Are two seasons enough?

I have read that the ancients only recognized two seasons, summer and winter. This year Minnesota’s weather makes me think we should return to those ancient ways. Last winter was the wettest on record and the third snowiest in our area. Several places set snowfall records. And, for all time records, we only have one month in which it hasn’t snowed.

Another way to look at it is that Minnesotans joke there are only two seasons: winter and road construction. Many of us find that too true to be funny although, with some minor adjustments, it would accurately reflect what’s reported of the ancients.

Spring? Summer? Autumn? Winter?

Photo by J. Harrington

As this is written, we’ve gone from an extended period of below normal temperatures through a three-day phase of well-above normal temps, back to below normal. The upcoming week may begin to approximate seasonal temperatures, or it may not.

We’ve had about twice as much precipitation year to date as normal but are also under a red flag fire watch. A few days with some sunshine will be followed by five days or so of more precipitation starting this coming weekend.

The point I’m working toward is that climate and weather have become too variable and volatile. Trying to use four seasons to pattern our North Country weather is becoming undoable (I think that’s the technical term.). We could simplify things by reverting to Beltane (May 1) as the beginning of summer (light half) and Samhain (end of October/start of November) begins winter (dark half). That seems to match fairly well with road construction and winter. Maybe next legislative session we can get a bill introduced to make life simpler, at least in some ways, and reduce the official seasons to two. They coulld eliminate the daylight savings time change while they’re at it.

Seasons

By John Haag

1 

Clouds so thick 

they put down 

roots 

Young aspen 

practising 

quakers 

Incoming geese 

Periwinkle sign passports 

brings remission with a V 

of the blues 

Feel the sun 

butting the buds 

open 

Blossoms 

Trout lilies nod expand 

they know the sky 

they know 

Lilac 

a scent by which 

we mark the calendar 

Weather report 

May? showers 

By all means and fresh rainbows 

Yes. You May 

2

Crickets 

ventriloquists 

of summer 

Loon cries 

increase the loneliness 

of lakes 

It’s untrue 

They leave that that bats 

to the silence make it darker 

of owls 

Morning warblers 

refresh 

the joy of hearing 

Comes the hedgehog 

And the bumblebee who lives on pins 

non-aerodynamic and needles 

existentialist 

Horses stand 

awash 

in the setting sun 

Anticipate 

Nighthawks if you can 

swoop the firefly’s flash 

gathering the evening 

3

Prophetic winds fill 

the graveyard 

with signposts 

Then a scurry 

of stormspurred 

sparrows 

A lamentation of geese 

Hummingbird leaves in the early 

to cruise dusk 

the Carribean 

Squirrels 

pad 

their acorn accounts 

Cedar waxwing 

Blue jay insists feathered scholar 

it’s never too late knows his berries 

to scold 

Grackle 

predicts a turn 

for the worse 

Flies buzz 

in this cast-iron against the chill 

autumn pane 

stained with rust 

4

Fly husks on sills 

reflect 

the year’s demise 

Ptarmigan advises 

“kuk-kuk-kuk 

go back-goback” 

Deer bundle 

Coyote lingers in the laurel 

to school us thickets 

in survival 

Fashionable spruce 

knows how 

to wear snow 

Strange angels 

Frostfeathers leave their three-D 

lace shadows 

the cabin glass 

Cabin Fever 

medicine 

runs low 

As 

Days does 

begin the woodpile 

to lengthen

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