Category Archives: Seasons

Spring Trees

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While on a drive, this tree caught my eye.

Ah, spring.

We get so used to trees looking like this:

But every spring, they blossom, going from “death” to life.

Here are some photos taken by my friend Ginger at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University.

  

Photos by Ginger V.

I’m also reminded of another tree I photographed ten years ago and posted about here. I think of it as the optical illusion tree, because it looks like two trees, but is really only one.

   

Seeing the blossoming trees in spring causes me to think of dreams I’ve had that I thought were dead. A “winter” of blighted hopes will do that sometimes.

You know what that’s like: constant, unwarranted criticism; people around you who pooh-pooh the notion of your dream coming true; a string of disappointments and setbacks. I’ve experienced those.

But I look at the trees and note the pulsing life within them. They weren’t “dead”—just dormant. Waiting for spring.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens photos by Ginger V. Bare tree photo given to me by someone I can’t recall just now. Other photos by L. Marie.

Snowy Owl Visitors

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For many winters we’ve been hit by the subzero temperatures of the polar vortex. But this time we’ve had a pleasant surprise from the Arctic.

You might have heard about the pair of snowy owls who recently arrived in Chicago. I have only seen photos of them literally chilling at the pier of Montrose Beach. People have flocked (pun intended, hee hee 😊) to the beach to see them. (See here.)

As a result, the Chicago Park District closed access to the pier to keep people at a safe distance from these endangered owls.

I’m reminded of the many times years ago, when I saw crowds gathered in La Jolla, CA to see the seals, sea lions, and newborn seals at a safe distance. But there is still a controversy brewing there about the presence of the seals. You can find out more about that online.

Still, I love the fact that people gather to see the snowy owls despite the cold.

What would you brave the cold to see?

Snowy owls photo from the Chicago Park District Facebook page.

Fall 2025, In Which I Ponder the Color of Leaves

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I was born in the Midwest, so you’d think I would be used to the changing colors of the leaves of deciduous trees. But since I’ve been thinking about worldbuilding in fiction, the harmony of the colors stood out to me more than ever. Red, orange, yellow. But why these colors and not others (like blue)?

 

It’s been ages since I was in elementary school, when such things were discussed, so I turned to a Smithsonian article aptly named, “Why do leaves change color in the fall?” to brush up on why certain colors appear. I learned

 

As the season changes, temperatures drop and days get shorter. Trees get less direct sunlight, and the chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down. The lack of chlorophyll reveals yellow and orange pigments that were already in the leaves but masked during the warmer months. Darker red leaves are the result of a chemical change . . .

Since I like to cross-check facts and avoid using too many quotes from one source, I hunted up another article. According to “The science behind fall colors,” at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website:

Very little photosynthesis occurs on cloudy days, and rain can actually leach the anthocyanins [which produce red and purple leaves] and carotenoids [which produce orange and yellow pigments] out from the leaves.

But I’m sure you already knew all of this. I wondered about colors, because in the creation of plant and tree species for my world, what colors make sense?

Oh, I know that if I create a world, I can do what I want. But sometimes, it’s nice to know that leaves change into specific colors for a good reason.

What do you appreciate about fall? Even if you live in an area where the leaves stay the same color, please tell what you appreciate about the season.

Photos by L. Marie.

Opening a Page on Fall

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Before the leaves start dropping like . . . well . . . leaves, here are a few photos of the foliage. Or as Marge Simpson once said, “Foilage.” (Click here to see that clip.)

 

  

When I walk down this lane, I always feel like I’ll find a fairy land around the corner.

What does autumn look like in your area?

Photos by L. Marie.

Winter Gear

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For many people, winter might look like a gray day and 60 degrees. Here in the Midwest, winter looks like this.

 

When I woke up today (Monday, Martin Luther King Day), the temperature was -15. The wind chill was -35. I’ll pause to let that sink in.

Last Saturday, the temperature dropped from 31 to -1 in less than a day. And the weather bureau promises a whole week of subzero temperatures. Whee!

Somewhere in Florida, I imagine people feeling a little more appreciative about where they live right about now.

But life still goes on despite the deep freeze. So when winter gets snippy, I fight back with just the right winter gear. Like this winter hat. With this hat, I’m good for snowshoeing or police work in Minnesota.

 

This owl hat is good when the temperature is 30 or so. Crochet pattern designed by Sarah of Repeat Crafter Me. But I don’t play around in the deep freeze.

Other deep freeze apparel.

 

My niece knitted this scarf for me. 😊

I also wear a long, black wool coat that reaches to the top of my boots. (Not photographed. But picture it in your mind.)

Of course, to each his or her own. At the grocery store today, the cashier rolled her eyes in regard to a kid who had arrived wearing short sleeves. (The temperature had climbed to a balmy -12 by then.)

Maybe he was an undercover police officer from Minnesota.

The temperature is now a toasty two degrees above zero. Time to break out the shorts and flip-flops! But tonight, the weather forecasters say the temperature will sink back down to -12. Let the good times roll!

What’s your attire of choice in winter?

Photos by L. Marie.

This Is Winter

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Don’t let the sunshine fool you. I took these photos while standing outside in -7 degrees Fahrenheit/-21 Celsius air (-25F/-31C wind chill at the time). Lest you wonder why, I was on my way to start my car. When your car is old and you’re parked outside in weather like this, you need to start it every day, even if you don’t go anywhere.

The car gave me attitude, acting like it didn’t want to start (I have a sudden flashback to my teenage years and how I was in the morning), but I was determined that it would start.

The next day, the temperature was a balmy 14 degrees to allow for more snow. Wheeeee!

On the day that I’m writing this, earlier I crunched outside (snow crunches, in case you are wondering about my verb choice) to start the car and to brush the powdery snow off so that I could head to the store, since we’re expecting—you’ll never guess what—more snow.

At the time (6:48 a.m.) the temperature was one above zero. A thirty-two-degree day seems almost tropical. I can’t remember the last time we had one. Maybe the week before last? Three weeks ago?

It’s amazing what you get used to. I’m now used to the rhythm of going outside, armed with my tools, just to be able to move my car.

My best friends now.

  

The shovel is the MVP. Not shown is the windshield screen a pastor gave me out of pity.

I can’t help thinking of the line spoken by Richard in Richard III, Act I, Scene I—the first line in the play in fact:

Now is the winter of our discontent.

But you have to read the next line to get more context:

Made glorious summer by this sun of York

Okay, maybe that line doesn’t provide a ton of context. It is interesting how Richard is being sarcastic here as he contemplates his misery during a supposedly happy time, thanks to his brother becoming King Edward IV. This is not a post on Richard III, so I won’t go into the why of this, though you could check out David Morrissey performing the soliloquy from which the above line derives. (If for some reason the video below disappears, click here to view it.)

But the contrast of happy days (summer) to dark days of war epitomized by winter was too apt for me to ignore. And yet . . .

I have to let the temptation of yearning for summer, or even spring, pass. It’s so easy for me to long for what’s to come (warmer temperatures), instead of living in the now (the freezer).

After all, freshly fallen snow enabled me to spot these:

Coyote tracks from a couple weeks back; the pack has taken shelter somewhere else lately.

I’ve also gotten to know several neighbors simply because we were all out shoveling snow around our cars.

This is winter. This is now. And yes, that wreath hangs on my door.

When the snow photo above was taken, the temperature had climbed to 16 degrees Fahrenheit /-8 Celsius. Good job, Winter! I knew you had it in you.

Photos by L. Marie

Guest Post: Seasons of Story

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Today, I welcome to the blog a good friend who has been here a number of times—the great Lyn Miller-Lachmann. You have the floor now, Lyn!

Spring is my favorite season. I appreciate the buds and blossoms, the longer days, the fresh smell of grass after a rain shower. Yet I don’t feel the urgency to get outside with each warm day, the way I do in the fall. I know there will be many more warm, sunny days. I can afford to waste a few of them.

Writing fiction, though, I have to break the habit of wasting days. I don’t mean procrastinating in my daily word count. As a fan of spring and its endless possibilities, I tend to let my characters dilly-dally, smelling the roses, spending an afternoon on a winery tour in southern Moravia while the bad guys hunt them down.

A tight timeline is a writer’s friend. While many successful novels take place over the course of a calendar year, or in books for kids and teens, a school year (or four), tension rises when events occur within a short period of time. In some cases, there’s a ticking clock—something bad that will happen within a week if the protagonist doesn’t stop it. Long timelines tend to defuse tension, though they’re better suited to quieter novels that prioritize the emotional growth of the protagonist over a triumph over an evil adversary. As any critic of insta-love will tell you, genuine relationships and emotional transformation need time to develop.

I’ve found that my most successful novels take place over the course of one season. Of the middle grade and YA manuscripts I’ve completed—three published, two unpublished, and two due to be published in 2022—two take place in spring, two in fall, one in the northern hemisphere summer but the southern hemisphere winter, one in a six-month period between February and August cutting across three seasons, and one over the course of an entire year. The weakest manuscript, now shelved, takes place over the entire year, and much of it feels like vignettes rather than a story that builds tension to a climax. The other unpublished story awaiting revisions is a YA historical romance that takes place over a few weeks, and I’m coming to realize that I need a longer timeframe for the romance, one that balances the ups and downs of their relationship while taking into account the outside threats that the new couple faces. I will need the entire season, not just a month within it.

Given that I tend to keep the timeframe within a single season, how do I choose the season for each story? In general, I let the school calendar define my window, as school is such an important part of life for children and teenagers. My forthcoming middle grade verse novel Moonwalking, which I’m writing with Zetta Elliott [below], takes place in fall because it’s the start of the school year and my protagonist, JJ, is a newcomer to his neighborhood and school. Faced with the foreclosure of their home on Long Island and JJ’s inability to secure a scholarship at his Catholic school due to poor grades and behavioral issues, his parents move to his grandmother’s basement apartment in Brooklyn just before the school year starts. The novel explores JJ’s adjustment to attending a public school for the first time, one in which there are few white kids like him.

In contrast, my 2015 YA historical novel, Surviving Santiago, is a summer vacation story. While her newly remarried mother goes on honeymoon, Tina journeys to visit her father in Santiago, Chile, where it’s the middle of winter—though a much milder winter than it would be in her Wisconsin home. In Chile she counts down the days until she returns to her friends and her daily routines. Her father’s home is a disorienting and dangerous place on the cusp of transition from dictatorship to democracy, a time of settling scores with people who upheld a violent regime and people like her father who helped bring it down. The countdown in this “upside-down” situation means returning to safety, at least until Tina meets a mysterious boy her ago with so much in common, and then she doesn’t want to leave at all. In Surviving Santiago, the season of the year works on multiple levels, including as a metaphor for the situation in which Tina finds herself.

Other factors can determine a choice of seasons. What sports are in season at the time? That had a lot to do with my choice for Rogue, set in a northeastern US spring with opportunities for mountain biking through muddy trails and swollen creeks. With historical fiction, reality often determines when the story begins. The inciting incident for my forthcoming YA novel, Torch, involves a teenage political activist motivated by actual events that occurred one and two months earlier, in January and February of that year; in March, he would be the third to carry out the same act.

Choosing the season for your setting, and using it as a ticking clock or metaphor can help you structure your story. Your details specific to that season root your story in a time and place and help your setting become a character in itself. If you don’t like that season (and I’m not a fan of either summer or winter), you can give your book a dystopian feel, as I did with Surviving Santiago. Or you can imbue it with the kind of possibility that you feel when the calendar, and the weather, turns to your favorite time of the year.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann writes fiction and nonfiction for teens and translates children’s books from Portuguese and Spanish to English. She debuted with the award-winning historical novel, Gringolandia, followed by its companion Surviving Santiago, and  has two more historical novels forthcoming in 2022: Moonwalking (co-authored with Zetta Elliott) and Torch. She also wrote the pioneering #ownvoices middle grade novel, Rogue, based on her experience of growing up autistic but not yet diagnosed.

L. Marie here. I just learned of another book project that Lyn is working on—a nonfiction book. Check it out here: https://www.lynmillerlachmann.com/i-get-to-write-another-book/

Author photos courtesy of Lyn Miller-Lachmann. Photo of Lyn by Joan Heffler. Daffodil photo by L. Marie.

This Is Fall

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These days, when I think of fall, I think of falling into bed onto my mass of pillows, because of long workdays. And because of said workdays, I think of these:

  

😄 😁 The chocolate came from a friend who sent a care package of goodies. The apple cider donuts are a fall favorite.

But on a day like today, with the weather so lovely, I headed out to snap tree photos (though some were taken on a different day when the weather was equally gorgeous).

 

And I couldn’t help noticing that the squirrels, the usual suspects around here, have partaken of another fall fave. Thanks, guys. ’Preciate it. 😐 😑So glad you don’t have access to my apple cider donuts.

Fall is my favorite season, because of the beautiful colors of the leaves and the cooler weather. Sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit—that’s ideal to me. But I also enjoy the snap of a forty-five degree day.

Today, however, the temperature shot up to 72 degrees. Woooooo—summer is back! (You might be thinking I’ve lost it, if you’re someone who thinks the perfect summer day means an 80-degree day.) Several people were out in T-shirts, enjoying the breeze.

What’s your favorite season? What do you like or love about fall? While you think of that, as promised, I will announce the winner of the preorder of Saint Ivy by the fabulous Laurie Morrison.

 

And that winner is Marian Beaman! Marian, please comment below to confirm.

Author photo and book cover courtesy of Laurie Morrison. Author Photo Credit: Laura Billingham. Other photos by L. Marie.

Let It Snow???

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“Oh the weather outside is frightful,” as the song goes. I’m staring out at snow falling in a rather sheepish way. No pun intended ’cause snow and sheep are both white. I mean the snow is kind of light and noncommittal. Like, “Eh, I’m falling, ’cause it be like that. But I may not stay.” The determined, take no prisoners snow has yet to arrive.

 

Though I’m irritated by the snow (I want autumn! Go away, winter), Henry, however, is in his element. He wishes every day could be a snow day. He might get his wish, since we’ve had two days of this.

  

This is a short and sweet post, because I want to get to the main reason why I posted (besides complaining about the autumn snowfall). Before I get to that, let me throw out that I’ve been nominated for a blogger recognition award. There are a bunch of conditions for this award one of which involves acknowledging that I’ve been nominated (done!) and thanking the one who nominated me—FictionFan, which she announced at this post. Thank you, FictionFan!

Another is to tell you how this blog got started. Since this is not the anniversary of my blog, I will give you the simple answer—my younger brother challenged me to start a blog back in 2013. Within a month of that challenge, another guy basically said to me, “If you call yourself a writer, you’ll start a blog.” I took the plunge in February of that year. The results, as you can see. . . .

There are other conditions for this award, which I am skipping over, ’cause it be like that. And now, on to the main point of this post. What more fitting day than a snowy one to announce the winner of the ice cream giveaway, which was announced here. So without further ado, Nancy Hatch, Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy Caramel Almond Brittle Ice Cream has been ordered and is on its way to you.

Thank you to all who commented! That’s all for now from the snowy Midwest!

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream image from their website. Other photos by L. Marie.

I Scream for Ice Cream

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When I was a kid, one of the dearest sounds in the world was the song the ice cream truck played. Often, the tune played was “The Entertainer,” written by Scott Joplin. I wondered why, so I turned to your friend and mine—Google. According to this AVClub.com post by Joe Blevins, “Most professional ice cream distribution vehicles come complete with a music box from Nichols Electronics.” This music box has “public domain favorites like ‘Yankee Doodle,’ ‘Brahms’ Lullaby,’ and Scott Joplin’s deathless ‘The Entertainer.’”

Ooookay. Though we often had ice cream in the freezer, as my mother would remind my brothers and me, we still wanted to buy whatever the truck sold. We knew the right moment to bug Mom for money—when she was on the phone. Many times she would give it to us just to get us to leave her alone.

Why am I bringing up ice cream? Because I am resurrecting the ice cream giveaway. If you’re new to the blog you’re probably wondering what on earth I mean. (It’s been awhile since I hosted this giveaway, so even if you’ve followed this blog awhile, you might be confused. Click here for a past giveaway.) I’m giving away one pint of ice cream (or yogurt, sherbet, gelato, or sorbetto, if you prefer), which will be sent by Icecreamsource.com. Again, you might be wondering why. My answer is one that many parents have given over the years: “Because.”

Why now? I love the notion of giving away ice cream outside of the usual ice cream season—summer. I’m just weird that way.

Click here to see the varieties offered. In the comments below, please name the pint of ice cream, yogurt, sherbet, gelato, or sorbetto you’d like to receive. This company only delivers to the U.S., so my apologies to any readers outside of the States. Winner to be announced sometime next week.

After a hard day, Tia Tigerlily needs a little pick-me-up. And yes, she can quit eating ice cream anytime she wants. She just doesn’t want to.

Ice cream truck from clipartion.com. Ice cream images from Serious Eats and Tasting Table. Other photo by L. Marie. Tia Tigerlily Shoppie doll is a product of Moose Toys.