“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” — Maud Hart Lovelace
I spent the days of midsummer trying to stay cool with intermittent internet and phone blackouts during a brutal heat dome. The plants wilted and scarred but they survived due to late evening watering and fertilizer feedings. Everything was steam and the sunlight gave the feeling of being under a magnifying glass. I left water out for any stray animals. The summer has been hard so far and there’s so few lightning bugs you have to strain your eyes in the dark searching for them. Just a few years ago, the fields were alight with lightning bugs in June and you could watch them from the windows, a rolling yellow sea. Climate collapse sucks…
Since April, I’ve been in a funk and have had a hard time getting out of it. So, I decided to start reading Cixin Liu’s ‘The Three Body Problem’. I had watched the Netflix show and was curious if there was more to it. I was not disappointed and quickly finished the first two books over a few weekends. I think we forget when we are always focused on work, that play is of equal if not of more importance. Just reading those two books helped clear my mind of a lot of mental blocks and I’ve slowly started getting back into art again as well. Which has led me to plan a few projects down the road.
I’m hoping to get into book binding by autumn and I might sell a few original pieces on my Ko-fi. But for the most part, my goal is to create just really beautiful thick blank books for myself and maybe to gift. I’m also going to start learning Sashiko stitching, both in the hopes of creating nicer mending and to create some beautiful pieces for the house… I guess you could say I’m on a re-skilling journey. I’d also like to eventually learn some basketry, get a loom, make my own paint, printmaking, ceramics, and a bit of metalworking. The main goal however is to reskill while also taking advantage of my local environment. There’s a lot of invasive honeysuckle here for basketry for example. I suppose that’s it for this post, hope you all are having a good summer so far. Remember to stay cool and do lots of fun projects while you can!
Reads:
- ‘The Three Body Problem’ by Cixin Liu
- ‘The Dark Forest’ by Cixin Liu
Links:
- How to Write a History Essay (Yale PhD Student) | For High School & AP History, College History, etc
- Viktor Schauberger – Comprehend and Copy Nature (Documentary of 2008)
- Long COVID destroys teenage lungs in ways doctors never saw