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leaves and rain
One thing about Seattle: you either love the grey weather or you don't, and I think that correlates well with whether you will love the climate or hate it. Because it rains a lot, as everyone knows, but even beyond that it's grey a lot -- days, weeks, months will pass where the rain comes and goes but the sky is always overcast, where there is always the promise of rain even if days go by without any actual rainfall.
Some people can't abide that; some people need sun. I am, absolutely, not going to judge that. I love sun and clear skies as much as I do grey (I was perfectly at home in Southern California for the seven years I lived there, and indeed anyone who tells me that Los Angeles doesn't have "real" weather or "real" seasons will get a fierce argument out of me), but I can't abide the cold, and cannot be happy in a place that has long frozen winters. I have tried; it does not suit me; it leaves me miserably depressed. So I know that happiness can have a great deal to do with whether a climate is good for you or not.
But I like the grey. I love the grey. I like how many different kinds of grey there are. Right now, outside the window, the sky is a high clear silver color, almost white, and shining. You can see bare black branches against it in the distance, and closer-to the yellow fading to brown of the chestnut tree, and even closer, the green and red of the holly tree. The sky is high and silver and no rain falls, and it gives an intense but quiet light almost like moonlight but much more potent, and it's beautiful.
Earlier the sky was low and darker grey, like cat's fur, and it was raining, fat steady drops. And yesterday there was fog, so that you couldn't tell near from far or air from sky, and the world was full of mist, not quite rain, not quite dry, so that you never felt a drop on you but you still came home wet if you walked in it. And a few days ago, thunderstorm, with the sky low and close and iron-colored, striated with dark and light, roiling, and the rain slashing downward in hard irregular torrents.
And that's only a few. Last year I did a few earrings based on Seattle weather -- one was called "A Net for Leaves and Rain," another, "Rain Drums" -- and I think it's time for more; I could do a whole series on that theme, and another series on Los Angeles weather.
Also perhaps time for a long walk, with a camera.
EDIT: Since a couple people have asked -- pictures of the earrings! A Net for Leaves and Rain, and Rain Drums.
Some people can't abide that; some people need sun. I am, absolutely, not going to judge that. I love sun and clear skies as much as I do grey (I was perfectly at home in Southern California for the seven years I lived there, and indeed anyone who tells me that Los Angeles doesn't have "real" weather or "real" seasons will get a fierce argument out of me), but I can't abide the cold, and cannot be happy in a place that has long frozen winters. I have tried; it does not suit me; it leaves me miserably depressed. So I know that happiness can have a great deal to do with whether a climate is good for you or not.
But I like the grey. I love the grey. I like how many different kinds of grey there are. Right now, outside the window, the sky is a high clear silver color, almost white, and shining. You can see bare black branches against it in the distance, and closer-to the yellow fading to brown of the chestnut tree, and even closer, the green and red of the holly tree. The sky is high and silver and no rain falls, and it gives an intense but quiet light almost like moonlight but much more potent, and it's beautiful.
Earlier the sky was low and darker grey, like cat's fur, and it was raining, fat steady drops. And yesterday there was fog, so that you couldn't tell near from far or air from sky, and the world was full of mist, not quite rain, not quite dry, so that you never felt a drop on you but you still came home wet if you walked in it. And a few days ago, thunderstorm, with the sky low and close and iron-colored, striated with dark and light, roiling, and the rain slashing downward in hard irregular torrents.
And that's only a few. Last year I did a few earrings based on Seattle weather -- one was called "A Net for Leaves and Rain," another, "Rain Drums" -- and I think it's time for more; I could do a whole series on that theme, and another series on Los Angeles weather.
Also perhaps time for a long walk, with a camera.
EDIT: Since a couple people have asked -- pictures of the earrings! A Net for Leaves and Rain, and Rain Drums.
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indeed anyone who tells me that Los Angeles doesn't have "real" weather or "real" seasons will get a fierce argument out of me
//eyeroll I GREW UP in Walnut Creek, Burlingame, Oakland, &c &c and I remember the rainy seasons and the SUMMER very well. Hell, one time we even had snow! Doesn't anyone ever read Steinbeck anymore? For all his (many) flaws he describes CA v well.
Also, I spent a loooot of time in NM, and it kind of greatly amuses me when people say how cold it is here when it's sixty or even seventy degrees. I remember its routinely getting so freezing in Santa Fe once the sun went behind the mountains in winter you couldn't even walk down the block. I find the weather here v mild and temperate. (When we first moved here, we were like "Moss on the sidewalks! Flowers! In February!")
ETA I didn't see you'd done EARRINGS (congested head is congested and lacks reading comprehension), those sound lovely. Do you have pix?
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I think for me it's partly that I... completely understand liking one climate more than another, but I really resist labeling one climate type (the kind with hot dry summers, cold snowy winters, wet springs, and autumns with deciduous trees that turn colors) "real" weather or "real" seasons. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio. Everywhere except space stations and submarines have "real" weather and "real" climates; it's fine if you don't like a climate, but if you don't notice climate variations, you aren't paying attention.
Los Angeles got the 'no real weather' thing leveled at it all the time, but there were the rains in February, which came down hard and sudden and left just as sudden, and for three weeks the plants went crazy green and growing. And then there was a mild spring in March and April, the beginning of summer heat in May -- and June Gloom, when the clouds came in off the ocean and made the air mild again for just a little while -- and then midsummer, when you could wake up early in the morning and smell the distinctive scent of greenery slowly heating as the temperatures rose. Dry air like an oven, and the sun high and small and so bright...
Real seasons and real weather. Just not greeting-card spring, summer, winter, fall.
(I grew up in North Idaho, and it was cold there, long freezing months, temperatures that got so low at night that sometimes the schoolbus fuel gelled in the tank, ice and ice, snow and snow, skies so clear the stars hurt at night. Some people thrive in that, and I'm glad, because they carry back lovely tales about the snow and the cold. I didn't thrive, though; I like my climates mild and soft, and so Seattle suites me well.)
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Yes! Totally, that's the perfect way to put it.
I love that Seattle is green and brown and silver, all year long. I love that.
YES. And this is just my favourite time of year here, too, altho summer is v pretty, because you can still see all the leaves changing and green stuff too, and it's still temperate enough you can go out in just a sweater (I do, anyway).
I really resist labeling one climate type (the kind with hot dry summers, cold snowy winters, wet springs, and autumns with deciduous trees that turn colors) "real" weather or "real" seasons
YES, totally. (I remember as a kid in NM feeling faintly cheated at the lack of deciduous trees -- altho quite a few were planted, and there's cottonwoods everywhere -- but that's more than made up for by the lovely aspens.)
the rains in February, which came down hard and sudden and left just as sudden, and for three weeks the plants went crazy green and growing. And then there was a mild spring in March and April, the beginning of summer heat in May -- and June Gloom, when the clouds came in off the ocean and made the air mild again for just a little while -- and then midsummer
YES! That's totally what I remember, plus the dust storms and the dry fire seasons. Really beautifully put, again (I would be more wordy, just, congested agggh).
I grew up in North Idaho
//turns green Wow, that's hardcore. I spent about half a year in Michigan, and a little more than one year in Iowa, and mainly what that convinced me is tho large parts of the Midwest are lovely the climate would knock me flat. (The one thing I don't love about Seattle's weather is the heat in summer -- or rather, the total lack of a/c when the heat regularly gets up above ninety).
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Exactly! I wear my brown duster 'cause I like it, but I don't have to bundle up too much yet. And yet it's cool enough for hot tea and hot cider and a fire in the fireplace.
YES! That's totally what I remember, plus the dust storms and the dry fire seasons.
Yes. The fire season, and the Santa Ana winds in autumn. And the fires and the hot winds and the dust weren't particularly pleasant (well, I liked the winds, but not the smoke and dust), but they were seasonal, they were seasons.
Wow, that's hardcore. I spent about half a year in Michigan, and a little more than one year in Iowa, and mainly what that convinced me is tho large parts of the Midwest are lovely the climate would knock me flat. (The one thing I don't love about Seattle's weather is the heat in summer -- or rather, the total lack of a/c when the heat regularly gets up above ninety).
North Idaho was hot-hot-hot in the summer -- up above 100F -- and freezing in the winter. I just don't do well with extremes like that, although I do handle heat far better than cold.
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Do you have pictures of the earrings "A net for leaves and rain"? That's a beautiful name. I think I once took a picture of a spiderweb that was a net to catch the rain...
low and darker grey, like cat's fur --I know what you mean by this! You want to touch it. What if the cats that had these markings were as hard to touch as clouds?
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I should've posted the earring links first -- I've added them now, and they're here: A Net for Leaves and Rain, and Rain Drums.
What if the cats that had these markings were as hard to touch as clouds?
Ooh, I think that's a lovely idea. The cloud cats, soft-footed and elusive. There's a story in there.
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You should come visit some time, though. It's very pretty.
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I have a story idea that I'm noodling around with -- a series of letters between a half-selkie girl who lives happily in Los Angeles (Redondo Beach, actually) and her foster-mother, a kelpie who lives in Lake Washington, who wants her to come home. And part of the point of the story is falling in love with cities. (I'd say it was urban fantasy, but heaven knows I have no idea if urban fantasy sells if it's not a romance. It's an odd enough story that perhaps I'll just post it to my LJ.)
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