Celebrating Winter

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Here in the Peach State, winter is a conundrum. The respite from summer’s brutal heat is welcome yet we don’t often have the benefit of snow to liven up our outdoor adventures. In fact, snow here can be quite catastrophic.

But as hard as cold, rainy, dreary winter weeks like this one has been, I still actually appreciate winter in general, and Georgia winters in particular.

Love note to winter

• I like the actual physical landscape changes that happen through Georgia’s winters. It makes me appreciate each season as it comes and goes. There’s an anticipation to each one for its distinct qualities. Growing up in South Florida, we had no seasons. Or rather, the seasons were demarcated differently—hot and less hot, or shitloads of mosquitoes and slightly less shitloads of mosquitoes.
• Geocaching is more fun in winter. No battling poison ivy, ticks, and yellow jackets. Plus, less vegetation makes finding the caches easier.
• There’s less trail traffic so everything is quieter, even the critters. It’s a more contemplative experience.
• The delightfully exposed natural landscape is bare, naked, vulnerable. I love seeing the skeletal outlines of trees. They are graphic and complex and you can’t see that when everything is leafed out.
• Which means winter photography provides new opportunities to see and capture the stark contrasts of the seasons.
• And then there are the practical considerations. The short, cold, dreary days inspire me to get things done around the house since there are fewer days that are agreeable for outdoor adventures. If you’re going to be stuck inside, you might as well catch up on those pesky house projects, right?
• In the doldrums of winter, a “good” weather day feels epic. That’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it?
• In Georgia, because our winter weather is so mild and comparatively short, I can motorcycle year-round with little concern about ice and snow complications. That’s all kinds of groovy in my book.

So I leave you with this

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter. – John Burroughs