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Winter in Florida
Okay, so we don’t have much of a winter in Florida. Today the temperatures will rise into the 80s. The palm trees float in the breeze; many trees still have their leaves; the grass is a bright emerald green. Many people come to Florida because they are escaping the dreary, cold and snowy environs they live in the rest of the year.
But except for having to drive in snowy weather (like the blizzard I wrote about in another post), I search desperately for signs that the seasons are changing and that winter has arrived. Earlier in the fall of 2019, there was that first morning when the crisp morning air told me that change had arrived. Yes, it was subtle, but I insisted in honoring its message. Some of the trees here actually do change color and shed their leaves in an effort to rest and draw back for a few months. I find myself wanting to draw in just a bit myself, and to respect the passage of time.
Winter is also a time for memories when I recall being in the snow: sledding down mountains, skiing on my first bunny slope, tackling the ski lifts and landing in one piece at the end. It reminds me of shoveling snow, slipping on an icy path, holding our little dog in a towel to melt the ice balls clinging to her coat.
Those times are long past.
Still, I know there will be mornings when it’s cold enough here to wear my knitted hat, mittens and bulky parka. I may be the only person on my walk who braves 40-degree weather, and people wave and drive by in their cars, wondering if I am brave or foolish. I will have a chance to wear my warm socks, pullover sweaters, and favorite black wool shawl, even when I’m indoors. It all reminds me that the time for pulling back and restoration has arrived.
We may have subtle winters in Florida, but I look forward to them, and the memories of winter, every year.
Welcome to winter in Florida.
Published in Group Writing
We are in the middle of a snow period here in Western Washington. We had a minor blizzard yesterday, and most people left early, even those production employees in vanpools.
Here is a link to my blog post about it.
My boss is in Florida, visiting a major supplier. Sigh…
I think we get the best of both worlds in the Desert Southwest: shirtsleeve to sweater or jacket weather in the valleys, snow at times on the mountain ridges around us, skiing an hour or so away.
We need a few more members to join in the monthly theme. We have a number of days still open, and you really don’t want me filling them with seasonal disco music, just to start.
This conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under the January 2020 Group Writing Theme: Winter of Our Discontent. Share your tale of winter, discontent, content, or maybe tell us a tale of someone done wrong by an author or film maker. There are plenty of dates still available. Our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.
We’re already at our predicted high for the day at 34. It will get down to 18 tonight.
Beautiful day in the low country of South Carolina 72 degrees and sunny.
The Seasons are overrated.
Now why do you say that, @dougwatt. You’ve shared some wonderful seasonal pictures!
Approaching 70 here in Aiken, SC . . .
I love winter in Florida because some of the beaches are so empty. Animals, like butterflies and flying rays, migrate to the coast.
@aaronmiller, thanks so much for gracing this post with your amazing photos! Those flying rays are amazing–I’ve never seen those in action before.
One particularly cold and early onset winter, my wife and I decided to make the “great escape” and hop a flight to Florida to warm up for a few days. I think we landed in Miami and drove down to Naples and Sanibel Resort. We had landed at night. The next morning I jumped out of bed, threw on a pair of shorts and a golf shirt, and headed to the course. It was pretty darn chilly, but I knew I was in real trouble when the drink lady drove up to the first tee on her cart wearing a parka. I didn’t even have a long sleeve cover-up in my bag. Oh well, it was still fun. In Kansas City, when it gets all the way up to 40 in the dead of winter, we might wear a weighted vest, but rarely even put on a coat.
Yes, people have to be prepared in the winter! I’ve bragged about the weather today, but I remember coming to FL for a conference and about froze to death in February. At the very least, you have to travel with layers. I wasn’t such a woos when we lived in CO–pretty much dressed like you in Kansas City–but those days are long gone. Thanks, @cdor!
You are welcome!
P.S.
I hope you’re not looking for any sympathy. Ha!
Like Florida, fall is subtle when it arrives in Arizona. As the sun sets, there’s just something a little different in the air; only a degree or two, but you feel the sun giving up a bit. Of course, when the temps drop below 50, the locals wrap themselves up like they’re heading to a seal hunt.
I get it! That’s me in my knit hat, scarf and mittens!! Thanks, @exjon.
How coincidental. I was just told today I have to go on a business trip to St. Pete for the first week of March. Right in the middle of baseball spring training!!! It breaks my heart…lol.
Hey @manny, are you going to disappear on us with baseball around the corner? P.S. March can be gorgeous, but you’ll probably be stuck in side for meetings, won’t you? 😉
Pitchers and catchers report: 26 days, 6 hours, 28 minutes.
Cold today here in SWPA. And windy with it. A few short snow showers. I wouldn’t mind a bit of snow, because it’s just so pretty out here when it snows. So far this year, we’ve had up-and-down temps (it was 72 on Saturday!), a fair amount of rain, and a lot of mud.
Levi and Xena are particularly fond of snow, I think it’s in their genes:
They inspired an original “Zen-ish” quote which I shared with a friend a few years ago when we actually did have a pretty hard winter: “It is hard to find a white dog, in a field of snow.”
Well, I don’t intend to disappear. I didn’t intend to last year either. But baseball games are three hours almost every night and I do chatter on my baseball team’s board during the day. I usually squeeze those in during work. Something has to give time wise and it can’t be work. ;)
Well Tuesday and Wednesday I will be tied up but travel days are on Monday and Thursday. I can have a little free time around flight times.
If you’re in St. Pete, try to go to the Chihulli Museum which is incredible blown glass, or the Dali Museum which is amazing!
Temp is headed to the teens in Kentucky…I hope you get sunburn.
I’ll look for it. Thanks.
Be careful at that Chihuly museum. You might find something like this there.
He’s local, and there’s a bunch of his stuff around here in the Seattle area.
I’ve lived in Orlando for quite a while, and I always look for two things to tell when it’s really “Florida winter.”
1) The seagulls come back to the Target parking lot
2) The Brazilian tourists come back to the Florida Mall
I can live without seasons.
Jupiter/ Tequesta:
Los Angeles:
There was an exhibition of his work at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh in 2007. Amazing stuff. I’m not sure how they move it from place to place without the whole lot ending up in smithereens.
I still get nostalgic for Midwestern winters. I forget that the last time I lived through one, I was in my early 30’s.
During the time when I lived in the SF Bay area, especially when I lived in San Rafael, I often searched for signs of winter. Some Californians will tell you that it is winter quite often in San Francisco. In its perpetual foggy summers, the city has gained legendary status, due to the quote attributed to Mark Twain: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
But outside of that City by the Bay, it can be too hot in the winter. Sometimes I would give the kid a snow day so we could do what Midwesterners get to do: hang out with each other in the middle of the week. We’d take the winter day and go off to the beach or visit the aquarium.
So I would join you, Susan, in your search for the subtle signs of winter. Except that yesterday it snowed where I now live. Entire blankets of snow on the slopes of Mt Konocti, a sleeping lady of a foothill, at an elevation of 4,400 feet. She sits a mile and a half from where we are. I drove over to a local store and got my spouse a winter coat. This is one California winter when he needs it.
Oh my goodness! It must be global warming–or climate change–or something!