It never get like that here! Thank God! I live in northern Pa for my first 16 years. I was fine with it. The older I got the farther south I moved. I don't miss it. I do miss the lack of humidity and the coolness come about August. I suffer for months praying for fall....

No thanks. Not for me! I'm happy right here in the hot south.

Acutally looking forward to winter.

We don't get much snow here so your picture looks very appealing to me! Not sure if I'm looking forward to winter but I certainly don't mind it. It has its own charm.

So where is this? Your back yard? The Arctic Circle?

I'm not overly fond of snow, the older I get the less I look forward to winter. Here on Vancouver Island our winters are unpredictable, some winters we get just a sprinkling of snow or none, others we get dumped on and more than once. This picture was taken through the kitchen window one morning last february while waiting for my 3 minute egg to cook.

Annette

'sigh' - our driveway - that little thing sticking up in the foreground is our large, fall size snowblower. I am not looking forward to winter. Hopefully it will not be as brutal as last year.

I love winter! Love the snow. As I get older, I wish winter would be shorter though. Three months, December, January and February, would be just right for me. :-)

We lived in Vero Beach, Florida for 17 years. We used to go to the beach in shorts and a T-shirt (most winters) and go surf fishing on Christmas Day. That was my kind of winter. One or two frosts.

I love, love, love winter and had a hard time leaving it behind this year. But once I embraced summer I didn't even want to think about winter and skiing for awhile. It's nice to really take a break from wintry thoughts. This summer has been a near-perfect one so it was great to just revel in it and not wish for anything other than the present day.

Now I am going skiing again next week (South America) so the snowy/winter/skiing time of year is upon us again! But even with that, I am looking forward to further garden progress after I get back.

Felisa, that is a remarkable picture. That's a ton of snow and also a daunting amount of work to clear the driveway. Annette, that is gorgeous and I keep hearing so many amazing things about your part of the world.

And to the OP - where is that? Was that pic taken this fall?

Great pictures Annette and Felisa.

We have a fair bit of snow too.
We know St Pete Beach, Fl, quite well.

Apart from an occasional ice storm, the worst thing here is the ice, lots towards the end of winter.

The best thing about being retired is not feeling you've got to chance driving in iffy weather.

Below: access to our mail ("super mailbox") on March 11 of this year (freeze and thaw cycling).

You can actually break a bone just getting your mail.

"That was my kind of winter. One or two frosts."

but no daffodils....

Wanted to add:

Winter is a nice break from the labour of gardening and a time to get other things done indoors.

And there's always looking forward to the garden next spring.

Below (March 17, this year): My spouse trying to speed things up (and incidentally fool me) with a (plastic) snowdrop.

My original pic was taken during January '14 in Connecticut.

I have to agree with some of the comments here that as I get older, I am not so looking forward to hauling on all that gear to run the snow blower or end up doing a double-lutz as I walk to my car but otherwise, I still love the Ice, Snow, Sleet, and Freezing Rain.

This post was edited by Emerogork2 on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 2:56

It's, out on the road, when the car does a double-lutz that we get worried.

Winter looks like this in Oklahoma for the most part, lots of sky and various shades of wheats, whites, burgundy and browns. We might get two good snows that last a few days on the ground the most common ones are in March and they melt quick, the occasional blizzard, some of which have been deadly and lately we get more of the very destructive ice storms because its above freezing in the upper atmosphere but just cold enough on the ground to form a thick layer of ice or it comes down as ice. Its also very windy making for some very cold wind chill factors when the wind switches to the north and crackling static electricity every day due to the dry air.

However, there are always days of 70 in any given month and lots of sunshine for the most part year round. You get many days to do garden work all year round if you want to. Its the best time of the year to dig new beds or work on soil, trim, direct sow seeds, clean etc. I wouldn't like living up north because it sounds darker and colder but I think it just depends on what a person is used to and I am used to stronger sun exposure and prevailing southern winds in both winter and summer.

Pictures of old farms, there are hundreds of these across miles of open prairie land:

I love living where there are four seasons, and I like winter, though since my job is flexible, I just stay home when the driving is bad. I enjoy the late fall and winter as a chance to get out into the woods without bugs. When there's snow I can slap on skis or snowshoes. The only thing I don't like about winter is the lower light levels.

However, I also like to live a bit more in the moment, so right now I am loving the late season veggies and plants, and the start of fall color is stunning as always in my part of the world.

stop boasting Tex. I hate the cold, the wet, the freezy winds....would move to tropical climes in a New York Minute.

garySut, that is a myth I'm glad my narcissus never heard. Some later types don't like the heat, and a few need the chill, but there are many that bloom every year without a fuss--no winter required.

Oh, come on, Campanula. There are good things - no mosquitoes biting you the minute you go outdoors in summer. Days through out the winter when you can garden. (I generally dig the allotment in Christmas holidays). Not much worrying about drought. Snow relatively unusual. Ground which doesn't freeze more than an inch or two for a couple of days. Being able to plant bulbs in pots and leave them outside all winter. Watching the bulbs coming up when people in parts of the US have another 4 months to wait. A window of two or more months to get spring planting down. Being able to plant trees, shrubs and perennials all winter.

On the other hand I'd hate to live in the tropics - no seasons, too many bugs, sticky heat, skin permanently lumpy, bumpy and itchy (mine at least).

I often play the 'where would I like to live game' and all I come with is either where I live now or just a weeny bit further south where the sunshine is a little more dependable.

One thing about a real winter is you either don't garden at all, or only do it mentally: planning, reading, looking at seed catalogs, etc. Here it is almost a 365 day activity. If you like to be outdoors here is the place. We did have a terrible heat wave last week and stuck inside, I was crazy bored, so desperate I ended up doing terrible things--vacuuming, dusting behind the furniture, washing the floor...

For me, it has become:
-It is much too hot to do gardening today or
-It is much too cold to do gardening today or
-It is much too wet to do gardening today.

Then there is:
-It is much too nice a day to do gardening today.

Oh yea, camp, everyone wants to move here. I think those are some fixer-uppers I posted. Its an acquired taste, you need the ability to see and appreciate up close rather than being bowled over by the big flashy vistas, mountains, trees, beach, ocean etc. There is a lot more rural than city, mostly small towns and several ghost towns but the air is clean (except during allergy season). I got in trouble for saying 'real summer' a while back so you guys can't say 'real winter'. We consider our winter to be real enough, we also have 4 distinct seasons and once you get a jolt of static electricity that nearly knocks you off your feet or sets your car ablaze when filling the tank its no laughing matter. On a more serious note, it also makes for 3 months of bad hair days as it crawls all over your face or stands up moving like a medusa all around your head and your clothes crawling all over your body. Cotton is the way to go.

I never get tired of gardening. I am a 12 month/year gardener. Like floral I would hate the tropics but as its well known here, I also don't care for forest-y areas. Both make me feel claustrophobic because I absolutely need the wind & wide open spaces.

In spring we can get some pretty nasty hail storms, here is one that was 4" deep that lasted for a good 20 minutes of heavy hail and my whole garden looked like it had gone through a garbage disposal, the house was covered in holes & leaves, the roof destroyed. It took weeks to clean & a season for the garden to come around back to where it had been. I fear these worse than winter storms but the ice storms are just about as bad. Spring is the more deadly dangerous time here. I live right in the center of Tornado Alley.

Hey! It is too blankety blank early to talk about blankety blank winter! FALL has just STARTED! Don't even want to ponder!

Edited to add:

Besides I have all these goals that still need to be accomplished. (Wink)

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 16:42

Yes, I know all that, Flora (and since splurging on heated insole foot-warmers with rechargeable batteries - for an eye-watering amount of money, life in winter became that little bit more bearable. In mitigation, I have a horrible circulation problem (Raynaud's disease) which renders me tearful and wimpy as soon as my feet start to get a bit chilled (My hands and nose too). As long as I am active and outside doing stuff, I can fend off the worst....but those long dark nights in a cold english house (the horsebox is honestly warmer) always, always does me in every winter.
I have no problem at all in coming up with alternatives to where I live (Greece, Crete (Daisy, I blame her, California, West Africa, Madeira.....but of course, it is never just about climate is it.?...so, all-in-all, I will definitely be staying (and freezing) in East Anglia)

I clearly remember sitting in the 3rd grade classroom at my desk in northern Iowa, watching the snow piling up and thinking, "When I grow up, I'm going to live one state further south. I HATE winter."

Well, guess what - I didn't set my goals high enough. I have lived in northern Missouri for 43 years, and while it's better than Iowa was, northern Arkansas would be even better!

I hate knowing that if for some reason a person HAD to spend 8 hours outside in the winter in Missouri, he/she might DIE from exposure. Outside in the summer in Missouri can be uncomfortable, but a person wouldn't DIE out there.

....."end up dong a double-lutz as I walk to my car." Emerogork2, that made me laugh!

I'm going to enjoy autumn as long as possible. I'm still picking lots of tomatoes, the leaves are just started to change colors, and we still have crickets chirping at night. Fall is wonderful.

About winter: It's nice to have four seasons. Winter is a no guilt time of year. Not a weed in sight. Yeah, that's the ticket, winter is a great time of year...... NO! No, it's not! I can't talk myself into this any longer. I'm over it.

The only good thing about winter is that it's followed by SPRING!

I enjoy winter because by late Fall, I am weary of gardening and ready to put it to bed. Winter can be brutal, but I don't have to be out in it and by Spring, I rejoice in the little bleeding hearts poking through and I am anxious to get digging in the soil and planning new plants for the gardens. There is no stopping a gardener, it's in the soul, much like farmers. We rejoice when new plants have survived and anticipate new plants we will discover at the nurseries.