Summer - my least favorite season
As a nordic person I should love summer. After all it’s over in a blink of an eye. For so long I was pretending to love summer, but my love wasn’t true love. I was just going through the motions. Don’t get me wrong, I do love listening birds chirping, smell of the freshly cut crass, blooming flowers, gardening, swimming in the lakes and the list goes on. But in my opinion summer is the most boring season. And thanks to climate change, summers have become way too hot and dry even here in Finland. In may and june temperatures has risen up to 27-30. I know it is nothing compared to southern europe or India, but up here it’s way too much.
Spring
Spring is my favorite season, but winter and autumn come in close second. Spring is full of promise. Full of possibilities. Birds migrate back and every year I cry out of sheer happiness. The new leaves of a tree that are about to unfold (we call them “hiirenkorvat” which translates to mouse ears). Every spring nature miraculously breaks from schackles of winter.
Autumn
Autumn brings long-awaited cooler days. Crisp clear mornings, explosion of colours, darker nights that envite you to dig up the candles and cuddle up in the corner of the sofa. Autumn is time of abundance. Forests are full of berries and mushrooms that everyone can go and pick up (it’s called “jokaisenoikeudet” = every persons rights which means you can go to the forests without any permission and pick berries and mushrooms as much as you want). It is time to preserve all the veggies I’ve grown in the summer. Fall gives me permission to slow down (to a point until I start a new hobby, yet again).
Winter
I’m a december baby. I love winter (A proper winter. Not so much the gloom of november). But give me frost and snow anyday. Fifty shades of white, as we Finns say :D Cross-country skiing is my thing, but I do still run also, unless it’s so cold it hurts my lungs. I can’t fully describe what it’s like to ski in the mids of winter. The sound of snow under skis, silence in the forests, the way frost feels in your cheeks, how legs and arms work together flawlesly. You have experience it yourself.
Snow gives me sense of safety, snow mutes sounds, surrounds us with softness.
As I’ve become older november and december are quite hard for me due the darkness (unless there’s snow, that changes everything), but I’ve tried to learn to enjoy them also. I’ve given myself permission to slow down and I’ve acknowled that I don’t have the same energy that I have when it’s lighter outside.
Four seasons
At the end, we nordic people are so lucky to still have four seasons. But especially winters are at risk due to climate chance. Snow line creeps up and some winters are more like in central europe (dark, rainy, no snow). We have to adjust BUT also do our part in the battle against climate change.