The Curated coat (similar)
Zara sweater (similar)
Mavi jeans (c/o)
Vejas sneakers
Sezane handbag
Zara hat (similar)
Celine sunglasses
Linjer rings (c/o) (similar)
Maris Pearl Co. earrings (similar)
Location: National Museum of Ireland – Archeology – Dublin, Ireland
These aren’t quite my last photos from Dublin – those will come next week – but it feels somehow fitting to share them now, as a sort of farewell, both to our winter trip to Ireland and to winter itself. I wore this outfit at least twice on our trip, the first time for a tour and tasting at Teeley Distillery, then for a museum visit the next day. It wasn’t warm, but the weather was mild compared to what we’re used to at home. Spring is just arriving in Winnipeg, and I’ve worn an iteration of this outfit several times this week. It’s really only now that the temperature is high enough for that.
I’m a lifelong summer girl, and I look forward to saying farewell to winter every year. It doesn’t matter where I live, I feel the dark, cold months acutely, whether they’re rainy and damp or cold and snowy. Even in Paris, winter loses its charm by February. This isn’t something I can simply “get over” but rather a fact that I’ve needed to learn to cope with and manage. All that to say that while getting away from Winnipeg in January was a wonderful adventure, it was still winter at our destination, just a milder version of it. I suspect I’d love Dublin a lot more if we visited when the weather was better.
In the winter months, I read lots of books. I try to look at the quiet time, spent mostly indoors, as an opportunity to rest rather than a wall of boredom that I somehow need to scale daily. The system isn’t perfect – some days it works, some days I loathe everything about the season and want to tear my hair out waiting for it to end.
Sounds dramatic, I know. It feels that way sometimes, too.
But now it seems that the time has come to genuinely say farewell to another winter. I’m thrilled. It’s a feeling of pure bliss to be able to slip on sneakers rather than snow boots once again. My Vejas, unworn since this day in Dublin, have been waiting patiently. It’s about time for me to take them out on their next adventure. And it’s about time for me to go on mine. When the weather gets warmer, I really do feel like I come alive again. I plan my life accordingly. A farewell to winter means a farewell to time spent indoors, counting down to more exciting days. This time next week, I’ll be doing my final packing for a trip to Vancouver – what Veronika and I fondly (and somewhat cheekily) refer to as our annual Chanel and champagne extravaganza.
By the time I get back, we’ll be just one short month away from a trip back to Paris. Without wishing our lives away, exactly, we’ve been counting down to this for months – I’m thrilled it’s seemingly snuck up on us when it felt so far away just recently. During the pandemic, when circumstances forced us to slow down to a near halt, I reflected on how much we’d done in our lives without ever pausing to think just how lucky we were to be able to do it all. We were always in a rush, always moving on from one adventure to the next. These days, I take nothing for granted. We are so fortunate. Nothing is guaranteed, every experience is a gift.
…but I still prefer summer moments to winter ones. And I still want to dash out on every possible adventure, never losing a moment that could be spent in wonder and discovery. So this is my annual farewell to winter. There are brighter days ahead, and I am absolutely ready for them.
