Oddments, Vol. II

In this edition of Oddments, you will find brief discussions of Austria, cows, music, researching very old things, literacy projects, etcetera.

You can read Volume I here!

Oddment, n. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a “small pieces of cloth, wood, etc. left after a larger piece has been used to make something”, which is exactly what most of these entries and art will be: odds and ends, left on the cutting floor on the way to more substantial work, but not wasted.

News

Well, are you?

STORYVOR, a new platform for literacy just launched. It’s one of a bunch of literacy projects we’re working on at the moment in a wider circle of literacy in Switzerland and abroad, and I’m super proud of the work we’ve done. It’s the brainchild of a group of people who care deeply about books, reading, slowing down and paying attention, and who want to do what we can to promote it, in this case with teaching resources, tip lists, reading lists, and more. If you have ideas, articles, improvements, or the like, do get in touch with us!

It’s in its very early stages at the moment, but if you would follow us, subscribe to our newsletter that would be amazing.

Discover STORYVOR Comic Corner

I’ve been practicing my character drawings of late, so here’s a wee comic for this month’s Oddments. I don’t think it’s particularly good, but it was fun to make. 🐛

Curious Things

Hiking in Austria: I’ve never really hiked in Austria before. As someone who grew up in Switzerland, one has it deeply ingrained from a young age that our own alps are better in every conceivable way than our neighbor’s alps. Having now visited the neighbor’s alps, I have to say it was really great and I want to go back.

It also made me realize that going hiking with lovely friends in the green, green mountains is a worthy and rejuvenating thing to do, and I should do it more often.

Researching family histories: I’m a very nosy person. I want to know everything about everything, but mostly about every-one. And what better place to be nosy than within your own family? Many small (and not so small) dramas and happinesses have been uncovered already, and I hope to find much more.

(The picture above is my great-grandmother who I never met and who was, according to all who met her, very mean. Her life was also hard and sad, though, so who can blame her.)

The above photo was taken of the Schlosshotel Kronberg in the early 1900s by . . . a pigeon. This had somehow bypassed me. I now want to write a story about a pigeon-wielding detective who stumbles upon a crime via pigeon photography and sets off to solve it.

The main theme of Elio:

I haven’t seen this movie yet, but I want to, and so in the meantime, I will make do with listening to its soundtrack, which I think has one of those classic, sweeping Hollywood themes that implies a great many tugged heartstrings.

Marathons: I remember seeing tortured images of runners crossing the finish line, looking soaked and miserable, and thinking “What a strange thing to do. I will never.” I guess I’ve grown up now, or am a lot stupider, because I’ll be doing a fraction of a marathon with two friends in October, and have begun running, and finding it exactly as stressful as those images looked. Hurray!

And that’s it. Fall is going to be very busy, so I may not post for a bit, but fingers crossed that by November things have calmed down.