Spring: It started in the night of March 20/21 // Mood: Happy, rejuvenated, excited // Months: March, April, May

Holiday: Easter, International Worker's Day or Labor Day, Chinese Spring festival aka Lunar New Year, Kite festival in Pakistan

Animals: The best season for most animals to propagate...

Conditions: April rainfall; unstable weather may more often occur during spring, when warm air begins on occasions to invade from lower latitudes, while cold air is still pushing on occasions from the Polar Regions.

Activities: Gardening is the best activity to do for this season

Sports: Fishing, Hiking, Horseback riding, Baseball

Overview:

The spring of the year is a favorite season for many people, and it is certainly easy to understand why this is so. The spring is when the earth comes back to life after a long cold winter, and it is in the spring when the first flowers begin to bloom and the green world begins to return after its winter slumber.

* For many, the meaning of spring is in the air -- sweet smells of blossoms, the brillant yellow of the daffodil popping out through browned earth, the songs of black birds around the marsh. For others, especially photographers, spring is in the light. As the sun's arc rises in the sky, the world appears in sharper contrasts to the dull grays of winter. Although this may seem counter intuitive, because of the risk of "missing a moment," most of what we see in life will happen again. Life is cyclical and rich with patterned reoccurances. I don't mind missing the so-called "moment" because for me, life is all about moments -- one after another. *

And now it is spring, when life renews itself with hope and promise. It's a time when the sun rises higher and stays a little longer in the sky -- a time to make pictures.

Spring Poem
Robert McCracken

Today is the day when bold kites fly,
When cumulus clouds roar across the sky.
When robins return, when children cheer,
When light rain beckons spring to appear.

Today is the day when daffodils bloom,
Which children pick to fill the room,
Today is the day when grasses green,
When leaves burst forth for spring to be seen.

Sources:
Wikipedia.com
*DLeavy:* http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2007/03/the_meaning_of_.html

Mood: sadness, hope

Months: January, February, March, December

Holiday: Christmas

Fantasy: Snowman, Santa, Snow White(winter)

Animals: snow leopard, arctic fox, arctic wolf, huskies, red cardinal, snowshoe hare, mountain hare, polar bear

Tree: Pine

Conditions: hail, electricity going out , shoveling, blizzards, your body can become frost if not protected, slippery from ice

Activities: sledding, tubing, skiing, snowboarding, snowball fight, making snow angels, making snow mans

Sports: bobsledding, ice hockey, ice fishing, curling, skiing, snowboarding

Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. It is the season with the shortest days and the lowest average temperatures. It has colder weather and, especially in the higher latitudes or altitudes, snow and ice. The coldest average temperatures of the season are typically experienced in January in the Northern Hemisphere and in July in the Southern Hemisphere.

Passing seasons change the habits and moods of people. During the winter months in the northern hemisphere, a gloominess nicknamed "winter blues", "February blahs", "Holiday depression", or doldrums, is informally noted amongst people. The severest cases of this type of depression is diagnosed as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Symptoms include sleeping more, tiredness, depression, and physical aches. Although causes include genetic disposition and stress, the prevailing environmental influence is decreased exposure to light because of the angle of the sun and cloud cover.

Winter is to suggest death, as in Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Some use it to suggest the absence of hope, as in C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where it was always winter but never Christmas. Winter is one concerto in Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons"; and there are many examples of four paintings, all showing the same scene in different seasons. Ursula K. LeGuin's novel The Left Hand of Darkness is set on a planet named Winter. In Alex Raymond's comic strip, Flash Gordon, there is a land called Frigia, where it is always winter. The land of Frigia is also featured in the serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. Other uses of winter in the graphic arts occur in Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland. There are many films in which a winter setting plays an important role, Fargo being an example. Novels such as Ethan Frome also use a winter setting to mirror the bleak, frozen feelings that the characters harbor. The film Requiem for a Dream concludes with "Act III: Winter", in which the movie reaches its hellish and chilling climax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter

Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Average lifespan in the wild: 10 to 12 years
Size: 3.5 to 4.5 ft (1.1 to 1.4 m); Tail, 25.5 to 31.5 in (65 to 80 cm)
Weight: 77 to 143 lbs (35 to 65 kg)
Protection status: Endangered

The cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal. With acceleration that would leave most automobiles in the dust, a cheetah can go from 0 to 60 miles (96 kilometers) an hour in only three seconds. These big cats are quite nimble at high speed and can make quick and sudden turns in pursuit of prey.

Before unleashing their speed, cheetahs use exceptionally keen eyesight to scan their grassland environment for signs of prey—especially antelope and hares. This big cat is a daylight hunter that benefits from stealthy movement and a distinctive spotted coat that allows it to blend easily into high, dry grasses.

When the moment is right a cheetah will sprint after its quarry and attempt to knock it down. Such chases cost the hunter a tremendous amount of energy and are usually over in less than a minute. If successful, the cheetah will often drag its kill to a shady hiding place to protect it from opportunistic animals that sometimes steal a kill before the cheetah can eat. Cheetahs need only drink once every three to four days.

Female cheetahs typically have a litter of three cubs and live with them for one and a half to two years. Young cubs spend their first year learning from their mother and practicing hunting techniques with playful games. Male cheetahs live alone or in small groups, often with their littermates.

Most wild cheetahs are found in eastern and southwestern Africa. Perhaps only 12,000 of these big cats remain, and those are under pressure as the wide-open grasslands they favor are disappearing at the hands of human settlers.