Melissa, I know how you feel. Take solace in the knowledge that when, eventually, spring does arrive,summer will follow.
Unlike the U.K. where, at least for the last four years, spring and summer have in the main, just been a continuance of winter.
Here in eastern Crete, we haven't yet had enough rain this winter to see us through. I am going out into the garden every day, scanning the skies, and then performing a rain dance up the path, past Aimee Vibert, Duchess de Brabant and Blush Noisette. I hate to think what my neighbours think!
Now that March is here, we are getting glorious summer like days, (I already have a tan), interspersed with strong southerly winds. All my plants in pots are being scattered hither and thither. The first bud of Archduke Charles was torn off and my new William Shakespeare 2000 has a lot of it's flowers broken.
You do not want this wind, but, if I could send you some of this sunshine, I would.
Daisy

Melissa, we had a very pretty weekend that possibly will come your way.

I keep some weights in the living room so that I will encourage myself to use them in the winter. It doesn't work. After working outside for two days, every muscle knows that it has been working. I wish I had been lifting those weights.

I do hope that when you get outside finally you discover that the weather has been kinder to your roses than it has been here. We have had quite a bit of damage this year.

I can identify with you so much. Cabin fever is almost like a disease.

Sammy

I know how you feel. Here in the southern US we have had rain, snow, and cold. Mostly rain where I am. I still have pansies sitting in containers where I never got to finish planting them since fall due to rain after rain after rain. Everytime we get a few days a dry sunny weather we get more heavy rain and the ground never gets to fully dry out to dig in it. Infact we have had 4 beautiful days here with temps warming up into the mid to upper 60's today and tomorrow with several days of rain following. I'm trying to be thankful for the rain but I am so ready for spring and to get back out into my garden! ~Meghan

Same here. It's the coldest Spring in nearly 100 years in Louisiana and the wettest Winter in almost that long. I'm hoping to start working in the yard this weekend. My Mutabilis has one bud opening, but no Fortuniana blossoms at all.

Seems like everyone is getting cabin fever these days! Daisy, I wish I could send you some rain. It won't stop here. (Well, actually, it will...and then not rain again for three months). I'm disgusted because it is raining again here today. Just when the ground dries just barely enough to stick a shovel in, here comes another gully washer. This weekend, I was so desperate to get stuff in the ground that I planted seven roses in soil that was really too wet (BUT seven less in the ol' pot ghetto!). I was out sticking potatos and onions - very grumpily - in the mud late in the day and then it started raining on me. I just kept going - even more grumpily - because it is already late to be planting those here.

I know what you mean by having plenty to do in the house but who wants to fold clothes when you could be outside in your garden?! When the weather finally gets better, everyone here will just be digging though the pile to get a matched pair of socks!

Lynn

Yes, this winter has been long, and spring has taken its time coming. We are all ready for warm days and some signs of life in the garden.

I have plants in the cab of the truck waiting for me to plant them! No one else goes to the garden center in the rain, but I do! Just can't wait. :) And we all know that eventually spring WILL arrive!

Oh, man, Melissa, I don't envy your temps or your snow. I am so over this winter it's not even funny. I kinda think our winter is over though. I just checked the forecast. We're predicted to have nights in the 50's midweek. Unbelievable! Last night was the first I haven't worn socks to bed since December. I did have a very productive weekend in the garden - thankfully, (even got a teensy sunburn), and rain is predicted during the week - hopefully, no cold behind it.

If it's spring in Florida, can spring in Italy be far behind? In another year that would be an odd question, but this year everything BUT that question is odd. Hope the equinox is magnanimous and brings the lovely spring you're looking for.

I saw a news report a week or two ago from somewhere in the "new" snowbelt of the US, showing battered, abused and smashed snowmen. Folks were fed up with Frosty.

Sherry

Melissa, now I am feeling guilty. Last three days--blue skies and 50 degrees. There wasn't a darn thing you could do with it, though with two feet of snow in the yard. We stood on the porch and said, "Nice day." Then back to sewing curtains. My roses went out on the porch all day and are much happier now.
I asked my grandson Jake what he did with his snowman and he said, "Took a hammer to it, Grammaw."

This past weekend was the first since last autumn where the Boston area experienced mild sunny weather with temps. in the 50's during the day.

You should have seen the traffic (car & pedestrian) along the beaches north of Boston!

Disgust all round, I see. Thanks, everybody, for writing in! As it happened I was wrong. The sun DID come out, and although the wind still blew briskly from the east (arriving from the Balkans and before that, Russia), after I added my body armor to the usual five layers I was able to finish pruning down in the shade garden in tolerable comfort, albeit with frequent returns to the wood stove to warm up my fingers and toes. Whoopee, I finished pruning! The Hybrid Musks and the old roses are done, and everything looks good, though the garden certainly needs structural work, which I can think about in late spring when the weather dries up. I'm thinking I ought to shift more Hybrid Musks down there from the big garden: they're exposed to a lot of sun and wind where they are, and they don't like it. That will give me room for a few Bourbons. I find myself pruning more confidently this year, and therefore faster. Now this year's flowering will show whether I did it right.
Today winter is back and one glance through the window is enough to convince that the place to be is hugging the wood stove, while the forecast is for two more days of the same; but after that we're supposed to get sun and highs to 50F and above!!!!!!! Spring is coming, for all of us!!
Melissa
P.S. Daisy, I know that wind: some years we get it all summer long. Honestly, I wouldn't trade our weather for yours (perhaps back in January....). Enjoy your sun!
Sherry, enjoy your freshly arrived good weather: makes a difference, doesn't it? Lately I've been sleeping not only in my usual socks, longjohns, and shirts and sweater, but have been going to bed in my robe as well. Of course, we sleep with our window open: according to my Italian siser-in-law a sure sign of madness.