Dark and overcast and sleepy

[Toddy]

For me this is the darkening of the year. From now until the Winter Solstice the days just creep shorter and darker and the nights stretch out longer.
It's not bitter cold, but it is getting colder, the damp never lifts, the daylight is never quite bright enough to lift the sleepiness in it's entirety.
I find I bustle around, tidying up, sorting stuff out, busy, busy, busy until the early evening and then I can't keep my eyes open
My creativity, my original thought processes, slow down. I make, I do stuff, but it's ongoing stuff, not new/new stuff. I'll find an older pattern I worked out rather than start from a blank page, kind of thing.
It's not three o'clock in the afternoon yet, and it's already so overcast outside that I have lights on in the house just to be able to see, not even to read. Even the birds are silent outside; they're probably coorieing down too

Time for a cuppa and a jaffa cake (asda are selling rather good gluten free V ones )

Stay snug

M

 

[Wayland]

This time of year is usually when I start planning my next adventure.

You've got to have something to look forward to.

 

[Goatboy]

Hmm this weather and time of year is making us all quite introspective isn't it?

I'd been thinking along similar lines at Wooplaw, looking 'round at the tents and shelters smattered through the woods as we came together for a final gathering before winter, there was drinking, feasting, fire and smoke. The drums were playing and the strange crys of an envoy from further over the hill (Chiseller) could be heard above it all. We were learning new skills, buying essentials and toys, making new alliances and catching up with old ones. It was very easy for a veil of millennia to be drawn back and see our ancestors strut this gathering in their finest wool and leather, knives at side showing status but remaining sheathed amongst friends. Just like we still are now. There's something primal in our soul that gets us to repeat these things.

You're writing about it here, lighting the lights, making ready for the forced semi-internment of a winter in the north, everything stored and safe, piled up against the winter snows.


I've had a pet theory for years in that the reason northern tribes like to celebrate with art, language, sagas and technology as those long months of winter captivity. We needed to keep these big brains busy with tasks, games and laughter. So we had a thirst for technology, fun, exploring and invention. While our cousins in the sunshine just had to get on with the perpetual day to day of life.

There must also be a genetic memory like squirrels and mice hoarding for the lean times, lining the nest so precious calories will be saved.

I love this time. Being out on a murky dark day and coming into the warm soft glow (lamp or candle light is so much nicer), stirring up the fire, as the cold stinging leaves your cheeks, curling up with a book and a hot drink wearing your woollies as the wind and rain pelts against the house in a bid to get in. Heaven. (Especially if something nice smelling is simmering away in the kitchen.)

Think you deserve at least two Jaffa cakes Mary!

 

[Miyagi]

Well said Goatboy!


Liam

 

[andybysea]

Todays a bit overcast now but all last week it was clear blue skies and sun shine, onshore breeze now and kids school bonfire night party down on the beach this evening should be fun.

 

[Clouston98]

I love this time of year, not long till Christmas as well .

 

[Goatboy]

Well said Goatboy!


Liam

It's a pity you got let down and couldn't make it, you were one of the folk I was expecting we'd meet. Hey ho though it looks like there will be a meet in the spring unless Orric's plan comes off for one at his work!

Cheers,
Colin

 

[Man of Tanith]

Just spent the afternoon building the local churches bonfire for the fireworks display tonight.
I honestly prefer this time of year. I'm built for the colder temperatures.
My birthday will be in just over a month

 

[rik_uk3]

There was something talked about on QI about French villages pretty much going to sleep for the winter months in the past.

 

[Toddy]

Et comme tout le vrai monde connaisse; les enfants d'Ecosse était aussi les enfants de France..........whether that makes any sense in a modern French tongue I don't know, but I heard that when I wasn't even in primary school.

I like it when things get a little colder and less wet; when it's clear and frosty and there's a brightness to the light, or when it snows and there's such a pick me up feeling of light around.
It's not the cold or the even the long nights so much as the dull, dreich, wet days and nights that make us want to curl up indoors.

cheers,
M

 

[feralpig]

I absolutely hate this time of year. I used to suffer terribly as soon as the nights started drawing in. Getting panicky as it got dark, lethargic, and as the winter got on, I felt like I had some kind of worm burrowing through my brain.
I went to an osteopath to get my back sorted out, and she told me I had some pressure on a gland in my head.
She did a little bit of work to it over a few sessions, and I've never had the same winter problems in the last two winters since she did it.
Still hate this time of year though, would much rather disappear somewhere warm till spring.

 

[rik_uk3]

I absolutely hate this time of year. I used to suffer terribly as soon as the nights started drawing in. Getting panicky as it got dark, lethargic, and as the winter got on, I felt like I had some kind of worm burrowing through my brain.
I went to an osteopath to get my back sorted out, and she told me I had some pressure on a gland in my head.
She did a little bit of work to it over a few sessions, and I've never had the same winter problems in the last two winters since she did it.
Still hate this time of year though, would much rather disappear somewhere warm till spring.

When the wife retires I'll be doing just that

 

[feralpig]

Might get a couple of weeks in January, if I'm lucky.

 

[rik_uk3]

http://www.thecrunchychicken.com/2010/01/human-hibernation-going-back-to-bed.html

Interesting stuff indeed.

 

[feralpig]

It is quite interesting. I got interested in managing the effects of winter, rather than trying to "cure" them. Heading for the sun every winter was great, but a bit expensive. SAD should be renamed, as Perfectly Normal Response, in my mind...... Just because some people thrive on winter conditions, doesn't mean it's an abnormal response for those who don't.
It's unfortunate that SAD is so at odds with the demands of modern life.

Since the osteopath fiddled with my head, I no longer feel as though I am suffering from anything, although it still does have an effect on me.
I work out doors, I have my own gardening and landscaping business, so obviously, come mid winter, I'm not very busy.

What I found was, that I would want to go sleep just before sun down, and wake up at 1am feeling fantastic, providing I actually got up and did something, rather than lying in bed, trying to get back to sleep.
I'll even go out and do a bit in the shed, or some book work, then by about 6am, I'm ready for a couple more hours sleep. I can do this, coz I'm choosing my own hours. Obviously, if I had to be in work at 8am, it wouldn't work.

I can't point to a link or site that explains it, but I've read in a few places, that that kind of winter sleeping pattern was considered perfectly normal, not so many generations ago.

I find going with it, rather than trying to fight it, makes me far happier, and more productive.

 

[Toddy]

Me too. If I go to bed early-ish (for me, in Summer I'm happy with five hours max) then I wake up half way through the night. I'm better to get up for an hour or so, do something, make something, then go back to bed and crash until dawn. Otherwise I just toss and turn for a couple of hours totally restless and unable to settle.
As the shortening of the days becomes more pronounced I even manage a snooze in the afternoon too
I'm not depressed, and I really don't like the SAD connotations, I'm just drowsy, a bit cannae-be-bothered-itis, and not doing a Tigger impression

cheers,
M

 

[Goatboy]

It does make sense biologically for the body to try to conserve stocks in the lean times. I know that some athletes when trying to loose weight sleep as it gets rid of the craving to eat.

 

[feralpig]

I don't like the whole thing surrounding SAD either. It's to much like a good reason for the drug companys to make something to treat a perfectly normal human condition. The Doctor didn't like it much when I told her that.........
At the same time, I accept that there are people for whom it is a serious problem, and they have no option of mitigating it, and I don't for a moment deny they suffer badly, before anyone says otherwise........