Guys and gals, I am NOT WHINING.
I am not whining because landsakes, I do not whine about things I can’t control. Silly, mundane, everyday things like stinkin’ weather that goes on forever because I live 4 miles from one of the biggest fresh water lakes in the world.
Hi, I’m Ruthy and I have Cabin Fever… but here in Western New York, far away from the crazy of New York City and the glamour of coastal living, in the bucolic and pastoral Eastern woodland forested neighborhoods and farms, winter does not give up easily! The temps of the Great Lakes keep anyone within five or six miles of the lake distinctly cool in spring…
By cool, I mean cold.
By spring, I mean snow.
So as we’re entering Holy Week, and preparing for an early Easter, do not be surprised if I camouflage my eggs by hiding them as is. White. PERFECT CAMO!!! 🙂
It’s no surprise we get spring fever here… we love winter (or at least shrug it off) but we WELCOME SPRING!!!! When it comes (early June) we laugh and cheer and clap each other on the back and dance our happy dances!
And then we welcome summer the next day.
This is only PARTIALLY EXAGGERATED. And I mean that part.
So what do you do when you have the winter that keeps on giving? (Anyone in the upper U.S. understands this…)
I write. I burrow down for one last solid month or six weeks of writing before farm season hits the ground running, and I PRETEND I’m okay with it. Clearly I’m a big, fat liar.
Because I want to grab Missy Tippens’ Georgia spring with both hands and haul it north. I want to visit Arizona for a week… and then leave before it gets hot. 🙂
I want to fly to Florida for spring training… or just to walk in the sand!
I never get sick of reading… or writing. I love it, It’s like my favorite other than grandbabies…. but part of embracing writing is staying involved with the real world. You know the kind. The people who go out in the snow!!! The people who go sledding! And build snowmen! The people who hop in a car and drive in semi-blizzard conditions and think nothing of it… the folks who bundle up like you should if you live up here and DON’T WHO SEES THEM.
Yeah. Them.
Cabin fever…. Here’s how I’m tackling it. I celebrate every new latitudinal degree of increase the sun makes.
I read great romance that makes me smile.
I write great romance that makes me smile more!!!
I try not to think about winter weight.
STUPID SCALE.
I brush the mini donkeys and they really, really need a bath.
I plan gardens.
I order seeds!
I read more books and smile…
I eat. (I know, I know, we shouldn’t do that, but I can’t help it!)
And I make sure the windows are clean because when that sun breaks through, with no leaves on the trees to filter it, the sins of a long winter are quite apparent… and me and the windows then pause… and wait for spring.
Hey, hey, I’ve got a copy of “Back in the Saddle” the first book of the Double S Ranch trilogy… Leave a comment and I’ll tuck your name into the drawing because one of the best ways of fighting cabin fever is… With That Great Book!
Multi-published, bestselling, award-winning author Ruth Logan Herne lives on a small farm in Western New York surrounded by grown kids, cute grandkids, cats, dogs, chickens, frogs, toads and snakes. That's why writing Westerns doesn't scare her. Not one smidge. Because she's surrounded by critters of all sorts, and has been known to teach lessons on snakes as available... She started writing Westerns by accident/invitation, and L-O-V-E-D it... matched with her love for both historicals and contemporaries, Ruthy's working on a new Western series for Love Inspired, New England mysteries for Guideposts and her historical Westerns for the indie market in 2018. She loves God, her family, her country and absolutely, positively loves what she does!
Texas gives a whole nuther meaning to seasons. Depending on the day or which side of the road, the season can swing around on ya pretty fast. A/c a few hours then switch to heat. Take a coat then stripp off to summer duds. That is just North Central Texas.
I had some Upper Peninsula life at uCalumet and out to Copper Harbor. Do not want any more Thank you.
Hahahahaha! The “U.P.” is a winter all its own, LOL! Jerri, nice to see you here! And Texas is so stinkin’ huge that it becomes its own climates and micro-climates depending on what time of year and what side of the road you’re on. Ay yi yi, you guys have a mix of ecosystems, people and everything. #mustlovetexas!!!
Good morning Ruth- oh what a great book you’re giving away. I love this book. I won it from you last year and just adored it. So good luck to everyone. Whoever wins it is getting an awesome story.
Yes I have cabin fever, here in Kansas we are warm during the day and dropping to freezing during the night. I’m so ready to plant a garden but the old saying is to wait until after the 1st weekend in May. I’ve lived here 24 years and find this to be so true. Happy Easter to you and your family. Much love! ???
Tonya, our date is about 4 weeks later than that…. Usually if we wait until May 23rd, we’re good, but even then a stray frost… or cold nights… kick everything back and slow things down. We just get so crazy anxious to get going!
Kansas… What a breadland kind of state that is! I’ve been through it a couple of times and even flew into it once, and it’s so different from the Eastern woodlands… but it’s like a farmer’s vision of amazingly great options! Thanks for your kind words about “Back in the Saddle” and glad you stopped by today!
Until after May 1st, oh my. If we waited that long our blooms would fall off from the Texas heat before the plant ever had the chance to produce.
It’s so different, right????
I need to bring my girls and come visit you! Texan here and I live (and raised my daughters in) in a part of Texas that rarely gets snow. My girls are 14 and 21 but they would play like those young girls that never had snow. I at least had years as a child that I lived in Kentucky and Tennessee that we had a few great snows and we had the hills to go with it. We had a winter in Kentucky that when we got out of school for Christmas break we didn’t go back to school until late in January because of massive snows! Not to mention that I was blessed to go snow skiing many times in my youth but my girls also didn’t have that benefit either. My girls had the misfortune to end up with a mother that had MS rear its ugly head at her when they were young. My youngest was only 11 months old so me and my MS is all she knows. She wanted to stay with me when my daughter went places with my parents so my oldest has traveled but not my youngest. My adventures are by reading books so I’m thankful for authors that hunker down and write great stories for me to enjoy. I’ve only been reading again after decades of not reading for 16 months but I’m about to finish my 120th book. I would love the opportunity to read one of your books. A giveaway is an awesome way to find a new author to add to my go to authors list. Great blog and I love the snow day picture.
Stephanie, you are a true warrior and I’m so impressed with your grit to never give up on life. You prevail and forge on. 120 books, wow and just think, it all started when I sent you the Linda Broday book. Just keep doing what you’re doing, because you’re a heroine in my eyes!!
Stephanie, you’re right! I love doing the occasional giveaway to tempt people to the Ruthy Side of the Fence, LOL! It’s fun to meet new people and gain new readers… because I am absolutely blessed to be doing what I always dreamed of doing, writing sweet books with unforgettable characters and stories that make us want to believe in all things good… and the good Lord! 🙂
And I love that you’ve forged on despite setbacks, Stephanie. That’s not misfortune for those girls… that’s great and loving example. Go you!
This Alabama winter we have had a little of all the seasons rolled into one We’ve had snow and we’ve had record breaking high temps just ready for Real spring weather.
This sounds like an incredible book Ruth Logan Herne I’ll have to add to my to be read definitely list.
Glenda! First, GREAT NAME!!!! And I think you’d love this book. It’s just a great story inspired by cowboys and cowboy code and I used my hedge fund expert (very handsome!) son to be my expert on the financial end of things… and that’s so fun, to work with one of my kids!
Great post! We have to do what we have to do. We are going to Moldova that should do the trick for cabin fever.
MOLDOVA??????
Yep.
That would do it.
😉
Ahh, yes, the tease of 60 degree weather in the middle of March and then you remember you live in Michigan and that is just a dream. Spring starts around May but doesn’t hit until June, as you stated. And then two days later it is summer. In fact I quite clearly remember a few years where it literally turned to 70’s in end of May and we never had a spring!
But I do love my winter – my family is one of those that when a blizzard hits we all hop in the trucks and go cruising to see the fun sights. It’s pretty sweet since nobody else is out, so we have the roads to ourselves. LOL. What else can you do to survive in Michigan but go out in it?!
Around middle of March is when I start going stir crazy. I need more sun, more warmer days, I need to be outside. *sigh* Oh well, it will come. I hope. 😉
This is me exactly. I don’t mind winter. I get a kick out of the storms and I love the tranquility of the white, waiting landscape…. but by March I am DONE.
I am wanting to kick things to the curb, I see little flower heads poking green spikes out of the ground and I dream of COLOR!!!! No more gray/brown/tan/white… give us color!
And when it finally comes, it bursts forth like an amazing wave of beauty… with birdsong and frogsong to go along with! I love it!!!!
I cannot wait to hear the spring peepers (tree frogs) again.. the glory of living next to a little marshland!
I read a lot even if I don’t have cabin fever. I can hardly wait to get out and dig in the dirt of my garden—-mostly flowers.
Estella, I love to garden. I don’t have as much time as I’d like, so I’ve invented clever gardens that are heavily mulched and where a spritz of round-up (DO NOT HATE ME, YES I’M KILLING THE PLANET SINGLE HANDEDLY!!!!) keeps everything under control and I don’t have to be on my knees too often… enough to get the feel, but not too much!
On the farm we grow acres of pumpkins and fall decoratives and vegetables and squash… so that’s a crazy thing, but my job is the Chrysanthemums. 2000 of them this year, spaced four weeks apart to cover fall sales.
I figure that’s my daily workout, watering all those plants! 🙂
I have cabin fever also if it is not snowing here it is raining and cloudy. So ready for Spring. I live in KY so we get a little of everything that is around. It could be 60 one day and 20 the next you never know.
I laughed when the fillies talked about Cabin Fever because it’s a real thing here, too! We just want to get out and do stuff. And you try and the weather beats you back… so then I whine a little and grab more writing time because once it’s actually nice, there is So Much To Do.
The upper half of two sides of the house needs scraping and painting, which means renting one of those cherry picker arms so I don’t fall off a ladder!
Oh my stars, I can totally see me up there, in the “basket” scraping and painting with yellow jackets and bumblebees. 🙂 EEK!
I was born in Mtl. and lived there for many years. You know what that means. I moved to a more moderate climate where I can walk most days and the sun shines nearly everyday.
Anne, you are one who appreciates warmth and sunshine and gentle days! Good for you! Where do you live now?
Good morning Ruthy! Living my whole life in Texas, you never know what our weather is going to be…It can change from hour to hour! No matter what, a good book makes it better!
Oh, Texas, being bigger than most countries in and of itself, is a crazy state! And December and March in Texas are ON THE CUSP of crazy and the edge of insane… I love Texas and Texans, Melanie!!!!
Living in a northern clime is daunting, stressful and requires a great deal of strength and patience. I know since winters were long, severe and the days short and dreary. Summers were beautiful and we looked forward to summers greatly.
Pearl, are you still up north? The short winter days bother a lot of folks… they don’t bother me, I seem to be unaffected by it, but my husband and a couple of kids dread it… so it sure does seem to affect some folks!
Reading and tea gives me hope no matter where I live. Snow, ice and cold are a constant but I know that Spring which is around the corner gives me hope and soothes my heart and soul.
Oh, Ellie… that’s the sweetest image ever. Thank you so much for being here!
I’m definitely ready for spring. Winter in Vermont are unpredictable and long. At least I think so. Evening rides and painting keep me sane.
Charlene, what an image! What kind of rides? Car or horseback or something else???
Painting.
I cannot paint. I am in such admiration of anyone who can paint/draw/create.
I’ll paint with words. And I will admire your painting with oils/watercolors or whatever you’re using!
Hi Ruthy, March has turned out to be our real winter here in Kentucky. We received 6 inch this past Saturday and, even though that doesn’t sound like much to Northenees, it was enough to cause multiple wrecks and some life-changing injuries to some people that I know. I am looking forward to digging in the dirt and “making garden” but I still hope to enjoy my reading.
Hope you have a blessed Holy Week and an awesome Resurrection Sunday.
Blessings!
Connie
cps1950(at)gmail(dot)com
Connie, six inches is something to talk about! And I’m so sorry about the accidents, that’s the harsh side of storms. So scary and sad, Connie!
It has felt like spring for awhile by me… I actually miss the snow… have not seen it in many years…
Colleen, where are you??? Are you in the South?
Dave and I were in Arizona last year in May…. before the crazy heat. So nice! I’d have a hard time in the summer, but what a glorious winter/spring!
Finally after 3 days of drizzly rain the sun is out. But not if only the temps would warm up a little would be nice. I can hear the birds singing so I know nicer weather can’t be too far behind.
I just finished a book set in that cold, drizzly, rainy time of northeast… It comes out this fall “At Home in Wishing Bridge” and that’s about the unfriendliest time of year there is! Everything is drudge, grunge and gray and the air is cold, the wind off the lakes is unfriendly and the rain beats sideways like ice pellets. Tough weather to set a beloved romance, but eventually spring comes alive… Yay!
Wrote the title down so I can get the book when it comes out.
I’m in the Mid-Atlantic. We had four nor’easters in three weeks. Snow, lost a tree, lost power, but we’re fine, and that’s the most important thing.
Denise, you’re absolutely right, and what a pattern that’s been! Old-fashioned Nor’easters that wreak havoc along the coast… and once, back in 1972, Hurricane Agnes created Nor’easter that barrelled back around and came west, through Lake Ontario and NY and VT and MA… and what a mess. Highest water levels, flooding, horrific storms… I take Nor’easters seriously here. I’m so glad you’re all okay because that’s the most important thing, always.
Thank you for the great blog. I’m not a liar but I confess to whining too often! My cabin fever is just raging now but instead of doing the smart thing and getting out and about, my hibernating bear DNA has kicked in. Wake me up when the weather is more reasonable!
Eliza! You should be writing stories with that sense of humor! That’s awesome! 🙂 Hibernating bear DNA!!!! YES!!!
Hi Ruthy. What a fun blog. I don’t recall whether you mentioned reading, but LOLOL!!!! Really a great, thought provoking blog. Gave me room for lots of things to consider. Here in the Texas Panhandle, this year, we have had the oddest weather ever. Really no winter. No rain for nearly six months, but Praise the Good Lord we have a heavy drizzle today with the promise of more rain. Two days this winter, we had a 90 degree day (yes, 90) and the next a light covering of snow. Really odd weather, so I guess my point is I didn’t have Cabin Fever except a day at a time. Thanks for a great blog for our Cabin Fever week! Hugs, Phyliss
Hi Ruthie! My hubs has guys here from Rochester doing some work and they were hoping for 70s (we may have that in two days) but this morning it was in the 30s which is a little chilly for coastal Virginia in the Spring. However, come summer there is cabin fever of a different kind here — when it is 100 and 90 % humidity outside! Praying you get some beautiful weather soon! Blessings!
Carrie, hope our Rochester guys are doing a great job… and yes, we long for anything over 55 by this time of year, LOL! Fifty degrees is SWEATER WEATHER! 🙂
And your summers would make me a real whiner, I’m just not a warm weather person. And I hate when I whine, Carrie!!!! The Yankee within rebels at whining!
I am a Michigander transplanted by my West Texan husband. He has to have his sun!!! He experienced one bad winter where there were no thaws and he had us in West Texas by that Labor Day!!!! When we were having Cabin Fever, that was the time we needed to be making maple syrup, so we got out of the cabin! Thanx for the giveaway!
Oh, homemade maple syrup… I love real maple syrup. I use it in my baklava… it’s ideal. And I use it when I treat myself to French Toast… Mmmm…….. 🙂 Jennifer, that’s a process in and of itself! Go you!
Now West Texas, hmm….? “Down in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl…”
My mother LOVED THAT SONG. Marty Robbins “El Paso”.
Hi Ruthie! I enjoyed “hearing” you whine… 🙂 Here in northern Illinois spring is a short week and then summer barrels right in, so I understand about yours! I can deal with the rain, the snow, the change of seasons–actually I love them. I just can’t handle too much dreariness. I really need to see the sunshine at least six out of the seven days of the week! It boosts my spirits no end!
The dreariness in spring here is a bummer, too… but those flashes of sun, oh Kathryn!!! WE HAVE HOPE!!!! 🙂
It’s an amazing thing, isn’t it?
And Northern Illinois is quite similar, these Great Lakes do a number on affecting weather. But what a natural wonder they are!
Hi, Ruthy! (Please don’t enter me in the drawing – I loved the book, and I have the third in the series on my TBR pile hopefully before the kids get out of school for the year). You aren’t whining! And New York seems to be in the news much more than normal this year for the huge snowfalls. Maybe now’s not the time to mention it will be in the 70s where I live tomorrow. Hopefully I can put away the sweaters soon. Thank you so much for the brief glimpse into winter in NY.
Hush, you! 🙂
70’s are the dream, darling. YOU ARE LIVING THE DREAM, MY TALENTED FRIEND!!!! Brat.
But huge thank yous for loving “Back in the Saddle”. I can’t wait for folks to get more Western Ruthy books because I discovered how much I love writing Westerns… and I am kin to the great Glendon Swarthout (celebrated Western writer)… my grandmother and his parent were siblings??? Cousins? I’m not sure, I haven’t played down the full list of Swarthout siblings, but where I always thought the genetic link to writing was through my very poetically-leaning mother… there’s the tough-girl side that seems to have come from Grandma Herne! SWEET!
It’s been cool and cloudy for the past few days in SC. Looking forward to tomorrow at 70 degrees. You are a born writer. You have such a way with words that just cracks me up. I already have the book. It’s one of my favorites and the first one of yours I read.
Linda, oh my stars, your words make me GRIN!!! Thank you for loving the book… and I’m so glad you love my stories. It makes me so happy to write them. I just absolutely love it… so what a blessing that God let me live long enough to jump on board.
Thank you!!!
I grew in Northeast New York on Lake Champlain near the Canadian border in the Adirondacks. We didn’t get the snow you do, but the winters can still be long. I live in NE TN now, still in the mountains. Weather has been crazy with snow and freezing weather for a few days, then in the 60’s and low 70’s for several days afterwards, and back to cold weather. It is hard to get serious about it really being Spring. It will tease for the next month or so. The two biggest snow storms we have had since we moved here were in March and April. I really do look forward to Spring, but then it will be Summer much too soon and too hot and humid to enjoy being out. We won’t talk about winter weight, North or South it seems to make an appearance. My husband did get some cold weather veggies into the garden today. Two weeks ago when it was warm, we had fresh asparagus from the garden. Everything froze back since. I am planning my flower gardens and making sure I have the cleaning supplies. All I need is the warm weather to reappear.
Patricia! Our two donkeys (Alexis and Tanya) came from Schuyler Falls/Peasleeville area, just west of Lake Champlain. And yes, it gets cold and LONG up there, doesn’t it? Not the lake effect snow that we get, but long, windy stretches of bitter cold. I remember in “Farmer Boy” the way Laura Ingalls Wilder described Almanzo’s boyhood winters… yes. Exactly that. Run the cattle so their frozen breath doesn’t smother them!
Peek-a-boo spring is a constant here, too…. but thankfully our summers (while they can get hot and humid) are usually only that way for maybe 20 or 30 days… and the rest is so nice. And a gorgeous fall here because of the lake…
But I’m ready, Patricia. Bring on the daffodils!
We attended the little church up near Peasleville, Mother Cabrini’s Shrine is adjacent to it. We were married there in the first outdoor wedding for that church. The view of the lake and the mountains across the lake is beautiful. I grew up in Peru which is next to Schuyler Falls. It is a beautiful area and I miss it. My husband misses ice fishing. We try to get there every year and aim for the Fall, my favorite season. Most of my family still lives in the area.
We have been trying to make it to the western part of the state, but haven’t yet done so. Some day soon, I hope. I hear it is lovely.
Ah, we have only dreamed of snow here in North Central Texas. This year we had none, nada, zero. To make up for it, we will have legions of bugs this summer since there wasn’t enough cold weather to kill all the critters. Rats. I do love snow, but not for weeks. You have my sincere sympathy.
Caroline, another Texan, yee haw! North Central Texas is the land of ice storms some years, isn’t it? Those crazy December and February icings that cancel everything?
No snow in Texas… but how fun that you get a peek now and again!
Thanks for stopping by, Caroline… and the bugs are a huge reason I can’t be Southern. That and humidity. Heat. Alligators. BIG SNAKES….
I do believe those are the reasons I live where the air hurts my face for a few months each year. 🙂
Yes. It snowed some flurries a couple of days ago here. Spring….please come!!
Spring! Spring! Where are you? It’s still flurrying snow here….
Oh MJ!!! We are finally melting into HUGE DIRTY PARKING LOT piles of ickiness, LOL! But it’s still March, and we’ve been flurried in May before. I remember watching baseball games in flurries! I’m in total sympathy my friend!
Luckily, I live in Texas, so I don’t experience the cabin fever of winter up north. But I imagine I would get lost in many good books if I did live where it snows.
Janine… GOOD BOOKS ROCK! Cozy fires…. snow on trees. Snow on rooftops… more cozy fires. More snow. More wind. Less snow. More snow. More fires…
And shoveling! 🙂
We must not forget or downplay the wonders of shoveling, my friends! 🙂
Ruthy, you make me laugh out loud! I totally adore your sense of humor. It was such a big highlight of CFRR last summer to meet you and Beth. You are both amazing and sooooo much fun. I really need to move next door to you. I wouldn’t even have to adapt to your weather, because it sounds pretty much like our weather here in northern Utah. We have a lot of those spring surprises, too. I seldom plant anything outdoors until after Memorial Day except sometimes my flower pots, because we have some big front and back porches, and I can pull the pots up close to the house and they don’t usually freeze.
It’s supposed to get up to 62 degrees tomorrow, so that will be a treat (unless it snows!) 😀 Hugs, sweet friend! <3
I dread Winter for all the obvious reasons and I’m looking forward to the sun and warmer temps. Reading is the way I get through it. Also boardgames with the grandkids and lots of baking.
Happy Easter.