Seasonal Obsessions from Winter

I thought it would be fun to wrap up the season with a recap of what captured so much of my attention these last few months that it could be categorised as an obsession. So here we go...

1. Structures of Time

My sense of time really goes haywire in the winter. I’m fully solar powered and getting by on 6 hours of sunlight just doesn’t do it for me. So this past season I really became obsessed with how I structure my days and weeks and months and I concluded that I don’t like the structure of a week at all. I think it’s far too short. When I try to do things weekly, like let’s say change my sheets, I feel like by the time I finish the task — take the dirty sheets off, put clean ones on, wash the dirty sheets, dry the sheets, and then fold them and put them away — it’s time to do it all over again and it drives me nuts. In an effort to try to understand this weekly structure a bit better, I bought and started reading The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are but I’m only a few pages in right now.

I also started researching other structures of time that might work. For example doing things on the new and full moons. But 14 days feels like too much time for a “week”. Elle Bower Johnston had a link to Small Seasons in one of her posts and I really liked the concept but it’s still too long of a time span. Then, because I’m a tarot nerd, I went down the rabbit hole of learning how the minor arcana connect to astrological year. The simplest explanation is that basically each minor arcana rules roughly ten days of the year. I began to wonder if that’s how I could structure my weeks/months. It really appealed to my nerd brain but was pretty hard to implement in practice, especially when the thing that I most need to plan around is my menstrual cycle which brings us to….

2. Menstrual Cycle Awareness

I’ve been tracking my cycle for a long time and really deeply and obsessively for about a year now. But this winter I joined Cycle Coach Facilitator Training in order to deepen my understanding and possibly have it be something I bring into my work as a coach. Getting in tune with and understanding my menstrual cycle helped me reconnect with my body and my needs and my intuition. It’s really important for me in being able to anticipate times when I need more rest or times when I’m likely to take on too much or times when I’ll probably have brain power/focus to write and times when words are just going to not be my thing. Using my own cycle as the structure for my months is the most helpful thing I can do, and I need to play with having my “weeks” be the different phases of my cycle. There’s still so much left for me to play with and so much that I’m excited about so I’m sure this obsession is going to stay through Spring.

3. John Lewis Cutlery Reviews

It’s niche, yes, but reading reviews, specifically for Robert Welsh cutlery, left on the John Lewis website has brought me so much joy this winter. They are an art form. It’s where aspiring novelists go to practice their prose.

I just want to be as happy as dananski is with their espresso spoons. And I feel deeply seen and understood by everyone who left reviews on the US teaspoon. My girlfriend bought me some as a housewarming present and they ARE beautiful and well-balanced and everything that was promised to me by those reviewers. (And tangentially related, I’m also obsessed with the full catalogue of cutlery items (fifth picture down) that Robert Welch offers. You can have a butter knife, spreader, and butter blade? How have I been using one knife for all three?)

4. Worlds Beyond Number

If you want to hear the most beautiful storytelling of your life, you need to go find this podcast in your favourite podcast app (or go here) and listen to the preludes and just be prepared to fall in love. I’m obsessed, and I’m not even normally a podcast/audio person. It’s just so damn good.

5. Buffy The Vampire Slayer

This one is a bit of a hanger-on from Autumn, but I'm watching it for the first time and this winter I got into Seasons 5 and 6, and it’s A LOT, and I have so many feelings. I could write a whole essay about my love for Spike, and how I think he gets treated unfairly in the show, and everyone thinks he doesn’t have a soul just because he’s not all whiny about it like Angel, but the way he looks at Buffy with those puppy dogs eyes stabs me in the heart, and he would do anything to protect her, and I love him. (I’m only halfway through Season 6 so please don’t give me any spoilers and please just let me love Spike. I need this.)

6. Napping

I’ve always been a big fan of napping. This is not a surprise to anyone. But here’s what shifted this winter — I stopped fighting my need for a nap or viewing it as something wrong with me. I started carving out time for daily naps — at first, it was two a day (after breakfast and lunch), and now as we move into spring, it’s just one good afternoon siesta. But having this regular nap hour in my day has been amazing. Maybe it’s the actual napping or maybe it’s just the release of judgment about needing a nap, or maybe we could all do with a little more lying still in our lives. Either way I’m a fan and I want to keep having at least a 30 minute quiet time after lunch in my schedule going forward into Spring.

7. Kitchari

This has become my comfort food over winter. I’ve been eating it probably at least twice a week, maybe more when I’m at the end/beginning of my menstrual cycle. It’s one of the rare meals that my brain is always up for eating. I use this recipe as my base but I like to fry off some red onion, garlic, and fresh ginger and then add ground cumin, ground coriander, and ground turmeric for my spice mix. Serve with a generous topping of Tajín. I’m not sure how much longer this will be a dinner staple before it gets switched out for lighter/cooler Spring meals, so I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

8. My Girlfriend’s Cat

When you start dating someone and they have a pet, it’s always a little nerve wracking, right?

What if their pet is a dick and you hate them? On the flip side though, what if their pet is the most adorable creature and you fall hopelessly in love and you have to start an epic quest to make them love you back?

This second scenario is the one I find myself in. Petal is a skittish little wild thing and I adore her. I’ve carefully observed her and made notes of all her rules. I announce my presence when I’m entering the room she’s in. I stand very still if she suddenly decides to eat when I’m near her food bowl, and I wait patiently until she’s done and I’m allowed to move again. I wait for her to come to me and decide if she wants pats. I know what it’s like to need time and space to get used to a new person, and I respect Petal’s skepticism of new humans. But I’m obsessed with her and basically my whole life is now just watching her and reporting her movements to my girlfriend. (The other day, she came up onto the bed and laid next to me and let me give her so many pats. I think I’m winning her over! 😁)

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9. Breath of the Wild

My kiddo found out that in all the years I’ve been playing Breath of the Wild, I hadn’t fought a single one of the big baddies and he was pretty disappointed in me. He told me I couldn’t play the new Zelda game until I beat Breath of the Wild and since I’m not one to back down from a challenge, I spent a good part of my winter fighting Ganons and doing a lot of dying. (Like a lot. Like I’ve probably got 200+ deaths in this game. It’s not a good look.) But I did it! I prefer to have to do less fighting in my games (I’m more of a Stardew Valley person), but I did really enjoy Breath of the Wild and I look forward to the new one.

10. Everdell

If you’re looking for a great board game that features super cute animals and takes about 2 hours to play, I can highly recommend Everdell. My friends got it for Christmas and I’ve probably played it maybe ten times with them since then. I love games that have a good tactile element and the building materials and berries in this game do not disappoint. I also like that the turns, in general, don’t take too long so you’re not sat bored while someone spends 20 minutes doing a million different actions.

11. Tobaconist (The Paint Colour)

So this winter I discovered I have a deep love for green rooms. If it were up to me, my girlfriend and I would have an olive green living room with gold accents and a thousand plants. When we were picking out paint colours for our new home, she got a sample of Tobaconist and it was true love for that paint sample and me. I want to put it everywhere. LOOK HOW PRETTY:

In the end, I gave in and we decided on a nice greyish colour for the living room, and I added a Tobaconist-inspired colour to my brand palette.

12. Agencio Notebooks

You know that thing when someone turns you on to the perfect notebook and then a couple months later the company that makes them go out of business and so you have to stock up on the notebooks while you can? That’s me and the large dotted Agencio notebooks from Paperchase right now:

Hopefully these will last us until the obsession can be replaced with something else.

And that’s your roundup for this season!