…something about chocolate? Wait, no, that was that movie. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

So my mother hasn’t ALWAYS said it, but she did impart some inadvertent wisdom upon me when I was home briefly in November and went to visit her for a weekend. She moved from the subtropical climes of Brisbane to decidedly less balmy Tasmania – where, much like here in Maine, the weather can have a serious impact on what you do of a day (and whether you leave the house).

I’m paraphrasing here, but Mum told me that if you live in Tasmania and you let the weather dictate what you do with your free time, you’ll never get anything done. I think she may have even said that as we were driving in pouring rain to check out the old gold mine at Beaconsfield, as one does when it’s raining cats and dogs.

Anyway, that thought crossed my mind again this morning. I woke up to a brilliant blue sky outside, but my phone told me it was a bone-jarring -25*C (-11*F). Hmmm. Today might be another one of those “eight hours of 30 Rock on Netflix” days. But I remembered Mum’s new mantra and thought “Screw it. Make hay while the sun shines.” So, after climbing into 59 layers of clothing and wrapping my scarf around my face so that only my eyes showed, I set out.

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And what do you know? I had a great old time. I finally saw the State House under blue skies, and it looks sensational. The cloud formations in this part of the world (or, maybe just in this climate?) are something else, and now I’ve seen downtown Augusta in its entirety. There’s not a lot there, to be fair, but Water Street does play home to the excellent Downtown Diner, a place I’ll most likely be frequenting every Saturday morning on which I’m not feeling somewhere less than 100 per cent.

After that I hoofed it over the Calumet Bridge at Old Fort Western (try saying that five times fast…or even once at a regular pace), locally and colloquially known as the Father Pedophile Bridge (!), then back through a roundabout and across the Memorial Bridge to the west side. Once I was home I discovered I’d covered 3.4 miles, or 5.7 kilometers for those playing along in those antiquated stubborn countries that use the metric system.

Granted, if the weather was rubbish I wouldn’t have braved that sort of distance, but I’m glad I managed to get a sunny day today to get ‘er done. After seeing the riverfront I honestly can’t wait to see what it looks like in the spring and summer (although I think the frozen-over river is an awesome sight to behold).

All in all, well played Mum – your advice definitely applies to living in Maine as well.