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My Favorite Season
I have often been asked just which season of the year I like the best. And I honestly cannot answer that one is better than all others.
In winter, after a fresh snow, somehow the world looks so clean and with a downy softness. With sunshine, one may see a million diamonds sparkling -- or see many kinds of snow crystals. Looking at a small mountain stream where several layers have frozen, is a fascinating picture of design. Snowshoeing in the mountains, the air is sharp and crisp, and the beauty of snow on the mountains and conifers, with perhaps the call of a chickadee or red-breasted nuthatch, a taste of a serviceberry raisin makes this such a special time.
But I do not want winter to last all year -- I begin to yearn for the color green. And as snow melts and spring moves up the mountains, the lovely spring green of trees, the bright yellow of the dog-tooth violet (which has so many names -- spring lily, snow lily, avalanche lily, glacier lily, trout lily, mountain lily, fawn lily, adder"s tongue, and China hat, to name a few I have discovered). It blooms first in foothill areas, and then climbs up the mountains from spring in May to spring in July at higher elevations. Golden hills of balsamroot, orchid pink of lady slipper Astragalus in foothills and lower canyons, plus many others. As the snow melts further up the canyons, watching the plunging, rushing streams. Finding the tiny dusty pink-lavender steershead, violets, false lily of the valley, waterleaf, the vine of the large flowered, blue clematis -- each find a new treasure of spring. The marshes and their abundance of waterbirds another favorite place in spring.
Then, as summer heats up the valley, we have planted our gardens to have vegetables and many flowers (usually mainly of exotic plants not suited to our hot summer weather without extensive watering)! To head for the higher mountains, though I think of it as summer, up in the lovely cooler weather it is spring there. As I hike, the special smell of fir, earth and sun (a favorite perfume!) permeates my senses. What a thrill to see our wonderful mountain wildflowers. Albion Basin with its glorious gardens is one of my "Hundred Million Miracles". The things I enjoy -- the song of birds (though sadly not as many as I once heard, as the forests they often spend the winter in are too often destroyed); the tiny miracle of hummingbirds as they sample the nectar of flowers; butterflies of so many different species; wild strawberries, tiny and so much sweeter than our commercial ones; seeing perhaps a daintily stepping doe with a tiny spotted fawn; a marmot sunning on rocks, after his long winter sleep; hearing the ventriloquist-like "yenk" of a pika, and trying to spot where it may be. Unlikely to be seen, it is probably making its haystacks to dry for its long winter food supply.
Then comes autumn, the time of many berries -- blueberry, serviceberry, chokecherry, the baneberry (such a beautiful plant, with wax-like white or red berries, but which are poisonous). The poison ivy in lower areas has poisonous white berries, but foliage that turns beautiful red in the fall. A nephew of ours once walked into a ward hall decorated for an autumn festival dinner. On each table were beautiful poison ivy centerpieces!! The women had recognized the beauty, but did not realize what the plant was -- but did discover what picking them meant!!! "Leaves of three, let it be. Berries white, poisonous sight!"
The glorious colors as maples turn red, aspens gold to orange-gold, maroons, bronzes, and Indian hemp (dogbane) shines like a yellow light against a hill. Geranium leaves touched by frost form such a delightful pattern. Once my parents went east on an Autumn Color Tour. They said they would send movies as they finished rolls so that we could see what they were seeing. The first one came showing hillsides of glorious color. We "oohed and aahed" at this beauty of autumn in eastern U.S. Until suddenly my little son in his cowboy hat was in the picture. It has been taken in our own canyons, before they got to the east. We laughed, realizing we had seen autumn beauty, not in the east, but in our own area!
Then comes Halloween, with pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, and luscious pumpkin pies for Thanksviging. We begin hoping for snow, especially the skiers! As Christmas nears, we find ourselves hoping for a White Christmas. That special feeling with family and friends that we show love to at this time of year. Somehow a fire makes a cozy feeling in our warm homes, as we watch snowflakes cover the lawn. In the morning, with a covering of fresh snow, the world somehow seems a quieter and more peaceful place.
It is a time when many of us like to feed the birds. Last year I finally found the right heater for my bird bath. I recommend it, for it was such a delight to watch the birds which came to drink -- a circle of waxwings with their gentle twittering, winter robins, sometimes an evening grosbeak, many house finches and sparrows, an occasional towhee, and the downy woodpecker which comes to the suet cake. The starlings I"m afraid I do not welcome as much, or the magpies, both of which can eat more in five minutes than the others do in a day! A flock of quail which come running across the yard leaving snow prints on the snowy lawn. But I do enjoy whatever comes, even a skunk which tested the ground for leftover treats. We had a weasel in a woodpile one year, and to see that graceful lovely animal with its snowy fur with a black tip on the tail was a thrill. Once again to see the beauty of Alpenglow turning snowy mountains to pink-gold, against a sky turning turquoise and purple.
Yes! I love all the seasons, and I am glad we don"t have just one season. Truly in every season we can find a "Hundred Million Miracles"!
by Dorothy K. Platt
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