Love this post Ling--so real of you to share about the time blindness. I feel you! I'm excited to go look for portals this week on my walks! Absolutely LOVE this idea! 💐
Here I was enjoying the spring in the voice of this newsletter (in the sense of gait and bounce, but then why not also the season), thinking about responding with a snapshot of my own troubled love affair with coffee, and then I see those diary pages, and their story ...! The gorgeous coincidence gave me goose pimples. It's the kind of special occurence I become more alert to in my own life when (you guessed it) I have just enjoyed a particularly good coffee, possibly somewhere out. How the mind zings awake, ideas start sparkling, the impulse to look for things -and into things- takes over. And the finding happens.
The book that alerted me to this more than anything was The Devil's Cup. The author proposes a history of the world according to coffee, from early origins to our life today. He admits it's a stretch, but it's interesting and quite entertaining. It lead me to keep note/photos of my best and worst coffees away from home.
There is a TED talk related to the book but when I searched the link for you, too many similar ones came up!
Thank you! I will look out for The Devils Cup, and I very much recommend Michael Pollan, both this one about plants but also “How To Change Your Mind”, an equally thought provoking study of psychedelics. I’ll search for the TED talk :)
Thanks, I'll have a look for that. And I recommend the Michael Pollan book too, I'd never thought about coffee as instrumental in that scale of societal change before. Eye opening!
Beautiful flowers, as always, Ling and a great insight into our daily drugs. I’ve had a hate-love-hate relationship with coffee: couldn’t stand the smell of it until mid-teens when an absent minded friend kept forgetting I’d asked for tea (and of course, being polite, I suffered it quietly). Spent the next sixteen years drinking it black, only to lose my taste for it entirely. Since then, a very occasional espresso after a meal out, but I’m firmly in the tea camp. I don’t remember having problems stopping drinking coffee, but maybe my mental processes were impaired!
Taste is a funny thing isn’t it, I’ve never really relished a cup of tea. But they both contain caffeine! So if you’re still a tea drinker, (and only drank coffee reluctantly)you’ve probably not gone through the withdrawal, and I really don’t recommend it, stay as you are!
Love this post Ling--so real of you to share about the time blindness. I feel you! I'm excited to go look for portals this week on my walks! Absolutely LOVE this idea! 💐
Thanks Nina - and ref the time blindness, I'm sure we'll get it together and of these days 😅🌿
Here I was enjoying the spring in the voice of this newsletter (in the sense of gait and bounce, but then why not also the season), thinking about responding with a snapshot of my own troubled love affair with coffee, and then I see those diary pages, and their story ...! The gorgeous coincidence gave me goose pimples. It's the kind of special occurence I become more alert to in my own life when (you guessed it) I have just enjoyed a particularly good coffee, possibly somewhere out. How the mind zings awake, ideas start sparkling, the impulse to look for things -and into things- takes over. And the finding happens.
The book that alerted me to this more than anything was The Devil's Cup. The author proposes a history of the world according to coffee, from early origins to our life today. He admits it's a stretch, but it's interesting and quite entertaining. It lead me to keep note/photos of my best and worst coffees away from home.
There is a TED talk related to the book but when I searched the link for you, too many similar ones came up!
This is the book
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Cup-History-According-Coffee/dp/1641290102?dplnkId=574e44af-dc5a-4597-8577-add7b23d7bd4&nodl=1
Thank you! I will look out for The Devils Cup, and I very much recommend Michael Pollan, both this one about plants but also “How To Change Your Mind”, an equally thought provoking study of psychedelics. I’ll search for the TED talk :)
Gorgeous as ever. xx
Don’t think I could give up coffee at the moment! Love reading your missives xx
Thank you, and best stick with the coffee if you need it, I wish I could! Xx
Thanks, I'll have a look for that. And I recommend the Michael Pollan book too, I'd never thought about coffee as instrumental in that scale of societal change before. Eye opening!
Beautiful flowers, as always, Ling and a great insight into our daily drugs. I’ve had a hate-love-hate relationship with coffee: couldn’t stand the smell of it until mid-teens when an absent minded friend kept forgetting I’d asked for tea (and of course, being polite, I suffered it quietly). Spent the next sixteen years drinking it black, only to lose my taste for it entirely. Since then, a very occasional espresso after a meal out, but I’m firmly in the tea camp. I don’t remember having problems stopping drinking coffee, but maybe my mental processes were impaired!
Taste is a funny thing isn’t it, I’ve never really relished a cup of tea. But they both contain caffeine! So if you’re still a tea drinker, (and only drank coffee reluctantly)you’ve probably not gone through the withdrawal, and I really don’t recommend it, stay as you are!