I am Thankful for the Seasons of the Year

Granted I am more thankful for some than others.  I was talking to a young man the other day and he wondered how I could love somewhere like Texas that didn't have snow for Christmas.  We haven't had snow for Christmas in Rhode Island for 4 years.  It really doesn't start snowing until January.  I told him that I have been bone chilling cold in Texas just the same as I have been here.  There was another young man from Dallas and he chimed in about 'Blue Northers' and the Canadian Express that only the Plains States know about.  That cold wind comes down from Canada and literally freezes everything in its path causing ice storms and power outages in the central Plains states.  Those storms are treacherous and have caused deaths because they are often unexpected and people are just  not prepared for the bitter temperatures.  Crops are lost and they cost megabucks.  So even in the south - there is winter.  I joked that last winter, Kerrville, Texas got more snow than we did here in New England.  We had 1 snowfall in late October and then freezing rain for the rest of the winter.  Very little snow.  Kerrville had 2 snow storms and more days out of school than our students did!  Our districts plan for it - theirs school districts don't.

I have concluded that my favorite seasons are spring and summer but I am most partial to spring.  I love watching the world come alive again after the long dark winter months.  It is so beautiful here in New England when it just bursts with color.  I think that forsythias grow wild here because they seem to be everywhere.  You know it is spring when the the bright yellow of the forsythia bush is everywhere you look.

People flock to New England for the autumn colors but that is iffy at best.  I have lived here 9 autumns now and seen 2 that were beautiful.  Granted the last two were blown away by hurricanes but even then the colors were not setting like they had 3 years ago.  The first year I was here was the most glorious one I had ever seen and even people that had lived here their whole lives said that autumns was one of the best they had ever seen.

Fortunately during these dark days of winter - we have Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward too.  Unfortunately that still leaves the hardest days of winter yet to get through.