I found the photo above in my library and thought it would be a great winter season upload. Nobody really believed that we would still get cold days or snow, but we all were wrong. Since a week we got actual winter weather. A couple of days ago I was shopping for food when a checkout woman I know made a funny comment about my red nose. I was outside for so long that my nose and face was red, and she said “It’s damn cold outside, makes you hope for spring season, right?”. My small talk answer was “I like spring too, but I like the cold season a lot more than I do like the hot and humid later summer, which would make me complain a lot more” and she agreed and I went home.
I often said that, I like winter a lot, and I’d say we barely still have winters and if so, it’s been just short periods over the last years. But talking about winter darkness, I have a point too where I get some kind of winter depression, and then a season change is very welcomed. Also, even if I like winter, it’s usually the most dangerous time because I suffered from real depression and anxiety disease in the past, and it’s a known fact that people with this history are at higher risk to get certain symptoms again during the dark months. And I am not talking about the winter blues everyone knows, because that’s very different. But I think among other things, and in both cases, it has something to do with Vitamin D deprivation. But I’m pretty good so far.
I mean, even if I am not completely fit after the shower in the morning, when I go outside it takes just one breath of fresh and cold air and I am completely there. That’s always how I felt about winter. That’s one of the tricks I have up on my sleeve in general. While the dark season can make you very tired at some point, doing a lot of things outside can balance this out. Just recently a friend reported to me that he feels like he is stuck in a winter blues. He’s going to work, and then he’s going home and sits in his living room until he goes to bed and repeats that the next day again as he told me. I suggested him to do a bit more outside, maybe a small hike or strolling through the city, anything like that. I see how people are tired after work, but the truth is, sitting at home all the time makes you even feel more tired.
I like to sit at home too, but I balance it a bit out by doing some things outside as well. Maybe that’s easier done for someone who really likes winter, but it works. I think cold and fresh air feels good, both in my lungs and on my skin. It makes me feel very vivid. How do you think about winter?
Diary of Dennis 
We have serious winter here, on a yearly basis. Snow/no snow is not an option, and frankly at this point I’d not miss it. We had our first 8″ the day before Thanksgiving in late November and the ground hasn’t been bare since. The days have been steadily growing longer, which helps, but like you I get into a nasty bout of winter depression that starts in January and lasts for about a month. Someone suggested years ago that I take Vitamin D (not D3) and that does indeed help. No more sobbing at the keyboard. =)
We keep busy, feeding the woodstoves (we have three) and keeping the driveway cleared, but by now we are looking foward to February and lighter skies. Our winters usually stretch from Mid-November to the end of March, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. I view winter as the price we pay for wanting to live where we live. Frankly I think we’d both be bored living elsewhere, where the seasons are marked by what flowers are in bloom or which fruit is ripe…=)
Wow. That’s how it used to be in Germany a decade or two ago. But since some time we can be happy if we get snow at all. This year nobody really expected it anymore, but out of the sudden… I watched out of the window last week and didn’t trust my eyes when I saw everything in white. 🙂
But from November to March, that’s quite a long time… I think I’d get more often into a winter blues again in that case.
Our weather is just getting weird. We have winters where we are buried in snow … and winters where we don’t get any snow or so little, it doesn’t count … or THIS winter where mostly, it has been so warm the dogs are still picking up ticks outside. Two days ago it was -4 Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius) and today, it’s 50 F (10 Celsius) and it’s pouring rain. Two days ago we had an inch of solid ice on the car we couldn’t remove — it was like cement — and now, it’s warm and raining and everything is washing away. The wind is so powerful that our 150-foot (46-meter) oak trees are swaying in the wind like grass — actually kind of scary because should one of them fall …
Germany used to be a very cold country. So was Switzerland, but now you have spring and summer months before us. New England has always had very erratic weather patterns, but we had seasonal winds, so we knew where the weather would come from. Now, we don’t know anything. Mostly, how come are the ticks alive in January? We’re going to have invasions of insects because it has been so warm so much of the supposed winter. Cold patches — a day or two — then warm again. I don’t mind not having icy roads, but I mind not having discernible seasons!
Are we getting climate change? Yes, we are in the middle of it. The complete unpredictability of the weather is one part of it. The winds are not blowing from the same direction they used to. The water is much too warm for this time of year. Birds are not migrating anymore.
Is our world doing anything about it? Nope.
As for the depression, I write and take pictures of birds. Writing helps me a lot. It gets very dreary in the winter. Dark until well into the morning and dark again long before dinner … because we may change the weather, but so far, we having managed to change the rotation of the earth or how it circles the sun — or tilts. Can you get one of those lights that helps with season affective depressions? I think you can buy them on Amazon and I don’t think they are expensive. It might help you feel better.
I may write a post about this, though I feel like I’m beating the proverbial dead horse. Even among the many who believe in climate change, no one really has any idea what to do about it. It’s such a BIG thing and we are just little tiny people on a badly damaged earth.
Yes, that’s exactly how it is here too. Every winter is extremely different now. And weather can change in a moment. But last few winters it took quite a time until you needed a thick winter jacket. I used my spring jacked until January this year. A decade ago you would have worn a thick winter jacked already in November. And compared to back then, our January now is just moderately cold. Back then when it was cold, it was that cold that your ears did hurt. Or your whole face… and breathing the air did hurt too back then.
You name it, it’s now completely unpredictable. No matter if winter, summer… whatever.. it’s all messed up and super strange. I don’t think that we can or want to do anything against climate change. Humanity is slowly but for surely digging the own grave.
As I wrote, I am kinda ok now. Not too much issues with depression anymore, not even during winter. I had maybe four or five bad days this winter. Like you do, keeping myself busy, going much outside, all that helps not to fall into a hole. I balance the dark out by going out and enjoying the fresh winter air. That keeps me feel good.
Low vitamin D, made worse by low light days filled with grey skies and no sunlight. Waking up in the dark. Going to work. . Getting home in the dark. Cold. -10°C. Wet. More cold. -25°C. What’s there to like? Going outside means dressing in a base layer, an insulation layer, and a soft shell. DId I mention I live in New Jersey, USA? Ugh. I hate grey.
I believe a couple of years ago I would have totally agreed 🙂 But the last humid and super hot German summers must have shocked me. With these summers, I am probably only going to like winter, autumn and spring lol. That’s maybe why I am happy that it’s still cold 😀 But yeah, darkness and the grey is depressing after a while.
Summer in New Jersey is unpleasanstly hot and humid as well. As I see it, I am outside from April-June, and then September-November. Although temperatures was between -6ºC to -10ºC, luckily this weekend we had two days of sunshine. I layered up and was out roaming with my camera for about an hour.
Yes, the July is the hardest here too. I skip that one too 😀