Melbourne summers seem to go on forever, with plenty of sunshine and long warm evenings. Unfortunately, the winters seem to go on forever too. Even before coming to Australia, I often thought that the length of a year felt like exactly the amount of time one can remember what a season feels like, so that when each one comes it feels like a distant but not quite forgotten memory.
As the old saying goes, what goes up must come down. It certainly seems to have been true through the summer of strangely intense weather we have had here in Australia, from fires to rain to hail to record breaking heatwaves. Yet just when we thought we had seen it all an entirely new meteorological marvel arrived, in the form a torrential rainstorm filled with mud. It started as blowing sand, then turned to rain, and by the time it was done the entire city was coated with a thin film of red dusty grit. Truly something for everyone these past few months. What a summer indeed.