Until fairly recently I had one outfit for all occasions: t-shirt and shorts. Often after it had been snowing, Elaine and I would go out for a walk, she dressed in 15 layers and me in my usual garb. Passers by would look at us in astonishment because it probably looked as if we inhabited two separate climate zones.
🤣 One of our neighbours dresses in shorts - just shorts - pretty much all year round. On a particularly chilly day he might wear a vest (singlet) too. Brrrrrr!!!!!!!
Winter swimming is worldwide I gather and scientific evidence shows that the freezing dip can be great for one's health. Let me admit here and now that I wear a wetsuit!!! Unlike many of my fellow swimmers globally who are so brave!
Also, in winter, I find it really hard to get my head wet as I immediately get the most punishing icecream headache, so no freestyle which is my favourite stroke. I've taken to walking out to where my toes just hit the bottom and either doing breast stroke or continue to walk against the pressure of the water. It all seems to work.
I'm in awe of the people I see swimming in the sea in the winter - on New Year's Day we watched a whole load of brave souls out there, and they were having an absolute ball! I have several friends who go wild swimming all year round in lakes and rivers as well as the sea, but I hadn't ever heard of winter swimming before, although they do do it in winter.
I'm not a strong swimmer - I can't swim any specific strokes (unless you count doggy paddle)! Still, I don't sink, and I can keep going for ages.
This was a great post. It reminded me of a conversation I had with two friends who got stuck on a mountain in snowfall without gloves or spikes on their shoes at 3000 meters. You can never be prepared enough! 🥲
Thanks so much, Punit! Gosh - 3000 metres in the snow without the right gear? Hardcore...! I'm not sure there are enough layers in the world to get me into such a place with confidence!
Yes, I was equally astounded. The best part was the happiness they got from sharing that story and experience. They had a great point of view on it - it was almost like they were saying, "we pushed ourselves and found a way out so now we get to look back at it with pride". It made me think deeply about how I deal with unpredictable scenarios and how I navigate my way through them! 😀
That's remarkable, Punit - that's a learning point (or several!) right there! 😊 I'm going to think about how I could better look at things I haven't been able to control. 🤔
Rebecca, I cannot imagine not obsessively tracking the weather. At minimum, I check my weather app when I get up, and before I go to bed. I must know. It is the only way to properly plan, and at this time of year, I’m glued to it for the first sign that I don’t have to wear my parka that day.
As a Canadian, and a denizen of the east coast, home of wild weather, I honestly don’t remember learning how to dress for all contingencies. I think it’s because you have to start so young with the many different kinds of seasonal clothing, you absorb it from your parents and then carry it down the line. It’s almost time to rotate my closet too, putting the winter clothes in the back and bringing the spring clothes forward. I have a good feel at this point for what is suited to what range of temperature. I always have spare gloves in my bag, and I keep a shawl in my office just in case.
That's brilliant, Alison - I'm so impressed! I really need to get into the habit of engaging more with what the weather's got in store. Jim's got a series of brilliant apps on his phone which he refers to constantly when he's working outside - if it's raining, there's an app which shows him where that cloud is live, and predicts how many minutes it will be before the rain stops.
I think if we had a much cooler or much hotter climate over here I'd have no choice than to be better on top of this kind of thing!
Yay to the spare gloves! And you've reminded me that I really need to sort out my wardrobe for spring. When I was getting dressed this morning I grabbed one of my comfiest baggy loose-sleeved tops... and then realised it's the one with snowflakes and robins all over it. Need to consign that to a pile marked 'Christmas'! 🤣
Oh those apps sound excellent! I have such a strong sense of the weather though, which is probably funny when compared to my life as a disorient. No idea where I’m going but boy I do know it’s going to snow, I can feel it.
LOL - it's funny, isn't it - how we both tick the 'getting lost' box, but our respective levels of innate 'feeling' of the weather are diametrically opposed?!
I love this, Alison - "No idea where I'm going but boy I do know it's going to snow, I can feel it"!!! 🤣
I'm always either too cold or too hot, finding the balance seems beyond me. Last week in Marrakech it was 35degrees Celsius but I only had jeans with me so I cooked. Then a few days later landing in Vienna it was snowing and my 7 layers were not enough...
LOL Tamzin - that's two extremes of weather right there! I'd've been inappropriately dressed for both locations too, trust me!
I went out for a walk in fleece-lined trousers and many layers up top a few weeks ago during an exceptionally warm spell and wished I'd put SHORTS on instead - I encountered several families with the same idea of enjoying a walk in such nice weather, and they were all in t-shirts. How had I got it so wrong?!
And then last spring I wore only two layers for a walk because the previous day I'd got too hot - and got caught in a shower of SLEET. I was so cold when I got home that I had to get straight into a hot shower - and my lifeless white fingers took forever to thaw! 🤣
Thanks, Camille! As a child I'm pretty sure I was always told to 'wrap up warm' - so I think that's probably in my wiring - I hate being cold, and avoid it as much as possible!
There’s not much layering to be done here in usually steamy South Florida. And lately, I’m just always hot and will only wear easy-breezy clothes. And I’m a prolific weather app checker - I think it has to do with watching the forecasts during hurricane season.
Oooh, the opportunity for easy-breezy clothes - sounds wonderful! No chance to dress like that for some time here, yet - but I look forward to when it warms up! At least we don't have to worry about hurricanes! Actually, that's not quite true - see this post for when one DID hit here - https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/20-when-average-weather-becomes-extreme - I'd forgotten about that one!
But our weather - and I know that we Brits complain ceaselessly about the weather, and the fact that it rains so much - is pretty gentle and middle-ground. Not much in the way of extremes, thankfully!
I know y’all think it’s always 100 degrees (37 for some of you) in Arizona but we do have a version of winter here! Mornings can be nippy, sometimes even a frost and if you’re doing an early race, hard to gauge. Best tip: wear a giant trash bag over your running outfit while you’re waiting at the start line. Then toss it when the gun goes off!
Ah yes, the giant trash bag trick! And great that they're waterproof - there's nothing worse than being cold AND wet at the same time when you're waiting for the gun! 😊
How’s this for a wardrobe puzzler: Starting today in 32F Colorado, flying to 80F Gulf Shores, AL, for one week, then finishing up with a stop off in NYC for five days, before returning to Colorado. We could experience any damn thing the weather decides to throw at us! Spring/Summer/Winter everywhere all at once! I packed like Phineas Fogg. Meanwhile I love this turn of phrase: “the feet of spring well and truly under nature’s desk.” It warms my heart, but will my heart be too warm? I better figure out some layering.
I hate how my feet sweat, making my socks damp and then my feet cold. I often prefer to wear sandals when it's cool out. Thankfully, we don't get much cold weather here, so I don't have to worry about that too often. We only have to worry about how to take *off* enough layers most months to stay cool without becoming a strip show. :)
Oh my goodness me - that's terrible!!! I read that link with interest (while shaking my head repeatedly!).
Damp cold feet are no fun - I always have spare socks in my rucksack just in case my feet get too soggy on a long walk. No sandals for me - I'm pretty much a boots-all-year-round kind of girl. A lady who works nearby wears sandals all year, even in the depths of winter - she told me me once that her bare feet are her temperature regulator. Blew my mind (and not in an 'oh, that sounds nice' kind of way). 🤣
And you're right - at least when you're cold you can put more clothes ON, but there's a limit to doing that in reverse! 😉
As someone who is perpetually cold and, yet, always sweating AND as someone who cannot grasp the weather forecast, I relate to this!
For some reason, I can read "65 degrees" and see the little sun icon next to it, but the words and images do not add up to valuable information. I know what they *mean*, but I cannot associate them with a *felt sense* of what I need to wear to be comfortable. I always end up dressed incorrectly. I can grasp 20 degrees and below (so very cold), and 90 degrees and above (so very hot), but anything in between is a mystery. When I moved to the south, I thought I wouldn't have to deal with the in-betweens because I figured I'd always be living in hot, right? Wrong! I live in an area where the weather is in that in-between zone 90% of the year. So, I wing it and hope for the best! And, these days, I'm in that (ahem) mid-life hormonal shift, so I'm living according to my internal weather most of the time anyway! 🤣🥵
Anyway, thanks for another thought-provoking, charming read, Rebecca! xoxo
I also struggle with weather, Rebecca! I often run in the morning and then get dressed for the day, but the problem is I forget that running warms up my body so I'm perpetually under-dressed.
Also: I've been spouting that Wainwright quote forever but had no idea who said it. So thanks for the reminder.
LOL - you're so right, Jillian. I lose count of the number of times I haven't put the right clothes on for the rest of the day...! If I'm still hot from exercise I'm sure as eggs are eggs to freeze later thanks to not putting enough on afterwards - I love that I'm not the only one! 😊
So true about 'be bold: start cold.' I learned that the hard way. We do the same with the horses. They start work cold and then get wool "coolers" to wear afterward so they don't get a chill. I do the same now and it takes less time and shivering to recover. It only took me years to figure it out :-|
I think we would call a vest a 'tank,' but not sure why. A quick search suggests it's named after a style of early swimsuit top from the days when pools were hilariously called 'swimming tanks.' (When I think of a vest, I picture something that opens in the front... but maybe it just means something sleeveless?)
Of course - yes - I remember my schoolfriend who kept a horse telling me that the reason she would put a rug on him after they'd been out for a ride and he was boiling and sweaty was so that he wouldn't get cold. I could have learned from that!
We have 'tank tops' over here - that's what we call a sleeveless pullover. What you'd call a 'vest' is what we'd either call a waistcoat (formalwear, part of a three-piece suit) or a gilet (made of fleece or microfibre, sleeveless with a zip running from top to bottom. And a 'life vest' is what we'd call a life jacket!
Love this Rebecca ❤️ I never knew who said that thing about bad weather/bad clothes. I kind of just thought it was a timeless truism, passed down from one generation of Snow and Rock employees to another (I used to work there, one very boring winter long ago). I await your colour-coded degree-by-degree clothes chart with not a small amount of impatience. X
Thanks so much, Jill! I'm now wondering if Wainwright had got the phrase from somewhere else rather than being the origin of it - because it absolutely is both timeless and true!
LOL - I'd better start on that chart! Watch this space....! 🤣
Beautiful writing and decision making here Rebecca! So we’re in 31’c heat on hols and the first night reminding me of those balmy/ difficult/ shocking heat wave days in the UK where I tried my best to connect to actually being cold to bring my internal temperature down! That and lots of ice worked! Bizarrely the air con here only goes down to 18’c - it’s cooler than 31’c in direct sun but it’s still like no air con I’ve ever encountered before! 😆 🥵✨
Goodness me, Claire - that sounds HOT!!! I hope you're having a fabulous time! I was in short sleeves today for the first time in ages - but only because I was cooking and ironing at the same time, and I wasn't being entirely reckless because I DID have a vest on under my t-shirt! 😉
18°C sounds pretty chilly to me, by the way... but I guess it's not if you're trying to cool down from 31°C!
When I read the title, I suspected you were going to extol the benefits of starting the day with a cold shower! Something I've been considering on and off for a while (mostly off). I live in Melbourne and we are renowned for having four seasons in one day. I don't watch any live tv but my partner and I check the weather on an apo before choosing our clothes for the day. I couldn't watch a weather report either...
COLD SHOWER?!!! Medha, are you crazy?! 😉 Jim gave me a waterproof timer for the shower for Christmas because in winter I like to spend far too long in there, turning it up every time I get used to the temperature. I hope he's not reading this - you might give him ideas to start controlling the temperature as well as the timing!
Until fairly recently I had one outfit for all occasions: t-shirt and shorts. Often after it had been snowing, Elaine and I would go out for a walk, she dressed in 15 layers and me in my usual garb. Passers by would look at us in astonishment because it probably looked as if we inhabited two separate climate zones.
🤣 One of our neighbours dresses in shorts - just shorts - pretty much all year round. On a particularly chilly day he might wear a vest (singlet) too. Brrrrrr!!!!!!!
A man after my own heart!
🤣
Snap!
But trying to deal with my gradual descent into chill by deciding to once again winter swim.
Perversely, it makes one feel warm...
Great post as always, Rebecca.
LOL - thanks, Prue! I was so impressed to read about your swimming when I read your lovely post this morning! 'The last summer swim' indeed....!
Winter swimming is worldwide I gather and scientific evidence shows that the freezing dip can be great for one's health. Let me admit here and now that I wear a wetsuit!!! Unlike many of my fellow swimmers globally who are so brave!
Also, in winter, I find it really hard to get my head wet as I immediately get the most punishing icecream headache, so no freestyle which is my favourite stroke. I've taken to walking out to where my toes just hit the bottom and either doing breast stroke or continue to walk against the pressure of the water. It all seems to work.
I'm in awe of the people I see swimming in the sea in the winter - on New Year's Day we watched a whole load of brave souls out there, and they were having an absolute ball! I have several friends who go wild swimming all year round in lakes and rivers as well as the sea, but I hadn't ever heard of winter swimming before, although they do do it in winter.
I'm not a strong swimmer - I can't swim any specific strokes (unless you count doggy paddle)! Still, I don't sink, and I can keep going for ages.
This was a great post. It reminded me of a conversation I had with two friends who got stuck on a mountain in snowfall without gloves or spikes on their shoes at 3000 meters. You can never be prepared enough! 🥲
Thanks so much, Punit! Gosh - 3000 metres in the snow without the right gear? Hardcore...! I'm not sure there are enough layers in the world to get me into such a place with confidence!
Yes, I was equally astounded. The best part was the happiness they got from sharing that story and experience. They had a great point of view on it - it was almost like they were saying, "we pushed ourselves and found a way out so now we get to look back at it with pride". It made me think deeply about how I deal with unpredictable scenarios and how I navigate my way through them! 😀
That's remarkable, Punit - that's a learning point (or several!) right there! 😊 I'm going to think about how I could better look at things I haven't been able to control. 🤔
well said :)
Rebecca, I cannot imagine not obsessively tracking the weather. At minimum, I check my weather app when I get up, and before I go to bed. I must know. It is the only way to properly plan, and at this time of year, I’m glued to it for the first sign that I don’t have to wear my parka that day.
As a Canadian, and a denizen of the east coast, home of wild weather, I honestly don’t remember learning how to dress for all contingencies. I think it’s because you have to start so young with the many different kinds of seasonal clothing, you absorb it from your parents and then carry it down the line. It’s almost time to rotate my closet too, putting the winter clothes in the back and bringing the spring clothes forward. I have a good feel at this point for what is suited to what range of temperature. I always have spare gloves in my bag, and I keep a shawl in my office just in case.
That's brilliant, Alison - I'm so impressed! I really need to get into the habit of engaging more with what the weather's got in store. Jim's got a series of brilliant apps on his phone which he refers to constantly when he's working outside - if it's raining, there's an app which shows him where that cloud is live, and predicts how many minutes it will be before the rain stops.
I think if we had a much cooler or much hotter climate over here I'd have no choice than to be better on top of this kind of thing!
Yay to the spare gloves! And you've reminded me that I really need to sort out my wardrobe for spring. When I was getting dressed this morning I grabbed one of my comfiest baggy loose-sleeved tops... and then realised it's the one with snowflakes and robins all over it. Need to consign that to a pile marked 'Christmas'! 🤣
Oh those apps sound excellent! I have such a strong sense of the weather though, which is probably funny when compared to my life as a disorient. No idea where I’m going but boy I do know it’s going to snow, I can feel it.
LOL - it's funny, isn't it - how we both tick the 'getting lost' box, but our respective levels of innate 'feeling' of the weather are diametrically opposed?!
I love this, Alison - "No idea where I'm going but boy I do know it's going to snow, I can feel it"!!! 🤣
I'm always either too cold or too hot, finding the balance seems beyond me. Last week in Marrakech it was 35degrees Celsius but I only had jeans with me so I cooked. Then a few days later landing in Vienna it was snowing and my 7 layers were not enough...
LOL Tamzin - that's two extremes of weather right there! I'd've been inappropriately dressed for both locations too, trust me!
I went out for a walk in fleece-lined trousers and many layers up top a few weeks ago during an exceptionally warm spell and wished I'd put SHORTS on instead - I encountered several families with the same idea of enjoying a walk in such nice weather, and they were all in t-shirts. How had I got it so wrong?!
And then last spring I wore only two layers for a walk because the previous day I'd got too hot - and got caught in a shower of SLEET. I was so cold when I got home that I had to get straight into a hot shower - and my lifeless white fingers took forever to thaw! 🤣
Great piece, Rebecca ! I, too, tend to overdress, as it were- I’d much rather be warm than start cold
Thanks, Camille! As a child I'm pretty sure I was always told to 'wrap up warm' - so I think that's probably in my wiring - I hate being cold, and avoid it as much as possible!
There’s not much layering to be done here in usually steamy South Florida. And lately, I’m just always hot and will only wear easy-breezy clothes. And I’m a prolific weather app checker - I think it has to do with watching the forecasts during hurricane season.
Oooh, the opportunity for easy-breezy clothes - sounds wonderful! No chance to dress like that for some time here, yet - but I look forward to when it warms up! At least we don't have to worry about hurricanes! Actually, that's not quite true - see this post for when one DID hit here - https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/20-when-average-weather-becomes-extreme - I'd forgotten about that one!
But our weather - and I know that we Brits complain ceaselessly about the weather, and the fact that it rains so much - is pretty gentle and middle-ground. Not much in the way of extremes, thankfully!
I know y’all think it’s always 100 degrees (37 for some of you) in Arizona but we do have a version of winter here! Mornings can be nippy, sometimes even a frost and if you’re doing an early race, hard to gauge. Best tip: wear a giant trash bag over your running outfit while you’re waiting at the start line. Then toss it when the gun goes off!
Ah yes, the giant trash bag trick! And great that they're waterproof - there's nothing worse than being cold AND wet at the same time when you're waiting for the gun! 😊
How’s this for a wardrobe puzzler: Starting today in 32F Colorado, flying to 80F Gulf Shores, AL, for one week, then finishing up with a stop off in NYC for five days, before returning to Colorado. We could experience any damn thing the weather decides to throw at us! Spring/Summer/Winter everywhere all at once! I packed like Phineas Fogg. Meanwhile I love this turn of phrase: “the feet of spring well and truly under nature’s desk.” It warms my heart, but will my heart be too warm? I better figure out some layering.
Whoah, what a combination, Peter - my brain has just exploded! 🥵🥶🤯
LOL to layering up your heart - I'd suggest that you err on the side of cosy!
I'm embarrassed to say what we call your "vest" here in the American South--"wife beater."
https://www.dictionary.com/e/take-off-wife-beater-put-tank/
I hate how my feet sweat, making my socks damp and then my feet cold. I often prefer to wear sandals when it's cool out. Thankfully, we don't get much cold weather here, so I don't have to worry about that too often. We only have to worry about how to take *off* enough layers most months to stay cool without becoming a strip show. :)
Oh my goodness me - that's terrible!!! I read that link with interest (while shaking my head repeatedly!).
Damp cold feet are no fun - I always have spare socks in my rucksack just in case my feet get too soggy on a long walk. No sandals for me - I'm pretty much a boots-all-year-round kind of girl. A lady who works nearby wears sandals all year, even in the depths of winter - she told me me once that her bare feet are her temperature regulator. Blew my mind (and not in an 'oh, that sounds nice' kind of way). 🤣
And you're right - at least when you're cold you can put more clothes ON, but there's a limit to doing that in reverse! 😉
As someone who is perpetually cold and, yet, always sweating AND as someone who cannot grasp the weather forecast, I relate to this!
For some reason, I can read "65 degrees" and see the little sun icon next to it, but the words and images do not add up to valuable information. I know what they *mean*, but I cannot associate them with a *felt sense* of what I need to wear to be comfortable. I always end up dressed incorrectly. I can grasp 20 degrees and below (so very cold), and 90 degrees and above (so very hot), but anything in between is a mystery. When I moved to the south, I thought I wouldn't have to deal with the in-betweens because I figured I'd always be living in hot, right? Wrong! I live in an area where the weather is in that in-between zone 90% of the year. So, I wing it and hope for the best! And, these days, I'm in that (ahem) mid-life hormonal shift, so I'm living according to my internal weather most of the time anyway! 🤣🥵
Anyway, thanks for another thought-provoking, charming read, Rebecca! xoxo
LOL - this is exactly me, Kerri! Thank you so much! 🤣
I also struggle with weather, Rebecca! I often run in the morning and then get dressed for the day, but the problem is I forget that running warms up my body so I'm perpetually under-dressed.
Also: I've been spouting that Wainwright quote forever but had no idea who said it. So thanks for the reminder.
LOL - you're so right, Jillian. I lose count of the number of times I haven't put the right clothes on for the rest of the day...! If I'm still hot from exercise I'm sure as eggs are eggs to freeze later thanks to not putting enough on afterwards - I love that I'm not the only one! 😊
So true about 'be bold: start cold.' I learned that the hard way. We do the same with the horses. They start work cold and then get wool "coolers" to wear afterward so they don't get a chill. I do the same now and it takes less time and shivering to recover. It only took me years to figure it out :-|
I think we would call a vest a 'tank,' but not sure why. A quick search suggests it's named after a style of early swimsuit top from the days when pools were hilariously called 'swimming tanks.' (When I think of a vest, I picture something that opens in the front... but maybe it just means something sleeveless?)
Of course - yes - I remember my schoolfriend who kept a horse telling me that the reason she would put a rug on him after they'd been out for a ride and he was boiling and sweaty was so that he wouldn't get cold. I could have learned from that!
We have 'tank tops' over here - that's what we call a sleeveless pullover. What you'd call a 'vest' is what we'd either call a waistcoat (formalwear, part of a three-piece suit) or a gilet (made of fleece or microfibre, sleeveless with a zip running from top to bottom. And a 'life vest' is what we'd call a life jacket!
'Swimming tanks' - LOL!!! Makes sense, though!
Wow, my head is spinning with all of these new terms! So interesting! I need to make a diagram to keep them all straight ;-)
🤣
Love this Rebecca ❤️ I never knew who said that thing about bad weather/bad clothes. I kind of just thought it was a timeless truism, passed down from one generation of Snow and Rock employees to another (I used to work there, one very boring winter long ago). I await your colour-coded degree-by-degree clothes chart with not a small amount of impatience. X
Thanks so much, Jill! I'm now wondering if Wainwright had got the phrase from somewhere else rather than being the origin of it - because it absolutely is both timeless and true!
LOL - I'd better start on that chart! Watch this space....! 🤣
Beautiful writing and decision making here Rebecca! So we’re in 31’c heat on hols and the first night reminding me of those balmy/ difficult/ shocking heat wave days in the UK where I tried my best to connect to actually being cold to bring my internal temperature down! That and lots of ice worked! Bizarrely the air con here only goes down to 18’c - it’s cooler than 31’c in direct sun but it’s still like no air con I’ve ever encountered before! 😆 🥵✨
Goodness me, Claire - that sounds HOT!!! I hope you're having a fabulous time! I was in short sleeves today for the first time in ages - but only because I was cooking and ironing at the same time, and I wasn't being entirely reckless because I DID have a vest on under my t-shirt! 😉
18°C sounds pretty chilly to me, by the way... but I guess it's not if you're trying to cool down from 31°C!
Maybe it fibs?! Would we be sweating whilst sleeping in 18’c because we are! 😆 I think I might be made without a working temperature gauge!
Maybe, or maybe it's the humidity that's making it feel warmer? I wonder if that makes a difference.
I never seem to be the right temperature wherever I am or whatever I'm doing - I'm pretty sure my inner thermostat's gone off on one....! 🤣
When I read the title, I suspected you were going to extol the benefits of starting the day with a cold shower! Something I've been considering on and off for a while (mostly off). I live in Melbourne and we are renowned for having four seasons in one day. I don't watch any live tv but my partner and I check the weather on an apo before choosing our clothes for the day. I couldn't watch a weather report either...
COLD SHOWER?!!! Medha, are you crazy?! 😉 Jim gave me a waterproof timer for the shower for Christmas because in winter I like to spend far too long in there, turning it up every time I get used to the temperature. I hope he's not reading this - you might give him ideas to start controlling the temperature as well as the timing!
Oh it's a thing. Here, look (but don't let Jim see!): https://www.wimhofmethod.com/benefits-of-cold-showers
Ooooh, Wim Hof - yes, I've seen a documentary about him. Well, maybe I SHOULD have a go... 🤔🥶👀
Haha. I've had the same thought a few times and then promptly discarded it. If you get brave, be sure to report back!
🤣 #notgonnahappen (for me, I mean!) 🤣
Haha. We are going into autumn/winter now, so it's unlikely for me for the next 8 months at least!