Hello Autumn

My thoughts and stuff
My thoughts and stuff
Hello Autumn
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Hello, Autumn in Canberra is horrendous (in my opinion). The evenings become colder and the air which is already too dry for my liking gets even drier. This means my skin cracks more, it hurts every day, and my expenditure on moisturiser goes up.

Oven cooked speck with steamed egg and wilted spinach served with Nespresso™ coffee. Gary Lum.
Oven cooked speck with steamed egg and wilted spinach served with Nespresso™ coffee.

Hello Autumn

Hello, Autumn I how I hate you. What’s worse is that I feel like I’ve missed February. February 2020 had a leap day in it too. I will miss summer. I didn’t mind the smoke haze. I had two work trips to Norfolk Island which provided some relief.

I’ve read that people complained it was too hot, but a lot of Canberrans think anything over 30 °C is hot. I regard 30 °C as warm.

Soon we will enter the season for regular upper respiratory tract infections like influenza, and infections caused by parainfluenza viruses, human metapneumovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and adenoviruses. Coupled with the looming pandemic caused by COVID-19 (caused by SARS-COV-2) I wonder how many times I’ll get ill this year with ManFlu.

While influenza vaccination isn’t the most effective public health measure given the vaccine isn’t the most effective, it’s still vital as many eligible people as possible get vaccinated this year so that as a population we do everything we can to reduce the burden on the health system. By getting vaccinated against the predicted commonly circulating Influenzavirus A and Influenzavirus B types (four types in the quadrivalent vaccine) we help reduce a little the likelihood we’ll get influenza, i.e., real influenza and not just a head cold or another viral upper respiratory tract infection.

What about the beautiful colours?

What about the beautiful autumnal colours of Canberra? It’s true Canberra is beautiful in autumn. The leaves go brown, then the leaves fall on the ground. The leaves decompose and the wonderful saprobes help to breakdown the vegetable matter to form more soil and silt.

If there’s no rain, the wind will blow the multicoloured leaves as well as dust and create a film of dust over everything.

Yes, Canberra is beautiful in autumn if there’s sufficient rain to prevent it going brown.

How will my eating habits change?

With the change to cooler evenings, the slow cooker will get used more. There will be more slowly cooked meat with more fibrous vegetables. I have to be careful to avoid the temptation of starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and other similar carbohydrate-laden food.

Kale sprouts. Are kale sprouts coming back?

I really hope kale sprouts will come back to the supermarket shelves. I’ve really missed eating them.

What have I watched this week?

Stargate Universe

Watching SGU is hard work. It’s not as easy going as SG-1 or Atlantis. I will finish watching every episode, but I feel like I need to go back and watch some SG-1 after I finish SGU.

Star Trek: Picard

This week’s show “The Impossible Box”, had JL meeting Hugh and checking out the Borg reclamation process.

What have I listened to this week?

No such thing as a fish

This week’s show is hilarious. Anna had me in stitches. If you’ve never heard of the show, please go to your favourite podcast app and search for No Such Thing as a Fish. The elves drop a show every Saturday morning (Australian time).

What have I eaten and photographed this week?

Photographs

This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and scroll through the rest of them.

Yummy Lummy this week

Last night I cooked a porterhouse steak with salad.

Close up. Porterhouse steak and radicchio salad. Gary Lum.
Close up. Porterhouse steak and radicchio salad.

Random Yummy

I’ve been eating well to keep me motivated to keep working hard.

Final thoughts

  • Do you like autumn?
  • What’s your favourite thing about autumn?
  • Do you eat differently in Autumn?

18 Replies to “Hello Autumn”

  1. I love Autumn in Canberra – it’s my favourite season! The only time I enjoy summer is when I’m swimming at a beach (in Sydney usually) – but I only like being outside in Summer for short periods. The rest of the time I just tolerate Summer. Especially in dry Canberra. I have to say, I really enjoyed the humidity of Brisbane and the Gold Coast where I spent the past two weekends. Everything was so green and lush there! My favourite things about Autumn are that first chill in the air – I find it invigorating – how pretty the trees look, and the fashions. I love layering!

    1. It certainly felt like autumn this weekend. I spent it wearing a long sleeve shirt and thin jumper.

    2. I’m sure March and April will have plenty of warm days. It’s not really Autumn till April really, right? March is like the ante-room of Autumn I think.

    3. I hope so, I feel like I’ve missed February and I’ll feel more cheated if there aren’t more warm days.

  2. I’m appreciating how humid it still is here in regional QLD in terms of not having to worry so much about cold & flu being a concern just yet (I’m still washing my hands religiously though). One of these days the heat and humidity will end I’m sure…but for now it’s making me feel oddly safer (normally the heat and humidity starts to wear me down if it’s still going in March).

    I didn’t know Canberra has proper changing Autumn leaves (I’m a Brisbane girl that moved to the UK at 25 and then came back to QLD at 34). I loved the Autumn leaves in the UK it was new and lovely for me not having experienced a proper 4 seasons in QLD (Autumn in the UK was nice, it was the very long gloomy winters that would start to drag).

    I watched SGU when it first came out back in 2010 (dude, how was that 10 years ago already!!). It’s definitely less ‘light’ than SG1 and Atlantis. I hated Atlantis (sorry! lol) but my husband watched it (despite it also driving him nuts at times…he just couldn’t look away? ha)….I loved SG1 though 🙂 🙂

    1. Thanks Jen. I grew up in Brisbane and remember there were seasons but not as marked as here in Canberra. In Darwin for twelve years I only noticed the wet, dry and build up. The colours didn’t change much apart from the monsoon months when the sky would be dark.
      I wish I had watched Stargate when it was on FTA TV, but I am enjoying that I can watch it streamed on iTunes.
      I wish I could live in FNQ or the Top End and do my job remotely. That would be perfect.

  3. I like autumn. It is a time of when things start to rest before the beautiful winter arrives. Most of the dusty times here are in late summer, when wheat harvest is nigh, and then if the wind picks up and horrific dust storms occur. I don’t really cook much differently than usual. If I am in Oregon and need to feed people, they eat most of the same kinds of things they have eaten all year. I’ll miss this next summer and seasons..no halibut. Fish is not easy to get inland and trout is almost always farm bred and tastes terrible. Store fish is odd.

    1. I reckon you might like Norfolk Island Sue. It never gets above 28 °C and there’s always a sea breeze.

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