For the love of winter

June 1

And so it is here. Today is the first day of winter in the southern hemisphere.  Not for us the white fields, the iced up ponds or below zero temperatures.  In comparison to our northern cousins we have very mild winters. We do have snow, in the mountain ranges in the south west of the state and in northern Victoria but as the highest point on mainland Australia (Mt Kosciusko) is only 7,310 feet (2,228 meters) that snow is contained to a very small area.

It gets cold on the coast but we are lucky if we see overnight temps of zero.

Today in Sydney, it will be a balmy 19 degrees after an overnight low of 7.  There is no wind, it’s a bit cloudy (hence the balmy bit) and we can expect rain sometime this afternoon.  Sorry all you sun lovers but I am in seventh heaven. 

I can feel the itch to be in the garden today, I am impatiently waiting for knockoff time so that I can get out there tonight (just for an hour or so) and do a bit of weeding or watering (yes I still water if it’s raining), maybe smash a snail or two and pick some spinach or lettuce for dinner tonight.  I have so much to do out there and it is constantly on my mind.  Paint the tubs, plant the herbs, plant more garlic and onions, weed, buy a passionfruit vine, collect another tub (yep found another one). The weekend will just fly by.

Here are a few stats on our highest Mainland Mountain for you.

 Mount Kosciuszko is the high point of the Great Dividing Range, a long mountain range that runs along the entire eastern part of Australia from Queensland to Victoria. Kosciuszko itself straddles the border between North South Wales and Victoria. Glaciers chiselled out the mountain, leaving glacial features like cirques and moraines, during the Pleistocene Epoch over 20,000 years ago.
  Mount Kosciuszko is the centrepiece of 1,664,314-acre Kosciuszko National Park, Australia largest national park. The park was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1977 for its many unusual alpine plants and animals. The alpine zone on Mount Kosciuszko includes many rare and endemic plants and flowers that are found nowhere else in the world.
  The Mount Kosciuszko area is the coldest and snowiest part of Australia, which is mostly an arid and hot continent. Snow covers the mountain from June through October. The area also has Australia’s only ski areas.
  Polish explorer Count Pawel Edmund Strzelecki named Mount Kosciuszko in 1840 for Polish hero General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Kosciuszko (1746-1817) joined the American Army during the Revolution, eventually rising to the rank of General as well as being the Deputy Engineer for the army. He was a defensive expert who created fortifications for Saratoga, Philadelphia, and West Point. He later urged that the Military Academy be situated at West Point. He was also friends with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Kosciuszko returned to Poland in 1787 and waged war against neighbouring countries for Polish independence. Later he retired to Switzerland, writing books about military strategy. After his death in 1817, Kosciuszko was hailed not only as a Polish patriot but also as a great American and a true citizen of the world.
  The name is pronounced in Australia as: kozzy-OS-ko. The proper Polish pronunciation is: kosh-CHOOSH-ko.
  There are several native Aboriginal names associated with the mountain, with some confusion as to the exact sounds. These are Jagungal, Jar-gan-gil, Tar-gan-gil, Tackingal, all of which mean “Table Top Mountain.”
  Mount Kosciuszko, the lowest of the Seven Summits or the seven highest points on the seven continents, is also the easiest to climb. The main trail to the summit is an easy 5.5-mile-long hike that is crowded with trekkers all summer. As many as 100,000 climb to the roof of Australia every year.
  Whether or not Mount Kosciuszko is one of the true Seven Summits is debated by all climbers attempting to climb the highest points on the seven continents. While Kosciuszko is the highest point on the Australian continent, many purists contend that the true high point is Carstensz Pyramid in Irian Jaya, which is part of Oceania and on the same continental plate as Australia. The difficulty of the two peaks also enters the discussion since Kosciuszko is basically just a hike while Carstensz is technically the most difficult of the Seven Summits to climb.

And typically we have this little gem

  Australia’s highest toilet is at Rawson’s Pass just below Kosciuszko’s summit to accommodate the masses and keep human waste from being a worse problem that what it already is.