I proclaim June 21 to be Envy Australia Day. Right now Sydney is enjoying a pleasant late autumn, with high temperatures in the sixties, and rain. Our summer solstice is still five days away and I already envy Australia. I think I envy Perth, which is in a Mediterranean subtropical climate zone, even more than I envy Sydney, which is in the humid subtropical zone, as Perth is having a slightly warmer rain which is also somewhat lighter. It's going to be a very nice night in Perth tonight.
My night will probably be merely tolerable. I will sit outside with a bottle of Sierra Nevada Summerfest and fantasize riding along cool, rain-slicked streets full of reflected light to a beachfront cafe overlooking the Indian Ocean, where I would sip Foster's Lager while listening to the waves roll in from Africa. Here I probably won't even have any crickets to listen to. They've been silent for nearly a week. Happily, I won't have to smell any smoke, as no fires have gotten started yet this season. But the jasmine is fading fast, and soon I won't have its fragrance to lend a touch of the exotic to the dull summer nights. Oh, autumn, why do you linger in the antipodes when we need you so desperately here?