Autumn and Winter

[Gemini]

I suspect many of us here are not winter lovers.

Dark nights, cold weather, risk of icy roads and paths,being cooped up indoors too much. I'm always surprised that there are people who like winter , but I know a couple!

I don't dislike Autumn as much. I can see the positives. Weather can be good, lovely Autumn colours, less crowds out and about than over summer.
I do basically see it as the death of summer though, so never look forward to it.

I think I can trace my winter hatred back to being a young mum in my 20's. I have no memory of minding Winter before then.
My then OH worked late every evening . In winter it would get dark before 4pm. Once I put the 2 little ones to bed I felt trapped and lonely inside our small house. No mobile phones, Internet and Netflix to pass the time in those days!
Since then I have hated the dark afternoons. It is many years since I was 'trapped' inside every night, but I still hate it!

I think the reason I am so fond of Christmas is that it's a few weeks which brightens winter and gives me something to focus on!

Winter does have plus points too. Sitting round the log fire at my DD2's house, lighting fairy lights and candles, no grass to cut, and of course Christmas.

I would limit Winter to a 3 week period around Christmas given the choice!

What are your thoughts and feelings on these two seasons?

[Oma]

My DD is very much a winter person , she loves everything about it .

Me I always feel unwell and tired as soon as the dark nights come in,
I hate gloomy weather.
I do like putting the fairy lights on and being indoors when it’s stormy outside all warm and snuggly ,
Theres nothing nicer than it being dark and watching snow fall but that’s as far as it goes with snow.
Apart from watching Storm rush around the garden in it.

Autumn is yuk , I love the autumn coloured leaves but I absolutely hate them falling especially in the garden.
Everything looks dirty in the autumn

Christmas Day is a favourite as we all spend the day together.

i like early summer when it’s nice warm weather but not too hot , Im not good with full sun .

[Lizzie48]

I don't mind the winter, I do like the long summer days but not the heat!!

I do like the autumn, all the leaves falling etc.

[Plantaholic]

I do like the Autumn but not the shorter days. I love the Spring and early summer days.

[WeeGranny]

I love the changing colours of autumn, but do not like the long dark days. I also love cold, bright winter days. I’m more of a spring/ summer person!

[Daisy]

I'm very much like Gem. I see Autumn as the prelude to Winter which I hate with a passion. Unlike, Gem, as many of you know, I'm not that keen on Christmas.

I understand where my feelings are coming from and I've tried very hard to overcome them, but not very successfully. When I was 6 my parents bought a shop - a typical corner shop of the period (1949). From then on Christmas was a nightmare as my parents worked their socks off in difficult circumstances, and consequently they'd get to Christmas Day exhausted, irritable and usually falling out. As an only child I'd watch on and weep inside.

When I was 18 my dad died on 24 November and we were in the process of selling the shop so he could semi-retire. We'd moved to a bungalow in an isolated village. I was learning to drive and we had a car. But mum and I were in a very difficult financial situation without his income - mum wouldn't have been able to run the shop on her own, and we had to go through with the sale. So there we were - scant public transport, very little money, and, of course, grief. I worked about 15 miles away in town with no direct bus to the village. So every night I had a 2-mile walk home from the nearest bus route. (Mum had sold the car without talking to me about it first.)

Winters were cold, bleak, dark and often snowy. The winter of 1963 stands out in my memory - trudging through deep snow up a country lane to get home, often to find the coke-fired boiler had gone out and I had to empty the coke out, piece by piece and relight it to get any warmth. Mum was also working and got home before me, but couldn't do the boiler. I was lucky enough to get two evenings a week working at the college in town, teaching typing (I'd just completed a teaching course there) and the money from that enabled me to buy Christmas presents, save a bit and have a holiday in the summer.

Sorry, this sounds like a dreadful sob story, and I know lots of people have so much more to cope with, but that is how everything about winter and Christmas felt to me. I would love to find enthusiasm for cosy nights, winter walks and, above all, Christmas.

[Gemini]

There's not much to love about winter Daisy, but it's sad that Christmas doesn't give you much pleasure.
It's the bright side of winter for me.

I can fully understand why it doesn't though, with your experiences growing up. It must have been awful xxx

[Daisy]

Gem, thank you. I'll write a bit more about Christmas on your Christmas day thread. It wasn't 100% doom and gloom!

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, that must have been so difficult for you, I have always learned, these things make you tough! So they tell me.

I am not a Christmas person, I expect I was as a child, we were always spoiled at Christmas, in fact, my mum loved Christmas, not my father, he was pleased when it was over! This is maybe the wrong thread! Sorry.