TheBanyanTree: The three degrees of summer

[Peter Macinnis]

Summer has not really struck here yet, but just as Inuit (or Icelanders 
or Finns or some other Far North and exotic-to-the-speaker folk) are 
credited with having many terms for snow, so we in Australia distinguish 
kinds of summer.

I have been reading a lot of mid-19th century accounts written by and 
for English emigrants of late.  These people knew for a fact that it was 
only their flannel underwear that saved them from expiring in the heat, 
and it seems they perceived only one type of summer: too damned hot!

Without air conditioning, with ice an occasional luxury brought by ship 
from Massachusetts, with no freezers, they suffered. Their food went 
off, their beer was warm, and many of them lived on melon, grapes and 
ginger beer, which sounds like an Enid Blyton account of what the Famous 
Five survived on.

Houses now have wider eaves and awnings as well: no sun has come in 
through our north-facing windows in months, but we still see more 
gradations in summer. Today, as I took come cold grapes from the 
refrigerator (no melon or ginger-beer was harmed in my raid), it 
occurred to me that we had entered phase 2 of summer.

In phase 1, we are in bare feet, but the kitchen tiles feel chilly. In 
phase 2, we barely notice the tiles, but soon we will come to phase 3, 
where walking barefoot on the tiles is a blessing.

We are about a kilometre from the sea, and if the wind is in the right 
direction, we have a full half-degree ocean glimpse between the tree and 
the building. No matter, we get the sea breeze. Our town house has an 
air conditioning unit that we switched on once to test it.  A few 
kilometres west, they are already getting the third degree.

I hear that in Nova Scotia, 1500 cars were stranded in snow, and I 
wonder: how could these people be so careless as to have their Christmas 
in winter?

peter


-- 

   _--|\   Peter Macinnis           petermacinnis at ozemail.com.au
  /     \  Breeder of Pedigreed racing leeches (GT stripes extra)
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