Kerry,

Do you still correspond with Peter from England? I would like to try to get him to the "general" side of this board, and of course if he wants to post on Susan's, that is great also. He is a fan of Susan's as I recall.

I will send him an email but wanted to touch base with you first to see if you have heard from him.

Thanks..

Hi there Ginger

Just back from my Food and Wine Festival event where excess seemed to be the order of the day. However it is presently Saturday afternoon - 5.00pm here, and I must now shore up the ruins of myself for another night out. ( I foresee a veeeery quiet Sunday coming up!!)

Yes I hear from Peter spasmodically via email and he is certainly still around and about and using the same email addy as far as I am aware.

Kerry

Food and wine festival... sounds like fun!...Is it fall there? I get confused! LOL

Thanks for the info. I will write a note to Peter. I do miss him.

I will try to get my dad, Bob, back over, and maybe Tommy (John Wayne) over too.

" !...Is it fall there?"

Yes indeedy, and I love it deeply. I think we once discussed how different it is dwelling in the sub tropics and down in the southern hemisphere, compared to where you reside.

eg where I live has never seen snow ( well in recorded history anyway)and while our Winters are certainly cold, they are never as cold as our southern areas of the continent ( I know - the exact opposite of the U.S.)

The price we pay for never knowing what it would be like to scrape ice off a windshield or shoval snow from a path or endure a blizzard, is that our Summers are both lengthy and too hot ( for me at least).

Whilst in Winter - Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart etc are freezing at times and snowy and chilled, the extreme North of the continent does not get a Winter as such.
Queensland's north with the Great Barrier Reef islands and tropical coastline and rainforests is a lure for Winter tourists. (Just think Florida).

Where I am is about halfway down the East Coast, in southern Queensland and we are much colder than the tropical north, but again- spared the real cold of the South.

So while our Winter is more than tolerable, my favourite two seasons are Spring and Fall as it is truly perfect temps and conditions.

Thanks for clarifying that some, Kerry...so question, since you are in a Florida type weather locality, when it is fall, is there a turning of the leaves, lots of fall colors. I don't think it's like that in Florida during the fall. I was in Orlando one year in November, and it was like the middle of summer.. ha..just wondering.

Fall, here in Missouri is my very favorite time of the year. It is really gorgeous.

" when it is fall, is there a turning of the leaves, lots of fall colors."

Ah how I wish! No our seasonal change is too subtle. While in the depth of winter, some of our deciduous trees and shrubs do obviously shed leaves, it
is never enough to actually create a topography and landscape of fall colours.

Being born and raised here in the sub-tropics, I had never seen snow until I first went to Europe in 1967.

So comparing us to Florida is not a bad option.

It is akin to tipping the United Staes upside down to visualize the Australian climate geographically.

Our far south has very cold winters and many ski resorts in the mountains in New South Wales and Victoria.
Our far north does not get much of a winter at all and is very tropical with palm trees, beaches, rainforests, sandy islands.

( But I agree that fall colours are glorious and I miss them.)