the creative notebook: eyes with new wonder

Showing someone else your everyday places is always a gift: it reminds you to slow down, to notice, and to enjoy the little details that captivated you when you, too, were first discovering them.

stopping to notice the details of our weathered surroundings. just an old door, but when you slow down…

For the second half of September, we have a visitor staying with us, as part of her scouting and research for whether she will be moving to Spain, Italy, or Greece. The lovely Victoria is an American who also has her Greek citizenship, which makes it much easier for her to up and move to… anywhere in the European Union, really. She has conditions: she is looking for inexpensive, she doesn’t need the beach, and she has to be somewhere that she could depend on walking or public transport instead of a car. Challenge accepted!

So of course, like when anyone comes, one of our first tasks is to get our visitors acclimated to the town. Sure, Google Maps exists, but we like to do a little walkabout to show them what’s available where, and just give them their first experience buying a few groceries, for example, with one of us along to help translate or assist with cultural norms.

So that’s exactly what we did on the first full day in L’Albi with Victoria. I took her around to the Bibliobus first. It’s a traveling library that visits our village every other Wednesday, a huge RV that’s been converted to hold hundreds and hundreds of books. Then we were off to the rest of the town. We stopped by both of the two grocery options: the olive oil co-op that also features its own miniature version of a BonArea grocer, and Quevieres Anna where along with basic shelf-stable groceries she could also pick up fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses. We got the best yogurt on the planet at the co-op, and a local manchego cheese at Anna’s. Of course we stopped in to say hello to Nuria and her general store, packed to the gills with everything you could possibly want, from dishes to cleaning supplies to notebooks to clothing to batteries.

We picked up some Catalan Farmer’s Bread, “Pa de pagès,” and magdalenas at the bakery. We stopped at one of three banks in town so she could use the ATM to pull out some euros. All the shopping options were visited, giving her a good idea of what was available in town, and when she would need to go further down the road.

adventures with our guest, in Cerviá, Alcover, Reus.

I know it’s helpful for our visitor, but it’s also so very good for me. It’s nice to see my little town from a newcomer’s eyes once again. Victoria, for example, is a photographer who is very drawn to textures and details. She brought me back to my own love of the textures of walls and doors, the way materials wear over decades and centuries when you let them- it’s beautiful. It is always a gift to be reconnected to beauty, right in your own surroundings. I will take any opportunity to have new eyes reminding me of the wonder of my own everyday place.

I'm joining London Writers Salon for a 100 days of writing challenge! Days 2 and 3 here, and I'm sharing them here in my notes as well as on Instagram.

Which also, by the way, creates some wonderful fodder for a creative notebook exercise.

Writing Prompt:

Let’s bring a visitor from another country through our everyday lives. In a letter to them, or like a script for what you would tell them about, take them on a walk (or drive, or metro tour) of your everyday needs. Explain the bakery that you go to for special treats, and the bread you get for everyday life. Talk about your rotation of grocery stores, your party store you stop at on the way to the park or yes, a party. Stop by your favorite coffeeshop with them, and talk about your favorite drink there. How is it different from what I’m drinking here in Spain? Maybe to get the wonder back, you’ll need to travel that route yourself again first, your normal Saturday morning errands, perhaps, except this time jotting down notes for your visitor as you go.

Visual prompt:

Your normal everyday activities can be charted, like artifacts worthy of study. Danny Gregory is well known for drawing his every day. So we’re going to take a page from his advice and draw our everyday moments. Make little doodles of the food you eat in a day, or buildings you enter, or the people you see, the tools you use (pencil, computer, coffee cup, car…)— the everyday matters. The more wonky the drawing the better. Have you seen Lewis Rossignol’s work? The more wonky, the more fun, I say. This is not about realistic representation. This is just about charting, slowing down, connecting. Grab your kid’s markers and color in some of it. Label everything.

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This week, you could also:

• Catch up on Instagram: l’Artesania retreat center, the creative notebook, and me.

• Plan a visit to L’Albi

• Schedule a creative journaling workshop or plein air session with me

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Missed a letter?

Last week:

And you can find all the creative notebook entries here.

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