Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Month
Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes and lives? Every month a group of six bloggers share their work-spaces, homes, towns, thoughts, with posts based on specific prompts. It’s been so interesting over the years to see the different ways each of us interpret the topics.
This month we’re sharing our favorite month(s). I really bristle when asked to name a “favorite” of anything: colors, foods, people, etc. I mean, why. Really. Why do I have to have ONE favorite??
So…here are my favorite(ish) things about EVERY month.
JANUARY
My favorite thing about January is that it is cold and dark, perfect for hibernating. It is actually Month One of my own personal Hibernation Period (February being Month 2). The days are short, the holidays are over, it’s the time to just do NOTHING and rest and recuperate and get in your nighgtown at 5pm and watch tv all night and go to bed early. Plus, snow.
FEBRUARY
My favorite thing(s) about February are:
- February 2 are both Groundhog’s Day, the most ridiculous “holiday” of all, and my mother’s birthday. She was born on 2/2/22 and had a fondness for twos.
- Valentine’s Day. I don’t CARE if it’s a “Hallmark Holiday.” Like most holidays, as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a good excuse to do something DIFFERENT than all the other days. Wear red. Give someone a card. Buy 27 pounds of Valentine’s Day chocolate when it’s half-off on February 15.
MARCH
My favorite thing about March is it’s ALMOST spring. There are signs. Crocuses popping up in lawns. The occasional almost actually warm day. If you live in the US (except for Arizona and Hawaii), the clocks are set ahead an hour, giving the immediate gratification from one day to the next of an extra hour of daylight in the evening.
APRIL
My favorite thing about April is that it’s ACTUALLY spring. Yellow forsythia and pink cherry trees and purple plum trees and happy daffodils all appear with a big smile on their faces.
MAY
My two favorite things about May are:
- Katie’s birthday. The world (at least mine) became a better place in May 1991 and I’m reminded of this, and the joy she brings, every year in May
- ALL THE FLOWERS. May is the best month for garden tours, visiting public gardens, sitting at parks, etc. Everything is fresh and new and colorful. And it’s not too hot yet to enjoy being outdoors.
JUNE
June is the other best month for garden tours, just behind May – just because it’s getting hotter now. Because I’m old I can remember when the heat of summer didn’t REALLY start until July…but now it’s definitely June. There’s also the holdover from my youth of SCHOOL’S! OUT! FOR! SUMMER! Even though it’s been a million years, there’s still that feeling in the third week of June that something is ending…and something more fun is ahead.
JULY
Hmm. Might be one of my least favorite months, now that I see them all listed out like this. It’s hot. Very hot. Very very hot. Too hot. So unless you live in a pool or at the beach, you’re hot. All the time. And sweating more than that.
AUGUST
My favorite thing about August is that it feels like a break. While still hot, it feels like the end is in sight. I start seeing some crispy brown leaves on the sidewalk…and I can feel the days getting just a little shorter. Statistcally speaking, more people go on vacation in August than any other month, so it truly can feel a little less crowded, a little less hectic. A little slowed down. And I like that.
SEPTEMBER
My birthday. My favorite birthdays last almost the entire month…although that has not happened in a while..WHICH MAKES ME EXTREMELY SAD as I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY. That’s MY day. Not YOUR day. Not anybody else’s day (I am aware that other people have been born on September 5, but let’s not quibble over details). Also, September always feels like a new beginning. You get new clothes. You get new books and new pencils. Everything is new and fresh and unspoiled. And the evenings, at least, are starting to cool off a bit. BOIGA (Being Outside Is Great Again). September is the month I got my first dog.
OCTOBER
Other than all the pumpkin spice latte nonsense, I quite like October. Fall foliage is just ahead…fall gardens are lovely…the air is a little cooler and evenings are crisp. Halloween candy. I can MAYBE start wearing light sweaters. The clocks go back an hour plunging the US into early darkness.
NOVEMBER
Real fall. Cool. Shorter days. A 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving. The ideal walking month.
DECEMBER
CHRISTMAS. Christmas is pretty and distracting. You can goof off a bit and everyone’s just like, “well, you know, CHRISTMAS.” Presents. Trees. Visiting loved ones. Twinkle lights. Outdoor decorations. Maybe snow. So many good things about Deecmber.
Make sure to check out my wonderful friends’ posts to see what they love about the different months of the years. Maybe some of them are more commital than I and can actually pick a FAVORITE.
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris’ Original Ramblings <-Iris is rejoining us this month, yay!
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After Leslie has returned and we couldn’t be happier!
Sally at Within a World of My Own
Iris
What a great idea – to list your favorite things about every month. Love the month with your birthday – I feel the same about MY special day. And you’re right, if we look we can find something good about each month.
Iris
bettyewp
And “finding something good in each month” is not really my MO, but…it just sort of happened that way 🙂
Glad you’re back, Iris!
em d
I’m sitting here giggling about you bristling at your own post prompts…and asking myself how many times the word “favorite” has been used, haha.
I did enjoy your trip around the calendar and all the special things noted. I actually like that approach better than seasons, because some are too long and some way too short. Yes, months are much more pleasant…you can survive a bad month.
I have to say I also LOVE my birthday. I don’t care if I get a single present, that day is likewise mine. Me! All day! Look what God gave the world (okay, haha. maybe that’s taking it too far)! But I alway enjoy my birthday!
Looking forward to catching up on your posts! I just read your last one and am excited about your trip to Japan. My husband really wants to go there and the thought of what to see overwhelms me. I will enjoy peeping on your trip…and fingers crossed that this nasty knee business will soon be in the rear view mirror!
bettyewp
Giggling and GETTING THEM WRONG! Which I only just realized. Guh. Keeping Things Straight not my forte these days.
When’s your birthday? I feel like I should know this, so forgive me if that’s the case. Re-read previous paragraph.
Trip to Japan…not happening. Details to follow in upcoming post. It’s being replaced by a big ‘ol pity party for one. I’m the host.
Jodie Filogomo
What a great idea to concentrate on each month and it’s positive characteristics.
We do the same thing with all of our birthdays. It’s not just a day it’s at least a week if not a month long!!
So is South Korea basically on the same seasonal track?
I know my definition of spring has changed quite a bit moving from Colorado to Arizona!
Xoxo
Jodie
bettyewp
Yeah, the months have definitely been different here. My birthday month was more like a birthday day…and a day late, at that, ha ha. Christmas/Deecember was okay, but because there are only apartments around me, no houses, the only decorations I saw wwre the bigger department stores. I feel like it’s going to be HOT HOT in about 5 minutes. Sunday was 86* which is way hotter than I’m accustomed to in April. 86 is mid-June to August. I think June-July-August might be a second hibernation period here as it’s supposed to be VERY hot and VERY humid and RIDICULOUSLY rainy. One of my ex-classmates mentioned today that she’s going to take the summer off and travel somewhere cooler. I DIDNN’T REALIZE THAT WAS AN OPTION. I didn’t know you could take time off from school while here on a student visa. I’ll have to look into that, cuz I might do the same if it’s allowed. But…I’m not sure it is, so…
Sally in St Paul
Wow, I loved reading about your favorite aspects of each month! I would have said I didn’t have much good to say about the hot summer months of July and August but:
July is my sister’s birthday
School is out and many people are on vacation in July and early August, which makes my job take a bit slower rhythm
bettyewp
Anytime life can take on a slower rhythm is okay in my book 🙂
Leslie Susan Clingan
Ooops, my first month back – thank you so for the warm welcome – and I misunderstood the prompt!! Oh, well, would we expect anything else??
Your posts are pretty. Everything you do is pretty. And this post is especially pretty with your lovely photos for each month. I appreciate your grand enthusiasm for September, your birthday month. My father was a Virgo and so quietly intelligent and introspective. I think you are very much the same way.
It is hard for me to figure out a favorite month. I love October and probably May or June, best. And snow…whenever there is snow. The last few summers in El Paso have been super-sweaty!! I dislike that slimy, moist feeling. Hoping this year is cooler and more comfortable. Will you be traveling home this summer?
bettyewp
Well, we’re really glad to have you back, Leslie! And more importantly, that (I’m assuming) that your life is in a more manageable state these days? I hope!
And thank you thank you for the kind words. I feel distinctly “un-pretty” here in Korea. I feel like I can’t quite get a handle on myself here yet. It’s definitely a work in progress!
And I’m just now getting around to everyone’s posts tonight, I’m sure whatever you did for the theme was just fine.
WELCOME BACK, FRIEND!!!
'Daenel T.
I love that you found something to fave about every month. I’m with you on September feeling like the beginning of something new. I think it’s because — for us, anyway — that’s when school started and we always got new clothes, shoes, and book bags. To this day, I still get new school supplies in September. Also my twins were born in September so YAY!
I’m also trying to figure out how I read this prompt as my favorite season and not my favorite month. Oy!
bettyewp
Yeah, your comment got saved. In trash. Ugh. I don’t know what that is about. There were three “real people’s” comments in trash 🙁
Favorite month, favorite season, favorite day, doesn’t matter. It’s just a prompt, not a test. I’m happy with whatever anyone’s willing to think about and share!
Sally mentioned what next month’s prompt was but I already forgot – OH! NO! WAIT! What I do when I’m bored? Or did I just make that up cuz it was one of my Korean dialogue questions this morning…?
Daenel T.
I don’t know if my comments are being saved or not. Soooo, what I said was something like agreeing that September is good month because of new beginnings, my twins’ birthday, etc. I thought this prompt was favorite season because apparently my comprehension skills are lacking. I dunno. LOL