Greetings from the Polish Tatra! The mountains might be my favourite place in the world, and there are many wonderful things about them,...

“Why did they go there… Why did they go?” My grandma is sitting in her 1960s armchair with worn upholstery. The living room of her summer...

Judging by the number on this Field Note, we’re thirty-three weeks into 2023, and more than half of the year has gone by. I’m quite proud...

Ongoing sporting controversies – such as the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Olympics, or the broader question of...

The spiral staircase between our ground-floor kitchen and first-floor landing is well over a hundred years old. We were told that,...

It might seem that optimism or pessimism are our innate tendencies but scientists believe that they are only about 25 percent dependent...

My YouTube algorithm is wired so that it almost exclusively serves me bouldering competitions, ballerina vlogs, and cute animals. Because...

Last week, after a long wait, a very personal essay of mine was finally published on Patagonia’s blog. The piece is accompanied by a...

It is hard to comprehend that we’ve been in our French home for over four years. Next year, I could apply for citizenship, although there...

This note might not make much sense. I simply cannot plan it. Can’t even envisage a subject. My brain is frazzled, my stomach hurts, my...

I must have been around thirteen when I went for a summer camp at the Polish seaside. I certainly appeared even younger, and I remember...

Last night, we climbed until twilight. We walked out of the forest, listening to birdsong. I overslept, not hearing the alarm go off, and...

I hate buying new things. I wish I could say that it’s my concern for reducing landfill that fuels this hatred but the reality is more...

I like to think that little things around us are connected in meaningful and mysterious ways. It doesn’t matter that I don’t actually...

I swear that I will write soon about something – anything – that’s good and wholesome and that brings me joy, but for now it seems that I...

Do you know the feeling when your to-do list is so long that you don’t really know where to start, and end up not starting at all? When...

My last week’s Field Note made me feel quite horrible. Not because of the subject matter – granted, not a particularly cheery one – but...

“The Cold War did not end, it merely shattered into a thousand pieces.” The opening of a lecture for a group of aspiring Russian spies in...

In much of Central and Eastern Europe, Easter Monday is known as Wet Monday. As per tradition, boys would throw water at girls and whip...

I’ve heard it said that upon seeing Yosemite for the first time – not on film or in a picture, but in real life – you will be nothing...