Month Five Report

I have put off writing this one long enough that we are now half way into month six. Eek. I feel like time is flying by. I want to slow it down and savor every day. At the same time, I know I will love going back home. There are plenty of things I miss. Boston really is home. Sydney is a wild and wonderful adventure.

So what happened in May? For one thing we experienced an Australian autumn. I hesitate to call it fall because it really didn't feel like fall. It felt strange to experience autumn without pumpkins, cider, apple picking and falling leaves. New England really excels at fall and Sydney cannot compare. That said, Sydney in autumn is still sunny, warm and full of flowers so I consider an Aussie autumn a reasonable substitute for a New England spring. When I toggled back and forth between the Belmont forecast and the Balmain forecast on my phone I found the weather to be surprisingly similar for much of May.

A few trees in our area changed color but mostly we are surrounded by a sea of green. To my amazement bushes continue to produce new flowers. Even when it poured - and it occasionally did - I looked out and realized the rain was pouring down on palm trees and a pool.

The air definitely feels crisper. We have cooler mornings and less humidity than when we first moved here. The beach seems less tempting. People wear scarves in the morning but still end up in short sleeves by afternoon. I definitely felt a little autumn boost in energy. I felt like turning over a new leaf even if it wasn't the start of the school year. I started running in May and I'm now six weeks into training for a 5K race. I really enjoy getting out and exploring the Balmain peninsula. I'm even getting better at running hills since that seems to be most of what we have here. I also find that running helps slow down time. A half hour run seems to last an eternity so three more months must be a very long time indeed.

Getting into the autumn - and now winter - mindset also makes late August seem very far away but, of course, it's not. I have already signed both girls up for soccer in Belmont in September. I have completed Tess's Kindergarten registration for Winn Brook. I took a look at the calendar and realized that we arrive home the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and the girls start school the following Wednesday and Thursday! So that will be a tight turn around but I'm going with the theory that kids benefit from routine particularly in times of transition.