How I beat the Winter SADs & my fruit freezer saga….FFS.
I begin my 'January 1st' on March 1st, and it suits me well. This week, I'm outlining for myself what I need to do to embrace the change from autumn to winter & to avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder.
I bought a little freezer at Gowens Auctions this past summer - a ‘add-on freezer’. One to switch on only when the house gets a glut of fruit/meat during peak times that produce comes in the cottage. This morning however, I went out to the shed, and suddenly realised its door was half ajar, the ice had frozen this shut and half of bags are defrosted. And it wasn’t like from last night. Maybe a week ago?
FFS. God knows how long thats been like that.
As I stepped back inside, an unexpected wave of sadness came over me. It's not about a faulty fridge seal or wasted time and money on prepping those prized fruits; it's about the loss of preserving the summer harvest I had eagerly anticipated. My seasonal future winter routine, especially as mornings grow darker, now feels lost. The fruits I had set aside for this winter preservation, for the first time in this cottage, will now only be fit for chicken scraps or compost, adding to the pain. It's a double blow, leaving me feeling utterly disheartened. But why. Maybe because I like certain things to look forward to going into winter and I so badly wanted to start my ‘glitter routine’ on how I’d like to spend my winters.
And only last week I was chatting to a girlfriend about her yearly SADs. For her it’s a really really big thing - and it got me thinking about it all week.
According the to the ABC = about 6-10% of Tasmanians get a ‘low mood’ with about 3% getting of us Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. I personally thought that percentage was not high enough - mainly based on the folk around these parts. I’d say more like 15-20% are affected by the weather change here being isolated and some are kept in more forest . Or maybe I know more mainlanders. It’s a thing to live in the shadow of the mountain. Besides being colder theres more frost, harder ground, and the seeping fog can nest till lunchtime. Download that ‘Lumos’ app before you pull out your wallet and spend it on property in summer. It will show you where the sun is at different times against the landscape. Give it 6 months spin to future dates and you’ll find that winter sun trail may be totally different and so will the sun path patterns.
I’ve seen this time and time again - Mainlanders, like myself, moving to Tasmania often enjoy their first winters, but by the third, they seek to escape the gloom. And if they can’t -well some take it on. Having experienced the festive cheer in the Northern Hemisphere for a decade, I understand the need for brightness during dark winters and its impact on how you feel in life. While Tasmania's Mona adds a similar vibe, this year Dark Mofo Program feels different due to scaled-back events. Despite this, the realization of life slowing down predates recent events. Since 2019, I've noticed a lack of slowdown - fires, Covid and changing patterns of tourism. Thus, I've prepared for and embraced the seasonal shift. Well - now without preserving fruit. Last year, I started making a glitter list to anticipate the transition from autumn to winter. Here are my notes I’m scratching out. This is more for me than for you - a verbal list of things I still need to work on and do. But it’s better out of my head and here instead. Maybe then you may find something you want from it too.
1. Layers
Switch over the doonas and if you can get it - get a good one feather or merino. But the next size up from mattress size - eg if you have a Queen bed then get an King Doona. and let it drape over the edges - works especially well if you have a doona stealer in your family - most people do. Splash out on this as sleep is a luxury when it gets cold - I’m only just starting to embrace this. Layer it with weighed blanket if your like me with the 4am chill coming in (we were lucky & have managed to score 2 from opshops for $5 each- but the best one from these is the Grey weighted blanket), Flannel sheets, or pop a soft blanket over the mattress and layer things on heavy. The kids have weighed blankets and I love that they take up no space in the house. We stayed ant our friends place at Wahroonga on Bourke in Launceston recently and probably had one of the most solid sleeps in yonks - they had these really thick linen sheets on a super king-size bed. ( Currently I love—but oh so cant afford—the linen sheets from Sheet Society & Major Minor)
When the Esse goes in (I feel like this is like a forever thing and all the dates keep pushing out) I’ll be using river ‘warming rocks’ to warm the feet - you pop them into the bottom of the wood oven like they used in Ireland or bed ‘lupin bag’ like I used as a child (lupin bags, like this one have a few more benefits over wheat bags - as they are lighter, have less ‘chaffy’ bits, I find they don’t smell and are great if there is allergies in the house). But essentially - being ready for winter cold and looking forward to your bed is a lovely ritual I find.
2. Try to stay healthy
Have at hand a good immunity boosting Firewater recipe , Panadol, Day & night tablets, handkerchiefs , essential oil eucalyptus, local honey, homemade bone broth (or if your in Tasmania chef Jamie Yates produces her own ‘Breu Broth’ and its rather excellent) elder-flower syrup - Ashbolt Farm do a good one here, Ginger tea - FoodTourist has a good recipe here, good ear covering beanies, The Tasmanian Tuxedo (a black puffer jacket) , finger-less gloves, layers of thin merino clothing, turtle neck skivvies, Possum socks and wearing little silk scarfs around your neck like I learnt years ago in France. Fill the kettle before you go to bed so you just have to turn it on in the morning for tea/coffee. Its a small thing but its easy when your still half asleep. Also set the table for the next breakfast makes skipping it harder. And…..Lay your morning clothes out for a morning run/walk/drag. Stretch. Open the curtains as early as you can to catch the first light. Working as a chalet girl in British Columbia during the ski season taught me this. I also don a morning outfit of ‘stretchy-house-pj-bottoms-over-a-nightdress (op shops have them around $3), socks and hoodie. The kids love oodies - but I’m not converted yet to swanning around in a blanket, but they live in them and now can be found in opshops quite easily.
3. Swap to porridge & sunshine.
Cooking off sticks outside is great to get a little winter vitamin D sun practise. I’m find since living in this state that I’m always low on Vitamin D, but I’m not alone, in winter they say 66% of Tasmanians are deficient in D, combinations of layering up, keeping indoors and working in a cave in Summer. I need to as much skin in the game outside during winter - about 20 min a day I’m aiming for along side taking a supplement. Collecting the sticks on walks and making little piles of them on the side of the road is a thing I do. Having a stick box in the back of the car helps with kindling gathering too. I dream of having a greenhouse one day, that's still so ridiculously far off financially - I’ll just stick doing it in the elements. I have- Gill Meller has great recipes to cook off sticks in from his book Outside. Or cook on the top of the inside wood stove. I love cooking on a ‘free heat source’ Swapping out and having Scottish porridge for breakfast is like warming too, Although I rather like the look of this ‘Hogwarts Scottish Porridge’ recipe. lentil dishes, curries, slow cooked cheap cuts and sweet potato based meals for dinner works. Especially if you’re into seasonal eating as most are root veggies now. This year, I purchased a cast iron bread maker to try my hand at making sourdough again as the kids have taken a real taste to it so I may as well get good at it. My Irish friend Cherie Denham put out a bread cookbook called The Irish Bakery So I plan to test out those recipes these next few months. and my friend Bec who runs Bream Creek Market Garden swears by an ‘unkillable’ recipe that is ‘no fail’…so I may as well try. Ill let you know how I get on.
4. Heat up the house
Door socks/snakes are great for keeping the drafts out. This is not new news. A Towel will do the same. Going around with clear packing tape from the Post office and tape up the holes also works too - especially if you have an old cottage like mine and no real allocated funds to fix it all at once. Making large wax/paper firelighters from old candles & egg cartons get damp wood going quicker as they last longer - and they are cheap to make. ‘Putting the house to bed’ at night by drawing the curtains works to - I learnt this when I worked at Mount Stewart National Trust . Although we took all the rods off this summer as they were ugly so will see how that pans out. That stick tape also works on sliding window gaps. Winter is also a good time to work out what you need to work on - double glazing, insulation, no gaps or flue cleaning - often in summer you dont feel the impact of these so you forget. Your flu should be cleaned yearly. For those local the nice chaps in Heffermans in Hobart have cleaners for this - take a photo if you’re not sure and ask them. They were great in explaining to me the ‘running’s of heating a weatherboard winter house’ when I first to Tasmania
5. Low Mood
I find Julie Smiths instagram tips are great and her audio book better about shifting how you feel during any kinda of drama that you come up against in life, grief, anxiety but especially the way she talks about ‘low mood’ as apposed to depression. I think it’s well worth the download especially if you’re prone to feeling like this. The Audio book is great as her voice is really soothing too.
6. Hibernate & Thrive.
But sometimes it’s just easy to get a cosy with a mug of hot chocolate, pick a new series on Netflix on your phone, and curl up under the blankets. Here’s 10 things on that…..
Organise a friends monthly catch up - I started a group called Cakemates ages ago but start now. Just ring around and randomly pick a day of the week that you go out for coffee with a few friends.
Or…join a group that meets up & shares a hobby. Or get a new skill TAFE has short course that run all year around - you’ll soon find mates that like the same things as you. Or sign up for day workshops. I just am home from a print making one on Bruny Island during their bird weekend. I have an ink material one booked in for next month.
Start an online 6-12 week course - one that runs weekly for a few months. In the past I have done the wonderful Milkwoods 12 week ‘Permaculture Living Course’…. The Hosting Masterclass Courses like Me & Orlas Insta Retreat and Heirloom Islands’ School for Modern Makers Maybe you can plan your future garden out - this is what I’m doing this year following
Pip has being doing her garden from scratch for the last 2 years now, and along the way while shes been planning/building it shes also created a massive library of info for novices like me. Possibly the best money spent signing up to her newsletter. I don’t follow it all the time but I will this winter while I map out what I’d like to have here..Become an expert a skill, like photography - Lean Timms has workshops in Byron Bay and one in Tasmania next week that can kick that skill off. One year I dedicated my off season to learning how to do the share market and understanding investing. This year its working out how to write a weekly substack. Hahahahah. (No kidding -it’s the weekly bit I still need to work on)
Go through Eventbrite and Trybooking to book future events. There are always plenty of free ones on there. Such events like exhibition openings, council-run workshops, or garden walks don’t cost much if anything. Huon Valley Council events here. Kingsbourough council here. Print off a calendar and list things that are happening in the future on it. I think should always have 3 things on your horizon at one time - till roughly October. Life gets warmer/busy then and it’s easier to get out.
Work on your own glitterlist - seriously think about this on why you do what you do as I find that if ‘you don’t know where you’re going then someone else will.’
Get your pantry organised so that you don’t have to go as much for food. Spending extra money, time, energy and willpower when it’s cold is hard. Stock up now on 3-9 months of ‘nice jars’ of long life sauce & ‘good’ pasta. I like Jamie Olivers tomato chilli sauce and cheap tins of chopped tomatoes as my go to - but only get it on when it’s on sale. Freeze a hard cheese. Always an instant meal. Stock up on long life milk, good ground coffee and cereal. Cereal can be dinner. Cans of soup, Coco earth long life meals , Me Goreng with mixed frozen veg and cereal boxes are quick dinners.
I worked out a trip to the shop will always cost me a lot more - so having no excuse to go means that I can spend that money on coffee instead of petrol.
If you can afford it - Book a cheap sun holiday - anywhere in Australia is sunnier than here. August or September is the perfect time to escape. Virgin Airlines do weekly Happy Hour prices on a Thursday between 4-11 in Tasmanian Time and sometimes they are cracking deals. The last few weeks theres been incredible sales from Tasmania - and most places now do direct. If I teach a workshop somewhere I’ll fly - but theres too many costs this year for me. No cash and need a few days away? Go stay overnight with mates and just make dinner, watch netflix & have chats. If you can pool together money for a cheap accomodation - great. I plan to do this this year. Have Staycations.
Create a competition with yourself - challenges like
or Scout & Bird have a #slowandlovely instagram weekly theme. Practise makes progress & you get better about things slowly.Reorganise the house. The wardrobe, the finances, the kitchen or the shed or something that you can leave and go and sleep on the couch or the other room. Get stuck in. Weed out what you don’t need and put it in the pile to gift, rubbish or sell. Youll feel more organised, lighter and free.
OK…..I could keep going on about this … and it was suppose to be a short newsletter but again it over ran in time and content. I must get my fruit freezer cleaned out, Scottish porridge on & lunches done today as well as a trip to the big town. So I must dash. Have a lovely week everyone and thanks for reading
X LJ
I missed this newsletter when it came in so a lovely treat to read it this morning while I’m ’lying in’ after getting back from Perth late last night (our scheduled flight was cancelled)
Sorry about your freezer - I agree it would have been frustrating.
Once again lots of great ideas - thank you - living in the outback the winter sun can be divine especially when you can access it out of the wind.
Thanks Jo