I really enjoyed this, Lucinda. I'd not heard of 'weather heritage' but spending so much time interviewing rural communities with my Hall Stories project, it resonates with me. The impact of significant weather events marks communities for generations.
When I was a kid there always seemed to be one big summer storm, that brought such a deluge of rain, it drove the Huntsman spiders inside. The front of our hose were shaded by a variety of trees growing close to the windows: oleanders, fuschias, magnolias, silver beech. As a result they mainly seemed to appear around the cornices of our living room. Michelle (my sister) was terrified of them. I wasn't enamoured with their presence, but I paid them grudging respect. One Christmas Eve we went to Midnight Mass and it bucketed down during the service. When we got home there were 3 Huntsman dotted on the walls around our Christmas tree like 8 legged Magi, as if presenting themselves as gifts.
Thanks Damian, I can imagine the weather-heritage theme would have really resonated with your Halls Stories project now that you mention it! I adore your Huntsman story too... I'm going to jinx myself but I've been thinking recently that we haven't had one for years, but they used to be pretty regular visitors here. I'm not complaining... but it does seem strange.
I've been doing disaster relief touring with NEMA since 2020, and as far back as 2009 when I was asked to tour the halls for the Murrundindi Shire after the Black Saturday fires. I'll tell you about that experience some time. I've had people share some extraordinary stories, then & now ... we used to call our Huntsman spiders Fred. Even if there was more than one.
Not a memory but my mother is Irish and therefore I have a great affinity for the rain and I feel a very different understanding about what constitutes “bad” weather. I always find it so odd that people hold rainy days in such contempt!
My father on the other hand is danish and could always remember the pond outside our family farm freezing in the winter and being able to ice skate across it every year. Not to say that it doesn’t still freeze but without the same regularity.
I love this Claire, beautiful familial memories of times and places. I adore the rain, cold weather, rugging up, and the sea to me is at its best when everything is muted and grey. I would get along with your mum (and you!)! Thank you for sharing these stories and memories of your parents’.
Thank you, I hadn’t heard the term either yet, and yes it is such an important part of so much of culture … hey also (I’m on the recs again, soz) you might like emergence magazines latest issue, Seasons? Most of the essays end up on their website, lots of musing about…. Weather heritage, basically https://emergencemagazine.org/
Please never shy away - I love recommendations!! And I adore emergence magazine. I especially love listening to their podcast on walks with my dog, gets me right in the zone. I haven’t checked out their latest issue - will do so!
Lovely thoughts, Lucinda. I didn't grow up in the Alpine region, but in the decade I've lived here, I've noticed many changes. Talking to the old timers, you hear the most magnificent stories of snow. I've read accounts from Hume & Hovell that tell of a thick show cap on what was likely Mount Bogong in November 200 years ago. There's barely a patch on the peaks right now. They used to ice skate on Lake Catani. The wine harvest is shifting, bushfire smoke is tainting the grapes, the autumn fungi came out in winter, and (while not weather, it plays a part) fallow deer have appeared here for the first time, and in great numbers. Previously, we only had Sambar deer.
I really enjoyed this, Lucinda. I'd not heard of 'weather heritage' but spending so much time interviewing rural communities with my Hall Stories project, it resonates with me. The impact of significant weather events marks communities for generations.
When I was a kid there always seemed to be one big summer storm, that brought such a deluge of rain, it drove the Huntsman spiders inside. The front of our hose were shaded by a variety of trees growing close to the windows: oleanders, fuschias, magnolias, silver beech. As a result they mainly seemed to appear around the cornices of our living room. Michelle (my sister) was terrified of them. I wasn't enamoured with their presence, but I paid them grudging respect. One Christmas Eve we went to Midnight Mass and it bucketed down during the service. When we got home there were 3 Huntsman dotted on the walls around our Christmas tree like 8 legged Magi, as if presenting themselves as gifts.
Thanks Damian, I can imagine the weather-heritage theme would have really resonated with your Halls Stories project now that you mention it! I adore your Huntsman story too... I'm going to jinx myself but I've been thinking recently that we haven't had one for years, but they used to be pretty regular visitors here. I'm not complaining... but it does seem strange.
I've been doing disaster relief touring with NEMA since 2020, and as far back as 2009 when I was asked to tour the halls for the Murrundindi Shire after the Black Saturday fires. I'll tell you about that experience some time. I've had people share some extraordinary stories, then & now ... we used to call our Huntsman spiders Fred. Even if there was more than one.
Not a memory but my mother is Irish and therefore I have a great affinity for the rain and I feel a very different understanding about what constitutes “bad” weather. I always find it so odd that people hold rainy days in such contempt!
My father on the other hand is danish and could always remember the pond outside our family farm freezing in the winter and being able to ice skate across it every year. Not to say that it doesn’t still freeze but without the same regularity.
I love this Claire, beautiful familial memories of times and places. I adore the rain, cold weather, rugging up, and the sea to me is at its best when everything is muted and grey. I would get along with your mum (and you!)! Thank you for sharing these stories and memories of your parents’.
Thank you, I hadn’t heard the term either yet, and yes it is such an important part of so much of culture … hey also (I’m on the recs again, soz) you might like emergence magazines latest issue, Seasons? Most of the essays end up on their website, lots of musing about…. Weather heritage, basically https://emergencemagazine.org/
Please never shy away - I love recommendations!! And I adore emergence magazine. I especially love listening to their podcast on walks with my dog, gets me right in the zone. I haven’t checked out their latest issue - will do so!
Lovely thoughts, Lucinda. I didn't grow up in the Alpine region, but in the decade I've lived here, I've noticed many changes. Talking to the old timers, you hear the most magnificent stories of snow. I've read accounts from Hume & Hovell that tell of a thick show cap on what was likely Mount Bogong in November 200 years ago. There's barely a patch on the peaks right now. They used to ice skate on Lake Catani. The wine harvest is shifting, bushfire smoke is tainting the grapes, the autumn fungi came out in winter, and (while not weather, it plays a part) fallow deer have appeared here for the first time, and in great numbers. Previously, we only had Sambar deer.