I've started using the Celtic calendar to mark the seasons. I don't have kids or a summer break, so it just helps avoid frustration at the weather. It fits better with the seasons where I live. It puts the solstices and equinoxes as the "peak" of the season instead of the beginning of the season like US calendars do. This is closer to how the weather works where I live in California.

Summer starts in the beginning of May (Beltane/May Day), peaks in June on the longest day of the year (Midsummer/Litha/Summer Solstice) and ends in the beginning of August (Lughnasadh/Lamas/First Harvest).

This also means that Christmas/Winter Solstice/Yule is peak winter, not the "first day of winter" which always seemed stupid to me, and Halloween is the closing of Fall.

Summer = worst season

Imagine looking forward to "it's too hot to do anything", "why are the cicadas so loud?", and "I've got sunburn and bug bites". Or the texas special, "The power grid failed again and now I'm cooking alive in my own home".

I can hear the cicadas in that picture...

Hits too close to home. How are we in deep August already?! Feels like summer just started and it's already on the way out!

I can't wait for the "these WWI trenches are too slippery to go out anyway" winter days! ☃️

This was my entire camping trip because it was raining. It could have improved, but I left several days early because people were baiting bears into the campground and one nearly poked its nose into my tent at 3AM.

I am now safe at home playing solo Pathfinder 2e and STALKER GAMMA.