Wyoming Winters

Winters in Indiana are very different from winters in Wyoming. Wyoming winters are very long, cold, and windy while Indiana’s are only about 3months long at the most, they have very little snow and the temperatures seldom dip down to single digits or zero. So everyone would think that a person would prefer to winter in Indiana but I find that for me the opposite is true. It isn’t that I love to be cold, I don’t, that I love deep snow, most days that isn’t true either and the winter winds of Wyoming can cut straight through to your bones. So why do I prefer the Wyoming winters? Because of the sun! I have seen the temperatures in Wyoming dip to 20-30 below zero and the sun was still shinning. The snow can be three foot deep on the level and the sun will make it look like three foot piles of diamonds. The sky is blue and the sun shines and somehow you forget that you are freezing and you just look at the magic of the picture that nature has painted for you. And it is even better if you don’t have to go out to work that day. I have friends that tease me about my comments about the blue skies of Wyoming and they swear the sky is just as blue in Indiana but unless you have spent a winter in Wyoming you really can’t compare the beauty of it to other places. Indiana has many great seasons. Its spring and fall are breath taking. The forsythias and crocuses welcome the season long before Wyoming can even consider spring and they are followed by the unmatchable show put on by the dogwoods and redbuds. As much as I love the spring in Indiana, I have never been able to decide whether I like the spring better or the fall. Because in the fall the trees and bushes put on an unbelievable show of color and texture that makes you want to just sit outside and admire the beautiful of God’s creation. And the great thing is many of the bugs have died or left so you are able to. So I am not trying to insult the great state of Indiana by any means. I have lived here for over twenty years and in many ways this place is my home but in the winter I long for my Wyoming home and the blue skies and sunshine that paints an unforgettable picture even though it is set against a backdrop so frigid that you think will die from the cold. Then again in summer I long for Wyoming not because of its beauty because much of the state is dry by summer and more brown than green but I have never been a fan of humidity and Indiana summers has lots of it while Wyoming has none. You would think that as a gardener I would want to stay in the long hot summers of Indiana but my asthma makes breathing much more desirable than gardening when the humidity rises and contrary to what many believe you can grow a pretty great garden in Indiana in the spring and early summer, one in Wyoming in mid summer and then another in Indiana in the late summer. So it really could work for me. Un fortunately, I’m not a rich or retired person so I will live my year in one place except for the occasional trip to visit another so Indiana will be my home of choice, after all anyone that knows me knows that I would never consider leaving my grandchildren to travel half away across the continent from them. So during the winter months I will close my eyes and dream of the Wyoming winters while sitting under a full spectrum lamp to keep the winter blues away.