Keith Milne
By Keith C. Milne
Decades ago, when I still lived in California where I grew up, I saw the movie “Endless Summer,” a surfing documentary directed by Bruce Brown about the search for the perfect wave. In this movie, some friends decide to go looking for the perfect wave by traveling the globe to all the best surfing spots, making sure they went to the southern hemisphere beaches while it was summer there, and then follow summer back to the northern hemisphere stopping at all the great surfing beaches along the way. All the sun and fun they could ever want, all the while also managing to skip winter and simultaneously enjoy the best surfing of their entire lives. Pretty sweet!
Back then, I had spent the entirety of my life living in California, and had never experienced the often cold, bitter, extreme weather that people living in other parts of the United States did every winter. However, having spent many years in Santa Barbara and Orange County, south of Los Angeles, I had experienced the beauty, and incredible comfort of year round warmth. After seeing “Endless Summer,” I was intrigued by the whole concept of never having to deal with colder air, shorter days, ice or snow, or any other item normally associated with winter time. I also remember thinking to myself that if I could ever achieve something similar, that I would and should do it, just to verify for myself whether or not engaging in such an activity would enthrall me as much as I perceived that it would at that time.
I tucked that idea into my hat, and I never really gave it another thought until, decades later, I began taking trips to the Emerald Coast of Florida at least once per year to see my in-laws. Over time, my wife and I visited other areas of Florida as well, and over the last twenty or so years we have stayed in several locations throughout Southern, Southeast, Central, and Northeast Florida.
Over the decades, I have experienced many different types of weather, and weather extremes, between living in Northern and Southern California for the first twenty-two years of my life, the mid-Atlantic region of the East Coast for seventeen years in Virginia and, finally, in the amazing state of Massachusetts in New England for the last twenty four years.
I have found my perfect niche living here in New England, where I live through four very distinct seasons, each with their own unique gifts, challenges, and special seasonal phenomenon. Very distinct from one another with all of their glory and ferocity, or lack thereof, yet unified into a cohesive, synchronistic cycle that can, at times, be breathtaking to behold!
You might think I’m crazy to prefer cold over warmth. After all, who wouldn’t want to endlessly bask shirtless in the sunshine, or spend time almost constantly surfing all the best waves in the world? Why not live where it’s warm in order to escape the inevitable rain, cold, snow, and ice that winter brings, and not ever have to deal with it? It sounds perfect, or even utopian. Perhaps not to an avid snow skier though. But therein lies the problem. In my opinion, too much of anything, including “perfect” weather is imbalanced and there is always a price to pay for that.
From taking these trips to Florida, I learned that if I did want to attempt a go at having some semblance of an endless summer for my family to enjoy, that I might be able to achieve that objective by joining the northeast snowbird club. To “join”, you simply start living in Florida during the winter, and then move north again in the late spring, staying in the northeast until late fall, and then returning to Florida in an attempt to escape the cold and snow of winter just like the “snowbirds” do. This scenario also has the added benefit of being able to escape the horror that summers in Florida can be. Wow! Just think: no more snow-blowing or shoveling snow in the winter anymore! Woohoo!, right?! And, no more trying to play golf in 3000% humidity with the high potential of being zapped by lightning while playing.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Florida is an awesome state to go to and have some fun! I cannot think of many states that have as much to offer as Florida when it comes to sun and fun in particular. Of course, California is another one of them. In fact, beyond the sandy beaches, exclusive resorts, golf courses, moderate temps, and short sleeves, the entire southern tier of the U.S. or “the warm belt” does offer much in the way of history, art, music, food, and entertainment. Most of the southern tier also gets darned cold in the winter, and even experiences freezing and snow at times. Not exactly summer all the time! However, on average, it is still much warmer along the southern tier of the U.S. during the winter than in New England.
Only southern Californians who are living along the coast, or near the coast, experience true non-severe or normally moderate winters every single year. It’s the kind of weather that will spoil you pretty darn fast, especially when you’re not used to it! You’ll think you died and went to heaven. However, after awhile, the constancy of it will bore many to tears, and I was once one of those people! What? Bored by nice weather?!
Indeed, nice winter weather is very comfortable and enjoyable to have especially in February! However, having perfect weather every single day detracts from the season at the very least, unless it’s spring, or eliminates it completely by removing or preventing something seasonally unique from being or existing in the first place, like fall colors, and snow and cold in the winter. It’s like telling the weather to “Stay!” in the late spring, and it does.
Mediterranean climate is never too warm or cold. It never rains too long (often barely at all), and rarely has extremes or uniqueness to it whatsoever, beyond being the same comfortable level of temperature and humidity, with lots of sunshine almost all of the time-an oddity on a global scale.
It seems very counter-intuitive that such beautiful weather, presenting as a constant, and virtually the same every single day, could also be SO BORING! I’ve read that boredom is a choice. Well, constant awesome weather gets boring to me after a few weeks and, while I am not a huge fan of extremes, I do like an occasional and moderate deviation from the norm, and I have found that phenomenon in simple seasonal change!
I love the way that the timing of each seasonal change seems to happen almost perfectly, just as I find myself wishing for a different weather venue. I have found that each year, just as I am tired of the heat and occasional high humidity, summertime begins to slide into fall, and the cooler Canadian air masses from the north begin to dominate more than the southern air masses that frequent New England throughout the summer.
Like a see-saw, back and forth, frontal boundaries pushed along by the jet stream, from west to east, eventually reach the New England borders, and begin changing the super-charged, moisture-laden, unstable air from the Gulf of Mexico, to cool, crisp, dry air from the north or northwest. This clash happens year round in New England regularly, blessing this region with lots of water virtually all of the time.
As the heat of summer gets old, it slowly but surely fades and the daily temperatures slowly move into super comfortable fall days, and the entire landscape turns into technicolor. THIS IS THE SEASON TO SEE SOMETHING AMAZING AND A TRULY BEAUTIFUL GIFT TO ALL WHO ARE AROUND TO WITNESS IT. People from all over the globe come here every year to participate in local celebrations, fall festivals, hay rides, corn mazes, pumpkin patch picking and pumpkin carving, and all things Fall in New England! Driving on New England’s mainly two-lane roads during this season can be quite an amazing experience! At times, while zipping along in my car along a gorgeous winding path through a tunnel of brilliant color, the whole experience strikes me as very surreal, and I have to pinch myself to validate that I am not dreaming what I am witnessing.
Fall here is also a traditional time to take stock, and celebrate the summer growing season. In the rural, western regions of New England, farming is extremely vibrant. Seeing all the beautiful squashes, gourds, pumpkins, and corn stalks made ready for fall festivities, consumption, baking, and decorating each year, along with the sheer magnitude and volume of production is simply incredible to witness.
Virtually all of the farmland in most areas of New England have been permanently preserved via local conservation laws enacted to protect the land from developers. Every year, It warms my heart to see all the land being planted with hundreds of different types of crops and plants, most of which are organically grown, and supply local grocery stores directly in this region, as well as supplying a multitude of florists, and cannabis dispensaries, and also producing quite a plethora of wholesale herbs, and high quality, locally raised, free-range, sheep, cows, pigs and poultry for local restaurants and families.
It is somewhat bittersweet watching the days get shorter and shorter as they move towards winter. The only real issue I have at all with seasonal change are the short days and long nights in December. It’s easy to see why our ancestors chose the darkest time of the year to hold the nation’s biggest shopping season and attempt to bring back a little of the light of summer by stringing lights everywhere.
When I first migrated to New England in 1998, the first couple of winters I lived here were considered garden variety by the locals, and we received maybe a dozen or so snow storms, all of which my wife and I shoveled out of our big driveway. The third winter, however, was another thing entirely! We received no less than 33 snow events that year, with an event being defined as enough snow that you really need to go out and shovel or it will all turn to ice, or more than that, including enough that most folks would use a snow blower to move. I bought my first snow blower after that winter, and the following winter learned a new couple of new skill sets in the process of partially assembling it, then learning how to use, maintain, and fix simple things like a broken sheer pin on it.
But what about the cold you might be thinking? Brrrrr . . . well, after several months of nice, warm and, at times, hot weather, it’s nice to feel cool air more often than not as summer turns to fall. Then, as fall moves into winter, and the days grow even shorter, the average daytime and overnight temperatures tend to grow noticeably colder, but by the time they do, I have already acclimated to the colder temperatures gradually and now the temperatures that initially felt icy and cold to me in the early part of the season no longer do!
I have experienced this every single year since moving to New England, but a welcome surprise. That same phenomenon also works in reverse, as it’s just as noticeable in the spring. As the overall temperatures warm the landscape, temperatures that initially felt cold as heck to me back in the fall, now feel downright hot! Low 40’s feels almost like summer is just around the corner! In the middle of snow blowing the driveway in the spring, while only wearing a thermal shirt covered by a lightweight rain-wind breaker jacket, and a pair of jeans with no thermal underwear on underneath, I still work up a sweat! With even a little moisture in the air, like ahead of a frontal boundary where the winds come out of the south before it passes through, will feel downright humid to me in March!
By late February, there are many more bright, gorgeous, sunny days, and they begin outnumbering the overcast ones. The snowfall that comes this time of year starts to migrate away from being dry, wispy, and featherlike, to a far more heavier, wet snow that can be backbreaking to move, but all snow that occurs in late spring begins to also melt faster due to the higher sun angle which has become very noticeable by that time of year. Even on bitter cold days in February, the higher sun angle on a sunny day is enough to warm your face and hands nicely as you walk around outside doing things.
By the end of February, the sap is flowing in the trees and the billion dollar per year maple syrup industry is in full swing. This time of year, driving along some of the hillsides, they look like they were attacked by spiders from all of the temporary plastic tubing that runs through the woods to a large collection tote on a pallet by the roadside used for collecting all of the sap from hundreds of maple trees.
The earliest sap produced is my favorite. It’s graded and referred to as “light amber.” As the season progresses, the slightly darker “amber” is the next produced, followed by the dark amber syrup as the season wraps up a only a month or so later.
This is the beginning of spring, my favorite time of year! I always feel extra hopeful and find myself smiling a lot more as March progresses. Watching the formerly stark, barren, almost monotone coloration of the landscape transform into fields of lush green grass, with lots of wildflowers popping up everywhere, and all the billions of tiny buds in the trees get fatter and finally popping open, exposing the newborn baby leaves is miraculous to witness again and again every year! All of a sudden there are birds nesting everywhere, the deer are having their babies, and all the landscape and air just above it becomes electrified with life! It’s so hard to believe sometimes just how far into hibernation trees and plants and creatures go, temporarily, only to emerge again in the spring, as if for the first time in history.
The first colors that seem to pop up every year are the bright purple and yellow crocuses! Little colorful flowers from tiny bulbs that spread outward over time from the patch where they were initially planted. They love a thin layer of snow still in place on the ground, but warm sunshine from the increasing sun angle already discussed. New England locals love making a game out of being the first to spot some in bloom. More than once, I’ve been outside doing something around this time of year and a group of ladies out for their morning power walk go by and one of them will look over and wave and say, “the crocuses are up!” and they all smile and giggle a bit as they continue down the street. It’s a fun and welcome tradition.
Little by little, as spring progresses, all trees, bushes, spring bulbs, flowering trees, and lawns transform, eager to show off their best selves. Lawns never look better in New England than the spring and the fall. The cooler temps, regular rains, and a little fertilizer creates a beautiful, lush, green lawn that surprises me every year. Spring morphs into “mature spring,” when most of the spring bulbs and flowers have died off for the year, while summer perennials are just getting started, and the leaves of the trees are just about finished opening and are nearing maturity now.
Summers in New England are pretty comfortable. Temperatures are normally 70-90 from May through September (a rare 95-100 can happen for a couple of days only during any given summer, but has only happened twice in my 24 years here). Many days here are gorgeous, comfortable, warm days with dryer, lower humidity air from Canada, coupled with the bright overhead sunshine of summer and long days. New England receives 15 hours, 15 minutes of daylight at the height of the light cycle on June 20-21. This makes the growing season incredible for growing annual plants of all types, and all zone 4-5 compatible perennial plants and shrubs do amazing in this region. Gardening is a huge favorite past time of mine, as well as the majority of homeowners throughout New England. The people here seem to really embrace nature.
I love the distinct zones that each season in this region carves out for itself every year. In total the seasons where I live are a part of a grand cycle coinciding with the Earth’s seasonal light cycles in the northern hemisphere. Separately, they force different cultural and seasonal behaviors born out of tradition and necessity, that give meaning to family life here in New England. The cold of winter brings families into much closer contact with one another as compared to those living in warmer parts of the United States.
The weather is dynamic as heck in New England, but the lifestyle in rural New England areas are much slower paced, and change happens so slow at times it seems non-existent or static. You can live here for several years, then move away for 30 years and come back and it will look almost identical to when you left. Buildings and infrastructure are kept updated fairly well, but nothing over the top is allowed to be built. The historic “New England” culture and appearance(s) are well protected. That protection preserves a far less stressful, healthier way of life, and the historic legacy for all the regions of New England, while simultaneously preserving a repeatable vacation experience for those who want to come back over many years for a nice getaway. When I initially moved to New England, this slow pace seemed nice at first, then stifling and ridiculous to me. How silly and backwards! NOT! It took time for me to understand how life in this region works. Now that I’ve lived here long enough to understand a little about the motive that underlies this conservatism, I’m ecstatic that New England is kept this way, and I have grown keenly aware of how all four annual weather seasons are a huge cultural driver in this region as well. I feel very blessed and grateful to be able to live here and experience all the rich gifts this region offers.
Finally, as somewhat of an aside, but relevant, I cannot close without mentioning climate change. I have lived in New England for 24 years and prior to living here, I lived in the mid-Atlantic state of Virginia for 17 years. I have been a living witness to the winters in New England becoming far more like the winters that I experienced when I lived in Virginia or much milder by far than a quarter century ago. Over the last 8 years in particular, it snows less often, and when it does, delivers less volume. The snow is heavier and wet most of the time because the warm air–cold air line seems to have moved farther north. The overall average temperatures are frequently above average now, where they used to be normal or below average when I first moved to New England in 1998, and there used to be more frequent snowfalls of greater volume, with snow that was light, airy, and dry.
I hope that it isn’t too late to reverse the negative changes that we’ve made to our ecosystem and, that by changing our ways as planet dwellers, like switching to an electric car, we can all better preserve what we like and love about the weather and all of the other special particulars that make where we live special to all of us.
For me, I do not wish to see my beloved seasonal distinctions in New England blurred into obscurity as new weather patterns brought on by manmade damage turns this region into another Florida or Southern California, where seasonal distinctions melt away into sameness.
