Now

What am I up to right now?

July 2025

I just hand-delivered this month’s giveaway book. The winner happened to be local!

( I give away a typewriter each year to a newsletter reader, and something monthly like a book, or typed note, or analog tool. Want to be on the list? It’s free. Scroll down a bit and add your name.)

I recently won a grant from the City of Boston to put on typewriter letter-writing events. Stay tuned for details. They will be in the fall of 2025.

As I walk daily in Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, I’m getting back to a frequent practice of nature journaling; also at Boston’s last farm, where I pick up a CSA share weekly and take time to ponder at the pond. Time spent noticing and recording. It’s a solace.

I am asking questions, and the blog posts at this site are one form of those answers. Can I build a version of an ‘attention cottage’? What might that look like amid life’s chaos?

Current Reads

Reading physical books, offline, is one essential ingredient of rebuilding attention. Among my current reads:

Thoughts & Adventures, Winston Churchill
Thinking in Watercolor: A Daily Practice to Unlock Your Creativity & Discover Your Inner Artist, Jessie Kanelos Weiner
Exploratory Writing: Everyday Magic for Life & Work, Alison Jones
Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper
A History of Rest, Alain Corbin
We Need Your Art: Stop Messing Around & Make Something, Amie McNee

Current Analog Tools

On my art studio desk right now: Hermes 3000 typewriter.

And on my hideaway bedroom desk: Olympia Splendid 99 typewriter.