Waking up to trees
Written at 9am on 05.09.05
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES
0 comments (closed)
There’s still something so magical about waking up at home. It’s that sense of comfort from waking up, forgetting where I was, then suddenly remembering that I was snuggled in my childhood bed, looking up out to the woods behind the house. Perhaps I appreciate it more because I know I’ll no longer have the opportunity to visit my home once Dad sells the house, but a definite feeling of warmth and home comfort washed over me first thing this morning.
It’s not necessarily because it’s home and it reminds me of the innocence of childhood; it’s the waking up to trees that I love. Then again, perhaps my love of trees and the countryside has been informed by my being brought up with that. Either way, I reached a conscious decision as I opened my eyes this morning: I would eventually settle in a house where I could wake up to a view of trees and the countryside.
Maybe I shouldn’t talk about such things when I only moved into my new flat yesterday. It was strange not spending my first night there, but it was nice to visit home, albeit briefly.
0 comments (closed)
Comments are currently closed on this entry, but you can still read those that have already been posted...
Search
Speaking engagements
- Web Developers Conference 12th November 2008
- Spletne Urice, Ljubljana 29th October 2008
- SkillSwap Brighton 20th August 2008
- Future Of Web Design, London 17th & 18th April 2008
- Future Of Web Design, New York 7th November 2007
- SkillSwap Bristol 25th September 2007
- iDesign: design for life (part of the London Design Festival) 18th September 2007
- Oxford Geek Night 25th July 2007
Recent posts
- Why being freelance does not mean you have to work more hours
- Starkers for WordPress 2.6.2
- Forthcoming speaking events
- Thwart the design thieves feature in .net magazine
- Death to IE6
- Vote for my SXSW ‘09 panels
- Bypassing the new Delicious site
Categories
- ALL CATEGORIES (89)
- Apple (9)
- Carsonified (2)
- Cooking With Beer (1)
- Design inspiration (2)
- Life In The Real World (32)
- Publication & Recognition (21)
- Software (14)
- Speaking Engagements (11)
- That Internet Thing (15)
- The Business (5)
- This Site (14)
- Travel (10)
- Tutorials & Resources (10)
- Web Design (32)
- Wordpress (5)
- Writing (1)
Blogroll
UPDATED! I’ve been known to while away a few hours on these blogs, most of which are written by my friends in the industry...
- Jørgen Arnor Gårdsø Lom
- Jina Bolton
- Nathan Borror
- Mark Boulton
- Sam Brown
- Andy Budd
- Kevin Cornell
- Jeff Croft
- Jon Hicks
- I Love Typography
- Shaun Inman
- Roger Johansson
- Daniel Mall
- Kyle Meyer
- D. Keith Robinson
- Jason Santa Maria
- Dave Shea
- Jonathan Snook
- Jon Tan
- Typesites
- Tim Van Damme
- Khoi Vinh
- Web Designer Wall
- Rob Weychert
Recent Comments:
- Rajesh Pancholi said: sorry for the babbling : )
- Rajesh Pancholi said: Good for you, remember why you’re making the change and don’t...
- prisca said: Elliot, great to read you’re making such a success of your freelance life ;-)...
- Christoph said: Very motivating and encouraging article! But I have some second thoughts :-)...
- Pete Eveleigh said: BTW I loved this bit… I’m not the type of guy who’ll write a blog...
- Pete Eveleigh said: I tend to agree with what you say but the article doesn’t really say...
- Gary Stanton said: Wish I knew how you did that. I’ve been freelance for around three years...
- Phil Bowell said: Whilst your post is very encouraging, I’m in agreement with John (the...
- Dave Ellis said: I seem to be going the opposite way, I need to make a conscious decision to work...
- Alex Older said: I’m looking to make the jump after Uni depending on how things go and this...
Recent Reads
-
Basics Design: Layout (Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris) - A beautifully designed book about beautiful design. Some key layout principles are presented in an engaging way, and this is more a book about inspiration than pure instruction.
-
Poe: Illustrated Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) - Some fine contemporary illustrrators take on some Poe classics and the result is a gorgeous collection of words and art.
-
Penguin By Design (Phil Baines) - A history of Penguin Books’ cover designs, as educational and inspirational as you’d expect from this prolific publisher.
-
Thinking with Type (Ellen Lupton) - I first saw this sitting on a desk in the nytimes.com offices, and after thumbing through it, realised it was one of the best books about the technicalities of typography that I’d seen.
-
Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Other Stories (Mike Mignola) - The latest Hellboy trade paperback collects yet more classic stories, although this time Mignola is joined by other artists.
-
The Ten Commandments of Typography (Paul Felton) - A book of two halves (the flip-side deals with so-called ‘Type Heresy’), this is a witty but informative book bout typographical techniques.
-
Great Beers of Belgium (Michael Jackson) - No, not that Michael Jackson. This is the one who really knows his stuff when it comes to fine beers.
-
London: The Biography (Peter Ackroyd) - A lively, engaging book about the history of London, told as it the city itself were a living thing.
-
Tres Logos (various) - I could look through logo books until the cows come home; this kind of collection is invaluable to the identity designer, and this is, of course, just one book.
-
Business Cards 2: More Ways Of Saying Hello (various) - This is another great source of inspiration and a lovely ‘coffee table’ book that’s a joy to flick through even if you don’t need to design a business card.
-
Schild’s Ladder (Greg Egan) - One of the most full-on sci-fi books I’ve ever read, with its use of real physics and exploration of quantum mechanics shaping much of the narrative.
-
Wolverine: Weapon X (Barry Winsor Smith) - A landmark story in the history of this legendary comic book character, Weapon X has become a real classic.
-
Casa Batlló: Gaudi (various) - Sam and I visited Barcelona last year, where we saw several amazing architectural feats by Gaudi. This book captures some of the beauty that our camera couldn’t.
-
The Fundamentals of Typography (Gavin Ambrose) - This was the first bok I bought specifically about typography, and it pretty much does what it says on the tin, although a nice bit of history is thrown in as well.
-
Analog In, Digital Out (Brendan Dawes) - Magnetic North’s main man explores some arty, experimental projects without any of the ponce usually associated with the genre. This is a book about merging new and old ideas, and it’s inspiring all the way through.
-
The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins) - Possibly one of the most important books in print today.
-
Foundation’s Edge (Issac Asimov) - Another Asimov classic, this part of The Foundation Saga encapsulates some monumental ideas about humanity far beyond the boundaries of regular sci-fi.
-
Web Standards Creativity (various authors) - 10 great lessons for writing better markup, using the latest CSS, and adding subtle Javascript tricks
-
Transcending CSS (Andy Clarke) - Rethink the way you design and code. This book was hugely influential on me whilst building the latest version of this site and made me even more pedantic
-
Dune (Frank Herbert) - An absolutely legendary sci-fi novel full of very complex ideas... much better than the film!
-
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) - A dark and charming tale of a man who eschews normal life for the secret underworld of ‘London Below’
Why being freelance does NOT mean you have to work more hours: http://moourl.com/mtsdj 7 hrs ago
Flickr
View all of my photos on flickr