Seasons

[Walter Crane - The Masque of the Four Seasons]

Every season comes around to meet us out of the fading of the previous one. Sometimes we are taken by surprise by the first bright day of spring, or the taste of winter’s first snowflake on our lips, but mostly we are ready for the change, sometimes waiting for the colours of autumn after the long heavy heat of the summer has turned everything brittle and dusty. We are always ready for spring after February, the longest, slowest, month that holds tight to winter and refuses to let go, even while the plants are bursting to get into bloom and to feel the sun’s strength growing with each lengthening day.