There was an article in the paper about SAD today. One sufferer always put on weight with winter blues because she stuffs herself with comfort food.
I have not got to that state myself yet, partly because I have spent some months doing aqua aerobics and am not giving up this health kick just yet.
I have had a posts on my SAD blog for two winters running and I usually ‘walk my talk’. But I have to admit it has been hard going the last couple of weeks and I regard my SAD as mild. It may however have been exacerbated by two weeks of flu and a leg injury that is only just on the mend.
Staying in bed longer in the mornings is common. Apparently Monty Don has been known to stay in bed all day with the complaint and he can also get very irritable with the family. So when I had mixed feeling about various issues within my family and they threatened to take on giant proportions, I decided to ignore it all, and had another house clear and re-organisation instead to brooding.
Robin helps with the packing
First 150 of my marionettes were labelled, bagged and boxed and have been booked into storage for six months. If no one tells me they are the greatest thing since sliced bread by next April and have rushed to put them on public display, 
I can see myself gradually slipping them into the dump for landfill. Now I am not sure that is me or SAD talking. I really hope instead, I’ll get a new lease of life and have a big online auction! We shall see.
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An even better idea has been to get rid of even more stuff that I really don’t need. Two sacks of redundant writing went to the tip, five boxes of books and some ornaments to the Heart Foundation. So there are winners in this scenario. Then I found Grandmother’s old prints, mother’s samplers and lace collection, so they been booked into an auction room on Monday week. I might buy a few cheering up treats with the proceeds.
My partner was not quite so enthusiastic about my suggestion that he clear out redundant tools from his part of the garage and although he does not suffer from SAD he nevertheless seemed a lot more cheerful when we had done it.
Lastly the SAD light. 
I simply have not bothered to get it out. But that was silly, so now I have sunlight while I drink my morning tea and for a couple of hours while I write my poetry. It is especially good when the dark rain clouds come creeping over the sea towards our house on the hill. It’s lovely up here in summer, but the winter can be pretty grim.
But of course a ‘good fairy’ can always produce a smile, even if both of us look a bit worse for wear.
Ann Perrin 