Spring!
Apr 6th 2007
Claudia DainMy Life As A Plebe
It’s spring and, as always, I have spring fever. Not hay fever, not pollen fever, but spring fever. That wonderful, dreamy state where you wander around in a happy daze, grinning for no reason at all.
It happens to me every year. I can’t concentrate on anything but the beauty of nature exploding in blooms all around me. I take long walks. I take longer drives. I am filled with a sense of well-being and joy and optimism. It’s lighter outside and it makes me feel lighter inside. I’ve planted hundreds of azaleas and dozens of dogwoods, just to capture spring for me outside every window of my house.
The strange thing is this: spring isn’t my favorite season. Autumn is. Autumn, when everything glows red and orange against a brilliant blue sky. When the air is crisp and clear and twilight comes earlier. I love autumn. I always say it’s my favorite season.
Until April, when I feel slightly adulterous for indulging in my passion for spring.
What’s your favorite season and are you faithful to it or do you have a back-up season on the side?
34 Comments »
34 Responses to “Spring!”
ladydawgfan on 06 Apr 2007 at 8:16 am #
I love Spring as well, with everything fresh and new and growing. However, my favorite season has always been Summer, even when I lived in Mississippi. There is something magical about lying in the middle of a meadow on a sunny day, watching puffy clouds float above your head, hearing the call of cicadas doing whatever it is that cicadas do, listening to birds singing. The very scent of a lazy summer day just fills me with joy!!
Adrienne on 06 Apr 2007 at 8:48 am #
Autumn, hands down. I always get a smile on my face the day the air turns crisp enough that I can liberate my sweaters from storage. I love kicking fallen leaves around when I take a walk. I’m a rainy day girl and Autumn marks the beginning of snuggle weather -on the couch with a blanket, a cup of hot cocoa and a book while the rain drips down the windows. Then after the kids go to bed, my husband and I can snuggle, something it was just to hot to do during summer.
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 8:49 am #
I love summer, too, ladydawgfan. I love the laziness of it. Even without giving myself permission, I play more! It’s a holdover from being in school all those years.
Karen Hawkins on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:22 am #
Ah Claudia, Autumn! With the fiery leaves and chilly evenings when you can snuggle with your sweetie on the front porch as you’re sipping hot cocoa and enjoying the vista or–
No, wait, it’s Spring! Spring with the fresh green grass and the gorgeous flowers and the blue, blue skies where you can go on lovely picnics under huge trees and snuggle with your sweetie on a blanket or –
Oh, but I loooove SNOW! So it must be Winter when you can ski until your cheeks are pink and then snuggle before the fireplace with your sweetie and –
But what about the warm summer days on the beach with the breeze off the ocean cooling you down as you snuggle with your sweetie under an umbrella, your feet in the waves …
Ok, I love them all. What I love the most is CHANGE and SNUGGLING. So long as I have one of those, I’m sold!
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:37 am #
Another autumn fan! I do love it.
I should also admit that, not only do I love spring and summer, I have a special thing for winter, too. I love the way the sky looks in winter, how it’s lavender and yellow and bluish white. The downside to winter is that I sleep too much!
Autumn is my favorite (until it’s April again), but there’s something to love about each season. The truth is that I’m a Nature Girl; I’m totally plugged into the seasons.
One of the gifts of spring is waking to the sound of birdsong after a long, silent winter. Birds make the sky alive, full of song and movement.
Nature Girl!
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:40 am #
Change! That’s it! Not only do I love what each season brings (some more than others), I love watching the seasons change.
And snuggling. Snuggling’s not bad in any weather!
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:43 am #
Okay, babbling, but does anyone remember that great song from ‘Camelot’, “If Ever I Would Leave You” ? That song is so romantic! It captures love and the seasons into one fatal-to-my-heart combo.
“Your hair kissed with sunlight, your lips red as flame, your face with a luster that puts gold to shame.”
Ahhhh.
Karen Hawkins on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:56 am #
Claudia, I LOVE that song! And yes, it’s darned romantic. Wish I had it on my itunes so I could listen to it now while looking out my window and enjoying the spring blossoms on my porch.
*happy sigh*
Nicole Jordan on 06 Apr 2007 at 10:30 am #
I love spring!! Definately my fave. Probably because I’m cold-natured, so winter is my least favorite season. When spring comes, I finally get to shed all the layers of fleece/sweaters/sweatshirts.
I would have to pick fall for my second fave. Love the smell of wet leaves.
Oh, and I love that song from Camelot, too. Especially when Richard Harris sang it.
Oops, RH didn’t sing that son in the movie, did he? It was Robert Goulet. But I sill love the song.
NicoleJ
dbrown3400 on 06 Apr 2007 at 10:41 am #
I’m a spring/fall person, too. I like those 68-70 degree days with the 50 degree nights. We had one of those with the most beautiful blue sky you could ever imagine about three days ago. The next day there were snowflakes in the air. Luckily in New Jersey we have all four seasons, but the summers and winters could be about five days each and that would be fine. I do like the cold so long as there’s no wind and the summer for the Jersey shore so long as there’s no sand. There you have it.
Donna
Julia London on 06 Apr 2007 at 10:48 am #
I like them all. I even like summer. But I know what you mean, Claudia. Its so gorgeous I don’t want to be anywhere except out in it, but unfortunately, I always manage to get a deadline when spring is perfect and around Christmas. What is UP with that? But I think of all the seasons, I like autumn best. Love after a hot hot hot summer that first hint of change coming and the promise that it is actually going to get cooler.
TheNightPoet on 06 Apr 2007 at 10:52 am #
Spring is my favorite season. To quote one of my friends, “Spring is when everything on Earth is being reborn and starting anew.” She’s so right on that. I am like you, Claudia, I get in those states of daydreaming and love to take walks as well. I love all the beautiful colors and how sweet the air smells. It’s a great season and I love it a lot.
Andrea
Ronlyn on 06 Apr 2007 at 11:29 am #
It would be a toss up between Autumn and Spring. I’m a gardener at heart (even though you’d never know it by looking at my neglected garden.) So I love to plant and play in the dirt in the spring, see all the plants starting to come alive again….it’s my idea of bliss. But at the same time I LOVE watching the leaves turn vibrant shades. *sigh*
MizMacgyver on 06 Apr 2007 at 11:32 am #
I guess it would be spring for me. I feel more hopeful at this time of the year.
RachelG on 06 Apr 2007 at 11:56 am #
I love summer. I love boating and swimming, and I hate putting the boat away and packing up the cabin. But then autumn comes and the aspens are so darn beautiful that I love autumn too. Oh, and I love snow. I’m not fond of the rain, but I love to see spring flowers bloom. Hmm, I just I don’t have a favorite season.
Karen Rose on 06 Apr 2007 at 11:58 am #
I live in FL. We have rainy season (too humid), hurricane season (too scary), and tourist season (too much traffic). I don’t like any of those seasons, but interspersed are months of delightfully sunny weather. None of my trees change, but one decides to drop its leaves about this time every year, so I still have to rake. But I don’t have to shovel snow and that’s a fair trade in my book!
My favorite time of year - when the kids go back to school!
Suzanne Enoch on 06 Apr 2007 at 12:05 pm #
Like Karen R, I live on a southernish coast, and seasons are mostly marked by calendar. I’ve always wanted to see the leaves turn in the Northeast, but I’m kind of glad I’ve never had to shovel snow or wrap a scarf around my face.
Spring is my favorite season, because it’s the one I can see here in SoCal. All the flowers are blooming right now, even though we’ve only had 2 1/2 inches of rain since July.
Karen Hawkins on 06 Apr 2007 at 12:05 pm #
I can get a lot of snuggling done in the when-kids-go-back-to-school season. That’s a good one, KarenR!
Brandy on 06 Apr 2007 at 1:13 pm #
I love fall. When the leaves start to trun into fiery reds and bright golds. I love the crisp feeling the air takes on and thcool evenings.
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 1:25 pm #
Spring or fall seem to be the favorites of most people–and I wonder if it’s not only because the colors of those seasons are so amazing and riotous, but because it signals a change from either too cold or too hot weather. It seems logical.
But I wonder if seasons can carry memories for us and when that season returns, we swing automatically into that emotional state. April is gorgeous, hands down, but for a lot of years I’d get depressed when April rolled around because my parents both died in April.
I’m so happy to say that I think that has passed for me; in fact, this is the first April in a lot of years that I’ve been really happy again. Hence, this post.
Sorry for being so serious, but, hey, it’s April. I have baggage in April. *grin*
Nicole Jordan on 06 Apr 2007 at 1:51 pm #
Oh, Claudia, I’m so sorry. That would definitely take the joy out of a month or a season! I suppose it’s fortunate that time helps take some of the pain of losing loved ones away.
And I’m so glad you can appreciate the beauties of spring again!
NicoleJ
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 2:00 pm #
The fall colors in New England are not to be believed until you’ve seen them firsthand and I SO recommend making the trip if you can. First week of October is best, unless it rains and knocks all the leaves down!
That’s the trouble with Nature, always something unexpected happening!
Of course, in New England you pay for those 2 weeks of breathlessness with 6 months of misery, so it’s not really an even trade. LOL
And thanks, NicoleJ. I’m so happy that spring is spring again!
OV_099 on 06 Apr 2007 at 2:20 pm #
I’m really faithful to my season. I mean, I really hate every other season, so there is no reason to stray. And thankfully it has started. . .
BASEBALL SEASON!
Lois. . . Let’s Go Mets!
Kasey on 06 Apr 2007 at 4:10 pm #
I love Spring - I think part of the reason is because sometimes in Minnesota we don’t have much of a spring so when we do I love it. For example, last week it was almost 80 here, but today we had snow flurries and it is cold and windy. I wish Spring would come and stay awhile but instead we seem to toggle between winter and summer for a couple of months.
Although I have to agree with OV_099 - Baseball Season is a great season. Maybe that is why I like Spring too. Season Opener. Go TWINS!
KMB25 on 06 Apr 2007 at 4:18 pm #
My favorite time of the year is when it’s not too hot or too cold…so perhaps I’m a fan of spring and autumn…but I really do love summer for the vacation time…and I love winter because of the skiing and the hot chocolate and snuggling by a warm fire! I guess I can’t really pick one
I like them all!
lisapbailey on 06 Apr 2007 at 4:19 pm #
As I’ve been out in my North Carolina Springtime blossoming yard all day, I’d have to say that Spring is one of my favorites. The colors of my azaleas are defintely not in the crayola box…only God could do that. My pansies are holding on for dear life and I had a serious chat with them today telling them they need to hang with me about 2 more weeks. With all that color it is impossible to be sad–although I also carry some sad memories of this time of year.
The relief of Autumn after a humid summer is wonderful as well. I can honestly find something I love about every season.
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 4:45 pm #
Spring in Minnesota sounds like you have to grab it in quick gulps before the next snowstorm! And then, pop, summer? I’m guessing it’s a short season up there.
I’ve lived in places where certain seasons were very short, almost unnoticeable, or so quick you barely have time to stop and enjoy it.
Summers in Arizona would be too long for me.
Winters in the mid-west or upper-east would be too long.
Autumn in New England is too short.
Spring in the plains states would be too short.
Like Goldilocks, it has to be *just* right!
dbrown3400 on 06 Apr 2007 at 6:54 pm #
I just got in from work. The wind is blowing, the temp is in the thirties and they are predicting snow later this evening. But thank you, Lois, for reminding me of a season I forgot. The Mets are ahead in Atlanta, btw, where they are having record lows.
Donna
Erica R on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:25 pm #
Summer, and I luuuuurve it! Anything but winter. I’m a winterphobe. =)
Claudia Dain on 06 Apr 2007 at 9:47 pm #
I think the worse the winter is where you happen to live, the more you end up loving summer!
Or maybe that’s just me!
StephanieJeanne on 07 Apr 2007 at 7:12 am #
Autumn is my first favorite. I just feel incredibly happy when the leaves turn and the air starts feeling cool and crisp. Living in New England, Autumn is usually beautiful, often with deep blue skies. Picking apples, choosing pumpkins…I love the whole thing! The rustling sound of the leaves across the streets makes me shiver with happiness. I’m not a fan of summer, as I don’t enjoy heat and humidity. Sping is nice, if it doesn’t rain continually. Winter…I don’t mind the cold, or being inside all the time - I love the coziness - but I dislike dealing with the snow. Lol! :>)
MizMacgyver on 07 Apr 2007 at 9:36 am #
Claudia, I have to agree with you regarding memories and seasons. That is one reason I don’t really care for fall. In 1969 I lost my grandmother at the end of August, my father in November and my most favorite of cousins in December. I really have problems with fall. I slide into a depression and stay there until Spring.
Claudia Dain on 07 Apr 2007 at 9:51 am #
MizMacgyver, I’m so sorry. I hope you can find your way out of your fall depression the way I did out of my April doldrums.
MizMacgyver on 08 Apr 2007 at 7:44 pm #
Thank you, I generally pull myself out by spring though. It has not bothered me as much as it used to although I am still not crazy about fall, I totally appreciate the cooler temps. The thing with fall and winter is the sun is farthest from us during those seasons and a lot of people literally “feel” the loss. I think a lot of that was what my problem was. Spring is still the best for me. Post-menopausal and I really don’t do heat well at all. In the winter my poor son freezes, runs around with a quilt wrapped around him. For that matter he does it in the summer too…… LOL He generally has to tell mom it is time to turn on the heat now!