It’s raining again. It was sunny and bright this morning, and now it’s raining again. I just can’t seem to figure out the weather rules up here! Maybe I should just assume that every day will include rain… This is a truly weird concept for a California girl!
The spring equinox was this week, so now we are “officially” in spring, not winter. This winter has been a far different experience for me than I’m used to – far rainier, far colder, and frankly, far longer.
Some people claim to hate winter, or at least hate winter weather. I am not one of these. I like the rain and the grey skies and the cold days (and colder nights). I like all the seasons – there are things to enjoy about all of them! And yes, I’m aware that sounds a bit annoyingly cheerful. But it’s also true. However, now that it’s late March and I’ve been in cold weather, rain, and primarily grey skies since October, I’m ready for what I recognize as real spring (unfortunately, that means a California spring, which is so not what I’m getting up here in Vancouver right now). I’ve started daydreaming about the smell of fresh, perfectly ripe strawberries – if I eat many more apples, I may turn into one. It’s one of the curses of trying to buy produce in season!
That leads me to start considering the sensory associations I have with each season.
Winter is cold, and the white-inclined colors are dominated by the dark browns of earth and bare trees, the grey clouds and brilliantly clear blue skies, and the bright green of new grass, all accented by the rich reds, oranges, and yellows of the season’s produce. It’s the taste of apples, pears, citrus, and the savory-sweet hard-skinned squash. The air is cold, but it smells clean, at times almost aggressively so.
With spring there is a softening of the air as it slowly warms. The world becomes greener and the light becomes less white and more yellow, dotted with a sudden explosion of wildflowers. In my mind, those are the liquid orange of California poppies, the bluish-red of phlox, and a scattering of blues, purples, and yellows from assorted other flowers. Flavors of the earliest berries and cherries give the season a bright, clean taste, refreshing after months of apples and oranges.
Summer is the smell of warm stone fruit – peaches, nectarines, and the sunny fragrance of drying apricots. It is dry heat that makes the world increasingly dusty and somehow turns into the sweetness of ripe tomatoes. The season bakes, drying out the green plants so that the hills turn slowly from green to gold to a brittle brown.
Autumn continues to heat until suddenly it doesn’t, making for those gloriously clear October days when the air is just cool enough to kiss the skin and make a sweater pleasant to wear. The hills at home go from brown to a dusty brownish grey and when the rain eventually comes, it hits me like catnip. The air is suddenly clean again, and the smell of the wet pavement are irresistible, showing me that soon it will be time for oranges again – and by this point I’m eager for the sweet acidic citrus.
And now that I’ve finished waxing rhapsodic about color and produce, I present you with some fun stuff I found while poking around the Internet. In between writing my term papers, of course. Though I finished two big papers yesterday, so I feel that I’ve earned a little blog time.
So, this is fun: TV Couples March Madness voting! I’m rooting for Shamy (Sheldon and Amy from BIG BANG THEORY) and Caskett (Castle and Beckett from, well, CASTLE). Go vote for your faves!
And speaking of CASTLE, here there be teasing, taunting, semispoilers. GYAAAGH. Is it Monday yet???
MAD MEN is back, starting this Sunday with a two-hour premiere episode. This would be a good thing if not for the fact that MYTHBUSTERS are also back with the first new episode in a good long while on the same night. Don Draper or Adam Savage? Decisions, decisions…. though Adam Savage will spend the evening playing with duct tape.
Eddie Izzard is going to be playing the grandfathers in the MUNSTERS remake, Bernadette Peters just guest-starred on SMASH… why are all my favorite people appearing on shows I don’t watch?
As for news from places other than tv – Esteban Colbert the Peregrine Falcon in San Jose has been booted out of his family circle!
Also, it turns out that waltzing is good for the heart. I knew it!
Finally, here is some librarian book humor for you all: actual medieval scribes’ margin notes. Very entertaining. I also recommend the advice to Victorian lady bicyclists – we’re all wondering, what exactly is a “bicycle face?”
One more thing – I know we’re all royally sick of primary season right now, but if you haven’t had yours yet, get out and vote. If you’re not registered to vote, please do so. It’s not just about voting for the presidential elections, or even for federal government positions. It’s also about voting for your local area – from state government to local measures. It’s important.