It was kind of strange watching the weather report on TV last night. They showed Hurricane Ernesto as it moved up the US east coast, showed it centered just off the coast of New York and then explained the areas which would be affected by the rain and wind conditions. The weather guy waved his hand up into southern Ontario and told how the effects of Ernesto would be felt there... and suddenly I thought, "Hey, that's where we are!"

Even after being here for 6 months, I still seem surprised sometimes when I see a map of the US and Canada and realise that's where we are. Weird huh?

Anyway, sure enough, the bad weather has rolled in and we are experiencing lots of rain and gusty conditions right now. It's the labour day weekend here in Canada (It marks the end of the summer break. Yep, back to school next week!) and it's amazing how predictably the weather changes back to the cooler conditions. It was like that back at the end of last winter too... Spring started on a certain date and it was like someone had just flipped a switch to start warming up. Now we get to the end of the summer break and it's like the switch has been flipped again and the cooler weather returns. It all seems very predictable.

But then, I come from Australia, where the term "weather pattern" is somewhat of an oxymoron. Weather down there changes when and if it feels like it... there's often not that much of a pattern to it, so the predictability of the Canadian weather is really quite a novelty.

Mind you, ask me again in mid-January how novel the weather is. I may have a diferent answer for you when it's -30C.