We might be in the thick of stinking hot summer days but I noticed this morning the earth turning back to winter.

Plane trees outside my work window are losing the luminous green they had in spring and I watched, on a windy day last week, leaves peeling away from soon-to-be-bare branches. They’ll litter the concrete paths of Bathurst St in Sydney's CBD in coming weeks.

There are stars visible in the night sky when I get up. Only a week ago, it seems, the sky was steely grey with first light. No stars could break through it and only the moon hung there.

My strawberries are finishing and the crepe myrtle is in full flower. Autumn winds will blow those confetti-like petals away soon. I stood outside last week as a southerly buster washed over the garden and showered me in a drift of pink.


Oh yes, don't be fooled by these hot days and nights. Winter is coming and those summer PJs I made over the holiday break will lie folded in my cupboard, waiting for another turn of the earth.
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