Funny, as I got older I feel different about winter.

[riverbendviewgal]

Three more days and then we have our Winter solstice. and then the days start to get longer.

sunrise today was 8:04 am....sunset 4:28..

Now that I am older I like being inside during winter.
It makes me reflective and appreciative of my country. Oh, Canada how I love you....

Let's celebrate the gifts of winter
BY DAVID SUZUKI | DECEMBER 17, 2013

We Canadians have a special relationship with snow and ice. We ski in it, skate on it, play in it, shovel it, drive through it, sometimes even bicycle through it and suffer through it for many months of the year -- some of us more than others, depending on what part of the country we call home. But how much do we know about it?
Do Inuit really have dozens of words for snow and ice? Are snowflakes always six-sided? Can two ever be alike? Why is snow white? Is it a mineral? What makes frozen water so important to us? Some of the answers are more complicated than you might imagine.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2013/12/lets-celebrate-gifts-winter

[grasswire]

1. this time of year I think about my grandmother...

....on the homestead in Saskatchewan in the early 1900s. She was a small woman; I don't know how she managed the backbreaking work of laundry and water carrying and fire tending and all of it, and the loneliness, and the wind. Oh, the wind. I have read that the wind is like a living thing, out there, a foe.

And so I think of her when in a cold winter wind or when a sky turns pink at the horizon. She did it. So can I.

[CanSocDem]

2. That's the spirit. (eom)

[RAFREE]

3. It only makes me think

of returning to Jamaica to do more volunteer work in May. lol.

I apologize.

But I do not care for winter. I like it up to and during Christmas. After that it finds me wishing I were parked in the tropics somewhere. Short days, freezing temps, five pounds of clothes just to walk out the door. I'm a sun dress and a pair of flip flops type of girl but, there ARE some very nice things about winter at times.....

Some enjoyable things? Fireside with a great book and a hot tea while those huge fat snowflakes fall outside in the moonlight. You know the kind that look like goose down falling out of the sky. Catching a blizzard at just the right time in the light of a lamp post at three a.m. when your whole street is dead quiet with only you to witness the snow fall before any cars or foot prints can disturb. The Northern Lights out in the country. Watching the skaters in our quaint town square while sipping a chocolate monkey from a steamy cafe across the street. *chocolate money is godiva hot chocolate with a banana booze of some type.*

Those moments are fleeting and around about Feb. I've had my fill of them and longing start reading seed catalogues praying for spring!

[riverbendviewgal]

4. you got the feel of winter

I like hibernating, finding a few good books to read or dvds to, watch. By February I am am tired of it but I plan a nice sunny island holiday to warm me up. I just booked last night.
Right now I am in the Christmas movies mood.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Me too, but in a different way.

.
.
.

Retired, and despite partial disability (failed ulnar nerve transpositions) - I purposely chose what most would call a "rough" life.

In the bush, only service is hydro, last mile of road not even maintained (that includes no snowplowing by the municipality), no garbage pickup, no mail delivery etc.

I could of bought a place in town, but didn't want the burden/concern of the taxes that are 4 times what they are here in the bush. I've seen too many people that lost their lifetime homes as the taxes skyrocketed with development around them, and their income/savings dwindled in their retirement years.

Gotta cut, split and haul firewood - plow and shovel snow for hours every week, put up with power outages, expensive cell phone service and internet (wireless "the stick" only here) and so on -

BUT -

I got's critters -wild critters - and STARS - too far away from any town for light pollution - and QUIET - too far away from any main roadway to hear traffic - and only one neighbor (who I can't even see) within a mile.

and so on.

And I can use the exercise - and fresh air.

My body says so . . .



CC

ps: - and I can crank my tunes (or even a good movie soundtrack) at 3AM any time I please!

[arikara]

6. I grew up like that

we didn't have electricity, running water or phone. It was kid heaven, horses, the bush and the river. The night sky was amazing, stars, northern lights. I do miss that sky.

I could live like that again without too much pain, a couple winters ago we were without power for 3 weeks and got by easily cooking and heating water on top of the woodstove. Didn't miss the phone or even the internets. We do a lot of stuff the hard way here anyhow, chopping wood, gardening and all.