Barcelona gets up early and I love it.

There are few things as comforting to me as waking up hearing pots and pans being readied for breakfast. Our neighbors typically start their preparations around 6:45, sending delightful scents of coffee and eggs wafting through the courtyard and into our open windows. (The walls in this old building are extraordinarily thin, so every noise above a normal speaking tone carries pretty much throughout the whole place.) It is a lovely, slow way to wake up.

Eventually the smells will make me hungry enough to shed my covers and walk to the kitchen right around the time the kids start filtering into the school across the street.

It is loud, it is bright, it is early and I cannot get enough of it.

This morning was no different. I made my tea, grabbed my new sketchbook (finally bit the bullet and purchased a pantone moleskine!) and started to draw swirls, curves, anything to wake my sleepy brain. This morphed into lettering and from there I made an attempt at a calligraphic alphabet.

I’ve never had a lot of patience for lettering, but this morning it was different. In sunlit stillness I treasured the swirls and strokes of each figure, giving each letter time and breath. And now I’m hooked. It felt like yoga, a process of repetition, a meditation.

And just when I was happy with it, I wrinkled the page. Of course.
I know my shaky littler letters have a long way to go, but it was wonderful to try something new