In our age of instant gratification, the slow shifting of the seasons in the region is a reminder that some things simply take time - and maybe they are more appreciated for that.

Newcomers to the central west - and there are hundreds if not thousands of them each year, due to the region’s galloping growth rate - might be wondering about now when spring is actually going to begin, given that winter officially finished six weeks ago.

When will the cold winds be gone for good and the maximums move permanently into the 30s? When can the doonas be confidently packed away and the vegetables planted?

The answer, as any long-term local would know, is that spring will really begin when the Cowra weather feels like it - and that might be next week or it might be mid-November.

If near freezing days in late September weren’t enough to make that point, then an early October day last week that just managed to limp beyond 15 degrees certainly would have done the trick.

On Thursday at 2pm the temperature had reached 20 degrees but  with a cold wind blowing weatherzone.com.au was suggesting it felt like just 15.2 degrees, really hammering the message home - the cold days ain't over until they're over.

But that's the bad news. The good news is that the Cowra weather does not just occasionally irritate, it also influences. It creates character.

Accustomed to long winters, abortive starts to spring and a number of seasons in one day, we have learnt to become patient and accepting, able to smile wryly at the unexpected and just get on with it.

We are hardy, but optimistic: ever-hopeful that things will be better tomorrow and ready to take advantage when they are.

We appreciate a sunny day in a way others, with sunny days on tap, do not.

And we long ago absorbed the Boy Scouts’ “be prepared” motto – we take a jumper or a jacket to an evening function any time from March through to October, because we know nothing can be taken for granted.

So to the newcomers to Cowra, we say don’t be alarmed. Spring weather – the sort of spring weather you’re used to - is not too far away.

But it might be an idea to keep the doona on the bed a while longer.