Delightful Weathers

Deciding to host a blog carnival was the easy part. Actually doing the work took me right back to those wonderful merry-go-round rides of yesteryear, complete with steam driven organ, as opposed to all the shiny themed rides of the modern amusement park. But enough reminiscence. To work!

In my prompt, I said that I was most interested in “the kind of weather you take most pleasure in” and everyone did just that.

First up was Sara Jakša, which is only fitting as it was she who started the Indieweb Carnival rolling. Sara confesses that she simply doesn’t feel the cold, or maybe feels it a bit more now than she did when she was in school. She doesn’t much care for heat though. And the bit I could really relate to, getting soaked by rain and having to change. Putting wet socks on dry feet is absolute torture.

David Mead moved to Ohio from somewhere along the Thames in Essex, and what he likes best is right here, right now: autumn, or fall. Not too cold during the day, but cold enough at night to let you appreciate the warmth of a fire and a hot drink.

Alex mirrors my own preference: Just keep it dry. They don’t say anything about being dry under shelter while it is tipping down outside, but who doesn’t like that? I would butt in, though, to say, “Use the sunscreen!” Your skin, and your dermatologist, will thank you down the road. And like Sara, Alex seems to be able to tolerate cold extremely well, as long as it is dry.

I’m doubly grateful to Yousef Amar, for his submission and for introducing me to the notion of freewriting.¹ The unpredictability of English weather is hard for Yousef to get used to, unlike, say, the more predicatble climates of Germany and Egypt, but of course it is that very unpredictability that makes it such a suitable topic of conversation. Yousef’s piece is long, fascinating and rambles about from here to there, and in the end he does come down to a favourite kind of weather. I’ll leave you to discover what that is for yourself.

Pablo claimed to like winter best. “Who doesn’t like wearing cute winter outfits?” Er, me? But then, they moved to northern California to escape the cold, and yet that is where, in my understanding, summers are colder than winters. Or maybe that’s just San Francisco.

James, unsurprisingly perhaps given the topic of the blog carnival he hosted, found moments of joy in all sorts of weather. Early spring, warm summer days, unexpected showers, autumn changes, bright winter mornings: all in their different ways trigger moments of joy for James. I need to try a bit more of that myself.

Johanna riffed off a few of the earlier posts on the subject, suprised at Sara’s cold tolerance and Pablo’s appreciation of moody weather. She decides that ”Boring” is the best kind of weather, which leads to a general preference for spring. Nevertheless, she points out that things have changed even in a short span. The snow of Christmas 2010 is now a sunny day at 19°C.

Anthony Ciccarello came up with a really interesting observation. His preferred weather is after the rain. “The air feels so fresh; like the smell of growth,” he says, and I have to agree. Anthony likes how in California winter rain settles the dust, softens the ground and regreens (reverts?) the vegetation. Being in a Mediterranean climate myself, I can certainly relate to that.

It was especially gratifying to pick up a submission from the fediverse, after I shamelessly plugged the carnival there. It is hard to be absolutely sure, but I’ve a feeling that foreverliketh.is wrote My Kind of Weather in the aftermath of the inundation of New York City. Will the impact be remembered, will it actually change people’s day-to-day behaviour? I have my doubts, but I agree it is salutary to see the good that natural disasters may bring.

Oh, as promised, I also enlarged a little on my view of perfect weather

Thanks for all the submissions and for stopping by.