To not be excited about light nights and summer?

[hermithead]

I keep seeing posts on SM about how the light nights are here, and the better weather.

I know this is obviously preferred by a lot of people.

Personally, I'm feeling a little like I'll need to force myself to embrace that.

I've been enjoying going out a walk in the dark, knowing I'll bump into few people and that I can hide under heavy coat and hat.

It's more acceptable to stay home for days on end in the winter, and I'm all for that.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it when I do get out and socialise, etc, but at the moment I'm feeling like it's something I'll need to really gear up to.

Am I weird? Or are there others like me?

I absolutely dread turning the clocks back in October, the months ahead depress me so much, I chuffing hate them.

After turning the clocks forward this weekend just gone was a blessed relief, although I’m pissed off with the bloody weather, grey and wet!!

I had a little cry yesterday as I’ve just had enough of the cold, rain and grey skies. I’m sick of cleaning 3 dogs down, even when they’ve been on the garden for a quick wee. Please bring me some warmth and sunshine ☀️🙏🏻

I would love summer if I had enough money to live in a detached house away from other people, currently £250k above what I can afford to buy.
As it is the stinking barbeques with shrieking people at them, kids, dogs barking, lawn mowers, topless fat men etc can fuck off.
Still its marginally better than my last house that I was driven out of by the 6 kids and chav parents. My current house is surrounded by elderly people who don't make a horrible row.

@Gettingbysomehow I agree that one's living and work circumstances can make a huge difference. If I lived in a south facing high rise in London with no outside space and a commute in a stuffy tube to an office with no aircon I expect I wouldn't enjoy summer as much as I do, or hate winter as much as I do.

I live in a part of Yorkshire that gets a lot of rain, but we have a house with a garden, lovely quiet neighbours, a car with aircon, I WFH most days and work in an office with arctic aircon on the days I drive to the office.

I just want the endless rain and mud to stop now. We have had nearly a year of this with the odd break from it.

There’s always quite a lot of entrenched superstitious suspicion on these threads that the winter lovers might ill wish the summer and ruin it. That’s not actually how weather works but you’re risking being burned as a witch for starting a thread like this.

Have you read Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles @hermithead ? He writes about loving winter so much that, when the weather brightens here, he books a holiday somewhere colder to catch the last bit of winter before facing into the English summer.

Mind you there are still places where they burn effigies of women on midsummer, so probably best to keep quiet.

I don't like it when the clocks go forward either. To me I don't mind it when it's dark in the evening. It feels like that's how it's supposed to be. But I really can't stand it when it's dark when I'm getting up in the morning.

There’s always quite a lot of entrenched superstitious suspicion on these threads that the winter lovers might ill wish the summer and ruin it. That’s not actually how weather works

Not at all - it's just a desire for winter/dark/cold lovers to acknowledge the fact that actually, they get their preferred weather for most of the year. Guaranteed from about September - April, and quite often May-August too, if it's cool and wet. Yet they still can't accept that other people who don't like the dark/cold/winter have the shitty end of the stick living in the UK and moan about how bright it is, how hot and uncomfortable they are, how unbearable it all is.

For 5 minutes until it starts raining again.

I can acknowledge just while still saying I dislike the idea that it's currently getting lighter every day at the moment.

Just because others like a bit of the year more than others doesn't mean I can't be a little sad about the weather changing at this time.

Does every post about anything that one person likes have to be prefixed with "of course a lot of the time I get what I want and others don't"? People are allowed to have preferences that stand alone from the preferences of others sometimes.

There is no obligation to socialise just because it's summer. How do people who say this cope with Christmas and New year enforced jollity? You can stay in during July just as much as December.

@Misthios
I don't begrudge anyone enjoying whatever summer we get if that is their thing. Don't see anyone else doing so either come to that . Personally I prefer dark evenings and cooler days that's all. Don't see what you find so annoying about that. And stating the obvious none of us can control the weather so.however we feel about it we will just crack on anyway. Horses for courses and all that I say.

You’re not weird at all. I hate it. Brings all the kids out as soon as the clocks go forward. Love the dark evenings x

It’s not really changing though is it? It’s still raining and quite cold. Can be this weather in December. It’s just a bit lighter in the evenings. Boo hoo.

I actually like hearing children outside playing. I think ‘how lovely that they can actually be outside’

Shut the curtains, put earplugs in and get back under your blanket if it bothers you that much.

One of my favourite summer sounds is that of a lawnmower. Another one is of leather on willow. I'm not particularly a cricket fan, but it is such a summery sound.

I feel exactly the same when the transition from dark evenings to lighter evenings initially occurs and vice versa but then I usually learn to get used to it. It’s cosy in winter but also I’m much more happier about getting up at 6 when it’s light outside.

Although I dislike the fact it’s one extreme or the other here in the UK ie I don’t like how light it stays in June until 10 and I hate how dark and miserable it is throughout Jan.

When we go abroad I like the fact the sun rises at 6:30/7 but also sets at that time too in the evening. Wish England could be the same!

I love the sound of leather on willow too, along with the polite applause and cheers, it's a quintessentially British summer sound. Always makes me think of picnics and afternoon tea. Same with the sound of tennis being played.

And the sound of children playing is such a lovely sound as well.

I hated even the idea of summer before I lost over 100lbs, the thought of not being able to hide under baggy, black clothes was torture, not to mention how tired and hot I got.

I am so sick of this cold, wet, miserable weather. I'm fine up to Christmas and New Year because I love that time but now I want dry warm weather to make getting my steps in easier and I want to show off the results of my hard work and weight training in dresses, sleeveless tops and lightweight linen trousers.

Bring it on!

Not in SELondon it isn’t. Plus we don’t get much leather on willow or tennis

Well done @Athena51

It's ok until it gets very hot
Then I hate it !

And? I don't like the lighter evenings. That is all. Everyone's allowed a preference. It doesn't upset me that lots of people like it hotter and drier and lighter. Why does it upset others that some of us prefer it as it is now? Nobody is gloating about it.

You’re moaning about hot and dry weather when it’s been cold and rainy since last October and when we had a shit summer last year - wetter than average. And it will still be cold and rainy for a good few months yet. And then we may not even get a decent summer.

The minute the clocks change the moaning starts. At least wait until it goes over 24 degrees.

The only explanation for people saying they don’t like the light evenings is ‘pressure to go out’ or something. Nobody is forcing you to go out. Close the curtains and get under your blanket and light a candle and voila it can be your endless winter again.

I'm not moaning about it. I prefer it cooler. I prefer it dark by about 8 because it feels more like evening when it's dark.

I'm sympathetic to those who find winter depressing. That doesn't mean those who don't find it depressing aren't allowed to say so. It's not a big deal, it's a preference. Summer and its various aspects are annoying to me. Not depressing, not difficult, not life-changingly terrible. Just annoying and not my preference.

It's so weird why just stating that preference riles people so much.

Yes it’s still cool though, it will be for months. You prefer the default weather of this country. It’s not a big deal.

I just don’t know why people start threads about it.

Menopausal insomniac here and I really really hate the bloody dawn chorus, especially the bastard blackbird, that wakes me at 5am or earlier, with no consideration. Bastards.

Because people start threads about all sorts of inconsequential shit hundreds of times a week? What makes this topic different?

And it started about the clock change and light evenings. It's about half the year it's light later than I prefer. And that's an unusual position. Which was kinda the point of the thread. Person A finds themselves in a minority opinion and chats about whether anyone agrees. Some people do. Others tell them they are unreasonable to even mention their minority opinion.