That last part listing what you'll take: a walking stick, a rucksack, and a notebook, thrills me with the call of adventure. What would I take in my rucksack? How heavy would be the load on my weakening legs? Would my nightly shelter be that large green Irish woolen cape purchased decades ago? At my present age, I would be walking "for the rest of my life." A quest for a resting place. Thank you, dear Candace, for your ever-inspiring poetry and paintings.
To answer part of your question about the weight, Sue, my PCT pack, sleeping bag, and tent weighs 9lbs 4 ozs, so some cheese, bread, wine (unfermented for me), a book of poetry, and a sketchbook is maybe 15 pounds total and allows you to overnight after watching a lovely sunset.
Thank you, Switter. I used to dream about light-weight hiking, but I guess it'm the woman in me that NEEDS to take so much stuff. Something for shelter, something for heat, something for water/food. I could get it down to fifteen pounds, but to paraphrase Burt Reynolds, "Now that I've got my shit together, it's too heavy to lift." My 16 pound cat was a challenge to carry. You know, Switter, it sucks to get old.
Sue, I love these questions so much, and I’m so glad this new story helped inspire them for you (and I especially love the thought of a beautiful Irish woolen cape being your nightly shelter on the trail 😍). Thank you as always for reading and being here! 🤍
I love reading my old notebooks! My favorite part of this paper-based time travel is when my old self peers between the letters and says “hello, Future Jill! I see you, and I hope you remember me!” I have been dropping these breadcrumbs for thirty years, and I’m happy to report that I must be on the right path, both backward and forward in my life, as I still can find myself in my words.
“I can still find myself in my words.” That is such a beautiful line, Jill, and I love that you’ve created such a rich, deep well of words for yourself to return to and continue drawing from as time goes by 📚🤍✨
Thank you so much as always for reading and being here!
This is such a beautiful way of capturing what you have felt at different moments in different parts of the world, Candace. I love your illustrations. They speak so much about your visualization and the small detailing. Great !
Thank you so much for your beautiful comment and kind words, Parul. I’m so glad you enjoyed the start of this new story, and I can’t wait to share the rest of the series with you soon! 🤍✨
i have kept written / drawn journals of my travels too; precious books i am saving to be read to me when my memory fails and i can no longer physically travel !
i love that the question "what will you *do* with it?" is the inspiration! i just began keeping a common place book this year to record all the little things i used to believe take up wasted space, but now think of as a form of transportation. your line on time travel is so beautiful! <3
Thank you so much for your beautiful comment, I loved hearing that you just started a commonplace book! My journals and notebooks are also filled with tiny pieces of ephemera, and I’m so grateful for how each one takes me right back to a different moment in time 🤍✨
Ahh I love hearing that! I did a miniature version of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage — the one I walked is on Shodoshima Island, and only took eight days to complete — but I’d love to walk the Shikoku circuit one day as well 😍🇯🇵✨
Oh yeah..Japan! I'm excited to see this. LOVE this different style of art you're working here...you've got skillz! My husband and I went on a different pilgrimage in Japan a few months ago and my husband became so attached to his bamboo walking stick, he sawed it in half and fit it in his luggage for the trip back home!
Ahh amazing! What pilgrimage did you walk? And did you write about it here? I’d love to read more about your own journey, and I especially love that your husband brought his walking stick home with him. For weeks after finishing this trip, it definitely felt weird to be walking without one 🥲
We did the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage! We hiked over five days but took buses too so I could linger around the onsen more! And yes..I have written about it here...Thanks for asking Candace! There is a part 1 & 2: https://inflightin.substack.com/p/pilgrimage-part-i?r=19zoqt
I can’t imagine someone not recognizing the value of this given your talent. Not only an incredible archive of experiences and memories but a legacy for your girls into the future and providing us, your faithful readers, knowledge and wanderlust experienced vicariously through your documenting, sharing and repurposing.
Thank you so much for your beautiful comment, Gayle — and I especially love what you said about these stories being a kind of legacy for Elena and Eva. That’s on my mind so much these days when I sit down to write and paint 🤍 Sending a big hug your way!
I cannot wait to read it. I love how you said going through your sketchbook is the closest thing to time travel, this is exactly how I feel when I go back through mines. And everytime I do I wished I had kept even more sketchbooks. Thank you for reminding me the importance of it from this perspective.
Yes! Going back through my sketchbooks might be the ultimate form of time travel, especially because sketching and painting on-location involves so many of our senses. Anytime I look back at an old sketch, I’m not only reminded of what I saw in that moment, but so often what I could hear, smell, and even taste then, too (especially if it was a cafe sketch 😍). Thank you so much for your comment, Meo, and I can’t wait to share the next chapter with you tomorrow!
Yes! I loved reading your comment, Mohika, and as it just so happens, I’ve even got a little story from India that I’m hoping to share here next month 😍 Thanks so much for reading, and for your lovely words!
This is so beautiful, Candace! I cannot wait to dive deep into the well and swim through the stories you have collected over the years. Thank you for this offering!
Ahh Autumn, I just love how you put that, about diving deep into the well 🤍 I’m so glad the idea of this story resonates with you, and I can’t wait to share a new chapter with you tomorrow!
That last part listing what you'll take: a walking stick, a rucksack, and a notebook, thrills me with the call of adventure. What would I take in my rucksack? How heavy would be the load on my weakening legs? Would my nightly shelter be that large green Irish woolen cape purchased decades ago? At my present age, I would be walking "for the rest of my life." A quest for a resting place. Thank you, dear Candace, for your ever-inspiring poetry and paintings.
To answer part of your question about the weight, Sue, my PCT pack, sleeping bag, and tent weighs 9lbs 4 ozs, so some cheese, bread, wine (unfermented for me), a book of poetry, and a sketchbook is maybe 15 pounds total and allows you to overnight after watching a lovely sunset.
Thank you, Switter. I used to dream about light-weight hiking, but I guess it'm the woman in me that NEEDS to take so much stuff. Something for shelter, something for heat, something for water/food. I could get it down to fifteen pounds, but to paraphrase Burt Reynolds, "Now that I've got my shit together, it's too heavy to lift." My 16 pound cat was a challenge to carry. You know, Switter, it sucks to get old.
But it is always, ALWAYS better than the alternative.
Always! 🙌🙌
Sue, I love these questions so much, and I’m so glad this new story helped inspire them for you (and I especially love the thought of a beautiful Irish woolen cape being your nightly shelter on the trail 😍). Thank you as always for reading and being here! 🤍
You're really into something here. Stands out.
Thank you so much for your kind words 🙏
I love reading my old notebooks! My favorite part of this paper-based time travel is when my old self peers between the letters and says “hello, Future Jill! I see you, and I hope you remember me!” I have been dropping these breadcrumbs for thirty years, and I’m happy to report that I must be on the right path, both backward and forward in my life, as I still can find myself in my words.
“I can still find myself in my words.” That is such a beautiful line, Jill, and I love that you’ve created such a rich, deep well of words for yourself to return to and continue drawing from as time goes by 📚🤍✨
Thank you so much as always for reading and being here!
This is such a beautiful way of capturing what you have felt at different moments in different parts of the world, Candace. I love your illustrations. They speak so much about your visualization and the small detailing. Great !
Thank you so much for your beautiful comment and kind words, Parul. I’m so glad you enjoyed the start of this new story, and I can’t wait to share the rest of the series with you soon! 🤍✨
i have kept written / drawn journals of my travels too; precious books i am saving to be read to me when my memory fails and i can no longer physically travel !
I love that, Lou! What a beautiful well you’ve been creating for yourself to draw from one day 📚🤍
i love that the question "what will you *do* with it?" is the inspiration! i just began keeping a common place book this year to record all the little things i used to believe take up wasted space, but now think of as a form of transportation. your line on time travel is so beautiful! <3
Thank you so much for your beautiful comment, I loved hearing that you just started a commonplace book! My journals and notebooks are also filled with tiny pieces of ephemera, and I’m so grateful for how each one takes me right back to a different moment in time 🤍✨
Oh my goodness. I’m hoping to do the 88 temples walk next year. Here’s to adventures.
Ahh I love hearing that! I did a miniature version of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage — the one I walked is on Shodoshima Island, and only took eight days to complete — but I’d love to walk the Shikoku circuit one day as well 😍🇯🇵✨
Ooo awesome. I’ll check that out. Lots more options than I had thought. So much to draw I bet.
Yes! This sort of thing is EXACTLY what a notebook/sketchbook is for! ❤️
Amen! 🤍🙌
Oh yeah..Japan! I'm excited to see this. LOVE this different style of art you're working here...you've got skillz! My husband and I went on a different pilgrimage in Japan a few months ago and my husband became so attached to his bamboo walking stick, he sawed it in half and fit it in his luggage for the trip back home!
Ahh amazing! What pilgrimage did you walk? And did you write about it here? I’d love to read more about your own journey, and I especially love that your husband brought his walking stick home with him. For weeks after finishing this trip, it definitely felt weird to be walking without one 🥲
We did the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage! We hiked over five days but took buses too so I could linger around the onsen more! And yes..I have written about it here...Thanks for asking Candace! There is a part 1 & 2: https://inflightin.substack.com/p/pilgrimage-part-i?r=19zoqt
Looking forward to this!
Thank you, Scott! 🙏
I can’t imagine someone not recognizing the value of this given your talent. Not only an incredible archive of experiences and memories but a legacy for your girls into the future and providing us, your faithful readers, knowledge and wanderlust experienced vicariously through your documenting, sharing and repurposing.
Thank you so much for your beautiful comment, Gayle — and I especially love what you said about these stories being a kind of legacy for Elena and Eva. That’s on my mind so much these days when I sit down to write and paint 🤍 Sending a big hug your way!
I cannot wait to read it. I love how you said going through your sketchbook is the closest thing to time travel, this is exactly how I feel when I go back through mines. And everytime I do I wished I had kept even more sketchbooks. Thank you for reminding me the importance of it from this perspective.
Yes! Going back through my sketchbooks might be the ultimate form of time travel, especially because sketching and painting on-location involves so many of our senses. Anytime I look back at an old sketch, I’m not only reminded of what I saw in that moment, but so often what I could hear, smell, and even taste then, too (especially if it was a cafe sketch 😍). Thank you so much for your comment, Meo, and I can’t wait to share the next chapter with you tomorrow!
Oh holy lovely. I can’t wait to read.
Thank you so much, Kimberly! ✨
Will you write about India? I'm from India so I would LOVEEEE to see your point of view 🥰
Yes! I loved reading your comment, Mohika, and as it just so happens, I’ve even got a little story from India that I’m hoping to share here next month 😍 Thanks so much for reading, and for your lovely words!
Looking forward to read it!
I’m looking forward to this. Love your stories and illustrations!
Thank you so much, Christine! ✨
This is so beautiful, Candace! I cannot wait to dive deep into the well and swim through the stories you have collected over the years. Thank you for this offering!
Ahh Autumn, I just love how you put that, about diving deep into the well 🤍 I’m so glad the idea of this story resonates with you, and I can’t wait to share a new chapter with you tomorrow!