Autumn Already?

I notice that some Northern Hemisphere posters are mentioning unusually mild temperatures for late winter: Bliss and Ewa in the Garden, for example. We too are having mild temperatures. Generally, February is an inferno. We experience temperatures over 35 C for about five days, with a day or two reaching 40 C or more. Some years we get two heatwaves, not one. Then the weather breaks, we receive some welcome rain, and when it clears, we find ourselves in autumn.

Well, our rain seems to have come early. After a deluge in December and a pretty typical humid January, it rained for the first ten days of February instead of getting hotter. I suppose the amount of water in the soil has caused the caused the cool temperatures these last few fine days. Yesterday, it was only 14 C at 7am, and it smelt like autumn. (What does autumn smell like elsewhere? Here it is cool dewy mornings, the smell of damp earth, and green things growing.)

The highest temperature forecast this week is 27 C. I have seen a pink tibouchina coming into flower. If I'm lucky, we'll have a long, long autumn. It's my favourite season -- planting time.

A giant golden orb weaver is spinning her web at our front porch. She's probably 5 cm across when she's sitting comfortably and waiting for her dinner. She's not very elegant, with her plumpness and her rather stumpy legs, and she is too hairy for human ideals of feminine beauty, but she is a great benefactor. We've barely been troubled by mosquitoes inside the house this year, though I hear they are in great numbers due to the rain. If our spider is at work, it must be bed-time. Goodnight!