My Favorite Season of the Year

 
I have to admit, Fall is not my most favorite time of year. Spring has that honor hands down. The fall foliage is attractive, but face it, it’s only a sign that the leaves are dead or dying. Very depressing. The one saving grace of the Fall season has been taken away from us. That was the smell of burning leaves. We used to rake them all up in a big pile in the street gutter and us kids would take turns jumping into them. When we finally tired of that we would set them afire and maybe have a marshmallow roast. The burning leaves created a fog of smoke and a pleasant aroma I can still smell in my dreams. I guess that memory dates me. Now Fall is only a harbinger of the doldrums to come.
 
Fall is all about getting ready for Winter. The strawberry patch has to be mulched. Some plants such as butterfly bushes and Shasta Daisies have to be cut to the ground. Anything that might be planted is probably dormant and won’t show its colors until Spring. The Threadleaf Coreopsis looks pitiful, being bare of bloom and leaf. The Turtlehead is just a bare stick jutting upwards. The lily pond has been cleaned out and is just a pool of water now. The frogs are hibernating on the bottom. The fish are inert in their comatose state. Now we set out on a six month period of sit and wait, secure in the thought that Spring will come and rescue us from this state of blah.
 
Spring always comes much too slow for me. With the first warm days of March I am out and about the garden path searching for the first leaf to poke out from the Winter’s debris. That usually doesn’t happen until later in April and the wait seems interminable, but there is something magical as I watch each plant slowly send forth its new growth. After the long Winter even the yellow Dandelion is a welcome sight. Only the rains of April and early May dampen the spirit, but even then I can relax, certain the following months will bring forth the flowers to brighten my little world. Thus we segue into Summer.
 
With the onset of Summer I enjoy the strawberry harvest. I used to raise tomatoes and may again this year, if I can find a place to plant them. I have just about run out of tillable yard. I have selected my plants such that I have something blooming from ice-out to the first frost. Of course the price I pay is the weeding becomes continuous along with mowing of the grass, but observing the hummingbirds and butterflies feasting on the blooms makes for a pleasant summers late afternoon. So I guess I could say Summer is my favorite season, although without Spring I couldn’t enjoy Summer. Maybe I have two favorites.