I am not friends with winter, I most definitely get S.A.D. I learned about that from a Cathy Hopkins book as a kid and I was like *gasp* it has a name!

So yeah I have that. It does help when you take vitamin D. However, when it gets dark at 4pm it’s hard to beat the blues away even with the sun vitamin boost.

Then we moved in 2020 December and our new house was in chaos for a while. I did not have curtains. So I was just exposed to the whole neighbourhood. Luckily, my window faces the garden. Yay.

I didn’t hate it but I certainly didn’t love it.

Then I noticed the moon one night. It was so bright. I was like who turned a lamp on in the middle of the night! I looked outside and it was the moon!

I did not know it could get so bright. My curtains at my old house kept the rays out because wow, I had never been awoken by the moon!

After that I paid more attention to the night sky. The next thing I noticed though was at dawn because I couldn’t sleep that day. I was up just before the sun rose and there was this dot on the horizon. I wondered what star was so bright I saw it just as the sky was lighting and just above where the sun would rise.

I researched and found out it was Venus! Did you know it is known as the morning star for that reason? I didn’t. The same thing happens in winter but you see it before dusk. I have yet to see the winter version.

The next thing I spotted was Sirius. I got this app, well at first I found the website, Stellarium. It tells you what is in the sky at your location. So I saw this star that flashed many colours. It was flashing between pink, white and blue. I looked it up and it was Sirius! I was gassed.

Then I thought, omd I should be able to find Orion, isn’t Orion near Sirius? I learned this through an Astronomy YT channel I follow (shout out to Dr. Becky). She taught me how to find Sirius. So I figured if I did the reverse of that I’d find Orion.

You see, Orion’s belt points to Sirius.

Sure enough I found Orion! I was so proud of myself. It really brightened up my winter. I had always wanted to find at least one constellation and I did.

Now, I can’t unsee it. I’ll look up on a clear night in winter and there it is.

Instead of dreading the night and hating the darkness I started to look forward to it. Ooh which star am I going to find tonight. Ooh which planet am I going to see?

I have found Mars and Jupiter. I’m good at spotting Mars now. I have spotted many stars. I am rusty on the other constellations but I am getting there.

I even bought an astronomy book that I can’t wait to use next year.

Honestly, star gazing has been the best thing for me to beat the winter blues. Me and King George, we’re right here! (on only that though I’m only two episodes in and he’s annoying me).

Sometimes, the simplest things can bring joy.

I know the northern lights are caused by the sun’s rays hitting our atmosphere but maybe that’s why northern lights exist. So we don’t succumb to depression.