Actually winter it's not all that bad. Only a handful of frosts a year and relatively dry so while nights get down close to freezing by noon it's often sunny and warm enough to go out and putter with just a sweater on over longs. I'm lucky enough to have a full glassed sun-room, which means most afternoons I can enjoy the semi-outside for a few hours even if it's a bit too cold or windy or wet to stay out otherwise. This year the plants are most confused and I have a few azaleas with second blooms for the year, A bed of Japanese iris about to put up flower shoots and a large camellia hedge that just finished blooming and the leaves haven't even dropped off the elm tree yet. All in all, I can't complain to much about winter. Oh yeah, I have central gas heating. A real novelty here!