Rain, rain go away….please?

As many residents of Oregon do, I suffered from the winter blues. Whether you call it SAD (Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder) or simple a hibernation instinct I find the rainy season particularly difficult to handle on any year. This year, however, I am finding it particularly tough. After an entire year without seeing winter (I left for Australia in October and returned in March) I feel the cold and the inescapable wet as an almost physical weight on both mind and body. I don’t want to do anything except eat, sleep, take hot baths, and sleep some more. However, I must go to school, play with the dog, cuddle the cat (best done while napping though) and perform other seemingly pointless chores every day. How do I do this? Honestly some days I dont. I stay in my pajamas, I drink lots of tea and cocoa and I play video games if I am not napping or bathing. (Some times I think I should grow gills the amount of time I spend in the tub.) Previous years I have battled the blues by retreating to that haven of warmth and skin cancer known as the tanning salon. Peter has made me promise that I will save my skin and future health by ceasing that uplifting practice. So I have replaced it with workout at least once a week (twice or more is best) and sitting in the sauna in the women’s locker room when I am done.

On the plus side, the complete lack of any desire to go outside has given me many long days in the office working on school and research. I have come up with a couple of good ideas and gotten some rather good experiments run.

So, how do you deal with the rainy season?

Vacation in Oz

Recently I gave up 3 weeks of glorious Oregon summer to visit Peter in Australia.  Though Peter has been here twice already every time he comes he loses work so this time I went to visit him. The only negative to this situation is that the point is to allow him to continue working, therefore I also worked. In reality it wasn’t bad. Matt and Graeme kindly allowed me to occupy desk space while I was there and almost everyone I know works at ARI. It was wonderful to be back in the lab and be able to visit with them. Garreth (and Kylie) had returned from their adventure in Africa and Europe, Dave was there as was Matt and Graeme. I got to go out at least once with everyone except Dave , maybe next time.

Winter in Melbourne is not a hardship. While cold, the sun still shines, plants still bloom and little jeweled birds still fly around. My first morning I was woken by the chortling of the magpies which I had missed a great deal. I even got a cycle in.

I finally met Peter’s family and they are lovely wonderful people. His parents are both Dutch and have rather thick accents but with careful listening I did quite while understanding them. Perhaps I will undertake to learn yet another language. (Or at least the basics). I have a smattering of French, German and Spanish already, enough at least to ask for directions, say please and thank you and read basic directions. We bonded over happiness that Peter was selling his motorbike

We spent one lovely weekend taking a romantic trip along the great ocean road. Staying in a wonderful Inn in Point Lonsdale and a little cottage in Port Fairy.  Later in the week we went to the Natural History Museum. I have included a gallery of images from the trip below.

I am now home and finally over the jet lag. Trying to get back to work, though I only took about a week off of research total so it’s not too bad.

Peter @ Point Lonsdale

Southern Ocean

Pete + Touareg = <3

Drive on the Left!

The 12 Apsotles and Arwen

Peter

12 Apostles

Loch Ard Gorge

Shellducks @ Tower Hill

Emu @ Tower Hill

Me birding at Tower Hill

Tower Hill overlook

Peter and I

Pete’s Last Ride

Female Bower Bird @ museum atrium

Peter playing @ Museum

Blurry Eucalypt pods

Crested Pigeon

Spring has sprung!

I have long battled the winter blues that are so common found in those that reside in the upper left coast. The rainy season here last from fall through to late spring. The skies are heavy grey and laden with rain. The sun rarely shows it’s face. After weeks of rain you never really feel dry. Your clothing is damp, your car is damp, the ground becomes a quagmire. Any step can result in a comic flailing as you try to keep your footing on a surface that seems to have ignored the laws of friction, sliding madly, arms windmilling as you try, and sometimes failing, to keep from falling. Every step squelches and carpets take on the color of the mud tracked in no matter how carefully you clean your shoes.

Spring in my yard

Then, without warning, the sun peeks through, burns off the grey, dries out the damp and spring has arrived….at least for today. Even after spending my entire life here these days surprise me. You begin to feel as if nice weather will never return and then its here. This morning I sat on my porch with a book and a cup of coffee and soaked up sun as if I was a sponge. The swallows are swooping and diving over the field below my house. Trilling and twittering, “here’s a bug! I fly faster than you! I need a mate! I have a nest site!”. The brush along the fence line is alive with bird song, small beetles and butterflies bumble past on wings either stubby or graceful. Hummingbirds dart past fighting for territory and searching for early blooms on which to feed. And I am at peace. This is why I love the upper left coast.

I was wondering if I could ever be happy here after living in Melbourne. Coming from warm summer weather, and dryness that at times was oppressing. But the birds remind me of why this, no matter how long I live else where, will always be home. Our birds may be less colorful than the lorakeets and parrots of Australia but their voices are infinitely more soothing, bright and happy conversations taking place over head with never a squawk or screech to be heard. I still miss the strange chortling warble of the magpies but the twittering swallows, operatic red wing black birds and the clicking chirps of hummingbirds speak to my earliest memories. I’ve returned in time to see the tree budding, flower tentatively unfolding, the entire world rejoicing in the return of the sun. Tomorrow it may rain again but now it will be spring rain. Rain that brings colour and life. This rain I can handle.

Return to the Upper Left Coast

On March 19th at 2:20 pm I returned to the soggy green world that is my home. Ah Oregon, how I missed thee! The rain, drizzle, mist, showers, downpours, drips, precipitation accompanied by fog, clouds, wind, and grey. Always so grey. Is anything worse than drippy cold grey?  After 4.5 months of warmth and lovely weather I found the return to Oregon to be slightly less than comfortable. However, I now have a crackling fire and hot cup of tea and am feeling better…as long as I don’t look at the boxes stacked around me.

When I left for Australia I gave a great deal of my belongings away to either goodwill or friends and family. The rest of my worldly goods were stuffed into a 5 foot by 8 foot storage unit.  Hmmmm….not bad really that at 29, after being married and kitting an entire house I could reduce myself to a 5×8? Well somehow that tiny room of boxes EXPLODED into heaps and piles of them in my new dining room. Where did they all come from? Where am I going to put all of this? Sigh.

Rewinding time a bit. I had no place to stay when I returned, I needed one ASAP and I have a dog. This is a difficult combo in Corvallis. After a week in a tiny room in a house my mother rented to undergraduates I was ready to throw in the towel and move into the stairwell in Kelly Engineering and then Will leapt in to save me! His mother had bought the property next door for retirement in the future but they preferred to stay with Will and Katie in their lovely brand new home when they visited. His mother (the dear wonderful woman!) offered to let me rent their house and even will let me paint the inside! So here I am trying out the country life. I am two miles out of Philomath on Hwy 34 living in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath home with a lovely office, wood stove and view. It feels a little isolated but Will and Katie are right next door.  To support the move I also bought a 2008 VW Rabbit that gets 21-30 mpg and is quite fun to drive. When the weather gets nicer I will cycle the 8 miles into school on most days but right now it’s still 37 degrees Fahrenheit when I leave in the morning.

So here I am. Home. Sort of. Australia became home too. I miss Peter. I miss the birds and the weather and the trees. But, it’s good to be with my friends again, my doggus is thrilled I am back and I talk to my parents every day again. Peter will be here the 8th of April to celebrate my 30th birthday and returns in May. Hopefully next week my house will be painted and no longer cantaloupe and mint green. And soon I start my quals. Looks like I will have plenty to blog about.

If you are reading this from Australia, I miss you all a great deal and am looking forward to seeing you again soon!

If you are reading this from the Upper Left Coast, It’s great to be home….sigh,  I’m already growing a layer of moss.