What makes a notebook?

Snippets from life

I was looking through an old notebook earlier today, and there were so many scraps and bits and bobs and odds and ends in there that I thought I’d share some of them here. Not because they are earth-shatteringly profound (because, as you’ll see, they’re, altogether, not), but because these sorts of snippets are the kind that are rarely shared, but that go on in all our lives, in some form (on paper, in your notes app, in conversation, in your head).

Also, sometimes it’s nice to be nosy! So here are five snippets from my life, scribbled down c.2019, that I deemed important enough to keep.

1. Disc of Phaistos (from the EasyJet magazine)

Look up more on the 'Disc of Phaistos'

"A millennial-old artefact in the Archaeological Museum [in Heraklion] bears hieroglyphs from the Minoan era and has only recently been partially deciphered.[“]

2 Xanthoudidou

Area: Eleptherias Square.

– from the EasyJet magazine !

April 2019.

It is certainly worth looking up, the glyphs are great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc

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2. Cinema trip (receipt tucked between the notebook pages)

Receipt from Kino Digital, Rye (such a lovely cinema; if you ever get the chance to go, do). 31st October 2019. Two tickets to the film Judy (I loved it!), one Malbec wine, one lager.

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3. Gouache and garlic

Peter Lanyon (1918–1964)
‘Sharp Grass’
Gouache and Charcoal on Paper
1964

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humility

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‘liquify in the pan’ – Lee quoting Goodfellas when slicing garlic

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skunk cabbage

Mmmm that Peter Lanyon painting I could look at all day. It was this painting, and the title words ‘sharp grass’ that, in part, sparked the poem I shared earlier in the year. I'm not sure why I wrote ‘humility’ or ‘skunk cabbage’ … but I guess they both still prove interesting things to think about. The ‘liquify in the pan’ line is repeated every time anyone in our kitchen slices garlic. I still have never actually seen Goodfellas, although I have seen the clip of that particular scene.

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4. Email autocorrect

Got an email which begins:

‘Thank you so mauve for inviting me.’

Beautiful typo, thanks autocorrect.

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5. Inspiration …

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

Vincent Van Gogh.



“The palest ink is better than the best memory.”

Chinese proverb.

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[On facing page]:

Flippers & Fur

Two quotes to live by. And yet somehow, while presumably inspired by these beautiful insights on life, the very next thing I deemed important enough to write down (on, I might add, an entire page to itself) was ‘Flippers & Fur’, which I isn’t unfamiliar, it does ring a bell, but at the same time I have absolutely no idea what I meant by it. Feel free to use it as a band name.

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