I was born in an ex-USSR country, so spring has already begun for me. Spring starts on the 1st of March, summer on the 1st June, and so on. It just works. Unlike communism.
Can I convince you further?
Well,
Moldovans and Romanians (same thing, mind you) celebrate the arrival of spring by wearing a mărțișor (literally “little March”) pinned near their chest. A mărțișor is a red and white string with hanging tassels given on the 1st of March by friends and relatives.
Some people wear a bunch of them all together. There are modern versions of it, but I still prefer the traditional mărțișor. Coincidentally, the new poster of The Handmaid’s Tale looks both like a snowdrop (another spring symbol) and a mărțișor.
I don’t have an actual mărțișor to share with you, but I do have a red (pink) and white bouquet of dried baby’s breath flowers.
Wishing you a happy, fruitful spring!
This past month I took some photos for Sigil Scent. Their 100% natural fragrances won me over with their names alone: Amor Fati, Anima Mundi, Prima Materia, Solutio. Never was a fan of Latin in high school, but it sure sounds cool.
I work with what I have, so I used baby’s breath flowers as props. I also had pears.
See more photos here.
I hate to be the one to keep on repeating the words “lockdown” and “pandemic”. But I have to at least acknowledge it’s been an almost exact year since this all began.
I remember it well, the beginning. The middle of it? Not in great detail. It began like this: I was out with my parents and my soon-to-be-husband eating an extraordinary pizza with pancetta and yellow San Marzano tomatoes. The limoncello shot was on the house, life was swell.
The next day Padua was zona rossa, meaning we were effectively in lockdown. A few days after that, the whole country was. Spain followed. And France. The whole world. I was stunned — how was this possible? I knew I was experiencing a historical moment unlike anything else.
Photographers wiser than me began working on their long-term projects on the matter, and are now publishing their books a year later. While I, well, made a series of diptychs, followed by a story commissioned by NicOtine Magazine. Silver Linings is a result of me struggling to find happy little moments in our tiny apartment.
Somewhere in the midst of chaos, I got married! Trees flowered. Birds sang under the raging sun. The moon was full.
It’s hard to believe it’s been a year of feeling “that’s it, I can’t take it anymore” and still marching on, taking it. That’s on our brain’s capacity to adapt (see below). Thanks, brain!
All in all, I’ve had it oh-so-good, so hopefully this doesn’t sound like I am complaining. In which case, please dismiss this section.
WHERE LINKS GO:
I’ve been reading The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt. It’s been on my read list for years, but I’ve found my way to it just now. It’s not a self-help book, but the author says you can make it one. I love reading science facts about how our brain works. For example, how it has an adaptation technique to both pleasure and pain, so after a while I don’t enjoy my head massager as much :(
One evening I stumbled upon the app/website Drive & Listen and was mesmerised for a good half hour. You just “drive” through different cities and listen to the local radio. Seeing all those pedestrians and people on bicycles, I swear, brought butterflies to my stomach. However, I don’t drive in real life.
Florists are artists. Wagner Kreusch is definitely one of them.
You can always leave a comment or say hi by replying to this email. Which city is your favourite to drive through on Drive & Listen? Mine is Amsterdam, Rome and Paris. New York seems familiar because of all the movies. Delhi gave me a bit of anxiety (it’s the reckless driving).
Consider sharing this virtual mărțișor with your friends. See you in April!
Bouquet is a newsletter from Alina Trifan, who you can also follow on @_alinatrifan.