Tell Me Something Tuesday: My least favorite thing about winter.

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Question: What is your least favorite thing about winter?

If you are not familiar with PNW winters - they are rainy. So. Much. Rain. All day. All night. All day the next day. For days. Into months. It's cloudy and gloomy and drippy and seemingly never-ending. The weather people run out of ways to describe rain. It gets dark early in the afternoon and stays dark well past sunrise.

It typically starts late October and, even though we've had one or two early springs, it usually lasts until May-ish.

I hate it and it drags me down. Kevin has tried changing all the bulbs to daylight bulbs in the house for the winter, using one of those winter lights but nope. I just get SO mopey. My personality flips like a switch with the teeniest touch of sunshine lol 

I love gardening, flowers and just generally being outside here. The summers are spectacular. Mild temps, no bugs, no humidity, lots of flowers. I love it and I mentally shut down without it.

I'm really making an effort to do better with it this year. Kevin and I have started going walking with the dogs, even if it's not perfect weather. 

I added a lot of indoor plants to my (redecorated/brighter) office and that REALLY helps me. (shout out to Ethan who told me about coffee grounds to save my dying plants lol) I've added more since this picture and there's a big Monstera in the corner. The light hits the plants in such a pretty way, even in winter.

We found a year round farmers market in Portland, OR and, if you know me, it's all about plants and food (& dogs lol) and that's been a huge mood boost having that every Saturday. Bonus for it being near Powell's Bookstore. 

We're also going to try to go see a few old movies. We have several small indie theaters that have older movie programs in the winter. Even silent films with live orchestras.  

I'm taking up a few hobbies too. I'm learning Chinese on Duolingo. We have a large Asian population out here, including botanical gardens, restaurants, and grocery stores & I thought would be nice to know what I'm looking at lol

I got an embroidery kit  to learn the stitches. Not because I want to embroider but because I wanted to try the Japanese art of mending: Shashiko. You basically mend, say, the your hole in your jeans with a patch - but then add a pretty/colorful stitch or pattern to reinforce it. I have no idea how long I'll stick to this hobby lol but I have a hole in my jeans and had this great idea to to fix it using the shashiko technique. 

And, of course, I bake! 

What are your least favorite things about winter?