We climbed some mountains
Emily took this photograph of me writing in my 5 Year Journal Travel Companion after a night of wild camping on a hill in the Lake District. We've been planning for this trip for weeks, making sure we had the right gear and knew what we were doing. Luckily we had some good guides, two of my oldest friends Ed and Pauline and a new friend Rod (Pauline's husband) from Out There People.
It's hard to describe the sense of achievement after hiking all day, finding a good spot to pitch a tent, then settling down for the night drinking and eating some treats. We were covered in midges and it was raining the night before this, but, it didn't matter. We got into our tents and admired the view, getting sleepier and sleepier after the days hike up Place Fell.
The 5 year Journal is something Emily made for me in January. It was inspired by something Stefan Sagmeister talked about in Brighton last September. He mentioned writing down a few things that were good about his day, everyday, before he goes to bed, and it being good for his happiness.
The book Emily made will last 5 years. On each page there are spaces to write per day for the next 5 years, enabling me to see previous years entries over the next 5 years. The book is quite big, and normally lives under my pillow, so, Emily also made a travel companion, which you can see me writing in in the photograph above. It has slips with perforations, so when I get home, I can tear the pages out and stick them in the main journal. It's a brilliant idea and means I have no excuse for not writing in my journal. Both books are hand made, feature letterpress printing and a bookmark.
At the moment there is just one of these journal sets, but, we (Stanley James Press and These Atoms) are about to collaborate on a version that we will sell to others. If you'd like to go on the waiting list for a set (we have no idea what they will cost yet), please let me know.
And if you'd like to go up some mountains and wild camp with us, get in touch, as we're looking for others to share these cool experiences with. I'm also considering doing this years retreat/advance thing in the mountains instead of the farm. More on that soon.
