I read a newsletter this week from Flamingo Estate, a boutique lifestyle brand based in Los Angeles, celebrating the joy of tomatoes: “We know summer’s true entrance happens only when the tomatoes have arrived”, it began. “Plants eat the light, and we eat the plants. The sun is the original energy, and, one way or another, it feeds us.”
I liked that. I spend a lot of energy trying to collect and store up the healing virtues of sunshine. Even in the height of July, when this should be an easy enterprise in the northern hemisphere, I find that my Heliopic hacks come into good use.
So, here are some gifts from the sun. One way or another, it feeds us.
Read - Calypso by David Sedaris.
I had the pleasure of attending An Evening with David Sedaris at the South Bank Centre last night. It reignited my adoration for his writing: at once irreverent and deeply compassionate. I was on the verge of tears only to be whiplashed back into laughter countless times during his reading.
Calypso is still my favourite of his collections. There is a passage in which he describes sunbathing with his siblings in the height of summer; the joy of feeling his bones turn to molten lava as they lay side by side under the high noon, trading secrets and giggling. It’s an image I hold precious myself, having had the pleasure of doing exactly this with close friends over countless summers in Cape Town. That Sedaris could capture it so perfectly felt like being seen in technicolour by a stranger.
Listen - summer playlist.
Songs that feel like that post-beach haze, when your skin is warm, and hair is salty, and you find yourself somewhere shady and cool to fall into a deep sleep. Perfection.
Cook - galette season!
All hail the humble tomato.
Visit - places I dream of.
Melisses Andros, Andros
Faros Villa Serifos, Serifos
Hotel Corazon, Majorca
Hotel du Covent, Nice
Casa Lawa, Sicily
Shop - Greece forever.
A recent trip to Greece has me dreaming of more Greek things. These beautiful brands make their items with intention, as a celebration of the Greek tradition behind it:
Watch - a collection of summer films.
Call Me By Your Name (2017) dir. Luca Guadagnino
A Bigger Splash (2015) dir. Luca Guadagnino
Stealing Beauty (1996) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) dir. Woody Allen
Belle Epoque (1994) dir. Fernando Trueba
(If anyone has any recommendations of similar styles of cinema, I’d be so happy to hear them, particularly female directors.)
Poem - P.S by Franz Wright
I close my eyes and see a seagull in the desert, high, against unbearably blue sky. There is hope in the past. I'm writing to you all the time, I am writing with both hands, day and night.