authenticity, discovery, enchantment, freedom, happiness, humour, innocence, moments, nuannaarpoq, sharing
This post is also available as a podcast on Spotify, click here to listen. We were recently invited to spend a few days with friends at their place on the beach. Among other things, I enjoyed watching children and their families playing in the water and the sand....
colour, discovery, enchantment
Otters seem to be the most nuannaarpoqian of animals and their eye is easily caught by bright objects. Here a bunch of red berries does the trick, apparently leading to a form of horizontal meditation. Once, I remember, I went to look for him there and at first could...
nuannaarpoq
As you may have noticed, I have a soft spot for the playfulness of otters, and a growing collection of examples soon to be gathered together in a dedicated page. In this case, the merry otter watches a human, who had been chasing him, take a tumble and a dip, and...
happiness, moments, nuannaarpoq, sleep
… an otter? Not the obvious simile, but according to this, true. This curious fact lies alongside the revelation that when the otter decided it was time to get up, his human handler had to get up to – the animal went through an elaborate process of...
authenticity, freedom, happiness, moments, nuannaarpoq
Otters are playful and their element is water. Here Gavin Maxwell’s companion Mij, having figured out where the bathroom is, slips between his human handler’s legs and makes a dash for the source of water. By the time I had caught up with him he was up on...
authenticity, awards, beauty, enchantment, happiness, innocence, kindness, moments, resilience
Our fifth nominee for a Nuannaarpoq Award is: Maria Voiteshonok Parameters:Â 20th-21st centuries, Russian, real, human, female, living Nuannaarpoq qualities:Â authenticity, beauty, enchantment, innocence, kindness, resilience References: ‘The story of a...
happiness, imagination, innocence, resilience
This excerpt from an interview with a Russian writer brought up in Siberia, due to the political exile of her parents, demonstrates the child’s deep need to play and the imagination which led her to create her own dolls, despite poverty, exclusion and general...
enchantment, happiness, innocence, nuannaarpoq
A personage who takes delight in small things he finds on the wayside – I loved this eclectic selection of things spotted, gathered up, carefully placed and then returned to.  Even in the open countryside he retained his passion for play-things, and would carry...
happiness, imagination, moments
The capacity of otters to play and to turn anything they find into a game, is breath-taking. Here is one, having worked out the ludic possibilities inherent in the physics of ping-pong balls, setting off to entertain himself for an hour or two at a stretch.  You can...
happiness, innocence
Otters seem to be the most nuannaarpoqian of animals. Their life skills, resilience, confidence and playfulness captivated me when I read the evocative classic Tarka the Otter, celebrated here with rich pickings of quotes and metaphors.  Another classic, Gavin...
discovery, freedom, happiness
A beautiful description of the sheer, unbounded joy of being alive in a small mongrel dog who finds herself on the streets of a Russian city. Grossman’s capacity to imagine the mind and feelings of animals is concentrated in this essay and another in the same...
nuannaarpoq, resilience
I loved this entrancing description of joyous and playful mastery. Tarka is a splendid character depicted after months of close observation of his kind, by a man disaffected with humanity following the horrors of the First World War. Although often hunted, the animal...
innocence, moments, sharing
Having given birth to cubs, Tarka’s mate goes her own way. But before they part company he calls her to play one last game at the bridge and she joins him there. I liked the timelessness of the otters’ game which Williamson suggests has been played since...
enchantment, innocence, moments
One of the delights of observing birds and animals is to see them apparently at play. Williamson’s slim, taut and charming classic on otters gives many examples of them playing. Here I liked Tarka’s trying to catch and bite a rope of water twist-tumbling...
sharing
We play with dogs and cats and some other creatures. I used to play with a fox in our garden in London: he made a show of taking my abandoned fleece delicately in his mouth and began pulling it off the table where I’d left it, all the while staring at me to see...
happiness, sharing
Isn’t this a marvelous account of a joyous reunion, including the playful pretence of ignoring each other, the better to extend that first thrill of meeting? You will soon perceive, from this and other quotations from the same book, that I’ve concluded...
