{"id":12940,"date":"2023-10-21T11:35:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T18:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/?p=12940"},"modified":"2023-10-22T07:10:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T14:10:42","slug":"observing-microseasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/2023\/10\/observing-microseasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Observing microseasons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I like the Japanese idea of dividing the year into small parts, microseasons. You can find the poetic names for the 72 ancient Japanese microseasons online. Why did they settle on these names? Were there regional variations? Lots of questions. But let’s bring it into the present time and place. I’ve been thinking about finding my own names for microseasons around here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current microseason name would have to refer to the beautiful shadings of color developing in some leaves. For proper detail in the name, I’d probably have to specify about the type of plant. That could become difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This hydrangea was inherited from the previous owners – it’s not something I would plant. It’s in a difficult spot next to the driveway. One year a blue ball of flowers developed and peeked out of the general weediness – a surprise! I’m not fond of the blue balls, but I absolutely love the shadings of color in these leaves come fall. Next door is a stand of sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes, Helianthus<\/em> tuberosus<\/em>) contributing a complementary yellow-green. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hydrangea <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Or the season name could come from this favorite maple on one of my walking routes. It is a transcendent experience walking under this tree into a world of orange-red light. This particular maple is very consistent in its coloration. I think that’s why I love it. I wonder what variety it is. Probably not a great candidate for my microseason name because there’s only one that looks like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the name should come from a plant close to home and more native, the hazelnut. Its leaves turn a beautiful shading of orangey red and yellow green. And they have a brown outline, which adds to their beauty. I love looking through their transparency to the light, even into a rainy landscape. I could print with these on paper or fabric, except I’ve learned that my prints don’t compare to the colors I see in nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hazelnut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I think this caterpillar would definitely have to be in the microseason name list. Maybe it would be the name of the season that’s just over, as I see less of them than I did. Woolly bears are crossing the road. I really don’t know why they are crossing the road, but there are (were) large numbers of them, some unfortunately squashed. I looked up the moth to come: Isabella tiger moth. They are supposed to predict the severity of the winter by the size of the brown and black bands. One of my friends says they are predicting a mild winter. Another one says she’s seen all different lengths of bands, so no prediction can be made. I don’t care so much about the prediction, but I really want to know why they feel the need to cross the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Woolly Bear crossing the road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like the Japanese idea of dividing the year into small parts, microseasons. You can find the poetic names for the 72 ancient Japanese microseasons online. Why did they settle on these names? Were...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[463],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seasons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/img_7324-1-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12945,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions\/12945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}