#34 Mushroom hunting and playing with words

I haven't been super consistent with these updates for the past few weeks. One specific highlight since we got home: we went mushroom hunting for the first time with Cricri! When we came back, it had been raining for a week straight, so the chanterelles and ceps were just waiting for us to be gathered.

Robin already wrote extensively about our mushrooming adventures, so I won't repeat it all here.

We also gathered a few of the vegetables from our garden — so green, so lush! It feels like every meal now contains a bit of our work in it: super satisfying.

Read & Watched

• The Road (2006), a novel by Cormac McCarthy — Visiting the classics with this short postapocalyptic novel, that is focussed on the relationship between a boy and his father in this collapsing world.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), a movie directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley — Loved watching this after having played a few games!
• Howl's Moving Castle (2004), a movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki — Rewatching it after years, I had forgotten how it was full of poetry and humour. It made me want to read the original novel soon!
• Decision to leave (2022), a movie directed by Park Chan-wook — Much more subtle than some of his previous movies. Striking photography, plot focussed on a forbidden love story (as usual).

Experiments

Swedish painting

We wanted to repaint the main door to our house, and discovered this Swedish painting technique through France. The paint is made by mixing flour, color pigments, iron oxides, linseed oil, and a bit of black soap. It can then be used as a regular outdoor paint, as it protects our wooden door against rain and deterioration.

Getting creative with words

For a few years now, I have been writing on and off in my numerous diaries, travel journals, blogs, and so on. All of these projects are very down-to-earth, as I usually talk about lived experiences, current thoughts or future plans.

I have been trying to bring back some creativity in my life in different ways. One of them is playing more with words and poetry. I published my first try at it in a previous post (in French). I also tried to do some caviardage exercises, that are quite fun and relaxing!¹ ⊙