A winter’s tale with a new ending

Ian Cole finds reason for optimism as a special Tasmanian season closes in

WINTER has often gained a bad name throughout literature as a time of bleakness and dreariness, especially from European writers. Shakespeare’s opening line in the play Richard III didn’t help with, “Now is the winter of our discontent ...”

To twist those words a little, it looked for a while that this winter may well be one of discontent.

We were headed for a few negatives in comparison to our regular winters, with national parks being closed, no footy and no Olympics to watch.

However, with winter on the horizon, positives are emerging with access to national parks, footy about to happen, but unfortunately no Olympics to watch, just when it was for once going to be on a suitable time zone for us in Australia.

In normal times, winter in Tasmania can be great.

Our winters are not the snowbound season like in much of Europe and Canada where they are forced inside by snow and have to shovel driveways in order to get the car out.

Cabin fever would be a rarity during a Tasmanian winter.

Normally we can bushwalk, have open fires, winter barbecues, put on beanies and gloves and visit the snow if we wish, while even skiing is available for the enthusiasts.

So, it looked for a while that this winter we may have needed to heed the words of Italian novelist Guiseppe Di Lampedusa who, in his 1957 book and film The Leopard said, “Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come e, bisogna che tutto cambi.”

That, somewhat loosely translated, reads, “If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.”

But the signs are positive that that may not have to be the case with a road map for “openings” being announced.

Anyway, whatever winter holds we, like all those in European literature, look forward to the arrival of spring and hope not only for a season change, but an overall change for the better as well.

Optimism is a wonderful thing, and I am reminded of a sign I saw many years ago on a suburban camping shop window in London as I jogged past.

Spring had just arrived, and the owner had obviously had a bad retail winter with not much winter camping gear being sold.

With the optimism of spring, he had placed a huge sign across his window, hopefully to attract some late sales. It read, “Now is the discount of our winter tent.”

IN NORMAL TIMES, WINTER IN TASMANIA CAN BE GREAT. CABIN FEVER WOULD BE A RARITY