16 November, 2011

Winter's coming

This morning after breakfast our outside thermometer read a hair under 10 degrees (Celcius). I know to some of you this isn't so cold (it's been snowing in northern Japan, where we used to live), but to others, especially Australians, this must be winter. For us this is getting close to the end of the downward slide. Tokyo's average daytime temperature in January and February is 10 degrees.
This is all the sun we got downstairs yesterday.

Actually we've had some gorgeous days. Sunny with bluish skies (Tokyo rarely gets as blue as Australian skies) and little wind. But unfortunately, many days I'm stuck inside working at this computer! Inside is often cooler than outside (if you don't heat). One sign for me that winter is close by is that the sun is rapidly disappearing from my office/dining room. Though we have a small garden (enough that it needs weeding!), the house behind us is too tall and too close to allow the sun to reach our ground floor during winter.

Upstairs is much nicer, sometimes I contemplate taking my laptop upstairs and sitting on the floor in my bedroom, but the glare gets too much.











Another sign that winter is near is that my "Christmas" or Denmark Cactus is about to bloom. I love cleaning my teeth near this little bit of beauty in the mornings. And while leaves are falling down and flowers outside are dying, I have this cactus as well as the ongoing flowers of my geranium. Gorgeous! (Not to mention that they've both survived over 12 months under my not-green thumb, so they're survivors.)




The other sign that winter is practically here is something I cannot photograph. The smell of kerosene has entered our house as our kerosene heater gets fired up to warm the main living rooms. Oh, and that my die-hard shorts and tee-shirt boys went off wearing long pants and jumpers (US=sweatshirt) without a protest this morning. That's got to indicate a change of season!

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