Sometimes you have to make your own sunshine

SAD? Not really at the moment, thank you, I'm fine! Oh, seasonal affective disorder. I have been getting it between late January and sometime in March without fail for the last few years, but I try to be armed and ready for it because I refuse to be beaten down. 

Here are the some things I do to try to combat the winter gloom:

⭐️ Be outside as much as possible - I try to catch as many of those weak sun rays as I can. Fresh air and excercise are proven to be good for mental wellbeing. 

⭐️ Plan your garden or surroundings for maximum winter cheerfulness. Plant winter and early spring bulbs like snowdrops, winter aconites and crocus. Hellebores and Clematis cirrhosa var purpurascens 'Freckles' are two of my favourite winter flowering plants.

 Some Roses will flower a fair way into winter - Rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere' is a pretty safe bet and my Rosa 'New Dawn' often produces lovely fat pink buds in the darker months. They are especially pretty with frost on. Sometimes the very act of planting something with potential beauty is enought to combat the blues. 

⭐️ Incorporate permanent structure into your garden. Topiary is great for making me smile - the more characterful the shape the better. Geometric is smart, wonky is fabulous! (And I had to sneak Brian the snail in here somewhere). 

Other permanent garden structures are great but don't exactly give me midwinter joy.....so I paint woodwork funky colours. I love looking out over my winter garden, ignoring the mud and the bare tree branches, towards my compost heap (see previous composting blogpost - #slightlyobsessed!). I have painted it blue, pale pink and one shade of very. bright. PINK. And it cheers me up no end.

⭐️ Focus on house plants. I have a gradually increasing collection that I am trying my best not to kill.....hey, I'm learning new skills - green fingers will only get you so far. 

Other non-horticultural SAD fighting tips:

⭐️ Trips to the park including 3+ mandatory slide descents and a go on the swings - no matter what age you happen to be.

⭐️ Loud singing along to your favourite tunes (my all-time cure-all blues tunes = all of Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses; my new favourite 'sing at the top of my voice' tunes = Let it go from Frozen and anything by Taylor Swift).

⭐️ Paint something.....anything! A wall, a painting, a chest of drawers.

⭐️ See your friends. Even if you don't feel much like it, drag yourself out of the door. 

In the meantime, we've got a few dark months to go.......we can do it.