The Road in Winter

Winter bleakness - Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) & Currawongs (Strepera fuliginosa).

The week's nearly through, and I'll be glad to get home.

Working out this way in Winter involves a series of layers.

First, there's the clothing. The further West you go,the sharper the bite in the early morning, and some of my departures are pre-dawn, so with the ambient often below zero, I need to layer up.

The problem with this layering is the need to remove some of it once the car warms up and the sun rises.

Then there's the schools. They also come in layers. At the top are the new buildings (built with BER money generally), reverse cycle air is the go - so it's greatcoats off.

In the older buildings, you leave the layers on. When I was a kid in unheated classrooms back in the fifties, we sat on our hands when they got cold. Kids these days seem to have  forgotten that technique.

Finally, there's the driving. That's layered too. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

This time of the year, the days are shorter, and there's less light available. The middle of the day is sublime - clear, sun not too glaring, and the journey all the better for the Winter mildness. In the morning and the evening, it's ridiculous.

It's bloody freezing, the sun is low, so your windscreen needs to be clean. On a few occasions, I've had to toss water on the screen to remove the ice. Not hot water - that's been known to cause a screen to explode.

You wouldn't want to be driving anywhere this time of the year with no screen.

Winter is different out here.