I only like icy landscapes in theory. I can say that with some authority, because I’ve tested the, er, frozen waters. In college, I lived across the street from the Lake Superior shoreline, and meh — not my thing! See, it’s not an urban legend or an exaggeration that humans can have icicles hanging from their personage. Oh, no. That really happens.
Here’s a photo of me, standing on Lake Superior when the ice had already started to break up. It was Easter break, so I’d switched to my “spring” snowpants and coat — and was subsequently frozen to the core. (What was I thinking?! DOES THAT LOOK LIKE SPRING TO YOU?! And who in the world has “spring snowpants”?)
Brrrrrrr. It’s true that the air is amazing and clean, there are myriad stars, and the stillness and quietness overnight are like nothing I’ve experienced elsewhere. But you know? It’s cold. Your car’s doors freeze entirely shut. When you do get the car moving finally, the wheels feel square. The worst part of it all is when the sky and the ground fade together into a dusty, dreary gray, swallowing everything in between them. The sun disappears. Weeks pass before it reappears momentarily, only to slip away again. Sometimes, it’s too cold for snow even to fall.
So when I’m oooh and aaahing over the pretty wintery scenes in Toast UK’s most recent lookbook, I try to remind myself what living inside those pictures really was like, and realize that I’m much happier just looking at the photos*.
*I’ll let you decide how much of that is true and how much is an attempt to convince myself I enjoy sweating in Florida-October’s swampy heat.
You may also be interested in my Toast UK catalogue round-ups from previous seasons. They’re not all wintery. ;)
Illustration by Aina Stenberg (1885-1975)
The Oaxacaborn Blog 