Ah Sandra - that's what you get for being close to the CBD! Out in the 'burbs of Sydney, there are signs of Spring.
I'm starting to hear currawongs again. There seem to have been a lot more of the sulphur-crested cockatoos around lately. They've been very noisy. I'll know spring is really here when I start to hear the "yark yark" of baby magpies, as the parent birds bring their babies around to feed on my cat food, and when I start to hear coels at night. Days are slowly starting to get longer - I am noticing the sun reaching spots in the garden that have been in shade for the last few months.
When I drive around, I can see lots of fruit trees blossoming with various shades of pink. My peach tree has buds but no blossoms yet. The jasmine on the fence is starting to bloom and there is a mass of dark pink where the flowers are just about to open. The snow pea plants are 2-3 feet high and about to start flowering. A new batch of mint is looking very healthy, and I am thinking of making some more mint sauce. The lemon tree is heavy with last season's lemons just about ready to pick, and almost every branch has fragrant flowers or buds, or small lemons at various stages of growth.
I like this time of year. It's not too hot for gardening, and yet you can see and hear things happening. Sometimes there are little surprises. I had a little native tree in a pot, which I thought had died - in fact John was going to use its skeleton for scenery in his model train setup. But we had trouble pulling it out, so we gave up. Now all of a sudden there are new green shoots all over it. And to think I nearly killed it!
There have been some rather unpleasant cold winds lately, but that's to be expected for August here. The weather has mainly been fine and sunny, and when it's not too windy, it's quite warm. Some days recently, I've even had to put the airconditioning on in the car to cool it down! Roll on Spring!