It’s 7C. At 6am, the sky is still dark. There may be a hint of the light to come, but for now it is still dancing with the stars.
By 7am, the sun lifts just above the horizon, stretches over headlands and lights the clouds like a match – boom – turning the sky from pink to orange to blue. It starts to warm those who watched the sunrise, and offers some solace to early morning swimmers now shivering in their towels.
By 8am, the sun has enough oomph to hit you square in the face. It washes over tired commuters leaning against bus windows, warms the backs of those waiting for their coffee and splinters through the shadows of high-rises in the city.
At every stage, it is welcome. Because in winter it is the one thing that will combat the biting cold. The warmth of the winter sun – the apricity – is what can make winter the most invigorating season of all.
There are two camps of people: those who can’t wait for winter to pass and those who look forward to bringing out their knitwear. You only have to look at how many Australians flee to the northern hemisphere for summer each year to know that many are in the former. But for some of us, winter is a season to enjoy.
When the summer sun rises it brings the impending threat of a scorching day ahead. We bask in it but we also hide in the shade.
But in winter, we seek it out.
I grew up in the country, where morning temperatures in winter were frequently below zero. You would run out to the car with a kettle to defrost the windscreen before driving to school. It was so cold you would see your breath in the air. The sun would melt the frost that blanketed the ground and make it look like it had snowed.
Groups of cyclists would race past in the morning before packing out the cafes on the main street, spilling on to the footpath as customers sought one thing: the sun.
In the city, winter is far milder. You rarely need to defrost the car. But there is still plenty of love for for being warmed up on a crisp, cold day. And we can talk about the weather just as much as the British.
In Australia, we are in the middle of an unseasonably warm winter. As the planet swelters, rising temperatures are increasingly more of a burden than a blessing. Some may enjoy the melding of seasons; others miss the change in the air that used to come with autumn. Now, it sounds alarm bells for our future.
In stark contrast to the bleak, wet winters of the UK and Europe (a few years ago, Brussels had less than 11 hours of sun in the first month of winter, and Britons always need winter mood boosters), we have also had an absence of rain.
As much as we may love falling asleep to the sound of rain or waking up to petrichor (the earthy smell after a downpour, another great weather word) grey, wet and windy winters hole us up inside.
Irritation rises at having to shake off your umbrella day after day, unless you’re a child never tiring of finding puddles to jump in.
But when the sun comes out, it doesn’t matter whether it is 2C or 10C. It’s about the contrast of a cold day and a hot sun – that only exists in winter.
Morning people, myself included, will tout the rush of stepping out into the cold to walk through the streets as lights in windows flicker on and lamp-posts flicker off. Swimming die-hards will tell you that often the ocean is clearest and calmest at this time of year. And the coldest? Yes, but not by much – for the first few weeks of winter at least, it can be warmer in the water than out. And while I have a camera reel full of sunrises, you can find apricity at all times of the day.
If you need any more proof that soaking up the sun is the lap of luxury, just look around for your dog or your cat. Whether it is on a sun-drenched balcony or in the patch of sun beaming through a window on to the floor, I guarantee that’s where you’ll find them, sleeping in the warmth of winter.
