Detail Diary, Vol #37
January: A new life
January 2026
Dear friend,
In January, I moved to a new town, rented a house, started a new job, bought a car, enrolled in benefits, bought many household appliances, and was generally initiated into the trappings of American adulthood. On the same day that I bought the car (my first), I also got a new nephew (my first)—healthy and so utterly soft and small.
From my new 4th-floor office window in the Life Sciences Building of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, I have an unobstructed view of the closest peaks of the Wasatch Range: Y Mountain, named for the 380-ft whitewashed letter emblazoned on its flank, and Kyhv Peak, which looms ruggedly over Rock Canyon. When I sent a photo to my old colleagues at the Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, their first quip was, “Are you still in Grenoble??” And I remember thinking, when I first moved to Grenoble and looked up at the crazily folded limestone massifs and cliffs of the Pre-Alps, how much they resembled Provo’s limestone mountains. Coming back to Provo, I feel doubly at home.
These lower mountains are more bare than they should be, as the Western US winter has been virtually barren of snow (in contrast to the East). The nights are still frozen, but we’ve been locked in sunny dryness all month. My skin is parched.
I live close enough to walk to work, so my Detail Diary this month has been graced by craggy old winter trees, feasting flocks of cedar waxwings, frost on oak leaves, charming little houses, smog-brilliant mountain sunsets, the crescent moon and the full moon. I’m greeting old friends among the American birds—American robins, chickadees, dark-eyed juncos, house finches—and feeling comforted by the whimsical chattering of European starlings, introduced species though they be.
As I start to get a handle on the fire hose of admin and adjustment, I hope to send out, relatively soon, a reflective post looking back at France and forward to my new work here in Utah. Stay tuned, and for now, read on for the details…
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First week of January: one more week at home in Idaho before launching into my new life in Utah.
Provo, Utah
Your diary photos are excellent. Good luck settling in 😍
Good luck and bon courage with Provo. I hated it at first, BYU freshman year, and almost went back to Chicago. And then I met the American designer Milo Baughman, who hired me as a junior photographer. That led to work with Redford, who had just bought Timp Haven, the old ski chalet and tow ropes that are now Sundance. Some of my photographs taken while he was filming Jeremiah Johnson are still on the walls in the Tree Room. So yes, Provo can surprise you.