I spent most of my life living in various parts of Canada ... especially Alberta and Manitoba where the winters are long and cold. Cold ... like minus 40C/F sort of cold, with lots of snow and ice.

In June 2009, I packed up and moved to Australia. June was probably not the best choice when thinking about weather because it is, of course, winter in Australia ... so I ended up with 12 months of winter. But the winters here in this part of Australia do not involve much at all in the way of ice and snow ... they're cool and rainy. That cool, rainy thing gets a bit wearing, but this past winter there were enough nice days so that I was able to get out on my bicycle at least once or twice a week in relatively warmish, dry conditions ... which is quite different from what I experienced in Canada! And we're only a hop, skip, and jump from the ocean where it is usually about 5 degrees warmer than where we live, so we weekended down there a few times.

My decision to move wasn't just about the bicycle. I met and married Rowan, an Australian, and wanted to be with him. It was easier for me to come here than for him to go to Canada at this time. But I met Rowan through cycling.

Ideally, at some point, we'd like to spend 6 months or so during the northern hemisphere summer in Canada and 6 months or so during the southern hemisphere summer down here in Australia, combined with travel to various other countries, but for the time being where we are is good ... decent place to live, close to work, a fair amount of cycling options, and green winters.

A set of photos of cycling in and around the area where we live during the Autumn/Winter 2010: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7623817713101/

Taken on July 25th, right in the middle of winter here ... you can tell it's winter by how green it is. In the summer everything gets a bit more brown.