Food, gardening, holidays, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Seasons

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It snowed here on Wednesday.  The header photo is a view out of my work window Wednesday afternoon.   The buildings in the background are part of an assisted living facility.  The season changed here suddenly, and incontrovertibly.

PJ mentioned yesterday her horror at seeing all the Christmas decorations while she was shopping. I suppose the merchant’s view is that the season has changed, and the store is announcing it.

Husband says we have six seasons out here: Winter, Calving, Spring, Summer, Harvest, and Autumn. I say a sure sign of Winter is green tomatoes ripening in paper bags or boxes in the house.  I ordered glaceed fruit and nuts for my Christmas baking today, another sign of seasonal change.

What are the seasons in your year? What do you look for in nature or in people around you for signs of the seasons changing?

69 thoughts on “Seasons”

  1. I really only notice it in myself. Today is a good example. It’s 49 degrees and the rain that’s coming down is quite cold. I have on sweatpants and a sweatshirt but can I bring myself to put on socks and shoes? Nope. Zorries.

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      1. My normal mantra is “toes until it snows” but that’s not in stone.
        If it gets cold enough I’ll put on shoes and socks. I just don’t like socks very much. Although I have lots of them for some reason.

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        1. I can relate, vs. In my case, I don’t mind socks, and I don’t have a lot, but I can’t stand shoes pushing on my bunion. Sandals till there’s snow on the ground. Went to the small local farmer’s market this AM. Glad I went to the larger one at Signal Hills yesterday, today’s market had zero vegetables. Guess it was deemed too chilly and wet for the growers to show up. Bought a freshly baked baguette and a couple f Swedish cardamom buns, and some bacon from farmer Todd. Now all I need is to brew a pot of coffee, and I’m all set.

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  4. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am trying to get through the fog this morning so I can figure out a season to write about, but at this time figuring out the day is a challenge. I do want the leaves to change quickly now. On Thursday our granddaughter will be here from Phoenix. She has never witnessed a Midwest Autumn, and we want some color! She will be coming into town at the same time as #45 which is making me cringe. I hope they let her plane land at MSP.

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    1. I asked son if he had to work on #45’s visit. He’s scheduled to be on the street, regular duty that night, but also hadn’t heard yet if he’d get moved to something different or not. He’d rather just stick with his usual duty.

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  6. I’ve been playing with notions of seasons. For me, seasons are emotional rather than meteorological events.

    Harvest is my favorite part of the year. I divide this season into components I call Tomato, Apple and Pumpkin. Those happen in August, September and October. Great time of year. Colorful. Smelly in a nice way. Brisk.

    Then comes Bald Fall, that season when trees are denuded and skies are gunmetal gray. It’s not the prettiest season, but when I hunted I came to love it.Like old age, Bald Fall isn’t for sissies.

    Next is Holidays, that time from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It is pretty and heartwarming. The snow, if there is any, is white. People get along, or at least they try.

    Alas, in many years the most memorable season is Death March. The snow is gray and even the earth is rock solid frozen. You never smell anything outdoors and you rarely hear birds. February and March fall in this season.

    That is followed Bald Spring, home to what TS Eliot called the cruelest month. This is when people pray for spring but almost never get it.

    And yet Green Spring arrives. People almost weep with joy when they smell the thawing earth, hear birds and see trees leafing up with glorious color. Like most good things in life, this doesn’t last long.

    Then there is Summer. It is so unpredictable we cannot break it down into sub-seasons. Summer is a day-by-day crapshoot. As I experience them, the days are Stormy, Jungle-like or I Cain’t Believe How Nice This Is! The last kind of day happens about four times each summer. Fond memories of ICBHNTI keep us going.

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      2. 10 perfect
        10 hot
        10 cold
        10 epic
        the rest are the rest
        but 10 years ago we had a spring summer fall with 100 perfect days
        it was incredible
        also 30 cold days
        did you know ideal temp for cross country skiing is -10?
        i love em all

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        1. I’d agree with your contention that -10º is perfect for cross country skiing only if those are Celcius degrees. -10º Fahrenheit is too damn cold to be outside, if you ask me.

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        2. i studied a total spectrum of cross country options during the 25 years i lived next door to the golf course
          in order to go ski for an hour with a layer of like sweat pants or a ski jacket it needs to be a certain temp. if you’re standing there 65 ish is good, if you are walking across the parking lot and stopping for 2 minutes and walking back for an hour maybe 60
          if you walk in a circle around the parking lot for 60 minutes non stop i’ll bet40 is good . if you ski in 40 or 30 or 20 degree weather you sweat like a pig. uphill down hill through the flats and around the trees for 5 or 6 miles zero is better but research has shown -10 degrees will allow 1 hour of kicking it hard with zero discomfort. my sister was along one time in yellowstone where we went out with these athelete types and we skied the beautiful trails by putting one ski in front of the other and laughing and chattin and going along til it was time to stop at the destination of the waterfalls in the snow and she said how can you smoke 3 packs of marlboro’s a day for 30 years and then ski for an hour with no signs of exertion. easy it’s -10 and that’s my temperature for cross country skiing

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  7. I think of it according to what I have to wear, and how I can travel. Let see there’s now:
    Light jacket – Biking ok, and coming up are:
    Hooded Jacket – Biking Iffy
    Winter Coat – Car
    Down Ankle-Length – Car
    Rain Gear – Car
    Hooded Jacket – Biking Iffy
    Light Jacket – Biking ok
    No Jacket – Car Too Hot But Bring a Sweater (for indoor A/C)

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  8. Nice question.
    Being the traditionalist I am, we have Spring Summer Fall and Winter. Or Planting, haying, harvesting, Snow. Though I guess that’s what I used to say more than I do now.

    Planting season, home projects season, Summer show season, Harvest season / try to get some fieldwork done season, prep for winter season, snow / slow down season. Then Mud season.

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  9. OT – Just wondered if anyone has ever frozen collard greens and/or parsley? If so, do you blanch them first? My friend, Helen, has an overabundance of the most beautiful collards, and I’d hate to see them go to waste. And my own curly parsley has grown into a small shrub, I’ll not be able to use it all fresh. Any suggestions?

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      1. Thanks, Bill. I’ll try that, but I see some ham and bean soup with mixed greens on the menu in the near future. Frantically searching my cookbooks for inspiration. Wish I had a walk-in fridge.

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    3. I would get the leaves stemmed and ready, wash them, weigh them, put them in an e.pty soup pot, and put them on the stove. The water on their leaves will combine with the heat to wilt them. When they are wilted, squeeze any excess water out and put on bags and freeze them. Put the weight on the bag with a permanent marker. I do chard this way
      It keeps very well.

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      2. That sounds like a good idea, Renee; I’ll try it. Weighed? I guess I can skip that part considering my usual “a pinch of this and that, a handful of something else, a dab of something I happen to have on hand, plus a small or big chunk of whatever” method.

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    1. And the mice have moved indoors. Last night as we were eating supper, Martha walked by very quietly with something in her mouth. Turned out to be a tiny, not yet dead mouse.

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  11. I am watching the Twins-Yankees game. Now there is a change of season activity, to be sure. Arraez just struck out and the score is 1-0 Yankees. It also makes me remember the World Series fever that would strike Franklin Elementary School each October. The boys in my class would be on their best behavior because if they were, then the teacher would allow them to bring a transistor radio into the classroom to listen to daytime games. Even the boys who spent their days sitting in the hallway (punishment for misdeeds) would manage themselves during the World Series. It only took one confiscation of a radio to get them to sit up straight and be quite, and do their work!

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      2. With the sunshine today, I find my mud may be close to dehydrating. May I join your FB friend in enjoying that!

        Lordie what a lot of rain and gloom.

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        1. Oh, but look at this morning. The sun is out, the temp is mild, and the gloom has lifted. Glorious day for a drive along the St. Croix and seek out a pottery sale or two.

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    1. An example of misheard lyrics – for decades I thought the line in this song was “…and you go home in the Christmas of the night.” I didn’t stop to think about it, but it had a certain nonsense charm that way. Only now I realize it’s “…and you go home in the crispness of the night.”

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  14. For me, a sure sign that we’re marching through autumn toward winter is when the signs start popping up all over town for the church craft fairs, fall festivals, holiday boutiques, and booyas.

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  15. If I listen to the dogs the seasons are: good outside, hot outside, way too hot outside, good again but smells different outside, wet outside, wet I want the other outside, cold outside, cold white stuff outside, cold white stuff and I might get lost outside, way too cold outside, warmer cold outside, muddy outside, and almost good outside.

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    1. I do think my dogs would both agree with your hounds’ assessment of seasons.

      Add to that our AZ experience:

      1. Do I get to go with you in the car?
      2. This car ride is really long.
      3. I smell Javelinas
      4. I smell Coyotes
      5. I smell AZ dogs
      6. What is this elevator ride needed prior to my morning pee?
      7. This dog park is B-O-R-I-N-G.
      8. Do I get to got with you in the car?
      9. THe car ride is really long.
      10. What is the white stuff covering the good smells.

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    3. Being a dog owner makes one sensitive to seasons. Although every Minnesotan welcomes spring, the shift from snowy backyards to gloppy mud fields was always a shock. When our dogs came back after with snowy toes we didn’t even bother to wipe them dry. When they came back with eight feet loaded with slimy mud we had to snag them and put them through treatment before letting go anywhere in the house.

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  16. Our cats tell me that the seasons they notice from the bay window are thin, sort of warm sun, warmer sun, just right sun, too hot sun, no sun but cool and rainy, and no sun but big snowflakes to try to catch through the glass.

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    1. I love it when cats vocalize their interest through the window—chirping, ear twitching—when they see birds or squirrels. It cracks me up. We had a cat once who actually lost his sense of whereabouts entirely, jumped at a bird, whamming into the window with a loud thud.

      I thought I would fall on the floor laughing.

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      1. Our Tortie does that all the time, chasing leaves, birds, moths and butterflies, and snowflakes. I am surprised she hasn’t concussed herself.

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  17. The humidity in my work place has been higher because of all the rain we have had. Our IT guy had to adjust the printers because the humidity was causing the ink to slide off the paper. We could peel the words right off. I am not kidding. He said he had to raise the temperature inside the printer so that it baked ink on to the paper more securely. I had no idea this was a real thing. He said people in humid climates make this adjustment all the time. If the temperature is set too high, however, the paper curls.

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  18. For a guy who almost never leaves his apartment, I’ve had quite a bit of socializing lately. Two old hunting partners surprised me weeks ago by taking me to lunch. Three college buddies were here for three days to chat and enjoy great restaurant meals. My closest male friend unexpectedly showed up last week. In an hour I’ll meet a woman from my undergraduate college days. Pat’s mother is a resident in this senior apartment complex, so Pat is visiting for a week. I will have lunch with both of them today. That’s a lot of society for a guy who “never” sees anyone except doctors or my family.

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    2. Good for you, Steve. It’s fun reconnecting with old friends. Did you discover any new places to eat? Who is this Pat of whom you speak? If you were an undergraduate with Pat, her mother must be quite old.

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      1. I’m just back from a lovely lunch. Pat’s mom, as you guessed, is not young. I think she’s 97. She’s lively and fun and interested in many things. She and I have trouble conversing, as we both are hard of hearing.

        I didn’t know Pat when we were in college. I had one girlfriend for three years, and it wasn’t Pat. She’s smart, good-hearted and remarkably similar to me in her political views. She has three kids, all living in the DC area. Pat will move into a senior apartment in Maryland soon. She’s close to the three guys who recently visited me.

        We had such a good time talking that we’re going to meet some more. We ate in the dining room of this apartment complex.

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