This is how I know it's summer

1. The roses are in full flush. We had so much rain this year that they are doing wonderfully - the rain and the awesomely scientific pruning I gave them back in July. It is time for another solid deadheading, which is a job for the weekend. Now I've done the Christmas shopping! Or nearly done the Christmas shopping.

 

2. The fundraising mangoes are here. I'm not sure if it's just a Canberra thing, but every October schools and sports groups collect orders for trays of mangoes to be delivered from Queensland in December. And the mangoes are beautiful, and perfect, and delicious, and the whole tray gets ripe at once so you stuff yourself silly with mangoes for a week once a year. Truly the start of summer.

3. The stair railing lights up. For two weeks every year - the second half of December - the morning sun comes straight in our front door and lights up the stairs. So we put tinsel on it, and it sparkles, and that's how I know that Christmas is nearly here.



It's not all fun and games though, summer, on Tuesday there was a brown snake on the driveway. The most common sort round here and apparently the second most venomous land snake in the world ... but you'd have to be unlucky to die, given how close we are to the hospital. The dog ignored it! Sensible thing.