Today we drove to Orange via Oberon, O'Connell, The Lagoon, Perthville, Georges Plains, Newbridge, Blayney, Millthorpe and Lucknow (aka "the back way").
This is mainly a very pretty rural route with roads in average to good condition – no unsealed roads. It's all signposted (ie to the next town) although there are some sharp turns.
We are just past the greenest time of the year at the end of spring, with many yellow, purple and white flowers on the roadside.
The road over the high(ish) country from Newbridge to Blayney is my favourite, with rolling fields full of cows and sheep with many calves and lambs. (The return direction from Millthorpe to Blayney is pretty good, also).
Some of this country will eventually appear in my slowly emerging paintings (I have the lost and found again Sennelier HP watercolour paper, back at three times the price, I have paints in many hues both opaque and transperent, I have brushes, I am composing images to photograph as I drive by. It's going to happen Real Soon Now. Truly)
[I'm trying to upload pdf of the route map, badly cut by me from Google Maps, and Blogger is beside itself, so have attempted to re open Photoshop CS2 to convert pdf to jpeg #@$$%*(&^% ... unhappy Photoshop, a curse on blogger. A Great British Menu Friday night judgement break is indicated.] I think closing Firefox was part of the solution. And Blogger doesn't like pdf's.
The lost point of all this is that we are already at a turning of the seasons, between high spring and high and dry summer (the driest time of year in these parts) and the roadside grass is turning red/yellow/brown and we won't see this much lush abundant green until October 2011.
I had only known this area as green and lush and was surprised to arrive here on 22 January 2010 to collect keys to find a lot of brownness. Don't know whether this will happen again, as we are in an La Nina oscillation and have had very wet autumn, winter and spring, running about two weeks later than Spring 2009 by my estimate (based on when trees have come into flower).
I don't think that there are four seasons a year; I think that the Japanese are right in their 26 x 2 week periods (eg the fortnight of bluebells, the fortnight of clear mornings and rainy afternoons).
Some wiki -ing has shown this to be 24 equal periods known as 24 Sekki which, for your eternal edification are:
- Risshun (立春): February 4—Beginning of spring
- Usui (雨水): February 19—Rain water
- Keichitsu (啓蟄): March 5—awakening of hibernated (insects)
- Shunbun (春分): March 20—Vernal equinox, middle of spring
- Seimei (清明): April 5—Clear and bright
- Kokuu (穀雨): April 20—Grain rain
- Rikka (立夏): May 5—Beginning of summer
- Shōman (小満): May 21—Grain full
- Bōshu (芒種): June 6—Grain in ear
- Geshi (夏至): June 21—Summer solstice, middle of summer
- Shōsho (小暑): July 7—Small heat
- Taisho (大暑): July 23—Large heat
- Risshū (立秋): August 7—Beginning of autumn
- Shosho (処暑): August 23—Limit of heat
- Hakuro (白露): September 7—White dew
- Shūbun (秋分): September 23—Autumnal equinox, middle of autumn
- Kanro (寒露): October 8—Cold dew
- Sōkō (霜降): October 23—Frost descent
- Rittō (立冬): November 7—Beginning of winter
- Shōsetsu (小雪): November 22—Small snow
- Taisetsu (大雪): December 7—Large snow
- Tōji (冬至): December 22—Winter solstice, middle of winter
- Shōkan (小寒): January 5 Small Cold—a.k.a. 寒の入り (Kan no iri) entrance of the cold
- Daikan (大寒): January 20—Major cold
We expect our first frost in March; our growing season is about 100 days, in shortest category in Digger's Seed Club Calender (Google it!). Kate Llwellyn who wrote about gardening at Leura (more of this later) said that an elderly woman neighbour had told her that snow has fallen at Leura every month except February. We are 1100 metres, Leura is 985 metres and may get better western sun than we do (goes behind Mt Bindo 1363 metres on whose upper slopes we live).
Am planning to attempt to match Japanese seasons with local weather.
Now Great British Menu Northern Ireland Region Judgement Night (we are well behind the UK).
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