Y Ddraig Goch

June 18 2025 - Winter in Australia

Prompt: How does the sky look today? How does it make you feel?

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I live in Australia. In Melbourne. A city that has four seasons in a single day - sometimes more. The sky seems to change on a whim.

At the moment the sky is light (sky) blue. There are some fairly heavy clouds rolling in to smother it. Off-white, slightly grey - the kind of white that annoys my mother whenever a black sock finds its way into the wash with the whites. It's the hint of rain later in the day - that MAY come. It's best to take a brolly just in case.

It looks cold. It looks winterish - which it should. It's winter here.

The trees are bare. Most of the flowers have turned in for the rest of the year and won't be seen until Spring. The winter blooms are only just starting to peek through. It looks bleak if you only cast your eyes over the landscape. If you don't pay attention.

Winter in Australia reminds me of the end of Autumn in the UK - the end of November when the whole country is starting to ramp up for Christmas. It's cold. The wind has a bite to it that cuts through fabric and burrows deep into your bones. The type that tingles the tip of your nose. It's an excuse to bundle up in jumpers and scarfs and colourful bobble-hats and sip hot chocolate and copious mugs of tea. The slight discomfort when you take a deep breath in the morning air and your lungs crackle as the cold expands into them - like a balloon that's skin is stuck together; all while marvelling at the water vapour we exhale like mythical dragons. Good Times!!

Winter in Australia is a bit like summer in the UK - technically it's here, though it feels fleeting, and it never really seems to get its act together long enough stick around more than a few days - but if it does... it's national news. The Big Chill - note it's never the Big Freeze.

It's my favourite time of year.