I'm very new to the hive and decided to enter this week's Ladies of Hive Contest
#91 talking about my favourite season. Pleased to meet you all!
I'd like to invite my friend 
Winter ❄️ Spring 🌿 Summer 🌞 Fall 🍂
I'm an Aries, and while I do not pay close attention to astrology, Spring is always my season of renewal and rebirth - to my mind. Being from the rural temperate climes of Britain, I grew up in rural southeast Kent - observing the four seasons of nature. Winters can get chilly and are very dark. In winter it's totally possible that you don't see much of the sun for days on end. You go to work in the dark and come home in the dark too. It can be a little depressing if you're working in the 9-5 programme.
So Spring was always a time of rebirth for me, especially when I lived in London. Spring was the time I'd go visit Kew Gardens, The Barnes Wetland Centre, Battersea Park, Richmond Park, Trent Park, Hampstead Heath and Highgate. The daffodils, primroses and crocuses come out in all their colourful glory. You can take a packed lunch and sit outside in the sun once again - without having to wear a thick coat and gloves. People have twinkly eyes as they emerge from their wintery cocoons.
But for the last seven years or so I've mostly been in tropical climes: Vietnam, Cambodia, and currently Carribean Mexico. In tropical climes there are two seasons: hot and rainy. Both seasons are hot, but one has heavy precipitation and mugginess (plus loads more mosquitoes!!!). And without the four season definition, the weather is almost always hot or very warm. Just the colour of the sky changes; very few trees are deciduous, so there's always greenery. Of course, the jungle and all the flora and fauna are more abundant during rainy season and it's the best time to see insects and amphibians.
Of course, Mexico - where I am now - does have all four seasons as the territory goes through multiple climates including mountainous, tropical lowland (mangroves), tropical lowland evergreen, sub-tropical, mediterranean scrub, desert, and so on. I look forward to experiencing them all while I am here. 😃 But for the meantime, I am happy in my tropical climate. It's rainy season now, but that does not mean that the sun does not shine. There is always some sunshine most of the time and the rain has its own rewards. We need it to replenish the land and bring everything bursting back into growth.
However my experience in Asia was somewhat different. Southern Cambodia is a flood plain in a basin and during rainy season the water does not have many places to go, so I experienced torrential rains and heavy flooding while living in Kep, Cambodia. Some days we were stuck inside our little (waterproof) hut on the side of the mountain for 36 hours unable to get out due to mud slides and treacherous roads. I don't think it did us much harm. Actually it forced us to fast from any food consumption and it had a positive effect on health. There is plenty of positive evidence that fasting has many health benefits.
This was the view from our hut during the rainy season.
When I moved closer to the sea and at the bottom of the National Park, the rainy season conditions were much worse to endure, with between 2 to 3 feet of water flooding. I would never set up a permaculture location at the bottom of a mountain like that again, especially if you have no control over any tree-felling the neighbours do. A week after we moved in the neighbours chopped down all the trees on the hillside to sell the wood and left us facing a scarred and eroded vista. When the rains came, so too did mudslides and more water than could be lived with. Some of the furniture was actually floating in the water. It was insane!!!!
But this didn't put me off rainy season. I love summer rain. It is warm and clears the air. Petrichor is one of my favourite nature smells.
It's during rainy season that I've had some of my best nature moments; watching kids swimming in the unpolluted rivers of the Mekong Delta, the chorus of the singing frogs and toads in the rice fields at night, night walks in search of bioluminescent bugs by torchlight in Cat Tien National Park, burgeoning waterfalls, and the lushness of the vegetation. Everything goes so many different shades of green; verdant and vibrant. The beginning of rainy season feels like spring. It's the time of regeneration, abundance, and springing to life.
Rainy season in the Cambodian basin; the sound of frogs everywhere. 🐸
Rainy season near Hue, Vietnam
Rainy season on Koh Tonsay - (Rabbit Island - southern Cambodia)
My favourite time during rainy season was meeting elephants in Yok Don National Park, Vietnam. We had our raincoats on and no-one was about because of the rain. It was optimal time to meet the elephants up and close. They were so curious that they approached and attempted to communicate. That experience will remain in my heart forever. 😍 I am eternally in gratitude. I took this photo in the park on a rainy morning. :-)
Thank you so much for reading. Love, Marley and Me xxx
All photos are my own :-)
Images made with Canva