Strange Thought Yesterday..."Fall".

Fall is my favorite time of year...by far. Winter and Spring are nice too, but not a big fan of the roasting heat of Summer. I love the serenity of Fall, I love the weather and the quiet. It's just a peaceful time. I love the smells, the crispness of the air in the mornings and the slight warmth of the afternoon sun. The smell of a fireplace, or some spiced cider, the sound of a chainsaw in the distance or the smell of fresh cut firewood, I love it all.

Invariably, every fall, I often have the same recurring feeling..."I wish it would stay like this forever"

So yesterday I'm driving home and that same feeling hit me. I started thinking about the concept in some more detail. I wondered if there was a place where it was perpetually Fall. NOTE - I'm not really referring to the seasonal growing cycle here and the technical definition of "fall", but really just the weather. In doing so I realized something I'd never really thought about before.

On our planet Earth you can easily find a place where it's always summer, and you can find a place where it's always winter. So logic would seem to suggest that halfway between these places there should be a place where it's always be fall (or spring), right? But this is not the case. (maybe a "DUH!!" moment here, but bear with me). Instead, what you get at halfway is a place where you get all four seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall) (another "DUH" moment, I know). Hang in there, we're going someplace with this...

Okay, so understanding the tilt of the Earth's axis (23.5 degrees), and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, we can easily understand the seasonal cycle. So, we have to look harder. Now let's say we split the difference again, no longer just "half" way but roughly three quarters away from the latitude of perpetual summer. This would put us somewhere south of the polar circles (say somewhere around 47-55 degrees north or south). Okay, now we have an even weirder situation. Now the "weather" is fall-like for much of the year. We've found Utopia, right? Hardly!...

At these locals and climes, on Earth, we have some of the fiercest weather, some of the most uninhabitable terrain and some of the most hostile environs of anyplace on Earth. In the south we have the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties, and to the north we have Siberia, northern Canada, Greenland and Iceland, some of the least densely populated places in the Northern Hemisphere.

The other thing about these locations is, there is a pretty significant daylight penalty. In the summer months the days are often 20+ hours long, but in the fall the days are far shorter than they are at lower latitudes. Consequently, less time to enjoy the fall weather unless you like doing it in the dark.

So, it turns out "Fall" really IS a pretty rare and magical thing after all!

I thought that was kind of interesting.

If I didn't live in an area of the country that has the 4 seasons I would go nut freaking crazy.....you know like California & Florida. Fall is the best of them all. Time to get ready for the winter, both us humans and the wildlife. I live out in the sticks and as with you this is my favorite time of year....Falling leaves, chattering squirrels, all the life outside getting ready to bed it down for winter. A great time of the year indeed.

a reply to: openyourmind1262

Tell me about it! I lived in SE Asia for a few years (3 degrees north of the Equator), and there is no "season" there at all. The days are all exactly the same length, the weather is the exact same, the temperature is the exact same, there is no color variation at all. And, it definitely DOES make you crazy after a while! You lose track of what time of year it is very quickly...and for me, I couldn't take it any longer. Drove me nutz!

i thought about Fall too yesterday. what is it i thought to myself i think of it now? since i am not very fond of it, leaves falling etc.is it a song maybe? nope. then i skipped the thought.
i like Spring better. i have the same feeling with Spring. i wish it could stay like this all the time.

a reply to: Damla

Some say "poh-tay-toh", and some say "poh-tah-toh"...some say "toh-may-toh" and some say "toh-mah-toh".

Fall vs. Spring.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk


Fall is my favorite season too.

The colors, the smells, the crisp air, leaves, squirrels gathering their acorns for winter, apple picking, love it all 🍁

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

i dont think so. many insects die and animals begin to feel cold and wet in fall. in spring insects and butterflies come and flowers too and animals get sunbath.
ketchup and tomato maybe.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
This would put us somewhere south of the polar circles (say somewhere around 47-55 degrees north or south). Okay, now we have an even weirder situation... At these locals and climes, on Earth, we have some of the fiercest weather, some of the most uninhabitable terrain and some of the most hostile environs of anyplace on Earth.

That's west-of-Atlantic geography. England is neatly tucked in between 50 and 55 degrees, but experiences no genuinely fierce weather, thanks to the Gulf Stream.
(The extreme weather, uninhabitable terrain, and hostile environments have been pushed north to Scotland)
Does that mean "perpetual Fall"? Let's put it this way- English people claim to have not much of a summer, so spring and autumn must come in quick succession (you have preserved a word which we have abandoned in favour of the French version).

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

yeah, fall is my favorite too! greets from munich!

P.S. Keats might agree with you;

" Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,–
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies."

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I absolutely love fall. I think a lot of people do, but it is because it is fleeting. If it were permanent we wouldn't love it as much.

I think England or Belgium would be similar to fall year round. Not too hot or cold, a little foggy in the morn.
But it isn't just the temps that make fall what it is. It is the state of mind. Resting from summer, and preparing for winter.
I agree that smells and flavors are part of it. Apples, cinnamon, the smell of a fire. There is no other time of year like it.

Where I live the trees put on the most brilliant show. When it happens I think I live in the most beautiful place on earth.

this better.



this is for spring spring not fall spring though. anyway, in my language both are called spring. first spring and last spring.
i insist first spring is better

yeah we dont have the word fall.

I think it's melancholy that envelopes us and knowing another year has slipped by....
www.youtube.com...

Fall is by far my favorite and for many of the reasons mentioned in the OP. I can work without sweating to death. (fat people don't like heat, at least not oppressive heat) And with cool nights, the snakes aren't out as much, so walks in the woods are less stressful. The smells are likely the most vibrant of anything. And the fires in the pit. Ah the pit.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Hey,

Depending on your broader skill set, someone might pay you the big bucks in Nunavut, the Yukon, or the NWT, even Labrador!
Food will cost you a fortune, and things get weird up there, but the days of endless sun are neat... and polar bears!

But if you want the best of fall, come to Nova Scotia and do a road trip.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Fall depresses the crap out of me! The light starts to get weaker- it gets that milky affect and the angle gets flat. Not to mention the worst part of the light issue: it gets dark at freaking 4:30pm by the time it's said and done. Sadness!

And the trees and greenery!! Yeah, it's pretty when all the leaves turn colors, but it's tempered by that flat-ass weak light AND it reminds me that shortly, there will be no green, and all around me there will be just brown and the trees will be big brown trunks with sticks shooting out of them. For months.

Ugh! I don't appreciate the debilitating heat and humidity of summer, but I love everything else. Green! Can't see the neighbor's house next door through my backyard because the tree leaves are full and lush and green and block its view. Red, plump ripe tomatoes. My peppermint and chocolate mint out of control in the backyard. Barbecues, 4th of July, the swimming pool and deep suntan. Kids hanging out at the baseball diamonds until late, ice cream stands.

Fall can suck it.

Fall is my favorite as well... The ramp up to the Majesty of Christmas and High Winter. Spring is a close Second with it's riot of growth and sex... everything getting jiggy with it. I do love the lush opulence of Summer - but to hot makes me melt.

I think the thing you need to do to find the fattest Fall is look where Winter leaves early and Summer is not a beast.

Minnesota has 5 months of Winter.. El Paso has 6 months of Summer... so both have condensed everything else. Fall and Spring get lopped off one way or another...

But, just living 200 miles to the south from Minneapolis... In this case, La Crosse, Wisconsin (hey La Crosse). In La Crosse they have 2 weeks less Winter in the beginning, and, two weeks more Spring... So Winter becomes noticeably shorter, lending a little more room to the seasons that book end it. Turns out to be a whole month less Winter.

So,I figure you just follow the Planting Zone lines... and watch for that Summer line...it starts to grow fatter almost right along the Dixie...

So... from La Crosse to the Dixie - your Goldie Locks Zone

a reply to: openyourmind1262

Having lived in the Chicago area for 37 years, and have been in So Cali for going on 11 years, I would NEVER live back east again. I have been back several times to see family. 4 years ago I went back there , there was a tornado, that killed 8 people 2 miles from my sisters house, where I was having dinner and the Bears game had to be evacuated from the bleachers to inside the stadium. Two days later it was so cold the bird bath water was frozen solid.

2 years ago I went back, in the middle of summer, and once again, there was a tornado, during one of the storms, also it was super gross hot, and humid. At least in So Cali, I do not feel like I need to take a shower, every 4 hours.

Nope, if I want to see snow, and Ski, I can just go to Big Bear, its beautiful and Cold and it has been getting plenty of snow. Which I no longer shovel, all winter long.

a reply to: openyourmind1262

One of the worst things having grown up with 4 seasons and now living in SC. I want my seasons back.