Notes & delights · summer '23

A small collection of things I'm obsessed with this summer.

As a writer and an artist, (maybe, also, just as a human) – I always have a list of things I'm obsessing over. From books, to fragrances, to cars, places, food, software. I love loving things. And I love people who also love things. The sweetness of people intensely loving things makes my entire nervous system grin in bliss. Because I love loving things so much, I actively find things to love in the world. I'll love it so directly, so intensely, it sort of becomes a part of me.

I love earthly delights shamelessly. In full devotion. So here is a list of my recent obsessions aka devotions. A few things I love for the sake of loving and why I love them. All yours to peruse, enjoy, and try out.

A side note, nothing I suggest, love, or write about is sponsored. Honestly, I'm too lazy (and busy writing) for that. If, in the future, that ever changed – I'd let you know.

Now, to the sweet, sweet goods. A few things I love:

A fragrance · Sunset Hour by Goldfields and Banks

A little note on fragrance: I'm obsessed with it. I hope to tell stories the way fragrance does. Upon contact, chemistry comes into play – each scent reacting differently to different people. Then, life interacts with the scent, fusing memories, emotions, and places into it. Smell is one of our most visceral senses. Fragrance, our memory holders. And to me, one of the greatest storytellers.

Now, Sunset Hour. Sunset Hour is pink salted skin. Sinking light and shades of diluted rose across the horizon. Shoulders dusted in sunburn. Summer turned pink in all her ways, but with a little flair. The vibration of skateboard wheels. Old car windows that roll down manually. This scent makes me think of California 70's, midsummer right before dusk, cruising down a highway. All legs. Rosy hope. And life like a fruit platter: yours to devour.

I tore through a few tester samples until I realised this fragrance makes me brim with hope and optimism and makes my legs feel like raspberry jelly – ready to move at the slightest touch. I jumped in and bought a whole bottle and now I walk around in a cloud of pink summer whenever the sun's out. It's sweet, sultry, balmy & effervescent – and of course, I absolutely recommend it.

A book · The Grassling by Elizabeth Jane Burnett

The Grassling by Elizabeth Jane Burnett is one of my favourite books. Reading it is like sinking into long grass on a warm afternoon, as if only you exist amongst all of earth's creatures. I can't quite explain how The Grassling makes me feel. It pulls me in a trance of whispering flowers, slanted light, the particular purple of violets. This book is a dream of the softest green. Full of heaving lungs. Fields. Light. Both a trance and a reverie of the natural world. It is called a 'geological memoir', but it is poetry. Dreamlike, botanical, all bone and heart. I am so in love, I can't see straight. This book broke my heart because it’s beautiful and moving and because it has a last page.

I'm planning on reading it again this summer. Using flowers as bookmarks. Maybe even buying another copy so I can fill one up with highlighted passages and keep one as a sacred thing. It is very easily in my top 5 books. Buy it. Buy a picnic blanket. Read it amongst tiny dancing flies. Let the rustle of The Grassling soothe what's weary in you.

(Side note: This book is not plot heavy. It falls into the 'Nature Writing' category but definitely reads lyrical & poetic; which I love.)

A piece of technology · A voice-recorder

When I'm out on the road, especially highways, ideas for writing come flooding in. I always promise myself I'll remember it but the sheer amount of ideas that comes rushing in means that I’ll forget it.

I tried dictation on my phone and it was a complete failure. Fiddling around on a iPhone to record voice notes while driving at high speeds? Nope. Also, illegal. I tried asking Siri to open my voice notes and start recording but by the time I got there the idea had disappeared. Of course. My ideas come hot and fast and want my attention immediately. I needed something quick. And really, I just wanted a damn button to click.

Click record. Click off. Repeat. I hit up google, found this little voice-recorder, and took it on the road. To say I've loved it is an understatement. Sure, sorting through the notes & writing them out manually takes a little time. But the upside is that I never have to lose a road trip idea ever again. It also makes me feel like I'm in a different era. Rattling my head off to a voice-recorder as the sun glints off the metal of my automobile. And the best part? I can now write on the road.

Wrap Up

We have come to the end of my very first blog post! But I'm here, I did it. I'm jumping into all of life's flavours and taking a grand bite out of whatever interests me.

I hope you enjoyed this sparkling little list of delights. And I hope the holidays are making you feel good and if not I hope you have great sex and if not, great wine, and if, not great sleep, and if not, I hope you take some time to lounge around in your own company. For the hell of it.

---

P.S. Could you help me? I’m currently sifting through some things. Reflecting. Pondering. Planning. And, in this process, I’ve also been gathering perceptions, stories and fragments from my readers as I map out some personal things to me as a writer.

I always find it difficult understanding my work when I cannot get outside of it to really look. That’s where you come in.

So, I’d like to pose a question: How would you, a reader (or writer), describe my writing style? Creative descriptions? Totally welcome.

Feel free to reply however suits you. Email or Substack app. And know you’re helping me immensely – I’m using your responses as maps for trekking through the valleys of self-reflection. Dora style. You’re the best.

Brooke Solis x