Growing up in New England, I loved the seasons, especially autumn with all the bright red leaves. Winter with its snow for building snow forts and pouring hot maple syrup on snow to make candy was fun. And listening to the radio for no school announcements even if Reading was low on the list read alphabetically bring back good winter memories. My daughter had it easier when we lived in Boston with its B. Now it's online.
Daffodils, iris, roses, violets all took their turn in our garden.
Living in France and Switzerland the markers are different.
Southern France doesn't offer much in snow. But spring is marked with mimosa and artichokes, which I love. My husband? Not so much.
There are carnivals even in small towns, refreshing because there's nothing commercial about them but done by the locals.
The road to Ceret village is a sea of pink flowers that will turn into cherries. Marché merchants will have tables and tables of cherries in a few weeks.
For this blog, I decided to post the photo of the cherry-decorated butter dish. We bought it on a cherry-buying-musée visit. Their museum has beautiful Picasso pottery, many impressionist paintings and usually some interesting exhibition.
Bags of walnuts from Grenoble appear in October as do Christmas lights hung to turn the village into a Christmas fairyland. I know it's early but the same company does all the surrounding villages and has to start early.
I also love the Swiss season markers. If plan well I can manage to enjoy seasonal events in both countries. Someone once called me a cake eater from wanting my cake and eating it too. As far as reveling in seasonal changes in two places I do cake eating very well.
When I first moved to Switzerland, I was told about the beautiful falls. Hmm... yellow leaves are beautiful, but I still miss the New England reds after three decades.
There's always the first fondues and raclettes of the season. The Canton of Valais has a special dish with the first pressing of grapes, apples, cheese and maybe sausage (locally made of course). The same area is a great producer of apricots in the spring.
Butchers and restaurants announce La chasse est ici. The hunt is here. As an almost vegetarian, I will always feel sorry for Bambi's mother, less sorry for the boar hanging at the butcher's. We have boars in France as well. More than once, they've dug up the small garden with its memorial to the soldiers who died in the wars.
Where I worked, when the Nouveau Beaujolais arrived, we would have a company-wide apèro with the first bottles and other goodies.
Geneva does not have much snow, but it is a short drive up a mountain find sit.
We can see more snow on Mt. Blanc and the Jura in the late fall. All along the lake Christmas trees of all sizes are for sale and Christmas markets with its chalets filled with handicrafts (I've found beautiful handmade pens several times. I swear I write better with them.)
In Geneva, there's the Escalade https://www.facebook.com/GenevaTourism/videos/1986569191851031/ where the city goes back to 1602 to celebrate the city defeating the French who were trying to scale the walls. Lots of hot spiced wine and hot vegetable soup which is a reminder of Mère Royaume throwing a pot of hot soup on the attackers, long enough to give the soldiers time to arrive. Chocolate marmites with marzipan veggies are on sale every where.
Only in the first couple of months each year can we buy carnivals, a fried and sugared dough. There's some on my counter as I write this, The kettle is boiling for tea.
Throughout the year there are fêtes and carnivals from the simple Fêtes des Fontains in the Vals de Travers where neighbors decorate their nearby fountain to large celebrations like Bern's onion festival. Zwibel Märit https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=onion+festival+bern&&mid=43278CA44C30DD6041BE43278CA44C30DD6041BE&FORM=VAMGZCt.
So many of the fests and festivals are a celebration of a country's patrimony but they attract people of many nationalities who enjoy the richness of shared cultures.
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