I’ve been struggling to write a bit recently and I’m a bit behind on my posts, but here’s one now. …just in time for the end of summer!
It’s perhaps an unpopular opinion, but summer is my least favourite season. So where my blog ‘a guide to thriving in winter’ talked about ways you can, well, thrive in winter, this blog is about how I survive summer. Although struggle through it might be a more accurate thing to say. I wanted to include hints and tips in case you struggle with it too, but actually I’m not sure I have that many! If you’re the polar opposite of me and LOVE summer then you won’t need any tips, but you might want to read on to hear about the other side.
Everywhere is busy
For a start, summer is so much busier. People decide they want to be out and about more, adults take breaks and kids get a long summer holiday. So, understandably lots of the most well-known ‘idyllic’ countryside spots and coolest attractions are crawling with people. I dislike places with lots of people if you hadn’t gathered that already…maybe that’s your vibe, but it certainly isn’t mine. This means I have to get more creative with where I go (which isn’t actually a bad thing) and I save all the popular tourist sites for the depths of winter. If you hate crowds, like I do I suggest giving that tactic a try. For example, I’ve visited Dunnottar castle in the depths of winter and the height of summer. In winter I was the only one there for at least half an hour. It felt so magical and atmospheric. In summer, I struggled to find anywhere to park. Cars were haphazardly left on the verges about a mile up the road and once we finally made it to castle there were people everywhere. I’m sure they were having a delightful day, but, to me, the place lost it’s charm in that moment.
Wasps
I hate wasps! I know they have great value in terms of biodiversity and pollination, I know that they’re unlikely to sting you if you just stay out of their way and don’t flap about when they’re near, I know that the stings don’t hurt that much, but I still hate them. I have a visceral, almost uncontrollable fear. When they’re around I feel the panic rising, I have to really focus on staying where I am and concentrating on the task I’m performing or the conversation I’m having. Sometimes it gets all a bit much and I have to do a little run! It’s embarrassing, but I just can’t help it. What makes it worse sometimes is how flippant folk can be about it. I guess it’s easy to shrug off a fear that you don’t understand, but it definitely just heightens my feelings in the moment. Just a few soothing placations and a but of support is all I need. To make things a little easier for myself I stop wearing perfume, I wear less hairspray, I don’t wear bright colours and I’m careful about where and when I sit outside. It probably all sounds like a bit much, but they’re the little things that help get me through.
Over-heating
I’m pale and freckly, I burn and I over-heat easily. I’m sensitive to summer! When I get hot, I get anxious and stressed (so I become even more afraid of wasps – fabulous). I just feel trapped by the heat…I mean, you’ve all been too hot, you get it! Ironically, I live in the UK, currently Scotland, but even a Scottish summer can be a bit toasty for me. Anyway, I hate getting to and starting work feeling flustered and sweaty. I also find that I have to treat my ME more carefully in the warmer months. The heat and humidity suck my energy and increase my likelihood of relapse. I find over summer I teeter on the edge of getting ill a lot more, which means I have to rest more and say no more often. If I’m honest though I think I’m probably not particularly set up for summer. I don’t make it easy on myself. I like wearing a lot of black, I don’t own a lot of summer clothes, I like wearing boots and I don’t like showing a lot of skin. It’s a recipe for disaster! I don’t have many tips to get through overheating other than; wear cycling shorts under skirts to avoid the chub rub, get to places early so that you can stand outside and cool down before you have to go inside, always have water with you and wear sunscreen!
People talking about the weather
This is my last point and I’ll keep it very short. As I mentioned in my ‘thriving in winter blog’, it annoys me enormously when visiting a place in winter how much people say “this would look nice in summer”. There’s a comment that annoys me even more in summer…I hate it when it rains or we have a grey day and folk say “well that’s our summer over then”. The eyeroll I think about performing in that moment is truly epic.
Now, before I finish, I do enjoy some aspects of summer. I don’t spend every day weeping and wishing for the next season to begin. I love chilling on a beach enjoying a cider, I love that it gets a little warmer for sea swimming, I love picnics and barbeques, I love the lighter and longer evenings and I love all the seasonal fruit. I’m not a total fun sponge! I promise. I am looking forward to autumn though…those crisp mornings and crunchy leaves. Perfect.
I love winter! If you know me, or you’ve read any of my blogs before, then you’re probably already aware that I struggle in summer but truly enjoy winter. Most of the people I know have that flipped around and are summer lovers, winter sceptics! So, as my planned blog for December is taking longer than I expected I thought why not push that back and write about why I thrive in winter, and perhaps how you can too. If you live in the North North, like the Arctic circle, you might need more than I’m suggesting here, but I think this is appropriate for the latitude I dwell on!
Firstly, I love being cosy and hunkering down and you can only really do that if it’s cold outside. I even generally keep my heating low because I’d rather wrap myself up in fleecy PJs, jumpers and my dressing gown, which is 5 sizes too big for me than feel stuffy in an over-heated apartment. If I’m in my flat, I’m wearing my dressing gown. If I’m in a zoom meeting it’s probably wrapped around my waist, if I’ve opened the door to you and I look ‘put together’ my dressing gown has been hastily whipped off just before and it goes straight back on after the door is shut. I whole heartedly suggest you get yourself a gown that you want to wear like a second skin, it is a true winter joy!
I also have multiple blankets and even crocheted a poncho-style blanket I can wear whilst I’m mooching about my apartment. When I lived in Aberystwyth, I had an attic flat by the sea, with no heating and no shower (it did have a bathtub). It was extremely cold…as in, I could see my breath indoors sometimes! I did have an electric heater but as we all know these are expensive to run and if I’m honest it only really took the edge off the cold. The size of the immersion heater meant I couldn’t fill the bath up all the way with hot water so I would sit in a warm puddle of water up to my hips and wash my hair with a jug, shivering the whole time! It’s crazy to think I pay only £50 more in Aberdeen for double the space, an extra bedroom, heating, and a bath/shower. I did love my tiny, cold, Welsh seaside flat though and still think of it very fondly! Anyway, the point of that little side-story was that blankets were one of my saviours (this was in the days before my dressing gown)! I literally wore one like a cape at all the times, which is where the idea for a poncho blanket came from…it just took a few years to come to fruition! Having so many blankets also means that I can sleep with my window open throughout most of winter and just bury myself under a nest of downy and woolly layers. I kind of remind myself of a rodent under all it’s bedding with just it’s nose sticking out for air. I love the fresh air.
On the same cosiness theme as fleecy layers and blankets are hot water bottles. I genuinely get a bit excited the first time I get to use it at the beginning of winter/end of autumn. I felted myself a hot water bottle cover during my winter stint living on the Isle of Islay, which makes it feel even more special. I used a tonne of different colours to remind me of all the rainbows I saw on the island because I’d never seen so many, so regularly. It’s getting a bit thin and worn now after so many years of use, but it gives me emotional warm and fuzzies as well as literally pumping out heat! It’s attached to me throughout most of winter. I tuck it into the waistband of my dressing gown or under my arm whilst I wander about my flat and it sits under my feet whilst I’m working from home. It’s even left the house with me a couple of times! I used to tuck it under my jumper whilst I sat on the quadbike mowing the reeds on Islay and I’ve taken it to work with me at the university on the weekend. (They shut the heating off on the weekend in winter and it gets a bit chilly in the office). Anyway, get a hot water bottle. You will not regret it!
As well as warm layers, I also love a bit of warm light, like fairy lights and lamps. I light candles infinitely more in the colder, darker months and as a result my flat always smells awesome. For me, candles really make a difference and they don’t have to be expensive. They make ‘normal’ things like taking a bath and reading a book more special too. Candles are great for the evenings but something that has made a REAL difference to me, especially in the morning, is having a sunrise/sunset alarm clock. I struggle to get out of bed at the best of times, but I REALLY struggle to get up when it’s dark outside. Mid-winter in Aberdeen the sun rises at 0845 and sets at 1530 so unless I’m having an ultimate lie in, it’s dark when I get up throughout winter. Having an artificial sunrise on a dark morning has been life changing! I’m still grumpy and I still don’t like crawling out of my blanket nest, but I’m summer level grumpy not tickling a sleeping dragon level grumpy (if you get the HP reference there, I salute you!). There are lots of different makes and models out there and I couldn’t recommend getting one more.
Talking of light – Vitamin D. Our bodies synthesise vitamin D when the sunlight hits our skin throughout the summer months. (We can also get it from eating things like oily fish, meat, cheese and mushrooms). In the UK we can’t synthesise vitamin D in the winter because there isn’t enough UVB radiation in sunlight. So, no matter how many walks you go at midday between October and March you’re not going to be getting any vitamin D out of it. Not to mention you’re probably not going to have much skin exposed in those months anyway. The idea is that we make all our vitamin D in summer and that we make enough to see us through winter. BUT the reality for many of us is that we now have inside jobs and probably don’t spend 20 mins outside in the sun between 11am and 3pm every day….so we don’t make enough vitamin D in summer to tide us over anymore. That means that many of us are low in vitamin D and this can cause things like fatigue, low mood, hair loss, muscle pains and frequent infections: Vitamin D is super important for healthy bones, teeth and muscles. Because of that it’s now advised that we supplement with about 10µg of vitamin D per day throughout those darker months. (Of course, if you have any concerns or any extra health considerations you should see your doctor before you go down to Boots). Whilst we’re talking about this, I think it’s also very important to note that folk with darker skin need to get more sun than us pale folk to make the same amount of vitamin D. So, if you have dark skin you are more likely to have low vitamin D levels throughout the whole year (especially in places like the UK). Also, if you’re a modest dresser then you may not have enough exposed skin to be making enough vitamin D even in summer. Something to think about. It’s always hard to tell if something like a supplement makes a difference or not, but I feel like it works for me!
Despite the fact you’re not getting any vitamin D out of it I still think it’s crazy important to get out and about throughout winter so you don’t get cabin fever. In fact, winter is my favourite time to explore lots of places. Mostly, because it’s quiet but also because I’m a huge fan of open, desolate and bleak landscapes! I think they have a huge amount of atmosphere. I mentioned in one of my other blogs about how I went to Dunnottar castle in Stonehaven in both winter and summer and how different those two experiences were, but the same thing can be said for most places. There’s so much beauty in a winter landscape but, I think, in general, maybe you have to look a little harder to see it. More often than not when I’m out and about with someone in winter I hear them say at some point…”I bet this is lovely in summer”. I’ve had to train myself to reply with something like “hmm, yeah” or “I bet” but really, inside, I’m shouting “IT’S LOVELY RIGHT NOW”. I’ve never heard someone in summer say, “I bet this looks lovely in winter”. Maybe I should start. I get it though, I really do. Summer is warm and colourful and more obviously full of life…it’s just a huge bugbear of mine!
Something that might help you appreciate being out and about in winter is a flask…or three. I have a tea/coffee flask, a soup flask and a whisky flask and each one is loved and appreciated throughout the cooler months. My consumption of hot drinks in the house skyrockets too and my alcohol choices go from summery chilled white wines and margaritas to brandy macs, whiskies and espresso martinis. I like drinking, and warming yourself up or killing off the cold ‘germs’ lingering in your throat is a great excuse! (Don’t tell me if there’s any science debunking that cold ‘germ’ thing. I don’t want to know)!
Anyway, because I still try to get out and about as much as I can my skin definitely takes a hit, so, I take the opportunity in winter to pamper myself. By pamper I just mean I up my skincare in general; more baths, more exfoliating, more face masks, more moisturising…you get the idea…just ‘more’! I know a lot of us are on a budget, but this really doesn’t have to cost much, and it so makes a difference. Alongside this type of self-care I think I naturally allow myself to relax with less guilt in winter too. I do more yoga, crafts and reading (which constitutes relaxing for me). Maybe the winter hibernation vibes let introverts like me spend more time getting on with introvert things!
Talking of introvert things, I think winter, which of course marks both the end of the current year and the beginning of the next, is a great time to reflect on what has happened and ruminate over what could be. This is something I REALLY enjoy doing. Now, I’m not talking about 5-year career plans (eurgh) or weight goals or anything like that, but something much softer. I’m actually going to write another blog at the beginning of the year about my ‘100 things to do in a year’ list and the cards I use to help me focus on what’s important to me. As this blog is already 2000 words long I won’t say any more about that ‘softer’ type of planning here or now…but look out for it if you’re interested in that.
So these are just some of the things I love about winter and some of the things that help make it such a pleasant time, for me. Of course, I also love Christmas and a sprinkling of snow and the smell of cold air and blue skied frosty days, but that all seemed too obvious. I can’t force you to like this season but hopefully if you’re a winter sceptic this has given you something to think about!
In A Kingdom By The Sea 