museletter #11

where I've been for the last two months

Author

Sam Nelson
September 04, 2024

hi!! long time no email (sorry). I spent my last two (and a half) months of my hiatus frolicking about in antipodean climes (visiting family and friends in the UK and US). this email will chronicle some of these adventures. this email will be a beefy one so sit down and get yourself a cup of tea or whatever your beverage of choice may be. I recommend reading it in your browser to save your email app from processing the many photos.

sketchbook tour

I carried a sketchbook around with me and filled it with scenes from my travels. here is a video tour of that sketchbook. please watch it I learned how to edit videos for this

also! this exquisite corpse watercolour I made with tyler (that’s the game where you fold a piece of paper and take turns drawing parts of a creature without being able to see what the other person drew):

I did the first and third panels and he did the alternates

okay here’s the part you all know where I caption a bunch of photos yay

part 1: england

roses in a radial gradient

crockery in a linear gradient

sampling londons finest produce

indulged in a quintessential english breakfast. cornish tea is so strong it’s like battery acid

sean (brother, studying in uk) took us on a scenic walk to the southernmost point of mainland uk. there were lots of wildflowers and it was very windy which was a great recipe for runny noses

in cornwall there are rainbows every other day :)

eating chocolate strawberries in my strawberry shirt. how apt

I attended the falmouth international sea shanty festival. this event seemed to just be another excuse for british people to day drink and sing sea shanties

these dapper young gentlemen allowed me to take this photo of them in their improvised piratey getups

rather erudite graffiti

I walked an alpaca! (it walked me.) it dragged me between the tastiest-looking patches of grass

I ordered a caesar salad and it was just one leaf. very generous amount of cheese though. that's the british food pyramid for you

just some more lovely cornish scenery

part 2: america

saw tyler! and he saw me! and then we continued to see each other for the next two months! yay!

we made a really long paper chain and danced to chappell roan

preparing a festive lunch for june christmas. I’m scared of the big cheese grater but tyler was brave and did it for me

sketching people at the beach. the beach was only a short walk away from tyler’s house and it was so nice being able to spontaneously go for a swim or to collect seaglass (I really enjoy collecting things on the ground. acorns and pebbles are also really fun)

making smores at the cabin. there were lots of mosquitoes out; here I am dressed appropriately so they couldn't eat me. also I like my marshmallows burnt

saw some weird colourful hot water pools. I wanted to jump in but I wasn’t allowed because apparently my skin would boil off or something

this geyser erupted out of my hat

this is tyler’s dog his name is bento and I miss him

us being cute on the beach. this photo was how I discovered I have freckles! I'd never noticed them before because there was always too much acne in the way. but I went on accutane and my skin is clear now (which has been so nice! I hope it lasts)

a fairy definitely lives in here

me drawing in my sketchbook! if you want to see what I was drawing you have to watch the video

we made cabbage pie and it was good

deer in the graveyard! I think deer are magical creatures. they’re so graceful and I like how they lift up their knees so high when they walk like they’re creeping about everywhere

this graveyard had a stone bench and I sat on it and watched the squirrels

an angel grave in a different graveyard. I really like graveyards they’re my safe spaces

butter is free at mcdonalds and I was really amused by this

ben cameo! it’s funny that even amongst my two best friends I’m still the one on the floor with the dog

life imitating art

we did goat yoga!!!!! this is where you try to do yoga but there are goats running around everywhere and climbing on top of you. I greatly enjoyed myself

me having the time of my life surrounded by goats

we finger painted some goats inspired by chagall’s I and the village

saying goodbye :(((

books

I read a lot of books while I was away! eighteen of them wow!

perfume - patrick suskind
★★★★☆
a deranged frenchman murders young girls all the better to smell them. funny in an understated way (like these emails? perhaps). I read it on the train and it made the three hour delay more bearable.

better by far - hazel hayes
★★★☆☆
this book made me cry a lot. a raw look at grieving a breakup. save this one for when you’re going through one. hazel gets it. there were many structural/plot problems but emotionally it gets five stars.

the lion the witch and the wardrobe - cs lewis
★★★★★
I was staying in an airb&b that had a narnia box set on its shelves so I started working my way through a long overdue reread. this one’s a classic.

the horse and his boy - cs lewis
★★★★☆
this one reads like a folk tale and it was better than I remembered. don’t know why I decided to read this one second.

prince caspian - cs lewis
★★★☆☆
my least favourite of the series. they talk about courtly proceedings and battles and also recount in detail every meal they eat which I don’t think was entirely necessary but okay.

the voyage of the dawn treader - cs lewis
★★★★☆
honestly I don’t really care about sailing. but apart from the sailing I liked this book.

emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries - heather fawcett
★★★★★
this was a delicious cosy fairy adventure highly recommend. also autistic representation! we love to see it.

juniper & thorn - ava reid
★★★☆☆
a gothic horror retelling of deep-cut fairytale the juniper tree. atmospheric and visceral. reflects the intrinsic body-horror of existing as a woman on this planet'. but kind of weirdly oversexualised and got a bit repetitive. just read the bloody chamber, it’s better.

project hail mary - andy weir
★★★★☆
I greatly enjoyed this and devoured it in two days. it’s basically the martian part 2. if you liked the martian you will probably like this.

nettle & bone - t kingfisher
★★★★★
a nice quest fantasy that was also really funny! reads like a YA novel except the protagonist is 30. similar kind of vibe to the graveyard book by neil gaiman.

the guest - emma cline
★★☆☆☆
this book was annoying.

book lovers - emily henry
★★☆☆☆
I didn’t think emily henry was capable of writing a bad book but it’s nice to know she’s human too! got bored and didn’t finish it.

murder on the orient express - agatha christie
★★★☆☆
it was nice as a cosy mystery but the ending frustrated me so much!!

the silver chair - cs lewis
★★★☆☆
this was the first narnia book I read as a child and it left me feeling confused and scared. reading it again as an adult I was still a little confused and scared.

the night circus - erin morgenstern
★★★★★
the vibes in this book are immaculate. next level worldbuilding, better-than-hogwarts. but the catch is that the plot makes no sense and was clearly added as an afterthought to the setting. but if you can put aside the fact that this book has no plot then you can have a marvellous time wandering this imaginary circus.

the mystery of the blue train - agatha christie
★★☆☆☆
gave agatha a second chance, didn’t like this one much either.

nemesis - agatha christie
★★☆☆☆
after three tries I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m not an agatha fan.

the elegance of the hedgehog - muriel barbery
★★★★★
I adored this book! and cried very hard at the end (pictured below). it’s about a concierge who’s secretly a tolstoy-loving genius but goes to every length to hide her intelligence from the wealthy tenants of her building. she befriends a precocious and sad little thirteen-year old-girl and it’s so sweet. it’s translated from french and the translator clearly had so much fun making delightful word choices.

music

some songs I’ve had on repeat:

me crying to brat in front of a brat poster on the tube

bratnicure

found a bratmobile in the wild

  • terrapin - clairo
    I have been listening this album excessively since it came out. tyler eventually had to ban me from playing it out loud. all of the layering is so interesting I could get lost in the textures. I especially enjoy it whenever she doubles the instrument parts with her voice

  • eyes on my baby - between friends
    this song feels like a college party between good friends. band name checks out

  • soup - remi wolf
    I listened to this song first thing every morning while brushing my teeth. tyler called it my “morning soup”. he also says that watching my morning routine is “like watching a snail get ready for business casual”. what can I say, I like to be moisturised and sun protected

I wrote this email in one sitting and now it is late at night and I am too tired to proof read before sending it so sorry if there are typos. as always you can reply directly to this email! please do so if you have any inclination. tell me about all the typos I made. also watch the video pls <3<3

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