This time, 3 years ago. The other side of the world, winter, and the climate is/was the same as here. Lukewarm masquerades as summer; summer is mostly a notion, and though I am a summer baby, I struggle to sizzle, most likely because the sun rarely complies.

I remember my first walk on the beach that year. After several years absence, home again, over the dunes and ricketty bridge, Tallow Beach, windswept, and arduous under foot. Soft clumps of sand, a heavy walk, one I wished would move more quickly, as the day chased away the sun. Turning back to face home, blasted face, the full force of the wind, pushing me back with each step forward, der dum, der dum, the sky deepen, at some point the sun had set. Navy, black, thick air enclosing, the wind howling; trudge, trudge, effort, no thought. A gust, wet, and then another, strong, a silent roar, and rain, falls, the sky full. I am soaked. I am nearly home. Exhilerated, crazy, my whole body sunk into itself in response, droplet covered periphery shivering. There is nowhere to run to, no way to avoid this soaking. I do not care. I simply laugh, and shake my hair, and shake my hair some more.