Summertime

Ain't summer a grand time ? The lazy mornings, the late lunches , BBQ dinners , the sounds of kids playing late outside. Reality rarely fits in with the picture of what we'd like though, does it? Muggy mornings with scorching heat, lunches late because you really cannot be bothered to eat, BBQ dinners only if its not too hot outside but too damn hot to cook indoors, kids playing outside if its not too scorching or if they have a pool.
Gone are the days when people rarely had an air conditioner, now my suburb resounds with the constant "hum" of ducted air con and the occasional "whirr" of the odd wall/window mounted refrigerated unit. Days when a hot day meant playing in a dam, creek, river or in the suburbs..under a sprinkler, now the dams are dry, creeks and rivers dry or/and polluted and water restrictions no longer allow for water play incorporating watering.
Vegetable gardens we once used to supplement our food sources and to teach our children about horticulture and seasonal change are a luxury, not a necessity. Flower gardens of annuals, bulbs or banks of European influenced horticulture are for the dedicated and obsessive now. Lawns, oh, you mean that patch of straw coloured covering in front?? Well, that's going soon when we revamp our front garden. Shame it cannot be said for million of others who want a patch of green on their dream 600m sq. block.
I miss the days when summer graduated from Spring in a truly gentle format, days of temperatures varying from 25-30degrees Celsius. Not days of sleet, rain,hail and yes, SNOW!!! Two weeks before the advent of Summer. When bush fires were a January/Feb occurrence not something that took hold in October and carried through to the New Year.
Days when people joined forces to help the fire victims, not relied on corporate well doers or government hand outs. People actually went and helped fight the fires and rebuild towns and services whilst on holidays, not cruise about sightseeing at others losses and misery. There was a time when bush fires were just a part of living in the country, no one blamed anyone, what you leveled for grazing, you used all of it. No one every back burned except undergrowth of bracken in late winter, no one ever burned hectares or bush to protect it from bushfire. The Department of Sustainability and Environment did not exist in guise it does today; so there was no one to blame. It was a fact of life of living in the bush.
I wish my kids could see what I saw, feel what I felt, do what I did..but they only have what I can tell them and show them. Because some one, somewhere along the way lost the map for how things should be and now most of society wonder about aimlessly like sheep .