We had 2 days of record-breaking snowfall last week, which shut down the entire area.

The resulting "cabin fever" made me wonder at the fact that there are any people at all in northern regions;
why haven't they all given up, as I would have had I had to spend a whole week inside, & run screaming out into the snow???

but, as you say, we then had a beautiful Saturday, & I got outside, visited everything in the garden, & cleaned up some broken limbs (including a huge cane of Alistair Stella Gray, from which I made about 4 pots of cuttings)...
& now I feel so much better.

Buff, it is absoutely true..that SAD happens. Living in the northwest it is so obvious..when I am out driving and the weather is bad people are grumpy..when the sun comes out everyone is happy and smiling. Since I am in sales..I call on convenience stores alot..and business always bumps up when the weather is nice. My doctor tested me for low vitamin D. Seems how in this area we never get enough sun..we are all low on D in this area. She gave me a strong Vitamin D supplement for 2 months..then I got over the counter D. I am telling you when I first started taking the D I felt like I was on speed. SO..yes I suppose that's what you had. You might try some extra D if you feel sluggish again.

When I lived in Fort McMurray, Alberta in zone 2, winters were very depressing. Every year we would get -58 F temperatures for about 3 weeks. The rest of the winter was about -15F or so. The cloud ceiling was quite low so that when my daughter was 3, we were on vacation and she said, "Mommy, there's something strange here (she had quite the vocabulary!) - it's winter, but I can see the sky!" Seriously - we very briefly saw the sky in winter time. Also, the sun came up about 9 p.m. and set about 4 p.m. I think everyone there had SADS. Sheesh. And then the roses I could grow were not what I had in mind for a rose garden!

Carol

*** I have had a "hopeless" and depressed feeling about gardening lately,ie, "It's too much for me to handle,Why do I have all these roses and hydrangeas that I can't possibly take care of?", etc.

Buff, that's exactly the way I've been feeling lately. Juliet recommended Gregg Lowery's blog. He's pruning 4,000 roses in 80 days. (Check out my "Now I'm less of a newbie" thread for the link or Google it. It's called "Naked in the Roses".) I was reading it last night. What a turnaround it did for my attitude. I don't feel overwhelmed now, and I'm looking forward to getting back to reading the blog (I started at the beginning.) I'm glad the better weather helped you, but I really think you'll enjoy Gregg's blog - a lot good stuff as well as perspective. Thanks for posting this thread. I think lots of us may be suffering with this about now.

Sherry

This is why I pay the big bucks to live in California. Anything under 60 degrees, & it's not worth going outside.

It's snowing right now, and I agree that the weather affects me like you have described. I have a list of roses sitting next to me that I plan to purchase as soon as we can make it out of here to the rose nursery! Maybe that will cheer me up. ;)

Let's all stand & give Poodlepup a great big hand for being so wise, and for having the big bucks to spend! :->

Apparently there are places out there in lotusland that are safe from quakes, mudslides, raging brushfires, huge budget deficits, water shortages when there aren't raging torrents, and such.

Apparently there are places out there in lotusland that are safe from quakes, mudslides, raging brushfires, huge budget deficits, water shortages when there aren't raging torrents, and such.

No, we get all that, but it stays above 60F the whole time, which makes it all ok. We save a lot of $$$$ by not buying winter clothes. ;^)

I thought a post titled "seasonal affective disorder" would be about the disorder involved in buying a lot of new roses and then wondering where to plant them all. :^)

I suffer from SAD every winter, spend as much time outdoors as possible to get sun and get regular exercise, both of which are helpful, but still have to take antidepressants every year October through March. This has been an extremely dark winter: gray skies from early November onward, and with the first signs of breaking weather coming just in the last week. Dark weather puts me straight to sleep. I like to say I'm solar powered. One dark morning I was dozing on the sofa when toward noon the sun began to emerge. That light was like a Star Wars tractor beam: it pulled me up off the sofa, then I casually got into my blue jeans, stuck my pruners in my pocket, put on my gloves, and ambled out to work in the garden. There was no act of will involved; it was as though the sunlight turned a switch in me. For those of you like Sherry who are feeling discouraged, I would say keep the darkness factor in mind, because it really can affect mood as well as well as energy levels.
Melissa

ah Melissa, when I saw your day countdown to longer days, I thought, yep, another one. Truly, only the sunlight can really spark the green fuse that gets everything going. I love low winter sun but drizzly sleety snow and grey clouds just fill me with gloom - hence my regular fleeing to gardenweb!Even though I can see little bulbs peeking out, everything still seems a long way off. I also wonder about you hardy souls living in the far north - not so much the cold but the long, long dark! It would have to be heavy use of drink and drugs for me. Even so, miraculously, the world turns - get out some of your photos from last year - it seems soooo unlikely that the glories you captured then will ever return....but they will. Cheers, Suzy

As far as SAD goes I can say Vitamin D has changed my life. Winter is hard enough. About California: there is another state, California al Norte. It's more like the PNW where I live.

VITAMIN D folks. Truly

I was born on the 63rd parallel and now live on the 59th so I am lucky never to have suffered from SAD, many people in Sweden do. I used to go to school in complete darkness and come home in the same dark for months. I don't know if it has helped that Swedish milk is enriched with vitamin D, and has been for many years.

At first I also thought this post might be about buying too many roses than I have room for, but it has gone in a different direction. I myself do not have SAD, but I know people who do. I will see if I can suggest the vitamin D approach to them.

I would like to offer a few observations on the winter and gray skies issues. First, if you are in the south and have had a colder than normal winter, and if you have any of the European once-blooming OGRs and even some of the hybrid perpetuals, they may flower better having had a colder cold period.

As to the cloudy days, when I lived in the northwest I came to realize that sometimes it was a good thing to have a cloudy day because working outside was easier. The pesky bugs were not as active; the sun wasn't beating down on me so hard; the temperature stayed cooler; and, it made driving easier because western Washington is quite hilly. Going east and west is a lot easier on a cloudy day because the sun is not shining directly in your face as you go up a hill.

My physician prescribed 2000mg per day of Vit. D last fall to help my body absorb the calcium needed by my thinning bones. I have been taking it ever since. He says until proved otherwise that Vit. D is the new wonder vitamin, "good for what ails you". I love a cloudy day in the summer which yields gardening in more comfortable conditions. But, this fall and winter is a different situation entirely! Seemingly endless cold, damp, windy and cloudy days are depressing to me, period. But spring is definitely coming with all her glory, albeit later than usual.

Several years ago, I watched a documentary about depression & such in Finland-
there are bars there where people go to sip coffee & sit under full-spectrum lights.

I think that's a fabulous idea.

& thanks to all who mentioned Vitamin D.

Just a note: I think it may be possible to take excessive amounts of Vitamin D and hurt yourself that way. Make sure to check about that.
U.S. milk is fortified with Vitamin D, but I don't think Italian milk is. I think I need to look into it myself.
Melissa

I took excessive amounts of D. Fortunately my doctor caught it, but D is not a safe vitamin. A,D,K. Those need to be watched. D is not regulated. I had it in my vitamins, and I took 1,000 extra in a pill. My doctor said I did not know how much I was really taking because it is not regulated. Even a year after I stopped taking the D, and only had it with my Calcium and Centrum, my blood count for D was at a safe level, but quite high.

The whole media is on a D kick now, and you never hear about taking too much.

The sun will not give you too much regarless of how long you are out. It is the pill that could cause you problems.

Our winter has been so bad, that I think I probably need more now, but won't take it without having my blood tested.

The teacher across the hall from me has two special lights to help with her SAD. Have any of you used those lights?

Must go,
Sammy

There a many light therapy cafés in Sweden, six of them in Stochholm only plus the non-commercial ones in hospitals.

Here is a link that might be useful: Iglo café

Gee whizzzzz, I go with the big bucks and live here in CA. Gardening year around. Our roses are starting to bloom, I am harvesting lettuce and brochilli from my yard, & complaning about to much rain. Oh well, a little to much rain and mild temperatures are worth the $$$

What with the weather extremes we've been experiencing this past year, I wonder if any rose hybridizer is working on a tough all-season bloomer to be named "El Nino".

Carol

Yah, with me my doctor took blood work and saw the low D. I had to go on a prescription at first..for 2 months. Now I just take a vitamin D. But I am being treated by a doctor.

My doctor did a blood test to see what my vitamin D level was. It came up at the low end of the normal range according to what they considered normal ten years ago. Now they advise much higher levels. Research is indicating that vitamin D may lower our risk for many kinds of cancer (not all). I didn't know it elevated mood. Apparently all the sun block we are using reduces our level of D absorption, in addition to the effect of staying indoors or living in a higher latitude. Makes sense, I guess. Anyway, he told me that anyone can take 1000 IU daily, but to get a blood test first if you are thinking of taking a higher dosage.

Rosefolly

Wow! Just reading this is making me depressed. We're just about to enter the 'hubby going to work in the dark/come home in the dark' stage. Yuck!!!! I have learned a trick. Until it snows, I pretend it's still summer. I pretend that I'd rather have snow than roses through the holidays. Then, it's full blown depression 'til April. At that point I can plant bare root roses either in the ground (if it's not still frozen) or indoors in pots. I like Bustopher's positive outlook. I'll try to adopt that one.

Kitty