February 1, 2023 – Nell Iris

…and good riddance. I never wanna see you again, Stupid Awful Month.

Usually, my worst month of the year is November because it’s gray and dreary and dark, but surprisingly, November didn’t suck last year. So I thought I’d made it through this winter season without the obligatory The-Darkness-Makes-Nell-Very-Depressed episode…but life and the universe had other plans. They decided to postpone the episode to January instead.

Because seriously. Has January been darker than usual? Grayer? More depressing? Has it gone on and on and on for one thousand years? Yes. Yes it has. But now we’re done with it and February is a blessedly short month, so soon spring will be here. And the light. I need the light. Because f*ck, I can’t get used to the constant darkness of the winter months in my neck of the woods, even if I’ve been back in Scandinavia for over three years. I miss living next door to the equator and 12-ish hours of daylight every day, and when people ask what I miss most about living in Malaysia (I bet you miss the heat!) my answer is always, always DAYLIGHT!

But okay. The month hasn’t been all bad. In fact, it started pretty great.

Because if you remember, my beloved daughter and her family was here for New Year’s and they stayed for almost an entire week after. Which meant I got to hang out with this amazing person for days, and life is always better with the grandbaby around. If you’re wondering what she’s doing in the picture, she’s working on my computer and drinking coffee…because that’s what all the adults in her life are doing (except for me, I drink tea, but the principle is the same).

Hey honey, let’s read something, I said.
No, gramma, I gotta work, she answered and started typing away, stopping only to pour more imaginary coffee for herself from her watering can. 😍

Not even getting stuck outside the train station because the fire alarm was triggered for some reason, so no one was allowed to enter the building, leaving me standing outside in the freezing rain for 45 minutes sucked, because my daughter, her fiancé, and Lille W came and picked me up and drove me home. I wish they’d permanently move in with us. We have the room. But alas, they have other plans.

Before they went back home, we had a beer-tasting event. My son-in-law’s mission in life is to find beers for me that I really love. In general, I prefer wine over beer, but he wants to share the experience of a good beer with me. And after trying for years, he finally managed to find me a five-star beer. The Trappistes Rochefort 10, (to the right in the picture), is the best beer I’ve ever had. I loved all of the beers above, but the 10 was extra special.

I spent so much time in January looking up at the sky, hoping to see a glimmer of blue amidst all the gray clouds, and one evening when i looked up from the computer after working from home, the sky decided to reward me with this color show. It was so beautiful IRL, I almost cried.

One Friday after work, the hubby and I decided coldcuts and wine and a fire was in order. We listened to a bunch of favorite vinyl records and stayed up way too late, and it was glorious.

You know when you take down the Christmas lights and you set them on the floor “for a second” before you’re gonna put them away for the season, and then something distracts you and you forget about them, and the next morning, you rush to work, not paying attention to the lights abandoned on the floor…and then the vacuum cleaner robot starts his scheduled programming and you come home to a battleground where the Robovacuum won over the Christmas lights and dragged one of his opponents back to the charging station?

No? It must be just us then 😆

My chest almost burst with happiness when I got home from work one evening and it wasn’t pitch black outside.

The only good thing about January is that it’s blood orange season, and I love blood oranges. It’s my second favorite fruit, beaten only by pineapple.

I’ll learn to knit when I become a grandmother, I’ve always said, and now that I’ve been a grandmother for close to 2,5 years, I decided it was time. Only, I decided I wanted to learn how to crochet instead. My mom taught me the basic stitches back in the day, but I probably haven’t touched a crochet hook in 35-ish years. So even if this is the wonkiest and most crooked excuse for a granny square you’ve seen in your life, it’s not bad for a first try in over three decades, is it?

And! I’ve already improved since I did that thing. My goal is to crochet a blanket of granny squares for the grandbaby. Deadline: before she turns ten 😆