Field Notes for Curious Minds

Robin Williams’ character in Good Morning Vietnam famously announced it to be “hot, damn hot, real hot”. Those of us who live in various corners of France know what he was getting at. For we are in the midst of a canicule, a relentless heatwave. Traditionally, these ‘dog days of Summer’ ran from early-July to mid-August, but everything seems to have shifted in recent years and, here we are, nudging just beyond the Solstice and experiencing temperatures beyond the mid-30s. For a pale Scot who winced as cooling calamine lotion was smeared onto his scrawny 1970s frame, seared a resplendent ‘medium rare’ by the Cornish sunshine, it is the signal to retreat indoors, to become a hermit.

Bristol-based artist Diana Beltrán Herrera constructs elaborate sculptures of flora and fauna in vibrant paper and they are dazzling in their creativity.

There is a growing appeal to thoughts of remoteness, the chance to hide away and disconnect. We seem to be spotting cabins and retreats at every turn.

If you like that, you’ll love these:

1. A selection of Scandinavian summer houses; dreamy.

2. It is SO hot, we had to gaze upon a snow-clad cabin in Slovakia.

3. Our lovely friends Lottie and Jean-Marc include a woodland cabin among the choices at Margot’s Retreat. Plan your escape to the Ardèche region.

Talking of snow-clad … Aaron Rolph writes for Sidetrackedmag about his quest to photograph thirty Alpine refuges over the course of a single winter. In an age when we are reminded by the searing temperatures that snow-clad is under existential threat, this is a vital archive of what we stand to lose:

The ridge above is lost in white, wind tearing at the spindrift and needling my face raw with snow, until at last the dull shape of the bivacco surfaces against the rapidly dulling sky as night begins to fall. I can’t help but chuckle to myself about how much of an ordeal that was, while elated to have made it to safety. I secure my backpack to one of the cables that anchors the hut to this snowy ridge – a ridge barely wide enough to cradle this tiny box on the spine – before starting to dig out the door from snow. I hack at it with numb hands, gloves now so wet they’re doing nothing at all. I carve through hard-packed snow, fighting fatigue, and when the door finally gives I collapse inside, only the sound of my racing heartbeat keeping me company.

Aaron Rolph - The Architecture and Culture of Mountain Shelters

“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.”

― Dorothea Lange

“… a space for attention and curiosity …”

We do like the sound of Kissobō, a Japanese-style tea bar in Berlin.

For those inspired by a Japanese aesthetic:

1. Francis Turner created Less Known Japan … you might start with Cameron Cayer guiding you to the rarely-visited Island of Tobishima.

2. We love the story of Behind the Tea Fields by Rina, a passion project to build a travel business that celebrates Japanese communities, traditions and crafts in ways that will preserve and revitalise them. Inspiring.

3. Japanese architecture feels like an effortless harmony, complementary elements combining into a whole. Perhaps it is no surprise that there are certain ‘rules’, or ideas, that run through the key influences.

   

Every week we seek out and highlight writers who stop us in our tracks with their words and ideas.

1. There is something incredibly reassuring about someone else learning lessons from this fierce version of summer. Giulia Scarpaleggia echoes our own thoughts about the parched places we loosely call flower beds:

   I make a mental note: next year, this spot needs tougher, low-maintenance shrubs, perhaps lavender and helichrysum, plants that can move in the breeze, thrive under the sun, and offer nourishment to bees, butterflies, and bumblebees.

2. We are not alone when it comes to these hottest of days; Kate Hill is finding a cool spot to sip iced drinks and hide in a decent book.

3. Summers in Romania offer a taste of apricots shared by Irina Georgescu

4. Perhaps your summer includes travel, some touristing. How many photos will you take … and for whom, for what purpose; what happens, for example, when you trust your memory to store up a remembrance of your special days without any performative sharing of the experience? We like this gentle piece by Gideon Heugh … food for thought.

5. Once again, Jillian Hess has bottled the inspiration of a writer’s note-taking habit and poured it for us to sip at. Here we have Joan Didion’s notes, typed - thankfully - because her handwriting is almost impossible to read.

“First a small tear appeared in the corner of Dad’s eye. Broke free and ran down his cheek. He ignored it. Otherwise, he gave no sign of recognition.”

That’s it for today. Back next week, same time, same place.

Barrie and JoJo