[QUOTE 4966696, member: 9609"]some things it seems to work better with, buds starting to open on trees and leaves falling in the autumn tie in better with the equinoxes, same with birds, swallows, martins, warblers starting to leave now in big numbers, Geese and Ducks starting to arrive. Of course many variations and exceptions amonst those but I feel it is a better rule than 1st September, which is in itself just a convenient date for record keeping
And also one of my passions from long ago, winter climbing. Rarely any worthwhile conditions until late december and some of the best ice conditions would be early march[/QUOTE]
I've always thought that summer starting on the longest day is pretty odd, given that we sometimes (including this year) experience heatwaves before that, and early June is often a spell of warm, dry weather. The leaves usually turn from early September and buds and bulbs emerge in early March.