(This is the Online column, written for The Southland Times)
It’s been an interesting start to autumn so far, with the new season appearing to arrive hand-in-hand with winter.
This follows on from our remarkably summer-ish spring and a decidedly “a bit of everything” summer so who knows what we’ll get by the time the calendar says winter is here; perhaps a tropical cyclone and a heatwave?
Even the weather man seems to be struggling to deal with Mother Nature’s current mood swings, with the handy dandy wee MetService app on my iPad effectively throwing up its digital hands in dismay and shrugging its digital shoulders in an “I dunno” move, listing absolutely no forecast details for the start of the week when I checked on Sunday.
The only person in our house enjoying the weather at the moment is Norman the cat, who seems determined to show just how absorbent one small cat can be by sitting in puddles and gazing adoringly at the falling rain.
She usually follows up that little party trick by running inside, climbing on one of her trained staff (usually me) and sharing her sogginess.
I should point out here that I am in no way cat obsessed.
Well, maybe a little, but I’m rather fond of dogs, too.