Second part of Game Of Thrones

So finally i'm starting to understand this book a little more. Its becoming very interesting and i'm starting to be able to relate to some of the characters. One interesting conversation that's happening that Martin is trying to allude to is the topic of sacrifice The situation with catelyn and ned is so relate-able to today's time that it almost made me wanna scream and throw the book. i think martin is trying to tell us something about the rest of the book because this isn't the first example of sacrifice  Another thing that interests me about the second half of the reading is how the characters are developing.Going from knowing nothing about them to the "black sheep" of society (tyrion)  giving advice to Jon about how to stay optimistic is intense. its almost like martin is trying to tell the reader to stay optimistic about the events that are about to happen. Like when catelyn is about to die and the wolf that she hated so much saved her and her sons life. While on the topic of bran, i think he is my favorite character so far. He is innocent and young but knows so much more because all he has to do is sit back and watch. His conversation with the crow is profound and i think there were a lot of hidden messages in that exert.Then the story starts to reveal that there will soon be a war between the starks and the lannisters when they go to south. the characters are finally moving around which signals something is about to happen. Catlyn finds out that the dagger used to try and kill her some bran, was one of tyrion which is a big deal because they have some loyalty to him. This makes the scene where ned is talking to his daughter arya about family even more profound because we can see the alliances starting to get stronger within the family. Ned knows they need to be strong and stick together and the fact that tyrions blade almost killed bran says why. Something big is about to happen.

I have a question though,
why does the book keep repeating that winter is coming, i thought they already were in winter/????
maybe winter is a play on word for danger. idk