this week

No mud, no lotus.

Another week closer to Christmas, friends! Work shows no signs of slowing down for Tom and I, but we like being kept busy. Lots of cool projects on the go, which is great!

Favourite experience of the week

I really enjoyed the “work in progress” day run by the multidisciplinary research group I’m part of at uni. I didn’t have to present for a change so I just got to sit back, enjoy a vegan brownie and a soy chai latte and hear about what other people are researching, what bliss! The highlight of the day was an afternoon podcasting masterclass from Dr Siobhan McHugh, who has produced some of the country’s most interesting and awarded narrative podcasts in recent years. Podcasting has changed so much from when I was doing mine 10 years ago. I hope I might start that up again one day, it was one of the highlights of my career so far.

Reading

Books I picked up from the library today….to add to the every growing pile!

I finally finished Olivia Yallop’s Break the Internet, which really cemented the decision to step away from social media for me. The more I read, the more I realised that social media and the wider internet, once fascinating portals for connection and unique experiences, have become increasingly problematic, bloated by clickbait, “patrolled by brands and policed by algorithms” (p.247). I found this quote particularly resonant: “2020 just proved that social media platforms aren’t engineered for action, but for advertising, promoting call-out culture over community and individualism over solidarity.”

Yallop herself reaches a breaking point similar to my own in January, finding the world of social media, junklords and influencers too triggering, too vacuous, too caustic and fraught. If you are thinking about stepping away yourself, this book will probably make the decision for you. I also found the glossary, as an elder millennial not entirely au fait with all the latest internet lingo, very helpful!

Sydney Review of Books: Only Feelings - Catriona Menzies-Pike on Gina Rushton - really enjoyed this, especially this quote: “What’s unusual about this book is that it is nothing like a manifesto. It makes no firm case for any woman to decide to want to have a child or not — not even Rushton. There’s plenty of anger — about climate change, access to health care, and the shadow of patriarchy — but if there is a call to action, it’s a very quiet and highly caveated appeal to reflect and listen, to make space for the varieties and complexities of human lives.” [emphasis added by me]

To All the Recipes I’ve Loved Before - I discovered this wonderful foodie newsletter and indulged in reading the archives and fantasising about recreating some of the dishes Sonya writes so evocatively about. I was even more delighted to find she lives in Tassie too.  

I also started diving back in to this wonderful biography of my beloved Sylvia Plath who I’ve got back into in a big way this year. This doorstop of a book spares no detail and while I’m deeply familiar with Plath’s life story, I’m so enjoying the deep dive particularly of episodes I haven’t read much about before.

Listening to

I overheard Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” playing in the Reject Shop (UK readers, it’s Hobart’s equivalent of Poundland, perhaps?) when I was there earlier (more about that in the Picking section!) which was quite the earworm so I have had some 2010s electro pop playing on repeat while cooking. So many of them used to be on my running playlist! I have started listening to podcasts when I run now, which is interesting. I don’t run as fast as I do when I run to music, but the run itself goes faster, if that makes sense?! I don’t know which I prefer!

I was inspired by Tuesday’s podcasting masterclass to get into some new narrative podcasts so I checked out Stuff the British Stole, which Siobhan played us an excerpt of - loved it!

The Imperfects: Josh, Hugh and Ryan are awesome and I so enjoy listening to this podcast. This week I listened to their interview with Oliver Burkeman which was great entertainment for me while gardening and on my run I listened to Josh’s episode on how to defeat envy, which was so very interesting and relatable.

Eating

It’s been a funny week for cooking and eating - I had a list of new things to try but didn’t quite get round to them and instead relied on leftovers and the freezer as it turned into a rather busy week. We had pasta with lentil ragu which I cooked up and froze a few weeks ago, dhal from the freezer with basmati rice and flatbreads, a noodle stir fry (not unlike this one) with vegetables I was given from the work in progress day, and the mushroom and pumpkin crispy gnocchi from The Green Roasting Tin. The Full Vegan made an appearance on the weekend (we ate outside, in 30 degree heat! That feels like a dream as it’s freezing again now!) and the Tom of Hummus (see last week’s post) has also been made again!

All the Oreo brownies have been eaten so naturally another baked good was needed - the usual vegan banana bread was made yesterday with the blackened fruit in the bowl I had left there especially for the purpose. As bananas are so cheap at the moment, and frozen fruit is not, I’ve taken to buying a generous bunch or two of bananas and freezing them for smoothies (I also do this with other seasonal fruit in the summer like apricots and berries). The peels get made into fertiliser for my garden and two or three get left in the fruit bowl deliberately for banana bread. It’s a most satisfying arrangement!

I’ve also stocked up on apples and pears for Christmas chutney, which I think will be made this weekend, if we’re in for more rain…sigh!

Drinking

I discovered this alcohol-free Prosecco while in Melbourne and was delighted to see it in our local Woolworths! A really lovely alternative to sparkling wine, perfect for the silly season.

Watching

Honestly? 30 Rock and a few how-to YouTube videos (mostly to do with CSS and cleaning fountain pens!). Nothing exciting.

Wearing

A mask, everywhere! Hobart’s COVID risk level has gone from low to moderate, and I’ve noticed a lot more people wearing them. I can’t remember the last time I went into the supermarket or the library without one.

Something else I’ve been wearing, despite the mask…makeup! I bought some while I was in Melbourne from, of all places, The Body Shop and it’s amazing! I used to wear Body Shop makeup a lot when I was younger (in fact, my first ever lipgloss and mascara were from there, circa 1994) but hadn’t used them for many years, as I worked my way through the loot I was given from the Cosmo beauty cupboard (which surprisingly lasted a very long time!). I was delighted to find the Body Shop still works on my slightly more mature skin! My standard routine is now their Fresh Nude foundation applied with a sponge, concealer and powder (still using my Hourglass and Laura Mercier ones respectively for now), this gorgeous Shimmer Waves blush palette (which, while I was travelling, doubled as eyeshadow), and their Super Volume Mascara. Everything is so easy to apply and stays in place pretty much all day. I love how The Body Shop is slowly working towards having a fully vegan range too. I highly recommend them!

PICKING

Strawberries! Well, just about. I’ll pick all the ripe ones this weekend, as I’ve been fending off the greedy birds all week. I had to go to the Reject Shop to get some pinwheels to keep them off. As shown here:

When the wind gets up (and boy does it down here!), those pinwheels spin like mad and scare the birds off a treat. They have been a very handy addition to the garden these past few years!

I also picked two giant bags of spinach and silverbeet when I gave the side garden a haircut. The zucchini are coming along beautifully now that the sun can get to them. I also noted with delight the green shoot of the potatoes poking through in the tyre tower. I don’t know what kind of summer we’ll have, but I am hopeful.

I also picked MY FIRST LEMON!

Tom got me a lemon tree for Christmas in 2020 and fruit only started appearing this year - I was worried I’d killed it for the longest time! Today I needed lemon for the Tom of hummus, so I picked my first one off my very own tree. It was a proud moment. I grated some zest in as well as juice. It’s a very lemony hummus as a result, but I like that.

Morning routine - coffee and Morning Pages…

Proud of

A very satisfying work project being almost at completion, and the client being delighted, with only some minor changes left to do. I’ve so loved working on this and am very excited to share it (so is the client)!

Sticking to my morning routine of meditation for 2,048 days straight (that’s 5.5 years) and doing Morning Pages for 1,085 days (nearly 3 years to the day). Not that I’m counting, the apps do that for me! I started a new journal this week, my sixth for the year. They fill up very quickly these days!

I’ve got a huge post in drafts about journaling, as it’s one of the things I’m asked about the most. Stay tuned for that very soon, hopefully I’ll have it ready for you to read over the holidays!

Quote of the week

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” - Mary Oliver

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, or anything else, with me, please do! I hope you’re also finding things to savour at the moment, that make you think and that make you smile. Have a happy and safe weekend xx

Please note: this blog post has affiliate links with Booktopia which means I may receive a commission for a sale that I refer, at no extra cost to you.

this week

Is spring just around the corner?

I don’t know where the last week went either! It’s proving to be quite a good practice to take some time to reflect on what the week has actually held, otherwise I run the risk of them all blurring into each other and forgetting all the small, sweet things, the little pockets of joy. The things that might seem inconsequential at the time but later I’ll be pleased weren’t lost.

I also enjoyed doing a little ink painting of my blue jug of pink tulips.

Favourite experience/s of the week

At the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, I did enjoy my annual review on Wednesday. The enthusiasm and support for my PhD project at my university is beyond anything I could have hoped for and always spurs me on. Which was a good thing, as I had to spend the rest of the week preparing my exegesis draft for my supervisors to read. I felt oddly scared sending that to them on Friday evening - more scared than I’ve been sending them creative work. Is it because, ironically, I am taking more risks with the exegesis, putting myself out there that little bit more? It was an interesting thing to think about and energy that I hope to transfer over to the creative work too.

I also loved my Hidden Nerve lecture on Thursday evening, which was given by Amanda Lohrey. It’s not often that you get to hear thoughts on the craft and pearls of wisdom from a writer of Amanda’s stature (though she was my lecturer for one of my undergraduate units 20 years ago, and I so wish I had been more aware of what a great writer she is back then!) so my hand could barely keep up as I tried to scribble down everything she said. The first thing she said was that there are absolutely no rules in writing - “except don’t be boring. But even that is problematic and subjective too!” she laughed. The overriding message I took away from everything she said was that every book is a gamble, reading is a deeply subjective experience and therefore you can only ever really write for yourself. Write the book or page that you find interesting.

Reading

Last week’s bedtime reading was The Bloomsbury Cookbook which, while fascinating, gave me some very peculiar dreams one night which I didn’t fancy a repeat of (!), so I have switched to some favourite spiritual books on Kindle over the last week, which get my mind into a peaceful space before sleep (always advised). I’ve been reading What Helps: Sixty Slogans to Live By, Coming Home: Refuge in Pureland Buddhism, and Just As You Are: Buddhism for Foolish Beings, all by Satya Robyn whose writing is the equivalent of a soothing hand on the brow.

I started reading one of my Persephone books I bought in London - Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple, who I am a huge fan of and on the pleasures of whose work I have waxed lyrical many times before. As I suspected, I’m finding it fascinating and so very entertaining. This week’s quote of the week is from this book.

Sydney Review of Books: In The Garden with Amanda Lohrey (preparation for this week’s Hidden Nerve!)

LitHub: Winning the Game You Didn’t Even Want to Play

Bustle: What Do We Owe Each Other?

I feel certain I read more than this but, to be honest, the week has passed in a blur of writing and rewriting my exegesis, cutting words, putting them back in, switching things around and trying to entice some order out of the chaos!

Listening to

My “writing beats”, general “for writing” and inner winter playlists were on repeat, as well as a lot of blues, for some reason. Alabama Shakes was in there a lot, particularly this song. Nick Cave and Ludovico Einaudi were also constant companions, but that’s pretty standard!

Best Friend Therapy: People-pleasing - why do we do it? Is it really nice to be nice? How do we say no? Hooray, this podcast is back with another season and yet again delivers some profound and illuminating messages. I had to stop the washing up, take off the gloves and press rewind and listen to one section several times over, such was the power of what Emma had said.

The Imperfects: Glenn Robbins - Listening To The Voice In Your Head - I listened to this last week and loved it so much I listened to it again! I’m also halfway through the episode with Dr Emily, The Pesky Hedonistic Treadmill.

Vegan Sunday Roast

Eating

We had a delicious Sunday roast - I used up a box of vegan stuffing I bought sometime in 2020 when I was looking for things in the supermarket that would last a long time if indeed we were at the beginning of the apocalypse. The stuffing was made and then wrapped in puff pastry with some piquant sun-dried tomatoes. To accompany the roast, we had roast potatoes, sprouts and boozy carrots (carrots cooked in foil in the oven with white wine and herbs). I made enough for a crowd so we had leftovers on Thursday night when we were both working until late, which was nice as it felt like someone else had done the cooking - well, Past Phil had!

Creamy roast pumpkin risotto

There was also a delectable roast pumpkin risotto which has almost overtaken tomato risotto as my favourite this winter. It tastes so creamy and indulgent.

Vegan banana bread - made in the new air fryer!

Sticky crispy cauliflower, which I served with fried rice - I really didn’t expect this to work, seeing it was baked in the oven. But it was brilliant, and the cauliflower pieces were beautifully crisp!

Cauliflower stalk and lentil tacos - I used broccoli and cauliflower stalks (and cauliflower leaves) for this recipe and subbed kidney beans for the lentils - very delicious and no waste! We had these in wraps with cashew queso, which I’ve made many times this year. Totally planning a taco mac and cheese with the leftovers!

Picking / growing

Winter greens are going strong in my mostly dormant garden. Spinach, chard, celery - the latter is particularly abundant. There’s a little kale. The garlic shoots are coming through. The lemons on my tree are starting to turn yellow. I have also spotted some nettles which I’m allowing to grow wild and which I’ll turn into a nettle soup at some stage over the next few weeks.

Watching

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Blu-Ray) - Tom’s choice! Not normally my sort of thing but I didn’t hate it. A plot full of highly improbable things but good fun! Fast-paced, stylishly shot and Simon Pegg was a real scene stealer and kept things lively.

C’mon C’mon (iTunes) - Mike Mills is one of our favourite directors and his latest didn’t disappoint! Shot in black and white, which naturally invites you to pay close attention (a theme of the film), this film follows the story of Johnny, a radio journalist whose current project is travelling around the US interviewing children about their lives and their opinions on the world and the future. One evening, in his hotel room, he randomly calls his sister, who he hasn’t spoken to since their mother died. It turns out Viv, his sister, needs his help - she has a young son Jesse whose father, her estranged husband, is mentally ill. She needs to try and get him into treatment and asks Johnny if he could come out to LA to look after Jesse for a few days. Those few days turn into a few weeks and, under pressure from his boss to get back to work, Johnny ends up taking Jesse back to New York with him temporarily. Johnny has spent a lot of time with children in his work but finds it’s a very different ball game being completely responsible for one, something he isn’t quite prepared for. He both marvels at Jesse and the way a child sees the world, and also finds caring for him 24/7 very frustrating. It’s a typical Mike Mills story in that it appears remarkably quotidian on the surface but there’s actually a lot going on. Mills’ oeuvre is very much centred around child/parent relationships and with this film, it takes a wider look at how children and adults relate to each other. With every scene, we are brought further and further into each character’s world, inviting empathy which I think is very much the message of the film. That and children are far, far wiser and observe much more than they are given credit for. I also love how intertextual Mills’ films are - there’s always part of a text (or several texts) read aloud that then informs your understanding of the characters’ cultural influences.

Quote of the week

“I’m not lost any more. I know what I have to do with my life. I have to write.” - Dorothy Whipple

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, or anything else, with me, please do! Stay well xx

this week

A favourite corner of my living room, especially around 4:30pm this time of year, when the light is fading, necessitating candles and fairy lights.

Didn’t I just do one of these?! Does anyone else feel like the weeks are flying by at the moment?

Let’s get to it!

Favourite experience/s of the week

A pre-paper selfie I took for my friend in Melbourne sending supportive “go get ‘em!” texts - I don’t look nervous but I was!

Despite all of the nervousness leading up to it, I actually loved giving a paper to my UTAS colleagues and fellow HDRs at lunchtime today. It’s so funny, I know that I know my material and I always feel such a buzz afterwards. I even enjoy it while I’m doing it, dry mouth, racing heart and all. But the lead up to giving a paper is always excruciating for me. What am I so afraid of, that I’ll go completely blank and be rendered speechless? Or that there will be a technical malfunction that my peers will use as an excuse to tease and humiliate me? In my brain’s defence, that has happened to me before, but only once and I was 13 years old at the time which was the best part of 30 years ago now (what?! That can’t be right). It was a very scarring experience, but perhaps it’s time I stopped giving those memories so much power. I find giving a paper regularly is the best remedy for getting over my stage fright. I also discovered an excellent podcast this week that really helped (see the Listening section).

My darling husband also bought me some flowers because he was proud of me, which was so sweet. I love having flowers in our home.

I also loved seeing my family on Sunday for a belated birthday gathering - which felt very strange, because my birthday was at the end of May (while we were in the UK) and now it’s the middle of July! But whatever, it’s been a weird year. Mum made my favourite dip (hummus) as the centrepiece for her usual amazing spread and a delicious cake, and my nephew and niece helped me blow out the candles. It was lovely!

Reading

Bedtime reading is The Bloomsbury Cookbook which I’m finding fascinating. If time travel were possible, one of my choices would be to attend a pre-WW1 Bloomsbury Group meeting - what a bunch of characters they were. Though I daresay I would have become infatuated with the wrong person and had my heart broken - it seems to be a common theme so far!

Also related is Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between The Wars which I am loving - it’s both a pleasure read and very relevant to my research, because I too am exploring ideas of female subjectivity and self realisation in relation to place. I’m focusing on colonial Hobart and Sydney, but I really admire how Francesca Wade has structured this and it’s given me lots of ideas. It’s absolutely fascinating so far!

I finished The Missing Ingredient by Jenny Linford, which was a birthday gift from a dear friend in London. It was such a thought-provoking book about the role time plays in creating great flavour in food. And you might be surprised by the kind of food that responds well to a bit of extra time taken - jam, for example! It was a really interesting read that I enjoyed dipping in and out of. And it made me wish I had read it before we went back to the UK so I might have sought out some of the products mentioned (not that we had much time for shopping in the end!) - but there’s always next time!

The Village by Matt and Lentil Purbrick - I borrowed this from the library as I’m missing my vegetable garden (which is currently asleep for winter) and wanted to get some inspiration and ideas for spring planting. I’m excited to plant some companion plants this year, like marigolds and Queen Anne’s lace, which will hopefully distract the pests! I have also learned my lesson and will PLANT EARLY this spring! I can't wing it here like I used to in my London courtyard. If you want some inspiration for your home veggie patch and living more sustainably and in a more community-minded way, this is a great book to get you started!

The Guardian: Growing up trans in country Australia by Candace Bell

Open Book (State Library of New South Wales): On literary merit by Kerryn Goldsworthy

The Offing: Fourteen Ways of Looking by Erin Vincent

BBC News: We found a baby on the subway - now he’s our son - get tissues for this one!

The Audacity: Knee Deep by Sandy Silverman

Listening to

My “writing beats” playlist which is perfect for client work, editing, writing emails, writing blog posts and also getting psyched up before giving a paper! It’s also great “getting ready to go out and party” music, not that I do much of that these days!

Lots of affirmations this week too on Insight Timer, the meditation app I have used for the last six years. I hit 1900 consecutive days this week which is a bit scary…in terms of how many years that is, but in days it doesn’t seem like that long.

My inner autumn playlist was on repeat.

WILD with Sarah Wilson: You are weird! Here’s the scientist who can explain why

The Imperfects: Glenn Robbins - Listening To The Voice In Your Head - I loved this interview with Glenn and the message felt particularly resonant for me this week. Glenn spoke candidly about how he has battled performance anxiety and nerves for pretty much his entire career, and how he has learned to listen to the encouraging voice in his head rather than the one that tells him he isn’t good enough. It got me through this week and the nerve-wracking thing I had to do! This is my new favourite podcast, all about resilience and vulnerability, and I can’t wait to listen to the back catalogue!

The Full Vegan

Eating

Have I introduced you to The Full Vegan yet? This is a brunch meal that Tom and I started making in January when we accidentally went vegan and enjoyed it so much we’ve kept it up (like many things I decided to do over the summer!). It’s avocado toast, hash browns made in the air fryer, baked beans, sautéed mushrooms - those are the Big Four (even though Tom isn’t a fan of mushrooms, their vitamin B12 make them a great vegan food so he has a few!) and then we usually add some seasonal greens, maybe vegan sausages if we have them in. A blob of ketchup, a glass of orange juice and The Full Vegan is complete. It is absolutely delicious. And so hearty and filling, I honestly don’t miss eggs, halloumi or any of the other things we used to have for brunch at the weekends before. This week’s Full Vegan had no avocado but extra mushrooms and sautéed sprouts (very good!). We also got a new air fryer at the weekend because our old one completely died the weekend before, which I was very grumpy about - but all the grumpiness dissipated when Kmart suddenly got some stock in of the one I’d had my eye on! It’s an upgrade every sense of the word!

Spinach, risoni and lemon soup - recipe here

Bread in the bread maker!

I also made a giant pot of my favourite soup which was delightful - I hadn’t made this soup for ages, possibly not since last winter. It’s so comforting and tasty. Alas, my local grocer was out of fresh dill so I made this batch with tarragon instead. It wasn’t quite the same and I missed the dill (in my top 3 favourite herbs for sure) but it was still amazing!

We had a friend round for dinner at the weekend and we had a vegan cheese platter to start (delicious) and for main course I made the fennel, walnut and sun-dried tomato pappardelle from Special Guest by Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe, a book on whose brilliance and delicious recipes I have waxed lyrical before. I didn’t have pappardelle so used orecchiette instead, and it was just as good as using long pasta! I have also made my own vegan Parmesan which is pretty delicious too - I’ll write up the recipe soon.

I also dusted off our old bread maker and made a loaf in it for the first time in a while - and the house was filled with that utterly divine smell of bread baking. It was a lovely loaf with good structure, it held up well for toast all week. I enjoyed it so much I might set it going tonight so I can wake up to the smell of fresh bread! I also bought some more of my favourite Maggie Beer Seville marmalade this week….so I don’t see that I have a choice but to make more bread, frankly.

Watching

Not much this week. More Parks and Recreation (Netflix) because after some long days, I just needed some escapism and I so enjoy this show. And also The Babysitters Club (Netflix) - the last pure thing on earth. Wonderfully entertaining, enough nostalgia for me to enjoy it but updated to be inclusive, fun and modern. I adore it!

I can’t remember if I mentioned it - jet lag is real and I’m only just feeling back to normal - but we rewatched Frances Ha (we bought it on iTunes and also own it on Blu-Ray) a few weeks ago, and I adored it as much as I did when we first watched it. Greta Gerwig is one of my favourite directors and writers, and I think her work has only got stronger in recent years. I can understand why some people might find Frances Ha overrated or frustrating to watch...especially in 2022, a film about privileged 20-somethings trying to get to grips with adulthood seem to be ten a penny. But in 2012, I think it captured something. I loved it and still love it, even though my twenties were quite some time ago now! I think the film spoke to me because I was a bit of a late bloomer myself and, as long time readers will know, my own twenties were a time of great transformation and flux. I was both Frances and Sophie in some ways - I floundered for many years, and then steamed ahead and people felt like I'd left them behind. I think the movie captures that melancholy and resistance to change quite well.

Quote of the week

“Because you are alive, everything is possible.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you Jo for inspiring this weeks’s quote!

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, or anything else, with me, please do! Stay warm, or cool, wherever you are, and I’ll look forward to chatting to you again next week…which I’m sure will be here before we know it! xx