10 Ways to Enjoy the Great Outdoors at Winter’s Gnarly End
By Christa
So, March. Where you live, March may be totally delightful and filled with sounds and scents of springtime. Where I live, there is still ice blocking quite a few of the sidewalks. Dirty, gross drifts of snow still line the edges of parking lots and block access to walkways. At the same time, said snow is melting, which means lots and lots of mud everywhere. And sand, too. Plus it’s not exactly warm out.
But I want… no, I need to get out of the house! My toddler also needs to get out of the house, though her idea of what constitutes good mid-March fun differs somewhat from my own. She’d like to have full access to all dirty puddles and mud, which may or may not be your notion of fun. On the grownup side of things, here are 10 ways I am getting back outdoors while the weather is still cold:
1. Get out and just walk – be careful of the ice
2. Plant your bulbs (and enjoy the fruits of your labors in the springtime)
3. Put out suet and birdseed for birds who may have had a long, lean winter
4. And then watch the birds go crazy
5. Shovel a maze through the remaining snow in your yard, then run the kids or the dog through it until maximum exhaustion levels have been reached
6. Alternately, look for animal prints in the remaining snow
7. Go to the park and find a sunny spot to just sit and meditate on winter’s decline
8. Or maybe the beach, where the sand is finally peeking out from under the snow when the tide’s not high
9. Pull all the dead plants from last year’s garden that weren’t pulled before the snow set in
10. Break in your porch swing or deck chairs early and read a book under a big, warm blanket
No matter how you celebrate the fact that it’s almost starting to warm up and the snow is almost getting to manageable levels, just remember those snow or rain boots since it’s wet out there! (And maybe a scarf, too.)
How do you enjoy the outdoors when it’s still cold and gross – but slightly less gross and cold – outside?
