UKC

I'm certainly all for them - all 4 of them. Each has positives (as well as downsides) dependent on your outlook, interests, circumstances etc. My current league table is as follows:

Autumn - crispness, colour, days still ok for getting out & doing stuff
Spring - sense of optimism, often cold snaps that offer opportunities, longer days beginning, relief at surviving Christmas
Winter - I like dark nights, I like cold and (paradoxically) I like being able to travel to sunny parts. Winter birthdays!
Summer - smell of fresh cut grass, family hols, long days on the hill and wild camping

We are very lucky to have our seasons (hope they survive the environmental challenges)

In reply to Greenbanks:

Over the years I started to like Winter less and less. Christmas card coverings of pure crips snow are very rare now, more often than not it's damp, cold and miserable. Unless you live close to the Highlands, good winter mountaineering days are rare, even more so further south in the Lakes and North wales. Even just going out for a country walk is a battle with mud and rain. And then there is bloody commercial Christmas in the middle of it all with crowded shops, smeared windscreens or frozen hands if you are cycling, a constant bombardment of jovial songs and carols gong on about "snow, deep crisp and even". A time of over indulgence, putting on weight, little daylight, dark mornings and late afternoons, and for many people, loneliness.

Bah! Humbug!

In reply to Greenbanks:

We often get all four seasons in one day in Scotland - sometimes twice in one day as well!

In reply to Trangia:
I have to admit that I find the run-in from the clocks going back until Christmas a bit depressing. In January and February you do a fair bit of struggling against the elements but it seems like fun because you've got the calendar and maybe an occasional spell of nice weather to remind you that you've got spring to look forward to. Whereas in late autumn it just feels like it's going to keep on getting colder and darker and more miserable for ever.

In reply to Greenbanks:

If the truth is told, I find that I appreciate each seasonal difference as it arrives...albeit that in recent years we can get all 4 seasonal types in one day (even in England...!)

In reply to Greenbanks:

I like having the seasons, but if I was going to reorganise them a bit, then winter would be 2 weeks and spring would be 6 months. Summer would be less humid and in autumn it would rain less.

In reply to Greenbanks:

I saw a thing about Japanese "microseasons" the other day:
http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00124/

I quite like the idea of little natural things that you look out for to mark the passage of time, particularly during the grimmer seasons.

In reply to Greenbanks:

How much is season-preference linked to preferences connected to cragging, mountaineering, hill-walking I wonder?

In reply to Greenbanks:

Mindless optimism (it'll be a beautiful autumn followed by crisp, frosty days etc) and a SAD lamp get me through a lot of the winter. Living further north has made me love winter now (as far from a city as we could get!)

In reply to JJ Krammerhead III:

I came to fall in love with rain after spending 2 months wandering across the Sahara. I stand outside in the stuff now - feeling blessed (though have been known to curse as the downpour catches me mid-crux!)