Small Seasons
=============

August 23, 2025
https://stefan.vanburen.xyz/blog/small-seasons/


Since moving out to suburban Ipswich from Boston,
I’ve been on a “seasons” kick —
you know, those things that feel wonderful the first couple weeks they’re here and then eventually drag on until the next one comes along?
(Currently waiting patiently for Autumn to get started in New England!)

![Pondering my seasons](https://web.archive.org/web/20220617155930if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FF-E7sJXoAwdFDz.jpg)

[Pondering my seasons](https://web.archive.org/web/20220617155929/https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1468038376280530947)

While I’m more thoroughly immersed in the seasons now than when I was in the city,
I still spend a considerable chunk of time computing.
Computing isn’t seasonal, unless you make it so.

Since I came across [Ross Zurowski](https://rosszurowski.com/)’s [smallseasons.guide](https://smallseasons.guide/) (which details the Japanese concept of *sekki*, or two-week-ish “seasons” — Ross goes into detail on this and other ponderings in [“On Small Seasons and Long Calendars”](https://rosszurowski.com/log/2018/small-seasons-long-calendars)), I’ve had the [iCal](https://gist.github.com/rosszurowski/c7132bf37f7344a775e262619f97ff18) humming along in the background, eager for a chance to put it to use.

We’ve had our first hint of Autumn weather this last week, and I saw my opportunity.
Fall supposedly starts on September 21st around the equinox
(and then lasts until December 21st 🙄),
but everyone knows this is a hoax.
Autumn actually starts much earlier:
August 8th, based on the *sekki*.
I [configured neovim to change between echanovski’s `mini{spring,summer,autumn,winter}` colorschemes based on the change of the small seasons](https://github.com/stefanvanburen/dotfiles/commit/e4ff21cde49d887e9a44d2d75118bae0742bd7ce),
and similarly updated my site’s [`<h1>`](https://git.sr.ht/~svbn/stefan.vanburen.xyz/tree/d20c5ab7590d6e5e8cd2717e4cd1a1a27e056b82/item/layouts/_partials/header.html#L12-50)s
and [favicon](https://git.sr.ht/~svbn/stefan.vanburen.xyz/tree/d20c5ab7590d6e5e8cd2717e4cd1a1a27e056b82/item/assets/favicon-template.svg) to follow suit.

Just a little thing to keep me grounded in the seasons,
despite the indoor setting,
along with our morning stroller walks!

🍂

* * *

P.S.: Another way I've found to mind the seasons is to update my [Living Worlds app][1] on the first day of each month,
as a reminder of the passing time.

[1]: https://pixfabrik.com/livingworlds/
