"Winter is coming" - or feels like it never left

 Rage of Thrones, by Axis of Awesome

Video by Axis of Awesome is rude, but truly excellent. It has nothing to do with the blog topic, I just wanted to share it.


Photo April 2, 2026 - no joke

"Winter is coming" - or feels like it never left

by Jen Davies, nerd

April 1, 2026 (but without jokes)

Those of us who live in snow-prone climates always get a giggle out of the infamous Game of Thrones motto for House Stark: "Winter is coming." 

No kidding. It's always coming.

And this year in my particular part of the world, it feels like last winter (2024-25) never left because we had such a short summer. It was too cold to plant delicate flowers in outdoor gardens until about July 1 last year! In addition, a bad forest fire year kept us indoors when the air quality was poor. And October was cold, so we only had about 3 months to enjoy the outdoors without a jacket on, whereas in some years we get 4 or even 5 months of skipping the extra layers of clothing. The current winter season arrived in my community on November 24, 2025, with a foot of snow and -20C (about -5F) and never really left. Even yesterday we got a few inches of snow on top of record-setting feet of snow. Usually we would get some relief from either the constant snow or the cold - not this year.

My consolation is that the ground should be really wet, and I hope that means fewer forest fires this year.

Coming back to my original idea, though, it feels like winter never really departed last year, and I realize it has affected me in a few ways. 

1. I got programmed to be indoors (because I don't do winter sports). I usually love to be outside, it's my favourite place, but I ended up choosing to be inside when I could have been outside last summer, and even as we have had a few warm days of early spring I have not chosen to go out and enjoy all of them. I usually take a Vitamin D supplement from October through February, and I'm thinking I might want to give myself a few extra weeks, because I am definitely not getting enough sunlight.

2. Low mood = low energy. Could be sunlight-related, but it feels like my mood has been low for over a year (probably closer to 3 years due to some work-related challenges not connected to my lack of exposure to the great outdoors). I have kept very busy, but there are days I have to really make myself do things. That's not usual for me, I don't think. I'm optimistic that when the weather turns and I'm getting outside more that I'll find more energy, perhaps literally solar power.

3. I usually do groups of 3, but for whatever reason a third reason isn't coming to me. I'll blame the first two items for my brain-fogginess, in addition to the fact that I've been fighting a sinus cold for weeks.

The calendar tells me spring is around the corner - let's hope so!


#winteriscoming #northernlife


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