Blue Skies And Apple Pies.

I am not an outdoor person at all. I don't enjoy the beach or camping. In fact the only recreational thing I do outside is play with my RC cars. This does not mean, however that I am oblivious to the benefits of good weather. Sunny days like today are wonderful for going out and driving around with the windows down and the music up.

Each season carries with it innate properties that I find heart warming. Spring has the smell of rain and the thunderstorms that bring the rain carry a cozy energy. Summer has warm days drinking iced coffee and short skirts (on girls that is). Autumn has pumpkin pie and the smell of cinnamon and the sounds of harvest. Even winter can be enjoyed with either the clear crisp days that turn the world alabaster and silver or the blizzards that make us want to hibernate and sleep away the storm.

Some people are drawn more to one season over the others. The beach bunnies love the summer so they can get their tan, dress skimpy and go swimming. Spring is a season for growers and planters. Autumn is a season of chefs and romantics, and winter is great for the snowboarders and children looking for legitimate days off school. I've spent time over the years figuring out what season I associate with the most. While I love elements of all four, I'd have to say early autumn has me by the gourds. It's really the smell of September that's the clincher. Wet leaves on the ground are sedative and help to offset the anxiety and anticipation of a new school year. The aromas of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cranberries and garlic are synonymous with the five short weeks that make up September. These are comfort smells for me, they are the scents that help ground me. Pier 1 carries a scent called "Ember" which is essentially all these flavours rolled up into a candle.

My family in general has never been much for the outdoors. We did camping as children, but when we grew up and were finally able to express how much we disliked being mosquito bait we stopped camping. As children we went sledding on a local hill and it wasn't too bad. Although I do remember one time being so cold that I was in tears - which is terrible because they froze to my face - and we ended the outing early. Also once when walking home from school in the dead of winter across a frigid cornfield I got so much ice and snow in my left ear (I wasn't wearing a hat because I was 16 and stupid) that to this day it doesn't have fantastic hearing and the ear itself is a tad thicker from scarring. In an attempt to make winter a bit more tolerable I'd remind myself that in the summer, outside there's a limit to how much clothing you can remove to keep cool. Even in the nude the summer can be relentless in heat and humidity. Conversely in the winter you can always put on enough layers to keep warm. It's a feeble attempt to make me like the season any more than I do, but I try.

With spring there's rain. Rain out here in the country is different than rain in the city. In town it serves to suck oil out of the streets, kick up pollutants and smells and all the streets end up with the clammy stench reminiscent of wet dog. In the country it makes the grass perfume and even the steam rising off the hot asphalt turns this hamlet into something whimsical and Tolkienian. Even when the power goes out from high winds the following silence and calm that descends over Baden is haunting in a way best suited for an eerie movie. Then there's the stars, my goodness all the stars! When the power goes out, and the clouds pass you can look up and see forever. No light pollution, no glare of headlights just the quilt of galaxies and stars that let your mind wander as you think about other worlds and the depth of space. I recall once laying on the roof of my car up on top of a nearby hill staring at the stars and letting the steel and earth beneath me linger into vacuum and I was left floating in the boundless expanse of everything.

There's a night out that costs nothing and yields so much in return.