Hi everyone,
Hoping this finds you well, and settling into 2024 ok.
I've just got back from a very restful week away in the Scottish Highlands. It was honestly the best tonic, and I feel so lucky - the weather was perfect (cold, clear blue skies) and I saw and did so many things that fed my soul. I feel fully rested and ready for the year ahead, but also day-dreaming of being back there. I think I'm meant to live by the sea.
A definite highlight was Neist Point on the Isle of Skye - my favourite place ever maybe. The sun was setting over the outer Hebrides, and we saw porpoises swimming in the bay below the lighthouse - it felt like an actual dream. Sat on the rocks and sipping mushroom soup (made at a tiny local cafe) the world felt just right to me then.
I especially loved the light as we walked back to our car - here if you look really closely you can see the last two (brave) tourists hiking back from the top - it gives a proper sense of the scale of this magical place. As we drove away we stopped to look at this buzzard just chilling and seemingly also enjoying the sunset. Nice.
The pace of life up there is very, very slow, especially off season. Our village had one pub and one cafe, both of which were only open whenever the locals felt like it was worth it. We also popped our heads in a tiny gin distillery where the owners were experimenting with some new flavours. We found ourselves in a tiny, dark stone room lined with hundreds of booze bottles. Two guys were tending to giant arrangements of bubbling copper distillery equipment. It felt straight out of an old apothecary. The owners chatted and tried out their new gin botanicals on us. We left warmed from gin, and chewing on hibiscus petals and sichuan peppercorns.
I especially enjoyed being at the seaside in winter - it’s weird to be on a beach when it’s snowy. I got a bit obsessed with photographing the textures of the seashells and seaweed, and took far too many pictures of the pinkish early afternoon sunsets.
I spent a lot of time beachcombing. One of the local beaches is made up of tiny fragments of coral. Well technically it’s sand made from calcified seaweed, a.k.a. maerl. I also found lots of old sea glass (mostly, I think, from old whiskey bottles) I thought about swimming, but even a dip of the toes felt like icy daggers. Maybe next time…will definitely be back <3
On returning home I was reunited with Lola, who seemed very happy. I missed her.
This yawn reminds me of the Scottish harbour cat (who I would've brought home if I could) She ruled the harbour - climbing trees, playing with us, and desperately tried to get into our apartment, and in this case the pub…
This was taken on our last night, while we drank whiskey and played cards. Perhaps in another life she and Lola would be friends. This picture makes her look a lot fiercier than she was.
As well as returning home to Lola I have returned home to a little snow, it's actually colder here then when we were up north! But check out these absolutely perfect snowflakes I spotted this morning.
I had a much needed digital detox while in Scotland, but when I looked at the art I saved from Instagram so far this year, it was definitely sea-themed in general.
I absolutely adore the drawings of artist Duke Riley, and dream of one day being tattooed by him on his floating tattoo studio.
He is also a beachcomber, but he salvages the plastic junk he finds and turns it into art resembling sailor scrimshaw whale bone carvings from the 1800’s. This is Colossal describes his found plastic pieces like this:
“ He carves incisive allegories and ornamentation into their surfaces. Painted in a warm, grainy beige, the scavenged waste mimics the whale bones traditional to scrimshaw while the artist’s signature wit emerges through the contemporary narratives of oil barons or marine creatures carrying human trash. "
I also saved this lovely and surreal (similar in style, in that it’s also an etching, I think) David Hockney piece from Something Curated. It’s named ‘The Boy Hidden in a Fish’, and I think it sums up how I feel after a week by the sea, and the weird feeling of having to come back to my actual, land-locked life? Or maybe I’m being a bit dramatic…bring on the wild swimming season.
Honestly though I'm happy to be back, and feeling excited for all the creative projects ahead - I worked on a fun personal project while I was away, which I’ll share when finished. One thing I can share is the single artwork I was lucky enough to make for my friend Maddie Morris. Thier beautiful new single Marsha P Johnson is out on Friday on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services. The album Skin is out 24th February. You can sign up to Maddie’s newsletter here and you’ll get a little sneak preview of the track the day before release.
That’s almost it for my ramblings… thanks for listening to this extended holiday boast. I mostly just wanted to share how much better I feel having rested, read, hiked, and painted. Life can be too busy and very anxiety inducing. If you can, if you have this absolute luxury and privilege, take a break once in a while, and solidly do things that really make you happy. Here’s a poem I liked (maybe kind of on this theme?) from Poetryisnotaluxury by Malena Mörling
Nat x
I just took a little, vicarious holiday reading this ✨Thanks, Nat!x