Fall: my new favorite season

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite season is, I find it really hard to pick just one. That's because my favorite season is usually the one that is coming up or just starting, whatever season that may be. In other words, what I really like about a season has more to do with the change than with the actual season.

I lived for many years in the Bay Area, and the seasons don't change much up there. In the winter you wake up to fog every morning and when the fog lifts, it rains; at night the fog rolls back in. In the summer you wake up to fog every morning, and when the fog lifts, it's hot and sunny; at night, the fog rolls back in. Flowers do bloom and leaves color, meaning it's not as boring as it might sound, but you never really have to guess what a day will be like weather-wise. That appeals to some people, but not necessarily to me.

Looking forward to only two minimal season changes up north was very different than what I'd been used to, having lived quite a few years before that in various states in the Midwest. Those places had four distinct seasons and sometimes they were harsh.

In Iowa, summers were hot and humid, fall was crisp and cold and windy. In winter, it sometimes started snowing in October and didn't let up until April. Spring was just muddy. Of course there were also soft and gentle rains in summer (and wild thunder and lightning storms), hayrides and harvest celebrations in fall, picture perfect snow scenes and sunshine and brilliant colors in winter and spring, all of that making many, many wonderful days there too.

But of all the places I've lived, as far as seasons go, Tehachapi is one of the best. We have four distinct seasons here, yet most of our seasons are mild. Unless you've lived in humidity like they have in Iowa, you can't really appreciate what a difference our dry climate makes (spring might be muddy for about a day-and-a-half here, as opposed to the whole season in the Midwest). Tehachapi weather is certainly not immune to extremes, but those extremes never last for very long (with the possible exception of the heat waves we had this summer). I like that in a weather base.

I also enjoy a certain amount of unpredictability when it comes to weather. I like that we can say, "If you don't like the weather in Tehachapi, wait a minute and it'll change," or, "Tehachapi is the 'Land of Four Seasons'...sometimes all in the same day!"

It might have its occasional peculiarities but mostly Tehachapi weather is just fine, and that has to do not only with the mildness and the dryness, but also with the simple fact that it changes. We get to experience it all, but never so much that it's overwhelming, and never so infrequently that it becomes tiresome.

Right now I will have to say I am really looking forward to Fall. I'm done with summer and air conditioning; I'm done with hot steering wheels and dead, dry grass. I'm ready for cooler temps and brilliant skies; I'm ready to enjoy the colorful show the trees put on before shedding their leaves; I'm ready for fallow fields and smells like leaves or wood burning in someone's fireplace; I'm ready to finally put a quilt on my bed for the cooler nights, I'm ready for the little nip in the air some mornings; I'm ready for hearty warmer meals and having a hot chocolate now and again instead of iced tea; I love seeing Orion rise higher and higher every night in the southeastern sky.

Oh yeah, I'm ready for Fall; because Fall, you know, is my new favorite season.

© Marilda Mel White – Mel White, writer/photographer and co-owner of Tehachapi Treasure Trove, has looked on the bright side for various publications since 1996. She welcomes your comments at [email protected]