In the fall, everyone goes on about the autumn leaves, the gaudy reds and fiery oranges, the blazing hillsides. But it’s coarse, and it presages death – that ferocious color a last gasp before the end.
But spring! Spring is a far subtler beauty, all pastel and fluff. The yellowy green of the early willow. White flowers on the callery pears, as white as snow. The nascent pink swellings on the maples and the redbuds. A chalkier green here, a ruddier bud there. Great swaths of exuberant forsythia, harbingers! Summer is coming – the leaves will fill out, the flowers will bloom, the fruit will set, and the tomatoes will be everywhere.
Which do you prefer? Spring or fall?
Spring. The days hot enough for iced coffee, the promise of fruit to come for making jam, the air on my skin as I shed sweaters and switch to sandals. Definitely spring.
ReplyDeleteDo I have to choose? I love both, each for being what the other is not.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Harriet - all seasons have things going for them and right now I really enjoy listening to all birds that sing almost hysterically.
ReplyDeleteIn the summer I'll enjoy the almost-24-hour-daylight we get here, in the fall I'll enjoy the crisp air and in the winter I'll think that snow is quite wonderful. Maybe not all the time, but...
A few weeks into spring, I am getting rain-stabby.
ReplyDeleteI am a fall person. Partly because of the crisp, dry weather, partly because of the fall colors, and mostly because of the nostalgia. Fall reminds me of new beginnings and youthful abandon and happiness and fun. Nostalgia is very powerful.
When I was younger, it was Fall. Now that I'm older and the winters are coloder and longer...Spring! Oh, the green and warmth!!!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have much of a fall here, so I would definitely say spring. I love to see all the embankments on the freeways ablaze with fuschia and yellow iceplant.
ReplyDeleteMaybe people contemplate fall more because they are slowing down and getting ready for the dormant season? I know I look forward to the time when I don't have to spend weekends working in the yard, whereas right now I'm in a depression/ denial phase. That said, spring is prettier.
ReplyDeleteI love them both, truthfully. Though fall has a slight edge because I'm terribly allergic to the pollen in springtime! I have to enjoy a lot of spring indoors and heavily medicated!
ReplyDeleteFall. I'm all about coarseness and presaging death. Also, I hate heat and humidity and in the fall I can walk and breathe comfortably again.
ReplyDeleteI love them both equally. Fall and spring are absolutely beautiful here in Georgia.
ReplyDeleteThat _pause_ in late March, when green shoots are just emerging from Earth, willows are just beginning to green, the air is still cold but the sky is so so so blue and you no longer require your fleece but you _do_ need your raincoat. When the sun's out, but you bring your umbrella, regardless, because it might storm, might ice, might turn grey and wintry again.
ReplyDeleteThat's when I am (in) my element.
When it's warm and humid and pastel and florid, not nearly so much.
Totally fall. Spring is all very nice but
ReplyDelete1. It rains more
2. I'm still cranky from winter
3. The bugs come out
whereas in fall
1. I love the crisp air
2. Hallowe'en infuses things with an aura of mystery and magic
3. The bugs die
Spring! Spring is about rebirth, especially for me as an SAD sufferer, and the subtle drama of the perennials unfolding has me riveted every year--plus, I love being able to *do* things in the garden after a long winter of inactivity. All fall offers on that front is bulbs, and I have no shortage of other stuff going on in my life in the pre-holiday bustle.
ReplyDeletei've always said fall, but this year, if spring would ever arrive after the longest damn winter of my life, spring might win. because it means this blasted winter is over.
ReplyDeletetake me back to the south, please.
I peter fall, be uase that slight dip in the summer temps is SO welcome. Spring is about 2 weeks here and it just means summer is here...it is in the 90s here already. Too hot!! I want to cry when I think about how it will still climb about 20 degrees during the summer,
ReplyDeleteit's like children....you have to love them both....
ReplyDeleteI like them both, but spring is still cold when I long to be warm. So, I would have to say fall.
ReplyDeleteSpring spring spring. Because I am desperate for winter to be over. It snowed here just a few days before Easter.
ReplyDeleteSummer. But, I guess spring is best because it's the start of gardening and warm weather. I hate fall because it's end of summer and everyone starts getting sick and it's darker earlier and it just means winter's around the corner.
ReplyDeleteI'm partial to sprummer (the very end of spring/beginning of summer) -- warm enough yet not too warm (or humid) and the rain has subsided.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I much prefer planting my garden than digging it up or watching it die.
Aaachhooooo!!!
ReplyDeleteIf is weren't for allergies, I would say spring. Right now, I want to rip my eyeballs out, so I am dying for May to be over. My husband thinks spring is time to open the windows and let in some "fresh" air, where I constantly have to shut them. And for whatever reason, my body has decided not to let Zyrtec work for me this year. :(
I have come to realize that I 'prefer' whichever of them I'm in at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSo, today.... spring!