Today’s links come to you from a ranch-style house situated on Indian Point outside Saugatuck, Michigan, on the bank of the Kalamazoo River. It looks out over a vast marsh that is stewarded by the Pottawatomie Gun Club. The Red-wing Black bird, the Common Yellowthroat, the Tufted Titmouse, the Gray Catbird, and the Sandhill Crane all live here, and they let you know it.
Summer in Michigan can’t be explained to the uninitiated. Every good summer feeling I’ve captured in the last 15 years has been here. What have we done during our week here? Almost nothing. And that’s the point.
A hike, a bike, and an 858-page book to get lost in. A cacophony of birdsong interspersed with the sounds of Fleetwood Mac on vinyl. A gasping dip into the ocean-lake, which always feels too cold to the toes, but perfect to the whole body once you get your head under. A quiet hour to write a letter while the kids run off some energy in the woods. A martini with a twist until the sun goes down at 9:26 p.m.
There are a lot of places in my life that make me wonder: Did they just catch me at the right time, with a near-perfect concoction of emotional ingredients, or are they inherently special in a way that is transferrable to others? If I brought you here, would you feel the same magic?
Thank you, Damon and Joanna and Frankie and Bjorn for making a place so wonderful that it felt both completely restorative and totally empty without all of the rest of our friends there. See you next year.
above the fold
Pure Michigan: Reimagined
By Grace Eggleston, Michael George & Aaron Jones for National Geographic
My take: Forgive me father, for this is sponsored content — but in my defense it’s about my favorite place (Michigan, as established above) and it features my favorite photo guy (Michael George, a National Geographic photographer who does top work no matter who’s paying the bill). And anyway, Pure Michigan has been on a such an iconic run for the past two decades that I genuinely wonder if their PR is the main X-factor in its reputation over Wisconsin. (Update: after some thought, I have decided it’s because the sun sets in the west, and thus in Michigan you get get killer evenings over the Big Lake.) In any case, the patina is real here.
The Father-Daughter Routine That Transformed Our Family Life by Jordan Michelman for The Atlantic (archive link)
My take: I was homeschooled until high school, which gave me an uncommon amount of dedicated time from both my parents all day every day. Sometimes I feel a little sheepish for not being able to offer the same to my children — even though, as remote workers, my wife and I still spend more time with our kids than the average parent. And yet it’s vanishingly short: a logistical hour in the morning spent making breakfast, packing lunches, and getting grumpy kids to brush their teeth before school. After school and work, a couple more hours if they aren’t co-opted by friends or homework. So of course “Dadurday” sounds ideal to me, and I feel a powerful obligation to make it an unmissable ritual.
Best line: Our conversations have also expanded to encompass the wider world and its fundamental truths. The other day, on our way to pick up some kimchi, my daughter demanded to know, in detail, the difference between a pickle (like the ones we had in a jar in the fridge) and kimchi, which I had previously—and not entirely accurately—described as “a style of Korean pickle.” By the end of the chat, I was talking about the different preserving and fermenting traditions of various cuisines, and she was ready to conduct a taste test when we got back home. Another development: Whenever we order lunch, my daughter now has an ideal deli sandwich (turkey, cheddar, sourdough, light mayo). I find it charming, but it also feels like some kind of passage into adulthood, the fact that my child knows herself well enough to dictate her preferences to the deli guy. If her grandfather or great-grandfather, who both knew their way around a deli, were here, they would be positively verklempt.
7 Beautiful Multi-Day Hikes in the United States to Lodges With Beds and Cooked Meals by Alisha McDarris and Danielle Hallock for AFAR
My take: I have long envied what the Europeans have: a hiking culture that is town-to-town with lodging and wine available at the end of an arduous day of walking — and how nothing like that exists in the U.S. But…maybe I was wrong?
Best line: These seven hikes around the United States offer ample time in nature, while allowing you to relax in relative luxury and style at the end of the day. That way, you’re practically guaranteed to be rested and rejuvenated for another round of hiking on Day Two (or Three or Four).
The Overlooked Reason Europe Doesn’t Have AC by Thomas Chatterton Williams for The Atlantic (🎁)
Best line: Plenty of Americans seem scandalized that more Western Europeans don’t embrace the technological miracle of AC. ****But the disagreement ultimately has less to do with objective criteria—such as the effects of climate change in Europe, which is warming twice as fast as the global average—than subjective questions about what constitutes an acceptable level of physical suffering and sacrifice. As someone who splits his time between the United States and France, I’ve seen firsthand how Americans tend to interpret discomfort as a failure of infrastructure, whereas Europeans seem much more willing to regard it as part of life. These contrasting views have resulted in far too much air-conditioning on one side and not remotely enough on the other.
home tour
An Architects’ Laboratory: A Self-Built Cottage in the Scottish Highlands
By Alexa Hotz for Remodelista
Best line: The cottage is built with monolithic clay block walls finished in lime harling and clay plaster. Locally felled Highland Douglas fir is used throughout, from the exposed structure to the interior walls and custom joinery, while leftover offcuts were repurposed into mortise-and-tenon doors and cabinetry. Despite its modest footprint, Iorram is unexpectedly generous. With spare interiors and a considered palette, the project also served as something of a laboratory for the architects—an opportunity to test ideas about craftsmanship, material sourcing, and a more direct approach to building.
Seth Putnam is an editor and writer in Chicago. He lives with his wife, son, and daughter in a 1920s home that is the epitome of a work in progress.
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” — Mary Oliver