winter was almost over

winter was about to end/retreat

Спасибо!

"Winter was almost over" (первый вариант Russ), похоже, самый распространённый.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=winter+was+nearing+its+end%2C+winter+was+running+out%2C+winter+was+almost+over%2C+winter+was+about+to+end&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cwinter%20was%20nearing%20its%20end%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cwinter%20was%20almost%20over%3B%2Cc0

+++Russ

Sorry, I don’t always look at the comments. Russ’s translation is the most common. Grumbler’s is rare, literary. Mine is more conversational.

Tatiana, your translation is good too — both in the written and the spoken language.

💙

Uly, большое спасибо за комментарий - ты подтвердил мои догадки! 🙏
А что насчёт the winter was about to end? Почему ngram.viewer его не находит?

Ребята, вот этому вопросу незаслуженно мало вашего внимания уделено. :(
https://www.lingvolive.com/en-us/community/posts/1467232

А по-моему, очень дажа заслуженно. Мне, например, смысл полностью не ясен, а автору вопроса ответ, очевидно, не очень-то и нужен.

Tatiana, for some reason “the winter was about to end“ doesn’t sound like something somebody would say, even though it’s quite grammatical. 

I agree with grumbler. I saw that post, but didn’t know what to make of it without context. To me it look like somebody trying to say “what is it about this business that you find so confusing?“

“the winter was about to end“ doesn’t sound like something somebody would say, even though it’s quite grammatical. 

Ага! Спасибо! 🙏😉

>I agree with grumbler. I saw that post, but didn’t know what to make of it without context. To me it look like somebody trying to say “what is it about this business that you find so confusing?“
I guess I fully understand the Russian without any context - I'm just not sure how I can express it in English. To me, it's like their listener let them know that they somehow don't like that particular kind of business (idea) because they find it treacherous or shaky or the like.

In that case, “what is it about this business that you don’t like/that makes you uneasy?“

Yes, that's what I meant. It's just that that doesn't go like Что Вас смущает..., but does like Может быть, Вас что-то смущает...