Perhaps because I spend so much time reading, writing, and when I am lucky just thinking, I also spend a huge amount of time sitting. An opening assignment for my Writing Fellows (stolen from my colleague Jens Llloyd) is to take a picture of and describe where they like to write and tell us why. I have expanded it to more than one place, and many of them, like me, sit in different places for different kinds of writing; most common is a comfortable place for creative writing and a less comfortable place for school writing. Everyone gets a slide in a Google Slide Show (an idea I adapted from another colleague, Christina McKittrick), and we use it to introduce ourselves to each other and to introduce the students to the Writing Fellows. A few years ago, students in “Introduction to Writing and Communication” started coding this treasure trove of data (20-30 new slides a year) and now they create their own slide show each year to add to that data. We have data from pre-Covid, during remote learning, and after-Covid, and it presents a compelling picture of writers that they return to as we explore various aspects of writing studies — the tools they use, haptics and hand-writing in general, self-sponsored writing, stereotypes about writers, writing as a process, etc.
I love data almost as much as I love writing, so it makes me very happy to introduce humanities students to the claims a little data make possible and the ways charts and tables can tell stories. Ultimately they answer the question “who are you as a writer?” but they do it in the context of other writers and writing theory. I struggle with that question myself. Writing is so much a part of my identity that I have constructed writing spaces all over the property!.
My slide for that “assignment” includes images of inside and outside spaces, my home office, my Drew office, the dining room, the porch, and the patio. I alternate to keep it to three. One year someone noticed that I seem to like to write at round or oval tables. I realized that she was correct. I do! But I had failed to notice that. I’m sitting at a round table now. In the orchard of the house in France. I was writing feedback on a very good dissertation on the role of faculty development for adjunct faculty at community colleges, but now I am taking a quick break. And using it to write this post. Dissertations and commenting on student writing seems like another world to be honest, but it left me thinking about reading and writing and the luxury of where I sit. When I lift my head I see trees thick with cherry, plum, apple, and pear blossoms, bright white against the blue sky. To my left is what remains of the peach blossom, a remarkable pink. The almond blossom — the first to explode hedge rows and gardens as well as formal orchards — is done. As is the apricot, although this year it didn’t have many flowers. The robins, blackbirds, great tits, and a few less vocal birds are singing both distinctly and in chorus. And the bees are so buzzy they make me feel a bit tired. [I keep track of the birds, and the weather and what is happening in the garden, in the Farmers Almanac if you’re interested].
I am sitting in my newest seating area (which I am trying not to call a workspace although it currently only has one chair and a table). I finally cleared the middle of the three orchard garden plots yesterday [I wrote about them on March 16 — where you can see the before picture] and added a little, grey cafe table and chair and a rather unstable umbrella. I am going to mount the umbrella behind the wall on an already existing metal post in the hopes that it won’t blow over, and that will cast shade over the table from noon on, making this a perfect spot for an after lunch coffee (today it is already hot enough that shade is a blessing). As I was clearing the huge pile of brush I encountered two goosberry bushes and two St. John’s Wort plants, choked in weeds and almost undistinguishable. The St. Johns Wort are by the wall and quite mature I think, so hopefully they will bless the area with those stunning yellow flowers come summer. The goosberries seem newer, but are planted almost in a line with the red and white currents I planted in the bottom bed, parallel with the blackberry patch, so if the raspberries and blueberries grow this area will be perfect for an afternoon snack as well, not to mention jam and pies.
Without planning to do so I seem to be creating seating areas for every time of day. The yellow table and chairs across the patio from the kitchen door are perfect for not too early breakfast, getting morning sun before it is too hot. You can get sun from early morning to afternoon at the table by the big doors at the front of the house. Sadly Walter parks his car next to it, but that does provide a privacy screen from the rest of the front courtyard, and the road beyond the gate, although hardly anyone drives past to be honest.
There are surprisingly comfortable chairs under the biggest Linden tree in the middle of the front courtyard — the first seating area we made. That is perfect for watching sunsets over the oak trees, and for awaiting deliveries. In summer it places you in the center of the bee chorus. The bees fill the Lindens and the whole area vibrates as their wings pound the air to move from flower to flower. The lemon-honey smell fills the air. It is truly magical — and I say that with all honesty. The spot is captured in the featured image accompanying this post. I think you have to experience it to even imagine it.
There are other chairs and benches. There is the bench with faces on it that I love and Walter recently treated for rust and repainted. Somehow, my neighbor in Madison has a chair to match with one of the faces, but hers is painted gold. Ours looks out over the oak trees and is a great spot for looking at sunsets. There is a bench by the back of the garage, and one we just rescued that had fig trees growing through the seat. And the patio in front of the studios has its own table and chairs (and umbrella). All of these can be work spaces for me, but like the armchairs, recliners, and hammocks, can also be places to admire and marvel at this place. Which I do a lot.
