Why I Carry a Notebook Everywhere with Me: EVEN IF IT’S HEAVY AND I HAVE NO ROOM FOR IT! Eva Sirantoine
I love taking notes when I travel, keeping track of the things I see and do. Short descriptions, in the moments feelings, detailed day by day accounts, sketches of plants, landscapes, maps, and more. It takes the shape of my mind. I record the name and location of places I visit, what I saw there, with who, and when. My emotions also appear within the lines, clearly described, or depicted by the vocabulary I use. Since I love to go hiking and camping in wild places, the pages are mostly covered with names and drawings of plants, descriptions of animals and their behaviour, facts I learn about the environment.
pen starts. It needs to be black and thin, but not too thin, I don’t want to engrave my writings in the page. I usually choose a light resistant ink, even if I don’t expose the pages often in the sun. Ideally, it’s from a widely distributed brand so I can replace it easily, should I like it very much and sadly loose it again! The struggle around the choice of the pen however is nothing compared to that of the notebook itself! I have lots of them, but each has a very specific purpose. One records my travels, another one keeps track of my daily thoughts and projects, and others hold the memory of my romantic life.
As the good naturalist that I’m trying to be, I record my journeys in the same notebook, with the same pen, as much as possible. You can imagine my despair when I accidentally lost my favourite ink pen - What a tragedy! Then the search for a new
I love notebooks, pens and the action of sitting somewhere and taking the time to observe, think, and finally imprint a version of reality on paper. That is why, no matter what, I always have a notebook on me.
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