"'Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about"

March is a very pregnant month in Seattle. It is the month when the air, the bare trees, the rain soaked soggy earth is heavy with promises. It is also a month of indecision, like a baby taking a little longer to arrive while the mother is getting impatient to see her.

Rain and darkness dominate our minds and bodies from the middle of November, we feel trapped and a sense of hopelessness prevails. Most conversations are centered on the listlessness for spring to arrive. And holding on till March.

And then it happens. The emerald green leaves start showing up one by one, and the rain starts taking a break once every few days. You can hear the birds again in the mornings and some days you see some faint daylight when you wake up. We start making lists apprehensively, in our heads, more in our hearts. Check on the tulip bulbs, if their heads are popping up in the ground. Take the caps off from the garden hose faucets, as the temperatures are high enough for the water not to freeze up. Start checking the weather app to see if the sun comes out for a few hours on the weekend so we can go on a drive after five months to see the Cascades on this side of Stevens Pass.

The transition happens in April, and we are mentally ready for summer. It still catches me off guard, even after twenty years in the west - the fact that I welcome summer. In my motherland, summers are not a time of joy, it’s the time for heat and humidity and unpleasantness. Winters are what we welcome with open hearts. My feelings about seasons in the Pacific Northwest is in stark contrast to that. I am ready to bring out the backyard chairs, get the planters ready for my yearly harvest of tomatoes and peppers, and have the husband clean out the grill by May. As the tulips die down after putting up a show in Skagit Valley, and the blooming rhododendrons in every house make the neighborhood walks an evening ritual, we suddenly notice the sun is now setting at 8:30 pm!
 


Baseball season comes back in full swing to create much excitement in our home. Evenings are louder rooting for the Mariners or getting frustrated at them, as the case maybe. We make at least a couple of trips to Safeco field for getting the thrill of watching the game in person, and more importantly - for the annual garlic fry binge.

Discussions about summer road trips and hikes start floating around at dinner. The debate is usually centered on whether we should go to Alaska (yet again) or try some other national park :)

School gets out in June. The neighborhood children start their day on our community park at around 10 am, and the shrieks of laughter and sounds of the basketball on concrete can be heard until it’s dark at 9 pm. I hear impatient moms calling out to them when it’s dinnertime or bed time, and after a few rounds of back and forth a very dejected kid finally heads home. An abundance of chalk art springs up on the cul-de-sac, ranging from Math problems to declarations of ‘BFF Forever’ :) A little brother falls down from his bike while his sister comforts him. It makes my heart sing but also immensely nostalgic for my own childhood days.

It is strange how I mark the progression of summer by the flower of the month. The pink rose blooms of June are followed by my Asiatic and Oriental lilies lighting up our front yard in orange and white in July. Now that the days are officially hot, watering the plants becomes a daily task. The front porch door remains open in the evenings for cool air. Some days it even becomes too hot, and we actually turn on the portable AC unit at night. The discussions at work about how ‘unbearably hot’ Seattle has become are hilarious to say the least, and my team members from Atlanta and Dallas start worrying if their Seattle coworkers can survive the two consecutive 90 degree days :) Still, sipping homemade mint lassi with chicken and shrimp grilled with our desi spices by the husband in the backyard, is the upside of such hot days when I get a break from the kitchen. The fiery Seattle summer sunsets top it all off, and makes Facebook such a pleasure to visit after a remarkable display of colors in the evening sky, as pictures of Space Needle and Lake Washington start showing up on my feed from the real, wannabe, and sunset selfie photographers :)

Farmers markets are in full swing by this time. It’s an extravaganza of colors, aromas and smiles. The precious summer sun and beautiful fresh vegetables and flowers, babies in strollers, dogs on leashes, crooning guitarists and generally happy people is what I look for on my Sunday morning trips to the market. But there is a problem with this mood. I forget to think and buy 1 cabbage, 2 zucchinis and a pound of green beans for $17 feeling content about the farm to table freshness and the organic wholesomeness. Once I get in the car and start weaving in and out of the scores of people in the full parking lot, the irritation hits and I realize how outrageous it is to pay seventeen dollars for a handful of vegetables! But come next Sunday, I forget it all and am back to pick up fresh fried crab wontons or a new variety of local cheese.

Smoke and haze are two new words we have unfortunately started associating with Seattle Augusts in the last few years. By mid-August, after a few continuous dry months, we start hearing about wildfires starting in the West coast - from California to British Columbia. Acre after acre of forests get burnt down and local news is dominated by folks forced to evacuate their homes all over West Coast, and firefighters putting up a valiant fight. It is a sad reality that will only get worse as summers become drier and hotter. We have been seeing a few weeks of very smoky skies and a strange red sun with horrible air quality in Seattle every August now.

Eventually by the end of August the skies clear up and the air starts getting cooler. We fit in one last day hike in Mt Rainier to see the wildflowers carpeting the valleys giving way to yellow foliage, sweet berries and beautiful red mountain ash. It starts getting dark by 8 pm. Labor Day is here and that’s when the realization sets in that we have wrapped up another summer and it’s time to settle into fall.
I have to make a confession here. By this time, I am actually starting to look forward to fall so I can spend my evenings on the couch watching my favorite shows or reading with a nice blanket wrapped around me. Comfort and home take precedence over making outdoor plans or the fear of missing out summer, and I gladly settle into that feeling.