I useually try to keep busy with my house plants..And look forward to winter sowing.. Also trying to convince my hubby to send me out west for 6 weeks. I don't really enjoy winter that much to many aches and pains. Getting old (HaHa)

I'm not really a winter person either. I try to busy myself by quilting and sowing seeds .. tending to all of my tropicals that I bring inside.
I think my problem with winter began about 10 years ago when I moved to Toronto from Sudbury .. drastic weather difference :o) Do I dare say this ?????? There isnt enough snow to do anything in!!! If you want to go skiing .. you have to drive to the snow .. if you want to going ice fishing ..... you have to drive to the snow .. If you want to skidoo .. again more driving!!!!!! I think ideally I should get a job working in a green house .. where its warm and humid .. and work with plants all day. Have you ever noticed how quickly a day flys by when you are gardening or sowing seeds in the winter??? Pretty quick eh.

Blech - I HATE winter! It doesn't help that because of health problems I can't go out if it goes below -15.

I can't get warm either. No matter how high we turn the heat. My feet get so cold that I often have on three pairs of socks, and sheepskin lined leather slippers. I usually look twenty pounds fatter because of the two heavy sweaters I'm wearing. I've been known to go about inside the house, where no one can see me, with a pair of velour pants that have been turned inside out (warmer that way!), under sweat pants, under a heavy skirt!

It's such a relief when it's time to start the early seeds in February. It's still colder than anything outside, but the mental lift I get then keeps me going until spring. That smell of damp soil you get from the seed starting mix... Heaven! I'll often sow a way too early pot of oregano, just so I can run my fingers over it and smell it.

BP

I go like a squirrel in the fall and collect as many bags of leaves that I can (I have neighbours who drop off their bagged leaves in my driveway) and I lug them to the back where most are deposited right on the lasagna vegetable gardens and in the raspberry patches. I keep as many more bags as I can so that once the snow starts to accumulate, I can scatter more leaves onto of the snow on the lasagna gardens so that even if the entire yards are covered with snow, I can still see where my gardens are at all time - keeps me motivated not to forget about them.

I've started to prep my WSing containers and have a barrel full of soil and amendments in the garage that soon will be brought inside so I can stuff the soil into the WSing containers.

I really love the fall and I find myself planting bulbs right up to Christmas - last year I was still planting bulbs on the first/second week of January as the weather was still mild enough (and White Rose was basically giving them away - they were some of my nicest tulips - came up yellow, opened to orange and spread open to red - really cool). I'm hoping to be able to keep planting bulbs until January; keep topping up my lasagna gardens until March and then have only April to wait my little winter sowed perennials to poke their little heads up when the weather takes another turn towards warming up.
(It also helps going into the fall knowing that for the month of February I'm in florida)...

Hi Peatpod, so you once lived in Sudbury. I live in Sudbury and work as a secretary at Laurentian University. I too hate the winter. I especially hate it when it's icy. We live on a street that's on a slope and I have to walk down a hill to catch the bus and when it's icy, it's terrifying. When I finally get to work, I call my husband to let him know that I didn't break any bones.

Winters are depressing but each holiday that goes by, it gets us closer to the spring, i.e., Thanksgiving, Hallowe'en, Christmas, New Year, for us, February break, etc.

I guess this weekend, we'll be digging up a lot of our plants, i.e., canna lilies, dahlias, and pulling out all the annuals and emptying the containers. You don't realize how many containers you have until you start emptying them out. What a job.

I guess I'll go to bed now and think of how I want to rearrange the garden next year and what vegetable I want to plant next year besides beans.

I like the thought when you say that each Holiday that passes gets us closer to spring, we've already passed Thanksgiving- what a good way to think of it.
Sometimes I wonder, for those of us who are over 30 LOL
that if it isn't meant for people who live in the cold zones - to actually hunker down and almost hibernate for the winter, just do what must be done, etc. And here we are trying to scurry around like it's business as usual.
I'm especially thinking about that now that it has just snowed here- yikes, not fun. My house was wet from top to bottom yesterday with the kids in and out. And we have an extremely tiny porch. What a mess--

I don't think I hate the weather as much as I hate the neverending darkness!
Well, extreme cold doesn't turn me on but in the last few yrs with so little snow it was really hard. If there is snow I do try and get out in it. Go sliding, skating, something to try and get some fresh air. I figure I live here can't fight it might as well join it.
Now it is mandatory that we get away to a hot place for 2 weeks in the end of Feb. Really breaks up the winter. When I get back I start my garden planning and as of last yr winter sowing.
OF course I fully intend to retire at 50 in a very warm climate!!
Tina