What is time? Seconds and minutes and hours and days bleeding into one. It’s time to say goodbye to the month that has both rushed past in warp-speed and snailed forward in slow motion at the same time. The days are a never-ending cycle of sleeping and eating. Rinse and repeat. I feel like this entire last year can be summarized in the above Coldplay quote (from their song Clocks). The walls are closing in on me and I want to burst out into freedom. I want to hug my friends and see my parents and brother. I want to go out for a coffee or a glass of wine. I want to go to a restaurant and have someone else cooking for me for once. I want to go the library or the museum or just go on a physical shopping spree in a brick-and-mortar store.
I want my life back. Like all of you, I’m sure.
I usually say goodbye to the month that’s been on the first of every month with ten pictures from my life, and I’m doing the same today. But be warned: my life consists mostly of me being inside my apartment. Doing the same thing over and over again. So if you want something exciting, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Tell me: did you do something exciting in February?
February was cold in my part of the world. Weeks of subzero temperatures made even the ocean freeze. But we were also rewarded with clear skies and brilliant sunshine and me and hubby went on several walks to soak up some light after a long, dark winter. We walked along the ocean and stopped here, by this mostly abandoned marina, to drink our tea/coffee and feel the sun on our faces.
The chill made my hands constantly cold, so I bought gloves I could wear when writing to warm me up. They’re compression gloves that increase blood circulation which helps keep my hands warm, and they’ve kept my fingers from turning into popsicles.
The cold made all bodies of water freeze. People bought all the ice skates in all the stores (seriously! They wrote about the ice skate-shortage in the newspaper and everything) and went out on lakes and and the ocean and had fun. I prefer walking over trying to propel myself forward on a thin metal blade, but that didn’t stop me from photographing other people enjoying themselves when I was out walking.
As usual, I’ve spent lots of time cooking. I love making elaborate dinners for my husband and he loves eating them. This was chicken cannelloni. Super yummy.
I’ve started Project Audiobook. I’ve never liked listening to audiobooks before, but I’m trying to change that now. I’ll tell you more about this project in a separate, upcoming blog post, but suffice to say, I’ve spent a lot of time with my headphones on, listening to books while doing stuff like cooking and cleaning.
We love going for walks along the ocean. This lookout spot (overlooking the Öresund Bridge, leading to Denmark) protrudes over the ocean from the shore and when I stand at the front, holding out my arms, I feel like Kate Winslet in the classic I’m flying scene from Titanic. Lots and lots of padlocks are hanging here, like the love locks on Pont des Arts in Paris. It’s a nice spot.
I continued my morning writing routine, of course. It’s often the best part of my day.
I almost got blown away one day when we were out for a walk by the ocean. The ocean was stormy with tall waves and icy winds. But it was still nice.
One weekend, we went on a road trip to look at runestones, raised sometime during the 11th century. The text on this one says: “FaðiR let haggva runaR þæssi æftiR Assur, broþur sin, es norr varð døðr i vikingu.” (Faðir had these runes cut in memory of Assur, his brother, who died in the north on a viking raid). I love historical monuments like these; my chest fills with awe when touching them, when feeling the history underneath my fingers. I love it.
And the final picture is really from March, I guess, but I went to sleep on February 28 and woke up at 3:30-ish am by a loud effing explosion. A literal explosion!! A bomb of some kind had gone off in the building across the street from us, and that made me super rattled (and really glad that we’re soon moving away from this place to a rural area.) No one was hurt, only property damage, but still. Not the greatest end to a not so great month. Let’s hope March will turn out better!
Nell Iris 