, as our cat confirms our decision by taking up a hunting posture at the back door, that he is planning which cast members in the nature doco to eat. We love our four-legged family members, but we're fully aware of what they are, and all future cats, if we get any more, will be indoor cats. (We also love birds, and, in summer provide food and water for them. Oddly, a staggering number of people are such poor guests as to react aggressively to our decision to keep the cats indoors.)
Going back to the weather, I still have to water our plants, and will do that either this evening or tomorrow morning (I also have to fit some time in for my day job, which will probably dictate when I do what). I find the end of summer and into autumn becomes a bit of a struggle for me to keep working - I dislike heat, and this summer, although it didn't have any extreme heatwaves in my home city (there were elsewhere in Australia), had a more unrelenting heat. I was able to keep most things going, but not so well in the last couple of weeks.
I've actually thought for some years that autumn, the season of many colours - including the green of evergreens - in south east Australia, is the best time for me to take holidays. The weather is cooling, which I like, eventually we'll have mists and rain (I am a pluviophile 😀 ), and I share the slowing down of the deciduous trees and plants: I am active in winter, but, come autumn, I want to slow down.
I'm even going to be due for long service leave during this autumn, but, owing to the demands of clients (not management - clients, the people who pay the company and thus pay my family bills, etc), I am unlikely to be able to take time off when I want to. I suspect I will wind up having to take the leave either in installments, or during the time I do neither thrive nor flourish: summer.
Ah well, as the French, say, c'est la vie.
At least I am recovering from some of the demands, seasonal and other, of life of late enough to get back into my psychic and spiritual work. And now I have to get ready for some more domestic duties.
