I'm with ya, this is when it really gets hard. I try to wear my spring clothes to summon good weather (if you wear it, spring will come?), but I just end up frostbitten.

I'm just the opposite. I love this time of year. The weather over the weekend and today (after the fog burned off) has been glorious - bright sunshine, lovely and warm in the sunny bits, no wind, just beautiful. The spring plants are bursting through the ground.

All the birds around the docks are billing and cooing, but the grebes have been turfed out of their nest and their eggs destroyed by a pair of coot. They'll start again somewhere else.

And in England the football season is reaching its most interesting segment, the last three months when all the big competitions will be decided.

If every day was like this, maybe just a tad warmer, I'd be a happy bunny. I hate extremes of weather, especially too windy or too hot, but this lovely temperate day is just perfect.

I'm with essexjan. Just last Thursday, I heard red-winged blackbirds singing in the marsh on my way in to work. The meadowlarks have begun staking out their fenceposts. Days are starting to noticably lengthen; it's no longer dark at 4.30 here. These are my first signs of spring here in Colorado, where the dry, dun prairie doesn't typically 'flush' green until mid-late April, if that.

Maybe you could throw a late, informal Imbolc festival - look for signs of "spring's first impulse". Imbolc typically signifies hope and looking forward to the year ahead. Snowdrops are the traditional flowers of Imbolc, as they generally bloom in the first weeks of February. This old pagan festival was also focussed around cleaning house, caring for the ewes just prior to spring lambing, as well as looking for fair-weather signs (snakes and badgers emerging from their dens, first greening, etc.). I remember in Ohio, it was typically in the first weeks of February that we started smelling skunks, because they'd start to prowl for mates. I'm sure there's other stuff that's specific to your area.

Hope this helps.

I was only able to shake off some of those problems last week by hyperventilating and having panic almost-attacks pretty much all of Monday. It was like panic-earthquakes breaking up the ice floes and letting some fresh water surface, and now the salmon are jumping around and playing.

Or, er, something like that, anyway.

I'm not sure I recommend it as a coping strategy, though. I do recommend San Francisco's current weather as a coping strategy, however, because being able to sit outside in shorts yesterday was about the most luxurious thing ever.

Tooootally.

I appreciate winter for those opportunities to get stuff done, and I did do a lot of that in January. But even though I have more stuff to do, I'm out of interest.

Today it's sunny, which helps, but it's been really gray and dour lately, and very very cold. It's at this point when you feel like spring or summer are total fictions, imaginary places you will never see in real life. I am longing for sun, for weather that doesn't attack you as you step outside in the morning.

I've been wobbling back and forth on getting motivated, keeping a sort of wishy washy gym schedule, having some great days of exercise and eating healthy and feeling good, followed by lousy days of boredom, frustration, and chocolate.

At some point the days will get just enough longer and we'll all feel better.

This is the first year I've been more positive this time of year for a long time. At least for the 13 years I've lived in Colorado. Where I lived in Northern California this was the time to get started in the garden, the flowers you planted for winter are blooming, and the Daphne would soon be perfuming the neighborhood. For some reason this year I've been getting things accomplished around the house. Cleaning out the dross that has accumulated over the years. Planning big remodeling projects for the spring and summer. I'm actually cooking more now instead of living on sandwiches and snacks. Normally a day like today I'd be pissed off because it's windier than fuck, but it's a chance to stay in and clean out the kitchen cabinets. It's nice to feel positive for a change, and with the spring coming, I can just see feeling better and better as it comes along.

Winter here only lasts a day or two at a time then it goes back to normal. It is 75f/24c here today. There will probably be one more cold snap before spring gets here. When I travel to places that are cold and dreary for months at a time I wonder just how you do it.

Yes, eekacat, it's the time of year for getting things done. I just don't wanna.

birdherder, It's not even cold and dreary for months here anymore. It's rather temperate. I'm just a big, well, baby.

lfr, I'll look to get my Imbloc on, I will, but I might just fall into a giggle fit. Heeeey, maybe that's just what I need.

I generally really love winter, but mostly for the SNOW. And we've had none. No snowmen. No sledding. None of my super-awesome hot chocolate with a melted Hershey's kiss at the bottom. Suck city, man. Just me stuck in the house with a bored kindergartner and a teething baby who likes to bite really, really hard. Hard enough to leave bruises.

The only thing he likes more than biting is playing with his weiner. I knew that little boys like to touch their stuff, but I didn't realize the obsession started so damn early. Between that and the biting, it's like living in a goddamn monkey house. Bring on the spring! Set the monkey loose!

Oh, and Middlesex is one of my favorite books ever. Except the ending. But I rarely like a book's ending. Most authors either rush the ending or draw it out far too long. Either draw everything up in a nice little bow, or leave too many unanswered questions. It's a hard thing to get right, I guess.

Sorry rainbaby, I was commiserating in that normally I don't get shit done, which ends up making me feel worse, repeat etc., but for some reason this year I am. I'm not Eeyore for a change.

Nope. I love winter. Loooooooooooooooooooooove it.

I know, eekacat, good for you.

I am ATTEMPTING to order study materials, but dealing with various forgotten passwords and such. So that's something. Baby steps.

I notice that my moods fluctuate much more rapidly in the winter and that when they're low, they're REALLY low.

In the spring and summer, I tend to level out, as much as I normally do.

I don't think it's the winter (I like winter weather, if it's not too, too cold), but I do feel blah. Sleep a lot, watch a lot of TV, sit with a book in my lap, but don't read. Taking a shower feels like a lot of work. Couldn't even get myself to go to work today. Considering staying home tomorrow, too. Probably won't, but I'd sure like to. I'd stay home for a month if I could. Meh.