What snags your attention?

I like to notice things when I’m out walking in the world, whether it’s the moss, or the clouds, or the typography.

I noticed that I have certain triggers–words or colors or shapes that my brain called my attention to, while I’m thinking of something totally different. Weird, eh?

Here are some examples of things my brain picked out of the landscape recently. What are your triggers?

Shadow Play

Sometimes it is my own stance which reminds me of Peter Pan.

Sometimes it is two light sources, playing with my multiple personalities on the street.

Sometimes it is those new-fangled LED street lights, which distort a night shadow into a Modernist masterpiece.

Foreign Words

This caught my eye and I couldn’t believe it!

I have been searching for something or someone to confirm my find from Albania, in 2007, when I became semi-addicted to this kind of mozzarella cheese called straciatella. It was kind of like burrata, but instead of a molten centre, it has silky stretched strands suspended in liquid.

It may sound gross, but it was divine.

And I haven’t heard anyone who had heard of it…till now, 9 years later!

Now I know how those crazed scientists must feel.

Key Interests

I was walking down Burnside the other day when my eye snagged on the side of a mobile office, one of those shipping container ones used by construction sites.

At the Volvo parking lot, I happened to see “SCOTSMAN” emblazoned on the side, and my attention, so long engaged seeking out references to Scotland and Scottish culture, was caught!

I think this is funny, this extracurricular activity of the brain.

I’m also grateful for it, as I credit it for the mysterious background thinking that is so helpful while writing novels–when things get worked out in your sleep. Thank goodness!