Cabin Fever

Click here for Grow Your Blog & Giveaway :)

 

It's about this time of year, every year, that I start to get in a bit of a funk.  This winter, as most of you know whether you live in North America or not, has been a harsh one.  Lots of really cold temperatures, lots of snow and freezing rain.  Basically, a lot of things happening outdoors that force you to stay indoors more often ... in fact for days at a time.

I hate being inside all the time.  Although it does give you an excuse to sit on your duff and enjoy some knitting ...

 

Tea Cozy for my One-Cup Teapot

 

 

... I'm getting just a little tired of sitting on my duff for so long.

 

Baby Hat

The weather has made it difficult even to walk the dog.  Ice is still lurking on our sidewalks from the ice storm way back in December.  I've had a couple of upsets, which are usually more embarrassing than painful (one right in front of a "kindly" gentleman clearing his driveway ... he looked up as I suddenly slipped, arms flailing, but calmly went back to his chore ignoring me completely).  

 

 

Then the dog suffers not only from ice balling up between his toes, but also the huge swaths of salt people throw on the sidewalk which also gets caught between his toes.  He just won't walk then and he'll stop, sit up with paws dangling until I clean them out for him.  I miss walking in the woods, but the woods where I go is treacherous with ice in the winter even when we don't have a bad winter, so I haven't even bothered trying to get out there.

 

 

So what this all boils down to is by February I really feel itchy and unsettled ... cabin fever.  I hate it.  It becomes difficult to settle down to anything.  I want to be moving.  I want to be outside doing something.  And the truth is, we won't be getting springtime weather until March or April!  I like winter, but I don't like winter if I can't enjoy being outside.

This past Saturday we had another snow storm with a decent accumulation of snow.  I hadn't been out to see my dad for three weeks(!) due to the weather.  Lately the bad weather seems to arrive on Saturdays which is my usual day for visiting him.  Finally, I'd had enough of waiting, and despite the prediction of the incoming snowstorm, I just bit the bullet and drove the hour & a half to see him.  It didn't start snowing heavily until about an hour before I left.  I think my dad is tired of being cooped up too, as he was in a terrible grump complaining about anything and everything.  It was hard to placate him, but I feel obligated to calm his worries before I leave.  His Alzheimer's makes it so hard for him to judge anything fairly.  And since I was already out, I decided to drop in on my friend after that (she lives in the same city as my dad).

It was good to get out of the house, even if it was only in the truck and then in other people's homes.  The snow fell and fell all day long on Saturday and through the night.  Quite an accumulation out there Sunday morning.  Today is sunny & bright.  More ice has formed under the fluffy stuff, so I spent some time this morning chipping away at ice & snow.  It was just nice to be outdoors in the sunshine!  I even got so warm that I removed my hat, scarf and mittens!  I almost feel like putting a lawn chair out there on my snow-covered patio and bask in the sunshine ;)

The temperatures have risen in the past few days, which has been a great relief.  The dog has been enjoying getting out for longer periods of time now that the sun is making some cozy patches in the backyard where he can snuffle around.

 

My patio

 

So let's hope that even though the groundhogs didn't see their shadows yesterday, that winter eases up a bit so that we can at least get out there and clear the cobwebs.

 

Cody catching some pleasurable scent on the breeze

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

 

Good boy Cody!