Seasons

Talking about the weather is a cliché, but I just have to. It was the most beautiful day here today.

My favorite seasons in the south are spring and fall. The temperatures are moderate in the daytime and cool to cold at night. In the spring it's a kaleidoscope of color, with azaleas and fruit trees bursting into bloom, along with the delicate yellow or white blossoms of the forsythea.

People have been planting more maple trees, so the fall colors range from brilliant yellow to dark red and every shade in between. Spider lilies pop up and bloom in unexpected places and the robins gather in flocks to weather the coming winter months before flying back north again.

But it's the weather that I love. Today the high was 74° under a hard blue sky - not a cloud in sight. Tonight it's going down into the lower 50's. The windows are open and so are the doors when someone's here. The fall comes into my home. I never sleep better than at this time of year.

It almost makes up for the heat and humidy in the summer.

Almost ...