Footnotes to a Conversation, January 15, 2024

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” – Amelia Earhart

I’m in Lyon, France, where it’s cold but nowhere near as cold as it has been in Canada, but I did have my first experience of travelling at high speed with clouds of snow flying up on either side of the train.

The above quote is a good reminder for me that, although adventures can be exhausting, they are always worthwhile because they push us to do and be more than we imagine possible.

Haunting Beauty

Jackie Morris’s illustrations are enchanting. Many of you will be familiar with The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. I recommend tracking down The Unwinding if you love fairy tales and folklore.

Morris talks about her work in an interview: “It's a difficult thing to explain, but you need to be inside a butterfly’s wing – or try and feel like you have paws – in order to paint – in order to drop every illusion that you have of knowing what something looks like. It's almost like acting your way through paint … One of the things I've learned in painting is that you have to be willing to make mistakes. That's how you get to the bit where something is as right as it can be. And it's never right, you know. Everything's always a bit off. I used to be so disappointed with all my finished work. And then I learned it's not the finished thing that interests me. It's the process of getting to the point where I can stop. I'm not saying I don't value my work, because obviously that's how I make my living. But now I know it's the process of sitting on the hill, of growing wings and getting into a raven's head – that's the joy.” [Postcrossing]

Mice & Art

I expect many of you have seen the video of a mouse tidying a workbench, but this isn’t the first time mice have caught the public’s eye. From a 1504 painting of Adam and Eve to Paul Klee and Beatrix Potter, there are plenty of mice to be found if you look closely at art. [The Guardian]

The Scents Around Us

I use fragrances to relax, but I’ve never given much thought to what they contain and their environmental sustainability (although I purchase them from health food stores which have hopefully done due diligence on my behalf). Perfumes used to be made entirely from natural products such as flowers, but many of these are now over-harvested. Synthetic fragrances can contain chemicals that disrupt hormone systems and accumulate in water, soil, body fat, and breast milk.

After experimenting with making her own fragrances, one woman says her “personal strategy has been to explore the scents all around me. Growing sage to dry and bundle, placing boughs of cedar on the woodstove or just stopping to crush a handful of Queen Anne’s lace seedheads and inhaling deeply are sustainable ways to treat your senses.” [Modern Farmer]

Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder

I posted an article about slime moulds on EcoFriendly West this week. Now, some of you may steer clear of anything with “slime” or “mould” in its name, but that would be a mistake. These single-cell organisms can group together in a search for food and are so efficient in their movements that they’re being used to map metro lines. And they may also help solve a murder in The Slime Mold Murders. [EcoFriendly West]

Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.

If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.