June 1 – 7, 2023
Day 5: Flavour …. The sense of taste. A fascinating session with our host, Bethan Burton. Just exactly do you capture the flavours of anything in a nature journal? For about an hour we explored ways to illustrate, diagram and describe in words tastes familiar to foreign. And the curious and intimate relationship between taste and smell, and how our other senses (hearing, sight and touch) play a big part in how we anticipate and know the flavours of the world we live in. It was a fun sketch noting session, one which brought me back to my dilemma with taste and smell.
Within my following 2 pages, I decided to document in some detail my experiences with loss of smell and taste. Over the past 10+ months, I’ve read nearly everything medical related about sudden loss of these senses. But within my pages, I drew heavily upon a new-to-me article published by Harvard, that was a great summary of current thinking involving probable causes, possible remedies, and good and bad news. There was also a lot of discussion about how the loss of these senses can influence mood and emotions. Not being able to experience special tastes and smells, described by poet and author Diana Ackerman as “the heady succulence of life itself,” can be quite demoralizing. Because our 5 senses are bridges connecting us to our world, losing 2 of the 5 bridges equals a 40% loss in sensory input! That’s something to think about!
Thanks once again for taking a look! As always, I hope my pages spark in you a sense of curiosity and wonder, and that you would like to learn more. A good place to start is by visiting the INJW home page at https://www.naturejournalingweek.com/.
#naturejournalingweek
It’s still not too late to get involved in International Nature Journal Week 2023, and there’s no cost for participants, so check it out! All workshops and resources, the schedule and links to videos are available at https://www.naturejournalingweek.com/
a curious nature 