Seasons

Of course there is nothing absolutely Arizona about seasons although the SW definitely has many differences in this aspect from other regions. I've lived almost all my life in the southwest's high desert although Colorado's eastern slope and California's big valley are on the periphery. Still that only accounts for about twelve of my many years, Being a bit of a meteorology nerd as well as very outdoor oriented I notice, talk about, react to and watch the weather almost all the time. Seasons are very much a part of that picture. 

In Colorado they often say there are just two seasons, winter and construction. I'd say that is not totaly true but not too far off, at least on the east side of the Rockies. Spring is often little more than a chinook wind melting the snow almost overnight and tearing things apart as it crashes by. Fall is a glimpse of aspens, a few milder days with a hint of white on the peaks and a reality to wake one's dread of blizzards,cold and long gray days coming--they may be short in daylight hours but they can sure seem long! In north central California, the summer is very hot and dry, blessed by few to none of the summer thunerstorms and refreshing rains the desert enjoys. Winter is fog, days of peasoup when the sun never shines and darkness is only different in its greater lack of light. Spring and fall are hard to separate, a staggering shift from the one extreme to the other, a day here, a day there--no more. 

Ah, but Arizona and New Mexico! We do have four seasons, honestly we do. You will not find the familiar eastern or mid-western spring with all the trees leafing out and farm lands coming to life but here are wonderful desert flowers, not every year perhaps but often enough to inspire and delight. Spring may often be rather short but oh, it is so welcome and so beautiful! Falls too are different--no Indian Summer smoke, haze and sweet scent from burning fallen leaves with a hint of wood burning in those early warming fires, stove or fireplace, and of course the blazing colors of yellow to deep red in those leaves just before they drop.

I allow it is beautiful but we have beauty too. Many fewer leaves since most of the southwestern forests are evergreen rather than diciduous but we do have our golden aspen groves in the high country and our amarillo hued cottonwoods in the valleys and along the streams. There are the smaller brushy maples in the mountain canyons that turn a lovely red and the sycamores which often sport a pretty rusty orange hue. They contrast with the inimitable turquoise sky, so bright and blue it almost hurts your eyes emphasized with a few bits of white from the residual clouds left by the summer rainy time or the monsoon. 

Whoever wrote of "Ocotober's bright blue days," could hardly do them justice. In the lower half of both states, this fall period often lasts nearly to Thanksgiving. Little wonder many of us call this our favorite time of the year. Here are two fall an two spring photos. Oak Creek Canyon, Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado, Blooming desert and Ocotillo in bloom, New Mexico's state flower. Only the Wolf Creek shot is mine. Sadly I have no credits for the others. Wishing all a good autumn season!