In like a lion...

It's transitional time for the seasons. Down Under, that means winter is shifting over into spring. As a Northern Hemisphere person, I find myself relatively untroubled by the spring-in-September thing. It's confusing, but I chose to ignore it. September has always meant fall, back to school, cooler nights...and here, that's just not so. I guess it's not bothering me because (if I disregard the calendar), it's all part of the normal flow. Ellie has been in school for several months now, starting with the end of summer/fall transition (ignore the fact that this happened in February). It got cooler, then colder, and now it's slowly becoming spring. We've seen several honeybees flitting about, and the tree over the cubby house has turned the neon green of new leaves.

A lot of our local friends are complaining about the winter this year. It's been pretty wet and often wild, though I'm not bothered by that either. I don't mind cold weather and I don't mind rain as long as the sun comes out to recharge my personal solar panels. What I do mind is wind. Today is yet another day of ghastly, beastly wind blowing in hard off the ocean, and I hate it! It fills our ears, buffets our bodies and gives me a headache (and puts me in a foul mood too, apparently). The school run is misery in such strong wind. I'm still sulking from drop-off this morning, and I'm starting to whimper about pick-up in a few hours' time. When I get tired of rain, I can console myself that it's good since we live in a drought-prone area. Good for the farmers, good for the plants, good for the water table. But this wind and I do not get along. So, I turn back to the calendar and spin the dial by 6 months to put it in terms I understand. September Down Under is the Northern equivalent of March, and the saying goes "March roars in like a lion but goes out like a lamb." I've got the lion now and there's no love lost...but I sure am looking forward to that lamb.