Is Spring really here?

Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite season is, my stock answer is, whatever season is coming next. That is, if someone asks me that question in summer, my answer will be fall; if someone asks in the middle of fall, the answer will be winter. And, so on.

I think, therefore, that I really like all the seasons, but I especially like the fact that they change. I love the beginning of a new season, and then after a month or two, I’m ready for the next one, ready for a change.

That’s one reason I really like living in Tehachapi – we get to experience all four seasons over the course of a year, but none of them are too harsh. We get the best of the change of seasons without having to endure the worst of each one.

I speak from experience here: I’m an Iowa native and while the seasons can be harsh there, they can also be beautiful. In Iowa, as I remember in a nutshell: summers are hot and muggy and buggy and the humidity if brutal (but oh, the grass is green and the fields are full and the summer rain is delightful); falls are cold and windy and getting dark, the fields are fallow, but the leaves are vibrant with color. Winter sometimes means snow that starts in October and doesn’t end until April, and sometimes the temps drop to the lowest in the country. Springs are beautiful but definitely muddy.

In Tehachapi, summers can get hot but it’s a dry heat and the high temps don’t usually last too long; falls are cool and windy. Winter means maybe being snowed in one day and then having a picnic outside the next, and spring means warmer weather and colorful wildflowers.

At least that’s how it’s been for most of my 24 years here. Lately, though, the weather just seems crazy, and I can hardly tell what season we’re supposed to be in at any given time.

Like now for instance. The calendar may say spring, but we’ve gotten a couple of good late snow storms this April. I’m always ready for the April showers that bring May flowers, but I wasn’t ready for the snow! As usual, though, it didn’t last long – and it was pretty! – but it was still unnecessary, I thought, for a spring event. Especially considering the fact that we got very little snow in the calendar season of winter.

Weird.

So now I find myself in the middle of spring, still waiting for spring. I’ve taken a couple of seasonal drives to see wildflowers, which are often profuse in April (or sometimes earlier) and have been very disappointed this year (maybe it’s still too soon? Hard to tell). I thought that after all the rain we’ve had this winter it might be a very good year for wildflowers, but it seems the opposite is true. I think perhaps this might be because we haven’t had the warmer days that are typical of spring.

I don’t know, but I’m still looking forward to springtime, to more than one or two days of sunshine at a time. It’s an odd feeling for me to think of my favorite season as the one we’re in, especially when I can’t really even tell if we’re in it or not. Right now my favorite season is spring and I’m still waiting for it to get here.

It’s also an odd but not altogether uncomfortable feeling to know that once again, as has happened before and will undoubtably happen again, we here in Tehachapi may experience all those wonderful season changes all in a single day.

My hope at this point is that spring will get here eventually and stay for a little while before the heat of summer gets to us.

Meanwhile, I like change, after all, and as they say in Tehachapi, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.

© 2024 Mel Makaw. Mel, local writer/photographer and author of On the Bright Side, a Collection of Columns (available locally at Tehachapi Arts Center and Healthy Hippie Trading Co.), welcomes your comments at [email protected]/.