I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I suffer from winter blues/seasonal affective disorder and the various ways I attempt to manage the symptoms of these disorders. I believe that my anxiety and depression cause the winter blues really hit me especially hard. Exercise is a big component of dealing with my mental health issues, not just the winter blues. Unfortunately, I find it much harder to exercise in the cold and dreary winter months, which is when I need to be physically active the most to help deal with the increased depression.
I find that for me going to the gym on a regular basis can become tedious and unfulfilling. I’ve made no secret that I would much rather be riding outside than sitting on a stationary bike. I do try to take the doggies for a walk in the winter, but I’ll admit to being inconsistent on that front.
I’ve always thought that my lack of enthusiasm was due to boredom (which I suspect is a big part of it), but on a recent bike ride I had an epiphany: while exercising in winter makes me feel better, but it doesn’t make me feel good.
Let me get to that in a moment, but first let me put in some back story.
Chance the Wonderdog on a recent walk near the Plains Conservation Center. While I was soaking up the newly leafed out flora, he was keeping an eye out for certain fauna. Specifically, bunnies.
Last week there were several days that were nice enough that I was able to get in a bike ride or take the doggies out for a walk. The weather was perfect. The sun was shining bright but the temps weren’t too hot. The new leaves on the trees rustled in the breeze (a sound I’ve not heard since last October), and the birds were chirping like mad.
And I noticed after I finished my rides and walks that I felt great. Not better. Not OK.
No, I felt fantastic!
Springtime ride through Cherry Creek State Park.
That’s when I had the epiphany: it’s hard for me to stay motivated to keep exercising in the winter when all I’m getting out of it is that I go from feeling shitty to feeling less shitty.
I’m not sure yet what I will do about this when winter returns. All I can do in the meantime is spend as much time gardening/walking/bicycling outside from now until mid-autumn as time and weather will allow. I’ll just have to deal with winter when it gets here.
Posted inHealth|Taggedexercise, Winter Blues|Comments Off on Exercise and mental health benefits: winter vs spring/summer/early autumn
Ah, springtime in the Rockies. A ubiquitous saying heard quite often in Colorado around this time of year. It’s a euphemism for “man, the weather is nuts but what’re you gonna do about it?”.
Temps in the 70’s on Sunday, cold front that came through mid-week bringing with it several days of rain, closing out with snow on Thursday. Warm front is supposed to move through tomorrow raising temps back into the 70’s for weekend. Yup, the weather is nuts but what’re you gonna do about it?
Because of the weather and my schedule, I haven’t been able to do much in the garden besides mow and put down some mulch in the garden beds. So, today I am just going to post some recent photos I took from around the garden. Enjoy!
Tulips blooming at the feet of Clematis and Hops vines.I’ve mentioned Brunnera several times. Here is a close up of the blossoms. Raindrops on Tulips.Spirea “Glo-Girl” leafing out. Columbine in bloom. This is the only Hosta that has survived in my garden. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of it, but it’s a trooper.
The above quote from Hemingway’s novel is actually from a character describing how he went bankrupt. But I think it is also a good way to describe Spring’s progression from winter dormancy to full blown springtime.
Red tulips in the backyard.
I find Spring to be the oddest of all the seasons. The days on the calendar move along, but Spring itself arrives in dibs and drabs. A warm, sunny day here followed by several days of cold, wet weather. Vivid blooms on spring bulbs that seem to disappear overnight.
An analogy I like to use is that Spring is like a runner crouched in the chocks, drawing a deep breath right before the starter’s pistol goes off. Tension builds in anticipation of the release from the upcoming event. The proverbial calm before the storm, as it were.
I suspect the tension that build while waiting for Spring to finally arrive is due to the fact, that while there are small pockets of plants in bloom, the garden itself is still predominantly sparse and bare. While some trees and shrubs might be blooming, they are still denuded of leaves. Perennials are mostly just small mounds of new growth. Even though the sun currently occupies the same patch of sky it will inhabit sometime in mid-August, the air is still cool to the skin. So, while the sights and sounds of Spring may sometimes fool our senses into believing that it’s almost summer, most other times it feels like Winter is refusing to let go. It feels like nature is a tightly wound coil spring, that at any second will let loose and finally jump into the growing season…
Hmm, perhaps that is why the season is called Spring? Doubtful, but it seems appropriate. For a month from now all that energy will finally be released and the landscape will be nearly unrecognizable from what it looks like today. We will wake up one day and realize that, yes, Spring has finally arrived in all its glory
Ok, let’s see what is new in the garden this week.
My last garden post I bitched about the stupid woodpecker that drilled a hole in my siding and woke Mrs. Vintage and I every morning. This week’s post finds me bitching about a different pest, one that can ravage gardens, destroy crops and annoy your dogs. I am speaking of the “suburban rats”, otherwise known as squirrels.
Stupid squirrels attacking my tree
My specific complaint with these annoying bastards is that they’re destroying whole branches on my trees. These buggers are chewing the bark all the way around large branches, which in turn leads to the death of said branch. If they would only chew part of the bark that would be ok because the branch would survive. But when they chew all the way around the branch all I can do is cut the whole branch off to prevent diseases from entering the wound.
This is a fairly recent development, by the way. I’ve had these trees for a decade or longer, and for years the squirrels left them alone. But for reasons unknown, these past couple of years they have declared war on my trees. I let my doggos out into the yard to scare them away, but as soon as the doggos come back in the rat-bastards return.
What’s even worse, I have discovered that I have a neighbor who deliberately feeds these furry scourges. This has led a noticeable uptick in their population. What kind of a sick, twisted psycho lives in my midst?
That’s not the only vexing problem in the garden. Below are a couple of pictures of my Serviceberry (amelanchier x grandiflora Autumn Brilliance) that anchors one end of a section of the garden that I have dubbed “the Bermuda Triangle”, so named because many of the plants that I have placed there over the years have disappeared to never be seen again. Serviceberry is a beautiful tree with multiple seasons of interest. It blooms these pretty white blooms in spring, and the leaves turn an intense orange and red in autumn.
Serviceberry in bloom
Unfortunately, whatever is causing problems in the Bermuda Triangle might be killing this tree. The roots have girdled the trunk of the tree, just below the soil, causing the tree to literally choke itself to death. A common cause of girdling is when the gardener doesn’t tease out the roots of a plant sufficiently when putting it into the ground. This causes the roots basically continue to grow in the same direction they did when they were constrained by the container, which ultimatly leads to girdling.
I am usually very conscientious about spreading the rootball when I plant, so I fear there may be something in the soil that is not favorable to plant life in the Bermuda Triangle. Perhaps the tree didn’t like something in the soil and so didn’t push its roots beyond the original hole I dug when I planted it.
I’ll go into more detail on the Bermuda Triangle in another post. I just wanted to show the Serviceberry in bloom.
A closeup of the Serviceberry blooms
In more positive news, the Brunnera (below) is still blooming strong. The Basket-of-gold is blooming right along side of it. Many of the prettiest plant combinations in my garden have been happy accidents. This combination was deliberate, and I am very pleased with the result. The plant in the back, which also has yellow blooms, is a Creeping Oregon Grape (mahonia repens). This is an evergreen prostrate shrub that is native to the western United States. What I am trying to achieve in this section is the feeling of a woodland under-story. I think I have mostly succeeded. What do you think?
False forget-me-not, Basket-of-gold, and Creeping Oregon Grape provide a woodland feel to under-story of the Bigtooth Maple.
On a final note, not all the gardening action is happening outside. Look below at the newly created succulent garden I put together. It was actually Mrs. Vintage’s idea. We had an old southwestern style pot lying around, and she suggested that a cactus garden might look good in it. She didn’t need to tell me twice. I rummaged around a local nursery and a Lowes nearby for the plants and materials needed. I have no idea of the names of these succentents. I just picked out several of different shapes.
When making a cactus garden, it’s important to use quick draining soil. So I bought some cactus potting soil, used cooking tongs to put the cacti in place and topped it all off with a pebble mulch. If you look closely, you can see a cow skull and a rattlesnake nestled among the plants.
So that’s what has been happening in my yard and garden. How about your yarden? Do you have any pictures or stories you would like share? If so, please send your pictures and details to MrVintageMan2@gmail.com.
