Southern Fantasies

2/12/24 Wedgwood neighborhood

I think of February as the deadest part of the dead of winter: The holidays are long over, the fresh promise of a new year is already going stale, and spring is still such a distant hope that we haven’t even gotten a false one. (A friend feels so strongly about winter needing to end that he has been running a “Kill Winter with Orange” campaign every February for 10 years! Follow randomthinks on Instagram and the hashtag #killwinterwithorange to see how his followers are helping him kill it!)

2/12/24 Green Lake neighborhood

Around this time of year, I like to sketch palm trees to help me dream of warmer climes south of here. On my way home from an errand in Wedgwood, I first spotted a house with no fewer than five Chinese pinwheel palms on the small property (above). Walking in the Green Lake neighborhood later that same day, I spotted a small palm that I had never noticed before. That’s what happens when I start thinking about something: I suddenly see them everywhere.

Speaking of things Deadest, Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co. (and Field Notes founding partner) recently released another limited edition of Field Notes notebooks with covers made from poster dead prints – the Deadest edition. (Deader print books were sold in 2020, and the original Dead prints a few years prior to that.) His timing was ideal: The bright colors and shiny silver foiling are doing their best to help kill winter.

Orange, silver foiling, neon: I'm doing my part to kill it!