These Analogue Winter Days

Pressed glass, film grain, and the intimacy of staying in

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One morning this week we argued over the meaning of the word arbitrage (it’s very specific, and I won). The days are growing noticeably longer and brighter. It snowed for about two seconds this morning – the big, wet kind that melts before it can decide to stay. We’ve almost made it through another very long January, and with it, hopefully, the worst of winter.

I’ve been hibernating for the past month, sometimes getting ready as if I’m going somewhere, only to stay home after all. Winter is hard, but it can’t last forever. As Camus famously said, “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”¹

This is a Life Update of sorts, but not in the usual way. It is, instead, a compilation of the analogue ways I've been spending these winter days – from salvaged souvenirs and pressed glass to film photographs that smell faintly of the past. There are handwritten letters, skincare experiments, a controversial pan, and a return to 2016 that might feel more familiar than you'd expect. Small habits, carefully kept things, and the particular pleasure of moving through winter at a slower speed.