Letter from September

Illustration by Latvian artist Laura Lukeviča @lauracmyk

Astronomical Autumn has started. Last days of September are tumbling down the calendar. I have two oily brown conkers in the pocket of my rain coat. The water in the river and the sea is still warm enough to swim without a surprised face. The temperature in Latvia has been record high for September. Meteorological Autumn hasn’t even started yet because of that. Yet it doesn’t feel like an Indian Summer either. A weather fever spent in short sleeves.

I talk about weather because I entered September with a vivid dream. I was riding an old dusty bus through desert with passengers covered in orange sand. Everything was hot and dry but I had a book with me. A book given to me by a writer I truly love and whose books have taught me to swim and even encouraged to find a dog. I take the book out of my bag and open it. In an instant the inside of the dusty bus turns blue as if refreshing air would breeze out of the pages. Books are cool, aren’t they… Will they save us on this increasingly hot planet..? I carry this dream with me like a conker and keep looking for good books.

In September some sea related titles have been published that I hope to buy and read soon:

I’ve also written down upcoming books, that will see the daylight in the future:

Also, there are new titles added to the sea-library.com, an online catalogue for the Sea Library, continuously being updated as there is a whole sea of books here and it takes time:

I’ve also added some of the older books to the catalogue, including these three:

Look at that book with a bird on it: I’m very happy to have “Korras pasaules” (The Worlds of Korra) by Latvian ornithologist and author Viesturs Ķerus. It’s a clever story about a life of a European roller kid from his first world inside an egg to the wonders of migration. European rollers are called green ravens in Latvian. A beautiful name for a bird that I have never seen. My granddad, painter Edgars Iltners, was a fan of birds, I have his sketch of the green raven on my Mac. Another bird I hope to see is the green woodpecker. A pair of them (I imagine it’s a pair) started to live close to us this summer, their distinct call was something new to my ears. Sometimes there’s the wondrous chance to see a bird up close. The other day Nemo and I were walking through the forest to his dog school lesson and I saw a black woodpecker climbing up a pine. Big, black bird with a bright red hat. Wearing Sunday clothes casually.

Nemo notices more than I do. I’m learning to be as alert as he is. To live in the present and see, hear, smell. My nose isn’t as masterful as his and yet I love to imagine what his world might feel like. What animal paths is he tracing, why is he barking in the dark. Dog school teacher said, a puppy is truly scared when he acts scared even if it is just a paper bag or a shadow. One day he was so afraid of a huge pack of TPs by the door. They might have looked like ‘thousand eyes’ peering at him without blinking at all. I can only guess but I will never know. To understand his body language is another skill I learn at school. It’s surprising to translate the tiniest movements of his ears, paws and tail and to discover how little did I know or how wrong I was. I learn to be more like a dog myself. Not a human master of some sort. Not to stare at Nemo, but to glance sideways. To yawn when he is worried. To not to touch his head when he doesn’t want to. To love him and be with him. To leave him alone so he could rest. And to play the ball just for the sake of the fun. It’s fantastic to see how my boys have fallen in love with him too. We have always been a household of cats since my boys were born, so they were suspicious what’s the point of a puppy. A boy needs a dog, someone once said to me. I am also just a kid when I am outside running through the forest with Nemo.

Here are three more books on my list that I want to add to my collection soon, published this summer, one of them about how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us:

Those who are following my journey, will know that since last year I’ve been working at the National Library of Latvia. So it was a special September day when my colleagues visited the Sea Library. In a short speech on this surreal summery afternoon I said how important it is for me for both of the library worlds of mine – the passionate and the professional – to meet. The National Library is a school for me. Nemo isn’t the only one who is learning new stuff.

It’s been a month since I silenced the social media to learn, to find other ways of building communities and to let my mind drift. I was worried, if I’ll lose something crucial for my island, but the books keep finding their readers and their way to the Sea Library. This month a gift from Brazil has been sent out! It will be fine and it will be fun. Yesterday at 3 am I was standing outside with Nemo and his upset tummy and I looked up at the stars. In the middle of the night the sky was so black and so incredibly beautiful. For a second I thought about a social network of stargazers, maybe floating in the dark sea or sitting at the beach and looking up this very moment. That’s very cool, I whispered, and we went back inside to sleep.

Thank you, Laura, for drawing me and Nemo in the most wonderful way! A gift of September.