To NOT like the evenings stretching...

[IWantNiceNeighbours]

I absolutely adore the dark nights and love it when the clocks go back in October, love driving home from work in the dark. Love lying in bed all cozy at 7pm looking up at the big, bright moon. Love being at home in the warm or going for a night walk and looking at everyone's Halloween decorations.

I don't like the lighter evenings! I find it harder to sleep, feel like I should be doing more or that everyone is doing something sociable and interesting. All the twats come out getting drunk in their gardens or blasting their shit music out and motorbikes revving about everywhere.

Fuck the light evenings... leave me in the winter!

5.30 dawn (because I often have to walk the dog then and I love a sunrise)
19.00 dusk (DDs bedtime)

I love a cold crisp day so min I'm happy with -1, max I agree about 21/22 depending on the type of heat. Don't like it if it's sticky, needs to be dry.

@IWantNiceNeighbours yes I feel you! I just feel so much pressure in the summer that im not making the most of it. I should be outside doing something, or highlights my reducing friend circle/everyone lives all over that im Not sat in the pub garden with a pint. People don’t understand what I mean when I say it, but it’s just starting to make me feel anxious. I also hate being hot unless im in holiday and I’m happy to be baked!

winter ive fully embraced the rest and restorative approach and ive been content and happy.

I’m the opposite, I love being able to go for a walk in the evening after work which I can’t do until April usually and if I have stuff to do in the evening then having light nights is far more motivating.

But this winter I’m learning to embrace the cosy! To enjoy being cosy at home watching TV or reading. But that only works if I have nothing that needs doing in the evening which is very rare.

We are blessed to have the seasons we do in this country I reckon!

I suspect that the weirdos winter lovers either don't work or WFH, don't have dogs that require walking in all weathers, are well off enough to to worry about energy bills and the cost of drying clothes, may have small children who they struggle to get to sleep in summer or are child free, never feel cold, have excellent eyesight and don't like spending time outside.

I am usually in the autumn/winter camp cos I like to be at home. All cosy and eating comfort food etc.

However I get this. I love evening gardening and mostly my garden is quiet after 7 ish (I think we might be the noisy ones, small child and young dog in a predominantly older age street).

And the rain this winter has made me feel like I'm never fully dry! It's miserable.

I'm with you about some of the noise in June and July, but other than that, disagree.

I love the fact the days are getting longer. DH isn't though, he prefers the winter.

Although I have to admit for the last 3 years the people two houses down will insist several times over the summer on having people round and playing loud music until gone 1am. If it was a Friday or Saturday I wouldn't care but it's always Monday night.
Apart from that that love the longer days (and hopefully better weather).

Yes I love this time of year. Everywhere outdoors is so much quieter and less crowded. You’ve also reminded me that I need to look into moving before summer when my neighbours garden music makes my DCs room sounds like a nightclub at bedtime.

I do (usually, this one's tested me) love winter.

I have a collie. A 4 year old. A small house. I do WFH mostly but have to go in the office once a week and this last week had to go to that there London (long trip) for a 10am meeting. No space for indoor drying and although we earn well, if rather not have to spend it all on drying clothes.

I like all seasons though, tbh, except that bit of summer where I'm too hot all the time because I don't handle heat well. Otherwise, they all have plus points and I try to look for them.

@IWantNiceNeighbours why don't you get some blackout curtains or blinds? They are a game changer.

I love winter. I love the long nights, dark nights.

It really, really annoys me when people bang on about how from X date there will be Y extra minutes of daylight and from Z the sun will set however many minutes later. It is fast forwarding through the year! Are we only allowed to enjoy the spring and summer?

Yes, I totally understand SAD and I totally understand not everyone enjoys the gloom or rain or cold or darkness. But we need seasons, we need the winter as much as the summer.

My mum, my friends, people I follow on social media... they are all frequently telling me (and have been since Christmas) how by March we will have longer days. That's a quarter of a year people are wishing away.

I told my mum in August that in 3 months time it would be dark/cold etc and she went nuts 😂 she did not like the tables being turned like that.

I partly agree. I can do all the indoor things I like in the gloomy days and long dark evenings - baking, jigsaws, reading, piano, painting etc. When it's sunny I feel obliged to get outside and do stuff and be more active - which I also like but it's nice to have an excuse to be lazier!

I'm with you! I love the long, dark, cold nights. Cosy and poetic.

I cannot stop thinking about how much I miss the daylight during these long winter days, all I want is to be able to get home from work and be able to be in some daylight. I find living in the dark really depressing for a long period as like most people I’m stuck in artificial lighting during daylight hours. I time my runs this time of year for when the sun comes up and is my favourite time of the day

I love the long hours of daylight in spring summer but not the heat. So my ideal would be
5am dawn
11pm dusk
Min -5°C in winter
Max 220C in summer to its not too hot for doing things outdoors (I love gardening).

Maybe we were lucky when the DCs were little but they were no bother getting to bed on light evenings and they didn't wake too early either.

I love keeping busy in the evenings, exercise, going to my allotment, socialising and it is all so much harder work in winter, the allotment is impossible, having to put on a thick coat and take an umbrella to walk 15 mins to the sports centre instead of just picking up a water bottle and going in summer, being able to sit in the pub garden instead of indoors. Also hate driving to work and back in the dark.

I get your point but I’ve absolutely no desire to go to bed at 7pm with soft music as my standard routine.

Agree with you 100%, especially about the noisy twats emerging.

I get to be smug all year round! I love the changing seasons, and every season has its own 'thing' going on.

The one thing I always hate though is the switch to BST. This probably belongs on an 'unpopular opinion' post, but I'd like year-round GMT.

It's February. You have months until people are making outside summery noise. And nothing's stopping you 'staying indoors all cosy' just because it's a bit lighter.

What's stopping you from reading, painting or doing jigsaws outside under a shady umbrella?

Dark lovers just need to invest in blackout blinds all around the house.

Me too, I struggle to endure the heat of summer. I hate being a sticky sweaty faced frizzy mess. But my daughter struggles with the darkness (both literal and mood), so for her sake I am glad for the extended light of spring & summer.

People that have these idyllic lifestyles in the dark don't seem to watch telly or doesn't that convey a cosy enough picture that painting, reading, soft music and jigsaws do.

It’s a nope from me. I have a very outdoorsy lifestyle with horses and dogs and I am constantly fighting the daylight in winter to get everything done.

I quite like being forced to sit down (rarely inside on a night before 8 in summer) but every other part of it can sod off.

What a waste of life to go to bed at 7pm as a healthy adult, even if you do read, then get up at 5am. MN is an eye opener. It really is on the far end of 'normal'.

Do you work? Do you eat when you get home? At what time?

I consider myself an early-nighter - in bed by 10.30, 11pm very latest- and up by 7-ish each day.

I love the lighter evenings but I do get cross with the dawn chorus in spring as it wakes me from 4am. I hate dark nights. I like sitting in my garden till 10pm in summer.

I hate driving in the dark as I live rurally, miles from an A road, and the roads are narrow, treacherous and full of idiot drivers.

I hear you OP, I absolutely love Autumn and Winter and January especially for hibernating with pyjamas, cozy blankets, early nights, scented candles etc. I am an early riser too and love getting up while it is still dark and seeing the sun come up but soon I will have to get up at 5am to see the day get light and I am not that early a riser.