Four seasons in a month....

When I get home to Vermont this week it will feel strange to think that I've experienced all four seasons in one month. My recent musings remind me that a month ago I left winter to land in Buenos Aires in summer. Now summer is past and there are signs everywhere that fall is here. Yet I am getting ready to head home this week to spring, which will most likely be more like winter in Vermont. It's a bit like "if it's Tuesday, it must be fall but on Friday it will be spring."

Living in places that have four seasons always brings the sense of anticipation of something new to look forward to. Argentina has four seasons. I think about how different it is walking the streets of Recoleta than it was just a few weeks ago when we arrived. The hot and humid days that I loved after winter have disappeared and I am welcoming cooler, fresh mornings and warm sunny days. There is now a blanket on the bed. When I look down from the third floor French windows onto the street I see school children wearing sweaters and pedestrians in light jackets. The women's "fashion show" , as I describe it, in this upscale Recoleta barrio, has changed. I see women have traded their glittery high heeled sandals for expensive leather flats or tall leather boots. Sleeveless tops have been replaced by long sleeved shirts, tailored jackets, and long sweater jackets, in darker colors. Shawls and ponchos are worn draped casually in the most stylish way.

Store window displays now have winter coats, ponchos, and boots and there are fewer LIQUIDACION or SALE signs because most summer things are gone. Beach tans are fading, and the carefree atmosphere of summer holidays has dissipated. The Arts section of the newspaper has the fall and winter theater and concert schedules. Travel agencies post winter beach getaways to far away places in the Caribbean or Club Med in Brazil. The futbol (soccer) season has begun with arch rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate, playing in Sunday games until the end of the year.

The pink blossoms on the palo borracho trees that looked so fresh a month ago have faded and are dropping. Argentina's ceibo trees with their picturesque red blossoms are less visible as they don't flower in late fall and winter. Soon the abundance of summertime green and shade from the trees will begin to change color and fall to the ground. These images are with me as I head into spring in the Northern Hemisphere this week.