NATIVE PLACES: THE NEWSLETTER
A collection of thoughts and hand-drawn sketches that illustrate the value of looking closely at buildings and places.
Evelyn
As I said goodbye to my six-month-old granddaughter Evelyn on an April morning in London, my heart sank. Then I boarded a Boeing 777 bound for Raleigh, North Carolina. When I got home, I puttered about in the garden then went to bed thinking of London pubs and parks and Evelyn and her parents.
At dawn the next day, a catbird sang outside my bedroom window. I decided to do what I aways do whenever I’m troubled: Sit in my garden. At 8:20, the garbage truck roared outside the garden wall, disrupting my serenity. “Welcome back to reality,” the massive truck seemed to growl, adding a whiff of rotten cabbage to the moment.
Suddenly I heard a Swainson’s thrush singing from deep within my plum tree. This olive-backed thrush, weighing less than a bag of airline pretzels, will fly 4000 miles to its nesting place in Canada. That’s farther than my 545,000-pound Boeing flew to bring me home.
There’s nothing like a garden to lend perspective.
Cicero wrote that if you have a library and a garden you have everything. Hearing a thrush in my garden on a spring morning, I agreed with him. But to Cicero’s list I would add the people that you love.
Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See: A book by Frank Harmon. To learn more click here.
Frank Harmon is an architect, educator, and writer who is well known for designing buildings that cultivate the “native wisdom” of their place.
He sketches often, finding that the practice enriches his connection to the world. In his recently released book, Frank offers an invitation: drawing as a way to inspire curiosity, presence, and everyday joy.