Our Favorite Things #20 – Seasons

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20. Our Favorite Seasons

October 1882

Note: Thanks to “anonymous” in the first comment from the Highlighting the Past – October post a couple of weeks ago for this suggestion: Favorite Seasons.

Melinda and I were arguing the other evening. It was a silly argument, but both of us dug our heels in and exclaimed which season is the very, very best here in the valley (and foothills) of California. Before I share what each of us insisted was the best (and our favorite) season of the year, you must understand that it’s . . . California. In most places, one season slides into the next season without warning. You wake up and it’s . . . Thanksgiving . . . and you wonder that maybe it’s the Fourth of July. Yes, really! One Thanksgiving it was 80 degrees. But for the most part, we two sisters stuck to our guns, and I’ll let Melinda go first on this. Which season do you think she likes best?

My good friend, Jenny Grant, and I also talked about our favorite seasons when I stayed with her up in Tacoma for a couple of weeks in the summer of 1881. So, I’ve included her favorite season here too, just for fun!

Which season is YOUR favorite? Tell me in the comments and don’t forget to include WHY it is your favorite. Which season do you think is Mrs. M’s favorite season? After everyone comments then I’ll comment and tell you which is my favorite season and why. Have fun!

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Melinda’s Favorite Season 🍂 Autumn

(Melinda’s POV). Yes, yes, yes. There is no better season than fall/autumn, especially long about late October and November. The air finally is cooler, and we might get a few rain showers. I don’t really care for the heat, so summertime will find me inside the thick adobe walls of our ranch house or out in the irrigated gardens with tall eucalyptus trees and spreading oaks. Once fall comes, I feel like riding again, or taking the buggy to town to visit with friends or complete some projects at the orphanage. Not many, but some of the oaks lose their leaves (the live oak do not), and I love hearing the crunching of the leaves as my horse Panda and I trot over the top.

Also, when I was younger, autumn meant school, and there was nothing I loved more than going to school. I never wanted to be a teacher, but I loved being with my school chums, jumping rope, playing tag, and taking turns swinging on the board swing that hangs from the giant valley oak in the schoolyard. Oh, I miss those days! Every time I see fall cooling the days, I think of the merry times I had at school.

Andi’s Favorite Season ❄️ Winter

(Andi’s POV). Melinda can keep autumn all to herself. School? “You’re crazy!” I told her when I heard that. For that reason alone, fall will never, ever be my favorite season. It’s still hot, which I don’t mind. Any season is a good season for riding Taffy all over the ranch, whether it’s a cool 80 degrees or a stifling 108 degrees. Heat never bothers me.

You’d think that with this attitude that summer would be my favorite season. I thought about it for quite some time and I decided that spring, summer, and fall are pretty much the same on the Circle C ranch. The temperatures just vary depending on the season,

My favorite season is winter! Now, I have to confess that yes, it rains a lot during the winter months. Mud slops over the buggy wheels and up past my ankles if I’m foolish enough to step into Freson’s streets. Taffy’s paddock is a slippery, muddy mess. So, why winter?

Because at least once (sometimes twice) during the winter, we get to go up to the mountains. And you know what that means, don’t you? Yep, snow. S-N-O-W! One year I even experienced a blizzard. It was cold as all get-out, but I loved the snow anyway. Especially after I crawled out of the little igloo shelter the boys had made in a hurry. Diamonds! That’s what snow crystals look like when the sun shines on them. Dancing snow crystals!

I guess the best reason (besides snow in the mountains) for winter is the fact that it’s different. Spring, summer, and fall all look alike. Winter would too if I didn’t go up in the mountains. But winter is worth the wait!

Jenny’s Favorite Season ☀️ Summer

(Jenny’s POV) Hands down, summer is my very-most-favorite season of the whole, entire year! In Puget Sound, there are actually two seasons: Summer and the rest of the year. Three seasons–autumn, winter, and spring–all blend together into what we call the “rainy” season. Rain, rain, rain. Here’s how it works:

Fall: a few days of sunshine in September (I consider September to be part of summer, all the way up to the “first day of autumn” toward the end of the month. It stays sunny, but the leaves are turning and it gets chilly. Once mid-October hits it’s chilly rain, gray clouds. More chily rain. More drizzle. More gray clouds.

Winter: instead of chilly rain, it’s cold rain, gray clouds, and fog. Windy rain, storms! Not snowstorms (now that would be incredible–snow!) but rain that is driven sideways like stinging needles. More fog. Choppy, icy Puget Sound. So windy and cold my brothers and I do not like fishing out there. Even “white caps.” This means it’s so windy that the waves form white caps on top of the water. *Are you shivering yet?*

One year I did see snow. It looked nothing like what the calendar down at Hansen’s Dry Goods store shows–all those fur-wrapped folks driving sleds through sparkling diamond-like snow banks. No fluffy flakes gently kissing your cheeks with a cold bite. Nope. We woke up to snow that dumped overnight. By nine o’clock in the morning it had been churned into mud on the streets, in the yard, and especiallly in my horse’s (Raindrop’s) paddock. Awful stuff, this snow. Dirty and wet. Gideon and Micah made a snowman, but he turned the color of the tide flats–brown. That’s what happens when you start rolling a snowball in Tacoma. It gets bigger and bigger and is so sticky that it yanks up every bit of dead grass. Then it grabs the mud and pulls it along. Yuck!

Spring: warmer rain, drizzle, and overcast clouds. June, especially, is a wet month, but at least it’s warm. And best of all, school lets out usually the first week of June. One year (the year I turned 12), the last day of school landed on my birthday.

Then finallly, there is summer! Once July hits, the sun comes out more than it hides behind the clouds. The water in the bay is still icy cold, but I don’t notice it as much. My face sunburns redder than my hair. Days and days of long, hot weather. The sun stays up until way past nine o’clock at night. It rises before 5:30 a.m.

It’s the best crabbing season too (I love Dungeness crab). After they molt (lose their shells and grow news ones as the crab grows), we can catch as many as we want. If I had my way, I’d stay on the seashore and collect agates all day long. Or I’d climb into a boat and fish for salmon while Micah rows. Yum! We come home smelling like crabs, salmon, and seaweed (some of my favorite smells).

A cool breeze off the water keeps my bedroom cool at night, even if the temperatures soar to 80 degrees. Now, 80 degress might sound too hot from where Andi lives, but for me it’s just right. I visited Andi for a couple of weeks the summer after Miss Whitaker’s Academy let out. Boy, was it hot! Awfully hot, with no relieft. Thank goodness we headed to the mountains, where things cooled off the higher we rode. As much as I enjoyed (will, it was kind of scary when Mitch got shot) my time with the Carter family (and with Cory), I was very glad to go back to the Pacific Northwest, where summer is beautiful. And I can see our mountain, Rainier, towering over everything.

One summer, our family took a trip to visit the mountain. I will never forget our holiday (which turned into a scary time, but that story is for another time!).