Talk about the weather
September 21st 2006 07:55
Rain at the right time
The stand-by conversation regarding the weather is fraught with danger when someone enters a country town. Before a person opens his mouth he must consider firstly the occupation of the person he is speaking to and secondly the time of year. It is not safe speaking to farmers, farmers’ wives, retired farmers and their wives, anyone whose business directly or indirectly is influenced by the farmers - and he may as well be wary of Shire workers as well because they would have just as likely been dealing with some washed out culvert or a tree on the road. A basic rule for most people is to take the cue from others around them and do not initiate the weather topic at all.
As autumn begins everyone will seem a little testy. If it hasn’t rained, by the end of April they will be saying it’s going to be a bad season. If it has rained they will be worrying that the rain will stop and the new grass that has just appeared will all dry off again. Ideally if the rain comes and keeps coming and there are warm days for the grass to grow in between, the smiles won’t be able to be removed. Farmers will become quite pleased when the dams start to fill, because that will mean they can stop carting water, and when the grass has grown for a while they can stop feeding most of their sheep or cattle. The best advice to the newcomer is to “keep your head down, smile and agree when someone tells you they like the rain.” If the novice can survive this season, they will realize that it has a certain magic as the dry paddocks suddenly show a tinge of green and if they are lucky they may even find a mushroom or two.
Winter is fairly straight forward. If it’s raining it’s usually good – unless it’s too wet and then there will be the stories of people getting bogged or comments like “Why does the Shire always grade my road just before a storm – I could hardly keep the car on the road.” They don’t do that really – it just seems like it! Too much rain is not something to worry about as it rarely happens, but such times can be a mixed blessing. Of course winter also means cold days and the district is very good at that. Snow has been known to fall but rarely settles but winds straight from the Antarctic are more than possible. Newcomers need to be reminded that they don’t live in the tropics, so need to get some warm clothes. They will get a lot of wear – even on summer nights.
Spring is probably the most complicated season to talk about the weather. Here an assessment of what the farmer is doing on his farm is needed before commenting. On the whole he will enjoy further rain, as at this time it is called “finishing rain” and it may even puts a spring (excuse the pun) in the step of all those involved in business for it means the farmer may have some extra money to spend in the coming year! However, woes betide anyone who enthusiastically comments on the latest storm when the farmer has just finished mowing the grass to make silage, or even worse is trying to bale hay. Of course no rain in September is also a disaster. But if the rain is a huge downpour or a hail storm in October or November there is no cheer for those farmers affected by such disasters because all their work for the year will have gone down the drain- so to speak. And we won’t even talk about frosts.
Oh No.... Not a frost!
Finally, the newcomer must remember that in sheep country sheep have to be shorn. They can be shorn almost any time of the year but wet sheep are not a farmer’s friend. Shearers don’t mind an occasional day off because the sheep are wet, but if it goes on too long they aren’t pleased, especially if the next shed they enter smells like the sheep have camped there all week- and probably have- because the farmer has been desperately trying to keep them dry. So it is important for everyone to be very careful ascertaining whether there is shearing happening in the life of the listener before expressing a love of the wet weather that has occurred for the last week.
Everyone has received a dirty look or a snappy reply when they have made the weather the topic of conversation. There is a need to persevere! Most people will get it right eighty percent of the time, and as long as they remember to check the rain gauge after each heavy storm and to keep a tally at the end of each month, they will always have something intelligent to add to the conversation. For nothing is more inevitable in a country town – than that the conversation will return to the Weather, whether anyone intended it to or not.
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