Tag Archives: seasons

Winter blues

It’s still 17 days away to the shortest day of the year, but we are already at the point of seeing almost no sun outside of working hours. This is a time of year that I really wished I lived somewhere closer to the equator. It’s not just a trip to the shortest day, it’s also a trip to cold, wet, and sometimes snowy days for the next couple months.

This is when routines really matter, when motivation to exercise is really low, but the exercise itself is more important than ever. This is when eating well is challenging with Christmas festivities, and time off work for the winter break becomes an easy time to break your fitness and eating routine.

I’ve tried a new routine of writing at night so as not to squeeze my morning routine, but I didn’t really develop the habit and I’m back to writing in the morning. Except on weekends. Weekends are already slower and I haven’t written my posts on a weekend morning in weeks. Thus, I know the holidays will be a challenge to maintain my habits.

It’s a really busy week ahead, and I’ll be home late most nights. It will feel like besides my morning routine, the only things on my agenda are work and sleep… and dark, rainy, gloomy skies… and the cold. Yuck.

I need to remember to find moments of joy at work and at home. I need to make sure I’m eating well and taking my vitamins. And most of all, I need to remember that before I realize it, spring will be here. Every year seems shorter, faster, and so winter will be but a distant memory soon enough… the trick is finding, no creating, memories of this winter beyond the darkness, wet, and cold.

As my coffee mug says, “What a great day it is today!”

Getting outside

I went for my Coquitlam Crunch walk this morning at 8am. Last night it poured rain and it was unexpectedly wonderful to have a dry walk with clear skies, and it didn’t even drizzle until we were done our walk and in the warmth of a coffee shop. I went for a hot tub afterwards and while misty rain fell it certainly didn’t rain on my experience.

Getting outside is so important this time of year. It can be really hard when I’m driving to work in gloomy darkness and driving home in nighttime darkness. When I spend all sunlit hours at work, the desire to be outside is far less than on summer days when it can still be bright out after 9pm.

So it’s wonderful to have a reason to be outside during the weekend. I also need to remind myself that I can go on evening walks with my wife mid-week and neither darkness nor rain need stop us. The lack of sunlight and added likelihood of rain are not conspiring against us, it’s just the way things are this time of year on this part of our globe.

So, whether it’s a walk, or a hot tub, or even sweeping leaves off the driveway, it’s good to remember the value of getting outside. We don’t need to stay cooped up indoors just because the days are shorter and wetter.

Fall colours

A friend commented that this year fall seems to have lasted a lot longer than usual. Specifically, the autumn leaves stayed on the trees much longer, and the colours seem more vibrant.

Here’s a photo he took on a walk in Port Moody yesterday.

And a photo I took on a walk in Nanaimo this afternoon.

One of the only things I really miss about living in Ontario is the fall colours. Late October and early November are a special kind of beautiful in a place where deciduous trees transition from a summer lush of green to a rainbow of yellows, oranges, and reds… all ranging from vibrant and glowing to dull and faded.

Here in BC, the transition usually happens very quickly, and a windstorm or two will shed and blow the colours off of the trees in a rush to welcome winter.

Not this year.

This year we’ve had a full season of fall colours and it has been spectacular.

Brighter days

It’s so much easier walking up at 5:15am when it’s light out. It’s easier to wake up before my alarm, and there is no need to stumble around in the dark. I love the longer days of summer! We still have 21 days of getting a bit more time with the sun above the horizon.

I didn’t grow up with this in Barbados, where there are no real seasons and the sun would stay out 12-13 hours no matter what time of year it is.

Now I live in Vancouver where daylight will exceed 16 hours in the summer and be under 8.5 hours in the winter. Coming out of winter and moving to these wonderfully long days is so uplifting! It makes me want to just seize the day.

Into darkness

The days are getting shorter now. It’s really noticeable when you get up as early as I do. I’m used to starting in darkness, but with a hint of light that continually gets brighter. Now it just stays dark well after my writing and meditation. This doesn’t bug me now, but it starts to get harder when it’s dark heading to work and also dark coming home.

(As a funny side note, how do flat earth’ers explain the seasons and different length of days at different times of the year?)

Growing up in Barbados, much closer to the equator, the sun was up most days between 5:30 and 6am, and set between 6 and 6:30pm. The days were quite consistent in length all year. And so we didn’t have longer summer days the way we have here in Canada… but we also didn’t have short dark (or cold) winter days.

I can’t imagine living much farther North where the sun only shows for a few hours in the winter. I think I’d go a little stir crazy. As it is, I’ve already noticed the darkness creeping in, and I know that it can affect my mood. The cold does the same. It’s something I need to stay aware of. I use a daylight light at work, and as always, load up on my Vitamin D. And I dress warmer than most to keep the cold out. These are ways for me to keep the darkness outside from creeping in.

Here comes the rain

I woke up before my alarm this morning to the sound of heavy rain. It’s actually a nice sound to wake up to, but it also is a reminder that we are heading into the dark and cold of winter. For those of you that don’t know, I spent almost 10 years growing up in Barbados.

When you live on a tropical island, not too far from the equator, every day gets close to 12 hours sunlight. The rainy season means an hour of heavy rain daily before its sunny again, and sometimes the sun is still shining during those rains. Also, it doesn’t get cold. Ever.

Now I’m living on the edge of a Canadian rain forest on the wet/west coast. I like it better than the chill of Toronto, where we first moved when we came to this country, but sometimes the rain gets to me. Sometimes the damp feels really cold. Sometimes I really miss the sun.

In Barbados the rain was a welcome reprieve from the heat, although sometimes it brought uncomfortable humidity. Here, it can bring a chill. It can come with dull skies that hide the location of the sun in the sky… for days on end. When the rain comes, it can sometimes feel like it’s not going to leave.

For this reason, I load up on vitamin D, I have a natural light lamp on my desk, and I start dressing in layers that includes pairs of long underwear (that I’ll start using soon). People think it’s funny that I wear long underwear from late October through April, but I get chilled easily and am more comfortable hot than cold.

The rains are here. The cold is coming. I have to psych myself up. I have to prepare myself for the short, wet, dark days. I know what lies ahead, and I have to keep my chin up, and keep the clouds outside from creeping in.