Tag: seasons

TBT^65,536: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Monday was the first day of autumn—hurray!  I’m unapologetically in the pro-autumn camp, and love all the hokey stuff that comes with the season:  pumpkin spiced everything, Halloween, leaves, fall festivals, apple orchards, crisp mornings, etc.  If I were a woman, I’d probably get a PSL at Starb’s everyday (assuming that, as a woman, I’d have my reckless spending bankrolled by the various beta orbiters around me).

I have core childhood memories of fall that further enhance the coziness of the season.  I have a vivid-yet-fuzzy memory (a self-contradictory paradox, yes, but I hope you take my meaning, dear reader) of coming home from school one overcast autumn day to fresh-baked cookies.  I can still remember the soft lamplight emanating from homes and the way the colors of the season popped in the grey afternoon.  I can faintly remember the smell and the warmth of the cookies.

It’s a season for gathering closely with family and friends, of preparing for the long, dark winter with joy and merriment.  It’s no coincidence that yours portly is getting married in late autumn!

What are your favorite autumnal activities?  Let me know in the comments.

With that, here is 26 September 2024’s “TBT^256: The Joy of Autumn“:

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TBT^16: The Joy of Spring

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When I was casting about for a good piece for this week’s TBT, it occurred to me that today—Thursday, 20 March 2025—is the first day of Spring!  It’s already been pretty spring-y around here, but now it’s official in an meteorological sense.

Spring is a wonderful holiday, and while I will miss the bracing cold, I love seeing all of God’s Creation come into bloom.  This Spring promises to be, like all others, a busy one, but with the hope that the budding of new life brings.

With that, here is “TBT^4: The Joy of Spring“:

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TBT^256: The Joy of Autumn

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After weeks of indeterminate weather, shifting from wintry frostiness to high summer heat and humidity, it seems that autumn has finally, noncommittally arrived.  It’s “noncommittal” because we’re still experiencing these weird snaps of rainy humidity that, rather than lowering the temperature, somehow increase it, and the insufferable mugginess along with it.

This muggy November weather gives me a case of the horribles, but today the low is 38 degrees Fahrenheit, with a high of 57.  Glorious!  That’s the kind of weather for which this South Carolinian lives.

Longtime readers will know that I love the fall.  The heat and humidity break, and I can finally wear nicer clothes without the fear of roasting alive.  Most of my career I have basted in dress shirts and sports coats, so it’s refreshing when I can wear those—and even a professorial sweater vest!—and not break a doughy, obese sweat.

Obviously, Halloween is a major highlight of autumn.  Another major one is Thanksgiving, that celebratory gateway to Christmas.  It is a season for celebrating the year’s achievements—and for settling into cozy hibernation mode.

So I say, bring on the long, cold nights!  Bring on the late afternoon cup of decaf!  Bring on the quiet mornings with LEGOs and God’s Word.

In short, bring on the hygge.

With that, here is 28 September 2023’s “TBT^16: The Joy of Autumn“:

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TBT^256: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico13 Comments

Autumn has arrived, and even though it’s still hotter than Balzac here in South Carolina, I’m getting ready for spooky season.  I spent this past Saturday deep cleaning my house in anticipation of the annual Spooktacular (just a month away!) and to make sure the place looks good for the floozies.

There’s something about the fall that inspires industriousness.  Part of it is the cooler weather, but  it’s also the time to get things done before the long, lazy winter months arrive.  I love the winter, but when the sun sets at 5 PM, all I want to do is eat hot pizza and watch cheesy horror movies before collapsing into a salt-induced food coma on my plaid couch.

The autumn, on the other hand, encourages activity.  Perhaps it is a holdover from the days when the autumn meant the harvest, and everyone had to busy themselves with bringing in the sheaves.

Regardless, I love this time of year most of all, and I am excited for more opportunities to explore God’s Creation, catch up with friends and family, and enjoy good music.  ‘Tis the season!

With that, here is 28 September 2023’s “TBT^16: The Joy of Autumn“:

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TBT^4: The Joy of Spring

The Portly Politico2 Comments

We’re enjoying a glorious Spring here in South Carolina, much like the Spring of 2020, which inspired the original in this chain of posts.  Other than a few bitterly cold and brutally hot days on either end of Easter, it’s been very pleasant—cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoons, with low humidity.  The nice weather and Pokémon Go have gotten me out in God’s Creation more than usual, and I’m enjoying its beauty while it’s still tolerable to do so.

With that, here is 20 April 2023’s “TBT^2: The Joy of Spring“:

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TBT^2: The Joy of Spring

The Portly Politico12 Comments

Spring has sprung, and it’s been a surprisingly mild one so far.  It’s going to get brutally hot soon, I am sure, but South Carolina has enjoyed a bout of good weather.

It reminds me of the notorious Spring of 2020, right at the dawn of The Age of The Virus.  It seemed at the time—and I still believe this to be true—that God Delivered us good weather at that time when everything remotely social had to be done outdoors (unnecessarily, as we’ve since learned).

I now find all The Virus stuff to be endlessly boring and tedious, but it’s worth remembering how bad it was—and how totally unhinged our reaction to it was.  I can excuse some of the hysteria of the early days, but soon an entire regime of busybodies and medical “experts” (usually nurses twerking on TikTok) grew up to make the rest of miserable.

In reflecting on that beautiful Spring of 2020, we would do well to remember the tyranny that bloomed along with its flowers—a tyranny we’re now all-too-quick to forget.

With that, here is 28 April 2022’s “TBT: The Joy of Spring“:

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Lazy Sunday CLXX: Cozy Time

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It’s still hot and humid here in South Carolina, but we’re tantalizingly close to the cozy season—the “hygge,” as our Danish friends call it.  In anticipation of autumnal coziness to come, I decided to look back some of the coziest posts TPP has to offer:

Here’s to a warm cup of coffee on a crisp autumnal day—tarantulas optional.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^4: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico7 Comments

Today is the first day of autumn.  It’s about dang time!

Granted, I realize that autumn shows up on the calendar the same time every year.  Whether (weather?) or not it makes a meteorological appearance or not, however, is a bit dicey in South Carolina.  It’s very likely to be quite warm today—in the mid-nineties as of the time of this writing.  We’re enjoying some cooler, crisper mornings, with a bit lower humidity, but it’s still very much summer here in South Carolina.

Nevertheless, pumpkin spiced-everything is already in stores, so even if it feels like we’re about to attend a pool party, we can enjoy the tastes of autumn here.

Autumn is my favorite season, even though it is fleeting.  The period from Labor Day through Christmas is a blur of activity, with nary a weekend free for all the fall activities we see on television and in the movies.  Apple picking looks fun, but who has the time?

On the plus side, Halloween will be here soon.  It seems that folks have started decorating much earlier this year than usual—or have I missed something?  Some people had decorations up in August, which seems as blasphemous as hanging Christmas lights before Thanksgiving.

But I digress.  With that, here is 23 September 2022’s “TBT^2: The Joy of Autumn“:

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Son of Sonnet: Change

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I approached the poet Son of Sonnet about writing a little something for the slowly approaching autumnality that I crave, and after demurring initially, he popped out this little gem about the changing of the seasons—of the world, to be sure, but also of our lives.

I’m always eager for fall weather, but Son’s poem is a good reminder that we always forget the lows that come with each season, instead focusing on the highs.

Perhaps that’s not all bad; after all, how else are we to endure the heat and humidity of summer if we don’t forget them briefly and think about the pool parties and barbecues instead?

With that, here is “Change” by Son of Sonnet:

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