Thursday, November 13, 2008

THE SMELL OF FERMENTING FRUIT

People who move to the West Coast often complain about the lack of seasons here. No freezing winters, no blooming spring, no hot hot summers, and no glorious red-leafed fall. It is a character defect of ours, apparently, that we don't all get together and do something about it. Why, if this were New Jersey, we'd force the governor to institute drastic measures so that we would indeed have fall colours and winter snow.


Frankly, I'm rather pleased with the local climate. Sure I miss snow occasionally.
Snow is a great thing to visit..............
But who wants to live there?


And if you desire autumn colours, walk on Clay Street over the top of Nob Hill. The ginkgo trees are turning, and the leaves are layered in pale golden drifts along the sidewalk. In another two months the cold will affect the gingkos on Pacific between Kearny and Grant, and their delicate leaves will cluster in eddies along the wall of the Ping Yuen housing complex.
The lower elevation down there, and shelter from the winds that come off the ocean, has created a slightly different micro-climate.


It isn't that we don't have seasons, it's just that our seasons are more subtle.
We get the point faster than you guys, obviously.
We do not need to be clobbered over the head with bold shifts in weather, and storm conditions, unlike you.

Autumn in San Francisco is just so much more civilized.



The title of this post?

Oh, just remembering fall in Valkenswaard - the thick unkempt grass in backyards, wet with moisture, the fruits that littered the ground, slightly rotten but exuding the smell of sweetness...... and the wet wet leaves beginning to rot. One could easily slip on those gloriously coloured pads, the vermillion and orange underfoot becoming more slicked with each passing day. And all around the fragrance of fallen apples. It was wonderful.

8 comments:

Spiros said...

Indeed, the Berkeley poet Josephine Miles discerned thirteen seperate seasons in the Bay Area climate, and we will should be entering my favorite: that period between late November and the end of December, typified by crisp, cool air, and occasional light rain.
Am I actually writing about the weather?

Anonymous said...

Feh, Berkeley! That must've been before the place turned into a suburb of Ramallah!

There is no part of Berkeley that is good near the campus, the only ecellent area is near Vik's Chaat House. Specifically, the parking lot.


---Grant Patel

Anonymous said...

Mister Spiros, are you by any chance partial to Berkeley?

If so, please read the two more recent posts and adjust your impressions.

Anonymous said...

And tits like ripe mangoes. Let us not forget the glories of tits like ripe mangoes.

God, I miss ripe mangoes!!!


---Grant Predilectionist

Spiros said...

For the record, there are parts of Berkeley I am very partial to; unfortunately, those parts mostly lie twenty five years in the past. You couldn't pay me money to set foot on Shattuck Avenue or Telegraph Avenue (except to get to PFA) these days. San Pablo Avenue is not without interest.

Anonymous said...

Ooooo, stinky stinky!


---Grant Plummy

Anonymous said...

Ooooo, NO spiros Spiros!

What happened? No read-read yet?


---Grant Incognito

Spiros said...

?

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