the seagull in the first shot is a crisp as can be. What a great moment in time you captured there. And the woodpecker really did pose for your camera.
Let us know what you find in your research on lights. There must be some specialists in your area or Seattle who focus on the benefits of SAD lights to lift your spirits.
Me -- not to put too fine a point on it, I have a sunburned back from gardening in my swim suite today. Ouch!
Hard to believe it's been almost 3 years....wow.
I am one of those whiteys who likes it gloomy. And here I am in a converted desert huddling indoors when it is hot.
I do know someone who claims to have been helped by those lamps, but I always figured there was some placebo effect going on, too. But even placebo effects work, no?
Love the otter!
You want Vitamin D, you pretty much need sunlight -- no practical artificial light can do it for you. But, you don't need to synthesize it, you can eat it. Milk is Vitamin D fortified, and I assume you're drinking (low fat) milk as part of your physician's advice, so you shouldn't need to worry about Vitamin D. Also, if you get enough sun during the warmer months it'll last you a while.
That said, the rhythm of the seasons is something many people from higher latitudes value. And you don't really want to go to one of those sunbelt artificial retirement towns and play shuffleboard before heading off for the early-bird dinner special.
WOW, What a great group of shots of the otter and seagull.
It's been grey here too, and it's still cold and raw. 40's this whole week, darn.
I'm so longing for the warm weather to kick in. There was ice skim on the driveway puddle when I got to work this morning.
Love the photos. I can almost feel the damp, cool moisture and hear the gentle lapping of the waves. Sea Otters have to be the clowns of the sea, for sure. As for vitamin D and a few other good things, I take the el cheapo cod liver oil capsules. I started it long ago on advice from a great grandmother. I also stick one or two in the soil around some plants and they respond with such magnificent growth that people are in awe.
I have a few of those lights and have used them but not sure if they make a huge difference. I am third generation born in Oregon and still have problems with SAD-- not to mention have olive skin. I think a lot of Californians have problems up here with our winters as they can be so gray and for so long. Perhaps, being retired, next year you can spend time in a southern climate for part of the winter. It's part of why we got the Tucson house although we haven't been getting there for winter-- nor spending long enough to make a difference.
lovely pictures R and R! I love Otters!
we did have a dry winter a few years ago and it was really hard on our summer.
but I do have to agree it was a tough grey winter this year. hard on the spirit or what was left of it.
take care
Dawn
I am a pale-skinned fish eater, and I cannot imagine living where there is so little sun. I do appreciate the beauty around you, and envy you the wildlife and the space, but the lack of light would make me a lunatic. I feel certain the urban neighborhood would not be good for y'all, however. You have to learn to overlook a lot of the foibles of humankind. Like litter. Makes me nuts. Everything is a trade-off, I suppose.
Great photos, as always.
I have read a few blurbs about SAD lights in Alaska magazine, but not anything conclusive (not that I've read every issue).
My Dad's youngest brother left Kansas City in 1950 because he said the sun went behind a cloud and didn't come back out for a month. He moved to LA and stayed there for 15 years, then spent a few in Colorado before returning to southern Oklahoma in the late 60's...
I hope you find a way to deal with this because otherwise you seem to love where you are!
alan
When I lived in Chicago, a lot of people used light boxes to combat Seasonal Light Disorder. There are full-spectrum flourescent bulbs (I used to use a light box with full-spectrum for viewing my slides as well.) While not as good as actual sunlight, it is helpful.
Vitamin D is also helpful.
But I swear by a supplement called SAM-e which is a lifesaver. Plus it is good for joints and liver function too.
Those are all beautiful photos and illustrate what it is that is so wonderful about the place where you life. I love that Pileated Woodpecker -- it does look rather bold.
Regadring cool, damp, overcast weather, it troubles me too. I have arthritis (have had it much of my life), so our winters wreak havoc on my body. When we have traveled to Arizona in winter, I've left here feeling like I'm 80, flown there and changed into my shorts at the airport to go out hiking a.s.a.p. after arriving. Within 2 days, I'm feeling like a kid again (that's the Summer Me). I know that travel may sound like a bit of a cop-out, but it might help to get away for even 3 or 4 weeks. I've done that a couple of times. Miid-Jan to mid-Feb seems to work out about best. Short of that, I do bizarre things like ordering in travel and nature movies on warm places, and watch them when it gets dark early in the evenings. I put on Cuban or South American music... take extra vitamin D,.. and cook meals that remind me of hot places. It's all just trickery, but it does seem to help when it's impossible for me to go somewhere else for awhile. I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that a lot of people who move to this part of the country don't stay very long before going back to where they came from, or deciding to move south.
tara-- I got that gull shot a short time later, as we got closer to the bird. I couldn't believe that the otter was so much out of the water, and I didn't really "see" what it was until it had high-tailed it back into the bay. Dang.
I am sitting under a full-spectrum lamp as I type this. What I don't know is if it helps in Vitamin D production. I'm researching.
kathyr-- I actually don't like hot weather at all. It's one of the reasons we moved here. What I wasn't prepared for is how dark it is in the winter. It's an interesting thing to be this far north. I think the happy compromise will be to travel south for some of the winter.
Cervantes-- I haven't been drinking milk, but I was thinking about it the day. The thought of it is pretty creepy, but I did consider adding a bit of chocolate and making it rather enjoyable!
Can you just see me and Roger heading out for the early-bird special after an afternoon of shuffleboard? Well, probably not for at least another ten years.
sbgypsy-- The temps have at least warmed up here. There is nothing like being able to go outside for a hike or a look at the garden and not having to put on layers and layers of wool and cotton.
peacechick mary-- I thought about taking the cod liver oil caps, but some part of me recoils about it. I know it is an excellent source of D. Maybe I'll have to try it, but I think I'll try the chocolate milk first, to see if that will do the trick!
rain-- I think traveling south is going to be the answer for me. I can take all the supplements I need, but there's no replacement for real warmth and light.
Dawn-- I don't mind the rain at all. If it would rain here a few times a week, but be clear the other days, that would seriously make all the difference in the world.
I couldn't believe that otter. It was really having a standoff with the gull. I wish I had been closer to get a better idea of what was going on.
YT-- We're going to figure out how to make it work up here. We do love it so much. There's got to be a way to thrive here, even if it means some time away.
alan-- I think I'm leaning toward wanting real sun in the winter. Lights might help in November, but by mid January I'm going to want the real thing.
divajood-- Interesting info about the SAM product. I'm going to do a little research to see what its specific ingredients are. Thanks for the tip.
bev-- You captured exactly what the sense of the sun does for the joints. I have been saying to roger that I finally understand why so many people move to the sunbelt. It really does help the bones to be in the sun. I'm glad that we do get plenty of sunlight in the summer. It's an interesting dilemma though in the winter.
Well, I do remember an even WETTER winter in '98-'99, when it rained for three months straight. I was teaching at an elementary school then, and playground duty was miserable! But it made for a fantastic snowpack, which as you know, we rely upon for water in the summer. Trade-offs...
One of our son's friends was telling us about visiting another friends grandparents in Yuma, Arizona. Now that sounded like hell to me, living in a retirement community, being inside in air conditioning all the time, driving to the casino for cheap eats.
The moist air here in the Pacific NW is good for our complexions!
It's all about balance isn't it, he said rubbing the skin cancer scar on his shoulder.
I think your travel for sun plan is pretty good, since your summer's seem to be delightful.
I was shooting pics of a pileated just two days ago. Nice shot!
In 54 years this is the worst winter I have ever spent in the PNW. And yes I can remember them all from infancy!!!
The Universal was testing us, and those of us who survived will never have to go through this again.
Your photo were fantastic, and it is sometimes only through a lens that we can see clearly. We are human, afterall.
It's easy to say that all it takes is getting used to a climate and taking the good with the bad, but when it impacts your emotional and physical health all that goes by the wayside. It's been clear to me that the past winter has been hard on you, Robin. I don't know much about light therapy for that, but I haven't heard anything debunking it over the years and it seems that I've run across a number of reports that refine light therapy and extend it. Perhaps combining light therapy with your greenhouse, which offers its own therapy, is a route toward surviving those cold wet dark winters. More and more I think that greenhouse could be the key.
But now it's spring, and though I hesitate to make predictions, I'll warrant that things will be looking up, and in a few weeks you'll be wondering why on earth you could ever have considered leaving.
Your immediate household area is just marvelous to me, and then when you get into the walk down the creek to the tidal mouth and the bay shore, it seems like you have a wealth of ecology and diversity. The birds alone make me envious. And then, of course, there's the bobcat.
So long as there's the degree of isolation, it would seem idyllic to me, but that's just me. In my own weighing and balancing isolation would probably outweigh seasonal weather problems. While we don't have weather problems that weigh heavily on me (much as I may complain), if my feelings of isolation were to disappear, I'd want to be out of here, fast.
Love the woodpecker and seal photos! WOW Keep up the great work!
Isabelita-- We could never live in the desert. It goes against everything we both believe, which is that it's crazy to build a community where there is no water. The desert is a place to be visited.
FC-- I had forgotten about your bout with skin cancer. I'm only getting about 15 minutes to a half hour of sun on the days that it's out. I'm pretty lucky because I have so much protective melanin. I've been doing a lot of reading about Vitamin D and the sun. A lot of dermatologists are very worried about sending people out into the sun to get their daily dose. I think most people stay out much too long.
I love pileated woodpeckers. I know some people consider them pests, but I think they are such beautiful birds.
moonlightray-- Welcome to the Dharma Bums, thanks so much for stopping by. Nice to hear from an old timer who also saw this winter as particularly challenging. I guess if we made it through this one, we can make it through the rest! Glad you liked the pics.
Wayne-- We do really love it here. It has 99% of everything that we need. Yes, isolation and solitude are right up there as something we require for managing our lives. I've had bouts of depression on and off for years, and this winter's darkness really sent me into a tailspin. I even stopped blogging, oh horrors of horrors! When I'm quiet, it's not a good thing. I'm sure we'll figure something out. If I could just get that bobcat to walk through the yeard once a day, it would be almost as good as sunshine.
mon@arch-- Glad you liked the pics.
It is all about the light, Robin. You live in the most beautiful of places and your posts are astonishingly telling as you communicate the wealth of life that buzzes around you out there in your solitude. I love that about this place.
But the gray is hard- it was actually the one thing that gave me serious pause about moving to Oregon when Rich had an offer. Michigan was taking it's toll with the long gray winters and I knew I couldn't take even less sunlight.
I used full spectrum in my home office where I saw patients. The first day I put the lamp by my chair Sophie emerged from her cherished felted bed in the corner and moved onto the arm of the chair- where she remained all winter. I subsequently used three more in that office and one at my bedside table. I think they help. You can sometimes buy Ott lamps on eBay or at sewing stores for far less than a lamp store. Joanne's Fabrics has an online store and they send coupons for 40% off by e-mail so you can end up getting them reasonably.
In other news- sorry, but you are one of the Thinking-est Bloggers I know, so you got pegged today at my place. You're supposed to pass it on but it's fine with me if you just know that I definitely think New Dharma Bums deserves the "Thinking Blogger" award.
P.S. FC is correct, she said rubbing the divet under her nose...Now I think I have found the perfect combination of the most excellent winter place and the best sunscreen. Here's a piece of good news: we let friends use it! Seriously- just ask. There are many times when we need to travel back to Chicago for a week here and there and these poor kitties need housesitters.
Although I spent my first 24 winters in California, mostly just south of San Francisco, this was my 33rd winter in northwest Washington. I'm one who likes the darkness and thrives on it, but this last winter was extraordinarily oppressive. It was so good to see blue sky and sunshine today!
I have used full-spectrum light bulbs throughout my home for years. They are expensive, but they make it much easier to go through winter here. Besides, they are a delight when I am painting because the colors are true. Good food looks better under full-spectrum lights, too!
My allergies to environmental molds, cultured and fermented foods manifest as low level depression and occasional severe migraine headaches. I never drank much wine, but most of my depression lifted when I stopped drinking it entirely and eliminated fermented and cultured foods from my diet. Not easy to do, but worth it to me.
Nice photos. I really enjoyed the first one. It's such a beautiful shot. It always lifts my spirits to come and see what you've posted. Thank you!
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