Random thoughts on the changing of the seasons

A couple of the camellias in our garden are practically in full bloom. Didn't they get the memo? Spring doesn't arrive until next week.

Isn't it strange how we use the same words (spring, summer, etc.) to describe the seasons in different countries when in many cases they're quite dissimilar? Summer in Japan is almost unbearably hot and humid. Summer in New Zealand is pleasantly mild.

And then there's the Japanese "rainy season". I'm sorry, but calling the brief spell of damp, drizzly weather between Japanese spring and summer a rainy season is an affront to those people who live in places like the Indian subcontinent where it pours for months. Plus you can't go on and on about how lucky you are to live in a country blessed with four distinct seasons and claim a fifth one at the same time.

Today as I walked across Barrington Park on my way to the supermarket, I felt a change underfoot. The familiar uneven turf, pockmarked from being trampled over by hundreds if not thousands of studded-boot wearing rugby and soccer players over the winter, suddenly gave way to a smooth, even surface. A cricket block had been rolled out. This got me thinking. For city-dwelling sports fans, are there really only two distinct seasons: the winter sports season and the summer sports season?

I don't play much sport, but as a city-dweller with very little connection to the land (those of you who have seen our garden will know what I mean), I tend to regard winter (the cold time of year) and summer (the warmish time of year) as the only real seasons, and spring and autumn as no more than transitional periods when summer slowly changes into winter and winter into summer.

Even those people who do regard spring and autumn as distinct seasons in their own right would have to admit that the seasons generally have less impact on our lives than they used to. Gone are the days, for example, when the time of year dictated what kinds of vegetables we ate. One thing I can confirm from my frequent supermarket visits is that the range of fruit and vegetables available varies little throughout the year.

Perhaps the only truly seasonal vegetable that remains - and it's one I personally hold in high regard -is the asparagus. In fact, so eagerly do I await the arrival of these delectable green shoots on the supermarket shelves that I think they deserve to have a special season named after them. So if I had things my way, New Zealand would have just three seasons: the warmish season, the cold season, and the asparagus season.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 517.2km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 56