Is Winter Coming?

The onset of winter in Australia - those parts that have a winter the rest of the world would recognize as such - is often a tentative dance between autumn and spring.  The first light frosts have appeared in the upper Blue Mountains, delicately sparkling crystals decorating the leaves of the violets.

Yet, on the same morning, the roses are preparing to open,

the jonquils are flowering,

and the grapes are feeling like they might be ready to greet the spring, unfurling soft green leaves.

Summer is gone, swept away with the torrents of falling, flying leaves.  Winter, officially due to arrive on the first of June, has already charged up from its Antarctic home and spread snow across the southern Alps, only to stage an early retreat and cede the field to these balmy, spring-like, autumn days.

It is a feint, of course, in the manner of the feigned retreat that helped William overcome Harold at Hastings, all those centuries ago - winter is coming, but when?  Will it greet us with scenes like the ones we saw  at Blackheath only two years ago?  We live in hope - snow and frost make next year's crop of cherries a sweeter one.