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

 

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.


"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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