🔖📝 Read Will Doing “Morning Pages” for 30 Days Make Me More Creative? by Grace Abbott (The Good Trade).

I love Abbott’s recommendation to follow your energy rather than holding to a rigid externally-imposed structure.

Hanging onto this roundup of the best recent poetry from The Guardian in anticipation of participating in the sealey challenge in August. 📚

💬📚 “The examples of alba amicorum, zibaldoni, Stammbücher and today’s bullet journals show that sometimes we just start writing in notebooks because it’s something the neighbors do.” Roland Allen, The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper

My son went to a Dungeons and Dragons camp last week where he painted miniatures. He loved painting them so much that we ended up doing a family mini painting day yesterday. I painted these three.

Patrick Rhone’s post sums up the feelings I’m sitting with today. True patriotism is not unquestioning loyalty to leaders at any one point in time, but constant critique and effort to move us closer to ideals we have not yet achieved. 🇺🇸

Finished reading: Deep by Kylie Scott 📚

📚💬 “Ancient history… shines a troubling spotlight onto the here and now, too, asking us to face what the judgement of the future on us will be.” Mary Beard, Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old

Finished reading: Lead by Kylie Scott 📚

I spent a week in London in a heatwave and I don’t recommend it. London in a heatwave is like the southeastern US in an ice storm. Everything closes, you’re unable to travel anywhere, and it’s too uncomfortable to spend much time outside. Only spring and fall European visits for me from now on.

New game to play on my last night in London: train passing or live percussion? The trick is to listen for cymbals. 💂🏻‍♀️