A visit from the Freemantle doctor

When first planning our trip to Australia, I must admit I didn't know much about the distinction between the west- and east-coast populations and lifestyles. I also didn't realize the size of the country. Coming from Canada, where crossing the country can easily be a 5-hour flight, perhaps I should have realized.

These large blooms are in our front yard,
but this plant is common here - love it!

After booking our initial Australian house sit, for the west coast, I soon realized that most people from North America visit the east coast and rarely get over to the west coast. East to west means another 5-hour flight, similar to crossing Canada. Also, people kept warning us that it gets REALLY hot on the west coast in summer. As we were hearing this, we were aware that we'd made a commitment to that house sit, and so we figured we'd just handle whatever came our way.

Love this ground cover in the yard too

For our first two weeks on the "cooler" east coast we were met with a heatwave, with above-average temperatures. While we were living on the east coast in mid to high 30s temperatures (90+ºF), most days the west coast was 10ºC lower. So much for what we'd been told.

The blossoms on the tree in our front yard.
Do you see a theme in colour in this yard?

Arriving on the west coast, we shared this weather story. We learned that the west coast had been experiencing a cooler-than-usual summer. Also, people told us the weather was different on the west coast because of "the doctor". When we pressed for an explanation, we were told it's because of the Freemantle doctor. Needless to say, that didn't clarify things for us.

We learned that the Freemantle doctor affects the southern part of the west coast (where we are), where a cooling breeze comes off the ocean almost every day, usually between noon and 3 pm. Crossing the cooler ocean water, it cools the air as it hits land and makes the weather more comfortable. We've heard it's so called because the doctor brings relief. 

Our nameless house mate - who Greg calls Henry -
more about him (or her) later

In the 10 days since we've been here, we've only had two or three days of those higher temperatures. The rest of the time it's been a high of around 27ºC (80ºF), which some locals find a little cool. We were also told that the human body takes about six weeks to adapt to the normal temperatures of a location. Having been avoiding the colder weather for a few years now, I can attest to that. These days I feel cold at temperatures around 15ºC (60ºF).

Lastly, for our friend who is terrified of spiders, a photo of this guy "who is always on the web", as Greg says. He has been hanging around in the same place in our front yard since we arrived. Why the blurry photo? ... because the Freemantle doctor is breezing through!