Friday Five: Cabin Fever edition

Singing Owl from RevGals writes:

Here in snow country we are settled in to what is a very long stretch of potentially boring days. The holidays are over. It is a very long time till we will get outside on a regular basis. The snow that seemed so beautiful at first is now dirty and the snow banks are piling up. Our vehicles are all the same shade of brownish grey, but if we go to the car wash our doors will freeze shut. People get grumpy. Of course, not everyone lives in a cold climate, but even in warmer places the days till springtime can get long. Help! Please give us five suggestions for combating cabin fever and staying cheerful in our monochromatic world?

"Snow piling up." I'm trying to picture it. sigh... that's not a problem we have in the mid-Atlantic region. However, the brown-ness and grey-ness of winter days do get to me. Here's some things I do:

1. I have "full-spectrum" bulbs in my desk lamp and in my kitchen. I need to feel like it is day time. The blinds and curtains are OPEN before the sun is up so that I can feel like I'm not swathed in a tomb.

2. I cut forsythia from the bushes out back and "force" them to bloom early inside.

3. Music. Lots of it. Upbeat.

4. TV stays off. I know, LOST just started up again (don't tell me what's happened -- I haven't had time to watch!) and 24 is cooking another plot. But if I am stuck behind the torpor tube, it doesn't help. We tend to do big group projects like jigsaw puzzles.

5. Feed the birds and squirrels. I love to watch them. There's activity, life and the occasional laugh. We have a "Yankee Flipper" bird feeder and it's good for many laughs and squirrel launchings. We also have a birdbath "heater" to keep the birds around. It's amazing how many birds we will have just because our birdbath is open for business.

Celebrating the growing light... Spring will arrive in 2 months. Or so they say!

Deb