quitting social media: a video diary

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Not sure what I’m on about? Read this post.

So, as you know, at the start of January 2022, I decided to have a hiatus from social media. It has now been four months.

And you know what? I think I’m going to stay away, certainly for the foreseeable future.

I miss it sometimes, but I don’t miss it enough. I prefer life this way. Quieter, more reflective, less performative. More time to write and blog, more time to think. I’m learning French. I’m sewing. I’m exercising more and reading more. Despite a few destabilising events of late, I still feel mentally strong and calmer than I can ever remember being in my adult life. If anything, being away from social media has helped me cope better with some recent events.

I miss connecting with people but, on reflection, I don’t know how much of it was true connection. Several people who I thought would notice my lack of activity have not. But I’ve been very humbled by the people who have reached out and let me know they’re enjoying the fact I’ve been blogging regularly again.

Admittedly, I occasionally have moments where my busy-body gene goes into overdrive and I feel a huge compulsion to just KNOW WHAT EVERYONE IS UP TO but somehow (perhaps thanks to a daily meditation practice) I’ve managed to observe myself in these moments and become very curious about why.

Why do I need to see what people are up to? Is it healthy/helpful/necessary to know so much about other peoples’ lives, often people we have never even met? We know everything online is curated and edited to varying degrees, and that we're only seeing what people want us to see. With that in mind, is any of it real? And if the answer to that question is no, then why do we allow these platforms to drain our time, creative energy and self-esteem?

Frankly, I feel like a total rebel to have broken away! 

The video below is just a mish-mash of some video diaries I made in January and February, only a few days, weeks and then a month or so into my hiatus. I think you can even see the difference in me physically, and not just because I’d had a haircut by the last video! And don’t worry, I’ll be doing my video diaries in landscape mode from now on (cringe)!

• VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  Day 8, 18 January 2022

  How does one do these things – vlogs? I'm much better at writing than I am saying what's on my mind and being articulate in the moment I think. However, this is day 8 of no social media for me. I feel so much calmer than I have for a very very long time. I feel like it's really nice that I don't know what other people are doing and they don't know what I'm doing! I feel free in a bizarre kind of way. I'm free in a way that I actually always have been, I just chose not to pay attention to that fact.

  Day 20, 30 January 2022

  Hello everyone. It's Sunday, it's about 8:30 in the evening. I've watered the garden, Tom is watering the back garden, we've eaten, and I have been off social media for 20 days and… I feel like a new person! I don't actually know if I want to go back on! So…stay tuned!

  Day 42, 21 February 2022

  Hello everyone. It's the 21st of February which means I have been off social media for 42 days.

  The benefits have been amazing. So amazing that I'm really considering never going back! But maybe going back to tell people that I'm not on there anymore because I didn't actually announce that I was taking a hiatus. I just put everything in a different area of my phone where I couldn't access it easily and then have quite impressed myself with my willpower and just not opened the apps for 42 days. Since the 10th of January.

  Interacting with people and connecting with people is still very, very important to me. It's the main reason I started blogging in the first place, because I wanted to be part of something and I wanted to join the conversations that were happening and I wanted to connect with people and help people feel less alone on the journey that they were on.

  And I still feel like that – but I feel like I can do it the way I used to do it. I started blogging with no idea what I was doing and no intention of growing a global audience or a brand or a following but that's exactly what ended up happening just purely organically and by accident. And I did all of it without social media! I really feel like blogging is going to have a renaissance and I want to get on that train before it leaves the station.

  So yeah, I'm not really sure what's going to happen next. All I know is that I'm enjoying this experiment greatly and I really hope whatever happens that you'll come along for the ride because I'm not going anywhere! I think that the world is changing and the world is waking up.

  Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I send lots of love and I hope you're all well. Stay tuned! Thanks for listening.

Would you like to share your thoughts on this post with me? Please do - I’d love to hear from you!

this week

This week has passed in a bit of blur, as they all tend to at the moment. Thank you to those of you who have messaged me recently saying that you’re enjoying reading these weekly posts. Knowing that people are reading certainly gives me an added impetus to check the calendar, realise it’s Friday and crack on with sitting down and writing to you all!

Favourite experience/s of the week

There have been many. A trail run one rainy morning, where the tracks were deserted and the lung-clearing, earthy sweet smell of wet gum leaves and crushed gumnuts was simply divine. It made me a bit sad for all the times over the past couple of years that I decided not to go out running because it was raining slightly. I had forgotten that they are usually the best runs! As I was the only human around, the wildlife were out in force. I ran towards what looked like a field of white cockatoos, all of whom took flight as I approached - it was spectacular, and made me feel a bit like I was in a nature documentary.

Going to sleep to the sound of heavy rain clattering down on our metal roof - perfect white noise - and then woken early by an incredible storm raging outside. I love thunderstorms. Especially when I’m all tucked up and cosy in bed.

Our Robo-Vac (who we’ve named Avis DeRobo after Julia Child’s friend) arrived and it has already completely changed our lives. I don’t think our house has ever been this clean, and we are not unclean people! I was gobsmacked by the amount of dust and debris it picked up after just doing under our bed!! We hope to get a dog at some point in the near future so I can imagine having Avis will be a lifesaver in that regard.

These are from Kerry Ward’s Good Karma Tarot, which is a beautiful deck and I highly recommend it!

And finally, a lovely, much-needed catch-up with a dear friend I haven’t seen all year. A full, golden afternoon of laughs, bolstering conversation and even a tarot reading at the end, which was equally comforting. I told her about everything that’s happened lately and she reacted just as I hoped she would. I was worried I was boring her, as I’ve bored myself going over and over the horrid details of it all. “God no,” she laughed. “You sure know how to tell a story.”

Well, one day, dear reader, I will tell you the story of what’s been going on this past little while, but not yet. Not yet.

Reading

I’ve been reading a lot for my PhD but I realise that’s a bit like a coal miner saying they’ve been handling a lot of coal this week. It’s what one expects!

Boston Review: Hating Motherhood by Judith Levine. I don’t know how I stumbled on this (a link, then another link, then another which led to this - nice to know the internet can still be a delightful rabbit hole) but it was a fascinating read.

Sydney Review of Books: The Aesthetic Conduct of Sally Rooney’s Readers by Beth Driscoll. Such an interesting discussion of Rooney’s work alongside reading culture - “Readers link art and life when they find books that make them feel seen and known, when they learn something new, when they discover an author and decide to read everything they’ve ever written. These interior moments are accompanied by bookish behavior, which is abundantly on display in the twenty-first century.” Indeed!

I started Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett this week which reminded me a lot of reading my own Morning Pages back, when I occasionally dare to do that. You might think that sounds like I’ve got major tickets, as this book has been very well-reviewed by the Guardian, among others, but no, of course not - more that the voice and the way it jumps around from memory to memory, reminded me of the random, stream of consciousness stuff that I come out with as I sit at the kitchen table, freshly meditated but still sleepy, scribbling between my first sips of coffee. And then I thought, my stuff would be pretty unreadable to anyone else but myself. It’s one thing to just write whatever comes to mind, without thinking. If you’re going to deliberately write an entire novel that way, you have to write with incredible control and clear intention, which is what Bennett does. I’ll be interested to keep reading!

Listening to

My inner spring playlist - quite a contrast to actual season and the wild, windy autumnal weather outside.

Also my running playlist - with the recent addition of Ricky Martin’s “Cup of Life” which until this week I hadn’t actually heard since 1998. Perhaps no one else has either - haha! It’s a surprisingly motivating song to run to.

In fact, I’ve been listening to a lot of 90s music this week, for some weird reason. Perhaps it was my friend’s influence at the weekend! Instead of jazz playing while I cook dinner, it’s been “Glycerine” or “Lithium” blasting out of the speakers. Accordingly, I’ve created a 90s Nostalgia playlist on TIDAL too!

No podcasts this week! I know. I’ve been chained to the desk, apart from my runs, what can I say?

Eating

It has been freezing at night lately, so I’ve been embracing that in my cooking and dialling up the comfort factor.

A few weeks ago, I made our favourite summer meal - Charity Morgan’s Nacho Average Nachos, which are utterly, utterly delicious. There’s a bit of prep involved, as I might have mentioned in a previous This Week, but you end up with plenty of the fixins leftover. As it’s got much colder, I thought I’d try Charity’s suggestion of using the leftover queso and walnut chorizo to make a taco mac and cheese. I cooked the pasta in some stock with some frozen peas (I like to have something green with every meal if I can), then combined with the fixins, topped with breadcrumbs and vegan mozzarella (I get the Made with Plants one from Woolworths). It was sublime…but so filling. We did not finish our usual greedy portions and there was quite a bit leftover! The queso is made from cashews and the chorizo is made from walnuts - a double hit of protein, so combine that with pasta…yeah, not a mystery why we were so full! But 10/10, would make again!

I made the speedy sausage and smoky bean ragu which I found in the Coles free magazine and to my surprise it was gorgeous! I used Eaty No Meaty sausages, which I kept whole, and served alongside my homegrown potatoes, which I also kept whole rather than mashed, as they were on the smaller side. I think this dish will become a real winter favourite. The addition of the canned smoky beans makes the whole thing really quick and easy, but it tastes like it’s been simmering on the stove for hours. Yum!

I have been meaning to make my favourite vegan banana bread all week but kept putting it off - and now the bananas are so black they may have turned! Ooops.

We also treated ourselves to croissants from Banjo’s yesterday morning as a treat after getting our flu vaccinations - I feel ready to face the winter now. Tom likes his plain, I had mine with some apricot jam I made in 2020 that’s still happily in its jar in the fridge, infused with bay and vanilla. It’s probably the best jam I’ve ever made. Time has only deepened its flavours.

Picking

Before the rain yesterday, I dug up some more potatoes, which we’ll be eating this evening. I will try and dig up the rest this weekend before the frosts come! I am hoping there will be another giant one I will be able to bake and enjoy in all its simple glory like last week. I’ve also picked a lot of celery and red chard leaves to use in aforementioned sausage ragu and in a thick minestrone soup which makes a wonderful WFH lunch in the late autumn, as its so chunky and filling.

Watching

Jurassic Park III (Blu Ray) - Tom’s choice (as he wants to watch them all again before the new one comes out) and, in his words, a stinking pile of garbage. I am inclined to agree. It’s one redeeming feature is Sam Neill, whose delivery of the line “it’s a birdcage” was probably the most terrifying moment of the film. The raptors and pterodactyls were also pretty scary. But I was secretly hoping Tea Leoni and William H. Macy’s characters would get picked off by one of them! Does that make me heartless, that I failed to identify with the terrified parents desperate to find their son whom they sent on a parachuting adventure with some random? Probably. Nothing to do with the terrible script and overacting, haha!

Marley and Me (Netflix) - A very sweet little film that I’d never managed to see until now and it was genuinely emotional at the end. Perfect date night flick. But oh dear lord John and Jenny, just get your puppy trained instead of just giving in and letting him destroy your house!

Devoured (SBS) - We watched the first episode of this, about links between the food world and organised crime. I found it a bit repetitive - it’s frustrating when they only have enough material for 30 minutes but somehow stretch it to 45! But super interesting nonetheless.

I don’t know if this counts as reading, listening or watching, but I’ll put it in this section as it’s mostly videos! I’ve been neck-high in Kerstin Martin’s brilliant Squarespace Express course this week as I have finally made some serious headway on my business website. Can’t wait to launch it - it’s looking fabulous, which is more down to Kerstin’s excellent instruction than anything. If you use Squarespace and want to get your head around it a bit more, or are a complete beginner and want to build something that looks incredibly professional, Kerstin is the best teacher I’ve come across for the platform.

Thinking about

How this week I marked a milestone - I have meditated, in some form or another, every single day for five years straight. That’s 1,827 days. I don’t know if that’s an achievement or not. I’ve often wondered why I still do it, and whether I should stop. What would happen if I missed a day? Is it actually helping me?

The thing is, meditation is now so ingrained in my routine that it would be a bit like stopping my Morning Pages, or drinking coffee. I don’t know if I can attribute a daily meditation practice to being more focused in my life but things certainly started coming together a few years ago, when the world was different and I had a bit more control over things. Many things have been out of my control for about, oh, 827 days now (!) so I think meditation has probably helped me more than I realise. Have I been more grounded than I otherwise would have been, during the pandemic and everything that’s come about because of it? I’d like to think so.

Quote of the week

“Let everything happen.” - Tara Brach

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post with me, please do! Otherwise, stay tuned for another exciting instalment next week xx

this week

How is it Friday already? And how is it May on Sunday?

“I feel like it’s still March,” I remarked to Tom this morning.

“I feel like it’s still some time in 2020,” he replied.

Favourite experience/s of the week

There have been a few.

Digging up my first potatoes on a warm, blue-skied day, which was so joyful and fun, like digging for treasure…and finding it! Many of them were knobbly and oddly-shaped but there was one giant one, which I baked for a late lunch. Split in half; butter, pepper and salt gently mashed into its fluffy insides. Tom and I shared it at the kitchen table, the warm breeze wafting in, and we were quite speechless by its utter deliciousness. Funny how the simplest things can feel like the most luxurious.

There was also a memorable misty morning walk, when the air was thick with the smell of woodsmoke, the pavements were carpeted in yellow leaves, and boughs heavy with red apples and buttery quinces hung lazily over fences, the occasional musk lorikeet pecking away at some of the fruit. It felt like autumn had truly arrived.

The wedding of a dear friend on Saturday afternoon - the weather was glorious, my friend was a beautiful beaming bride, the wine at the reception was fantastic (rare) and our fellow guests were a fascinating creative and intellectual bunch. How I have missed mingling and meeting new people!

Finally, afternoon tea with another dear friend I haven’t seen all year, and her two children who are sweet, intelligent and lively little creatures who made me smile a lot.

Reading

I’ve just started Breadsong by Kitty and Al Tait, a father and daughter, which was released in the UK this week and is just astonishing. A young girl whose life was derailed by depression and anxiety finds hope, and her passion, in bread making and baking. Her parents were willing to do anything to support her, including turning their kitchen into a bakery! Kitty and her dad Al are now professional bakers and run the Orange Bakery in a small town in England. They have become widely known not just for their very heartwarming story (which I’m sure will give so much hope to all young people struggling with their mental health) but for their excellent bread too! There’s a great Guardian article about them here.

Wonderground: “Other-Motherhood” by Georgina Reid. This article almost had me in tears of recognition at the first line - “There are few things lonelier than being a childfree woman in a house full of mothers.”

Continuing The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman - I’m finding it very relatable and insightful.

Stray by Stephanie Danler - when I used to be on Instagram, Stephanie Danler was one of my favourite people to follow. She gave great insights into the writing life and craft, and recommended some fabulous books. I like her as a person, and enjoy her online persona, but I’ve not been as taken with her actual work, but perhaps that’s because both her books have featured a lot of drug and alcohol abuse, which is something thankfully I don’t know a great deal about. And I’m always reluctant to say anything less than glowing about a memoir, because I’ve written and published one myself. I know how much courage it takes to put it out there, and how it stings when people who weren’t your intended audience are careless or indifferent in their assessment of it. And Stray is a courageous memoir indeed, unflinching in its portrayal of all its characters, including the author/narrator herself. There’s a lot I enjoyed about the writing and imagery, and Stray is certainly an interesting journey but I don’t think it was a journey I personally needed to take. But that’s OK. I’m glad I couldn’t relate to a lot of it, because some of the things Danler writes about are truly horrific. There is no doubt that being raised by addicts has lasting, damaging effects on children well into their adulthood. But Danler certainly intrigues me, as a person and a writer, so I’ll happily read whatever she writes next.

How to End a Story - The third and final instalment of Helen Garner’s diaries. I read it in a day. As usual, I find it astonishing that people annotate library books (albeit in pencil) but what they choose to asterisk is always very revealing. I’ve read all the volumes of Garner’s diaries that Text has put out over the past few years, and this was by far the most compelling one. Completely immersive, in fact.

Listening to

My inner winter playlist on TIDAL

In the evenings, gentle jazz

The First Time : Masters Series with Bernadette Brennan - I really enjoyed this one, particularly Brennan’s discussion about archives. I felt very reassured that my own note-taking system is perhaps not as haphazard as I thought.

The Creative Penn: From Big Idea to Book with Jessie Kwak

How to Own The Room: Julia Samuel

The Shift: Christina Patterson on how to deal with the blows life throws at you

Eating

We’ve had potatoes a lot this week, unsurprisingly! I made Pip Lincolne’s Casserole again (as mentioned Last Week) with extra potatoes and carrots instead of pumpkin. The leftovers made a lovely soup thinned out with stock.

I also made a divine potato and cauliflower curry, generously spiced with mustard seeds and curry leaves. It was even better the second night, as curries tend to be.

I made apple butter a few weeks ago with the giant bag Dad brought round, and we’ve been enjoying that on porridge in the mornings.

My sourdough bread dough didn’t rise very well, so I made pizzas with the dough rather than put it in the compost. They turned out brilliantly, and I was very happy there was no waste. Our favourite topping at the moment is basil pesto, mushrooms and green olives. Divine!

Shepard avocados - I have no idea why nearly everyone in Australia moans about them! I think they’re wonderful. Once ripe they last significantly longer in the fruit bowl than Hass tend to. You cut one open and it’s nearly always perfect and blemish free, none of the yucky brown bits. The flesh is buttery and wonderful for toast and guacamole. Honestly, I think they’re brilliant. No complaints here. Shepard forever!

Maggie Beer Seville Orange Marmalade - Vegemite will always be my go-to toast spread for comfort, but a well-made orange marmalade is a close second. A perfect start to the day for me is a steaming hot coffee and thick toast made from Pigeon Whole’s malt and linseed sourdough bread, spread liberally with butter and marmalade. I got a taste for it living in the UK and it still makes me think of weekend winter mornings there. Once, I remember the toast was so hot I could hear the butter sizzling on it while it waited on the plate.

Picking

I dug up the first potatoes, as mentioned, and my joy in doing so was unconfined. Totally worth being sore the next day, as I planted them in the ground this time rather than growing them in gro-bags as I have done for the past five years. That is a low-fuss way to grow them, but I can’t deny the specimens I unearthed at the weekend are bigger and taste better.

Our lovely neighbour came over with a bowl of green tomatoes. “Would you like these? I only eat the red ones!” she smiled. It inspired me to pick all the remaining tomatoes in my garden and make my great grandmother’s recipe for green tomato pickle. It was fun to see her wonderful familiar (though sometimes unreadable) handwriting and work out the metric measurements for all the quarts, pints, pounds and ounces. How I might have managed that task prior to digital scales and Google I have no idea.

We were also given a giant bag of cucumbers as our neighbour grew so many of them this year and didn’t want them to go to waste. Two we ate raw, dipped into hummus, but most of them were washed, cut into batons and put straight into waiting brine in the fridge. Pickled this way the cucumbers are ready to eat within a few days and keep for absolute yonks. We particularly enjoy them with a veggie burger, both in the bun or alongside.

Watching

The Walking Dead (Binge) - we’ve started on Season 11 at last, the final season. Tom was a fan of this show for years and years, and towards the end of 2019 he finally convinced me to give it a go, appreciating it wasn’t my kind of thing (zombies, violence, etc) but, in light of my PhD work, I’d probably get something out of it because he thought colonial and post-apocalyptic societies have many similarities. He was right.

I also think watching The Walking Dead prepared me a little for the events of 2020, as strange as that sounds. While I was still frightened and outraged by the selfish, dangerous and downright bizarre behaviour we saw playing out all over the world as lockdowns were imposed, businesses were closed, and everyday goods became scarce, it didn’t take me by surprise. The Walking Dead is a deeply accurate meditation on how human beings behave in a crisis, when the scaffolding holding society up falls apart and then, further down the line, is re-established. The show forces you to think about your own morality, about what you might become, or be reduced to, in a similar set of circumstances. On the surface, it’s a zombie show taking place in an imagined future. Buried underneath the gore is a fascinating portrait of our world as it already is.

Yesterday (on BluRay) - we discovered this film during the 2020 lockdown and it’s become one of our favourites. I won’t spoil some of the best, tear-jerking moments of it in case you haven’t seen it, but if you are a Beatles fan and have not watched it yet, do so NOW.

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - the final episodes, and they were manifique. Oh how I’ll miss it! “We have to start it again, from the beginning!” I cried as the last credits rolled. Tom looked aghast. “When we’ve got so much Walking Dead to watch?!” Ahem.

Thinking about

Some big things, and negotiating the trepidation I feel in daring to make some big plans, knowing how easily they might fall away. How risky it all still feels.

But also some small, insigificant things but that give my brain a welcome respite from the big things. Such as how I will make sourdough now my house is too cold to prove dough in overnight? How is it possible that Tom and I got the same score in Wordle and guessed exactly the same letters and words, independently of each other?! Spooky!

Looking forward to

Our robo-vac arriving! I’ve been promised it will change our lives. We’ve already decided to name it after a character in Julia. I’ll let you guess which one.

Quote of the week

“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” - Bob Marley

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post with me, please do! Otherwise, stay tuned for another exciting instalment next week xx

this week

This is actually from last Friday - our last morning in Orford, doing my Morning Pages and having coffee with the magpie that visited us each morning we were there. It was very friendly and made me think I’d like a neighbourhood magpie at home. I know they swoop on the mainland but they don’t tend to down here….that I know of!

Another strange week, despite the joy and fun of the last, so we’ve tried to prioritise having some Mental Health Days, which has helped. As stated previously, the Philippa Moore Way is not to dwell (too much) on the less-than-ideal but to focus on the good, because there is always some to be found.

Favourite experience of the week

Having a dear friend round for dinner on Easter Monday, who made us laugh and smile. I do love entertaining and cooking for people, but the omicron surge has put a (hopefully) temporary stop to that. But we had negative RATs after the wedding so round she came. We had a nut roast feast and I even sent her off with leftovers!

I also enjoyed, as part of aforementioned Mental Health Day, just sitting and reading a book for hours one afternoon. It’s something I don’t allow myself to do very often, unless it’s a PhD-related book, but in that case my brain is in work mode rather than relaxed. It felt nice to be relaxed.

New mug who dis?

Looking forward to

A dear friend’s wedding this weekend. Digging up my potatoes. A few unavoidable things being dealt with and behind us.

Reading

Three-Martini Afternoons at The Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther - this is the book I sat down with and lost myself in for a few hours, during which I finished it. It was uplifting and hilarious on one page, then heartbreaking and rage-inducing (most of them involving Ted Hughes, the bastard) on the next. A brilliant book for two brilliant women who were so ahead of their time and who deserve to be remembered and read in more nuanced ways that better reflect the complex, rebellious and brave women they actually were. Loved it!

Think on the Page by Sarah Firth - I bought this as a birthday gift for Tom last year and I finally read it myself this week. Sarah was one of the few people on Instagram who made me feel joyous and creative, so I do miss her. She’s one of my favourite artists and this book has lots of wisdom and observations about the complexities of modern life that are funny, relatable and deeply intelligent.

Sydney Review of Books: Lost Weather by Louis Klee

Meanjin: Joy by Anna Spargo-Ryan

Jack Monroe: It’s Not About The Pasta, Kevin - Jack Monroe is a courageous and well-known activist for poverty issues in the UK, particularly hunger relief, and I’ve followed their work for a long time. This post is a long read but an important one and, in true Jack style, pulls no punches (and nor should it).

Listening to

BBC Sounds - World Piano Day - Interview with Ludovico Einaudi: thank you to reader Helen for alerting me to this. It was a great interview and Ludovico played “Flora” off his new album, which was utterly beautiful.

As a result, I have been playing Underwater non-stop. Perfect for meditation, writing, or just sitting.

I’ve also been playing the new album from Lisa Mitchell, A Place to Fall Apart, out today!

The Shift: Philippa Perry takes issue with your inner critic and Esther Freud on motherhood, guilt and upending your life in your 50s (I enjoyed both but particularly this one).

Best Friend Therapy: this may be my new favourite podcast. I caught up on the last three episodes on my walks this week and particularly enjoyed the Shoulds and Oughts episode. I had to pause and sit several times during that one to take in the truth bombs as they landed.

Grounded with Louis Theroux: Interview with Fka Twigs which was quite incredible. The grounded, intelligent and utterly perfect answers she gave to some very weird questions had me almost punching the air on my walk this morning. Thank you Sophie for alerting me to this! Any creative person who just wants to do their own thing will get a lot out of listening to this.

Eating

I haven’t had a great appetite this week, but that hasn’t stopped me eating All The Chocolate. We discovered Lindt’s vegan milk chocolate is now available in Australia too, which is delicious!

In addition to aforementioned nut roast (which was actually still in the freezer from Christmas), I made Pip Lincolne’s Pumpkin-y Lamb Casserole (pictured) but obviously there was no lamb - I used chickpeas and mushrooms instead, and tarragon instead of parsley (so it was probably nothing like Pip’s original recipe!). OMG this was SO incredibly delicious. For such a simple recipe, it’s full of flavour. I was seriously bowled over by its subtle spicy sauce and the sweetness from the tomatoes and pumpkin. I will be adding this to my regular repertoire for winter, I think it will work with pretty much any root vegetable. Also, as it was meat-free it only needed to cook for just under an hour, not 90 minutes. Bonus!

I also made a tempeh banh mi (pictured right) for lunch one day this week, which was insanely good. And surprisingly easy to whip up quickly when we got back from town, hungry, with a fresh baguette. I was suddenly seized with the desire to do something other than slather avocado and dukkah on it. And I also wanted to start using all the pickled vegetables in the fridge. I’ll write up the recipe next week, as it will be made again!

Picking

The last red tomatoes and some kale and silverbeet. The potatoes aren’t quite ready yet but will be very soon. There’s lots of green tomatoes left on the vines so I may end up picking them to ripen inside.

Watching

Spider-Man: No Way Home - a great popcorn flick, as they say. The plot is a bit scatty, with a lot of plates in the air, but I did enjoy it, particularly when the two previous Spideys turn up (Tom, who saw it in the cinema, said the audience went wild at that moment!). I found the scene where Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man prevents Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from avenging his aunt’s death (sorry for those who haven’t seen it!) very moving. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about transactional analysis and so I interpreted Maguire’s Spider-Man as the younger one’s older, wiser self stepping in to guide him to a better choice. That made me cry, admittedly.

Antoinette dans les Cévennes (English title: My Donkey, My Lover and I) (iTunes) - an utterly charming French film with my favourite actor of the moment, Laure Calamy, in the title role of Antoinette, a primary school teacher who is having an affair with the father of one of her students. When the lovers’ plan of a week alone together during the summer holidays is thwarted by the man’s wife surprising him with a walking holiday in the Cévennes, Antoinette is devastated….and decides to go on the same holiday herself, with a stubborn donkey as her companion. It’s as hilarious as it sounds.

Run Fatboy Run - an old favourite that I’ve seen so many times, as it used to be the film Tom and I would watch the night before a race. For a period of time, we would watch it every weekend! But I hadn’t seen it in many years and it’s still very, very funny and a real comfort watch. My long distance running days were a happy time in our lives and I remember how patient and supportive Tom was, coming along to every race of mine all over the country, without complaint, always with a smile on his face, cheering me on. I still feel very grateful for that support. And I of course went for a run the next morning, you can’t not!

Julia (Binge) - I mentioned the first episode in a previous This Week saying I wasn’t that impressed by it. I will now, pun intended, eat my words. After reading a Guardian review, we were encouraged to give it another chance and I’m glad we did. We’re now all caught up and impatient for the next instalment! I stand by some of my original thoughts but I’m slowly being won over, especially by Sarah Lancashire’s performance. I’m also appreciating that some of the characters are possibly meant to be emblematic of some social mores of the time, rather than accurate reflections of the real people. It’s very enjoyable either way.

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - we have only three episodes left! What will we do?!

Creative Mornings Global: Nina Elizabeth Lyrispect Ball talks about Roots - I was a keen member of the London chapter of this organisation when I lived there, and their newsletters are always worth a leaf through. There is always at least one nugget of gold in there. This time it was this wonderful talk from Nina Elizabeth Lyrispect Ball, well worth watching with your morning coffee to get you set up for a day of creating and serving!

“Give the same energy, no matter what. If you’re an artist, you’re an artist. It’s not about who’s responding or how many people are clapping, but what is coming from your soul.”

Wearing

A smile, despite everything! And a Loki t-shirt which I picked up for a bargain.

Thinking about

On my walk this morning, I noticed a wheelchair user not just having to dodge wheelie bins that were out for collection scattered all over the pavement but those fucking scooters just dumped there too. He ended up having to go into the road to continue on his way to wherever he was going. Nearby I also noticed a car parked at the top of a driveway rather than further down it, so it was blocking that section of the pavement. Again, a wheelchair user would have to go into the road (a busy main road, I might add) to pass, likewise anyone with a pram. Why don’t people think about this?! Admittedly I never used to notice this sort of thing as much as I do now. Perhaps it’s been reading more disabled writers, being a bit more conscious of ableism…I’m not sure. Regardless, I’m pretty appalled at the fairly consistent lack of consideration for everyday accessibility that I witness, not just this morning but in general. It’s not good enough. I will have a think about what I could do to help change things.

Quote of the week

“Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post with me, please do! Otherwise, stay tuned for another exciting instalment next week xx

this week

Mrs Hunt’s Cottage, Maria Island. Picture by Tom!

After a pretty rough past couple of weeks, this one has been really good for the soul.

We went to a family wedding up on the east coast, and you can’t help but feel happy at a wedding, surrounded by love! This one was particularly sweet and romantic, and it was lovely to see some people I haven’t seen for ages. We decided to make the most of being in the area and took a day trip to Maria Island - a place I had never been, and was utterly blown away by. It was one of those places that is truly magical, that pictures and words will never do justice to. If you ever visit Tasmania, it is a must do. We’re already planning a return, but staying longer!

I had also forgotten the profound impact that a change of scene can have on your mood and outlook. We’ve barely left the house since the borders opened and I hadn’t appreciated how much we needed just a little break in the routine. It has been a literal and metaphorical gust of fresh air!

Favourite experiences of the week

Maria Island was absolutely spectacular. We haven’t stopped talking or thinking about it! The ferry from Triabunna was a breeze - though I highly recommend booking as far ahead as you can. I stupidly left it to the day before, thinking we could stroll up to the marina like we did with Rottnest Island when we visited Perth in 2020 (before covid). It wasn’t a complete disaster but as the earliest and latest crossings were already full we only had half a day to explore rather than the full day. But that’s OK, we’ll definitely be going back!

I just love spending time in nature, and getting up close and personal with adorable wombats was one of the highlights of the visit:

One of about a thousand pictures we took of a mother wombat and her joey, who were totally unbothered by the presence of humans.

A Cape Barren goose in its lush natural habitat.

The lesser-spotted writer of this blog post on the deck of Mrs Hunt’s Cottage (the house in the first photo).

The Painted Cliffs.

A beautiful tree.

I mean LOOK at that water!

It was extremely hard to pick a leading image for this week’s This Week, let me tell you!

With my husband of nearly twelve years! Attending a wedding always makes us feel very nostalgic for ours!

The wedding was also a highlight, because it’s always wonderful to be in the presence of love and joy. Whenever I go to a wedding I can’t help but be overwhelmed with happy memories of my own, remembering the incredible high of it all and how full to bursting with love you feel, not just for your new spouse but for all the people sharing in your excitement and wishing you well. And it’s so wonderful to know someone you care about is having the same experience, and you get to be a part of it. The happy couple were also very blessed with the weather, it was an unseasonably warm and sunny autumn day, and the setting was stunning.

We enjoyed the festivities so much that one of my sisters suggested that Tom and I renew our vows at some point and have another wedding for all the Australian family who couldn’t make it to London in 2010. We’re certainly thinking about it!

Looking forward to

Another upcoming wedding, this time of a dear friend. Another dear friend visiting Tassie soon. Finishing the introduction to my thesis. Potentially another trip to Maria Island before the end of the season!

Reading

The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman - I’ve just started this and just want to tell every writer I know to buy a copy and read it ASAP. Incredibly insightful and relatable!

The Practical Australian Gardener by Peter Cundall - I plan to make good use of the Easter break and get some jobs in the garden done as the fruitfulness of autumn is starting to wind down.

Bigger than Us by Fearne Cotton - a lovely book I dipped into each night at bedtime, about intuition, connection and “finding meaning in a messy world”. Some really beautiful reminders to trust the Universe a bit more and to stay open rather than close down when life gets tricky.

Sydney Review of Books:  Plath Traps by Felicity Plunkett

Poetry Foundation: Sylvia’s Table by David Trinidad

Listening to

The Shift: Marian Keyes on menopause, Botox and learning to be shameless - I particularly loved this quote from Marian, “Other people’s anger and judgement is utterly survivable and, ultimately, it’s not even important.” I also enjoyed the follow up with Marian which aired last month.

Now You’re Asking, with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn: The High School Problem and The Co-Dependency Problem, both enjoyed while gardening. I love this podcast, Marian and Tara are so kind, encouraging and understanding with their answers to problems sent in by listeners (apart from the idiot who wrote in saying that he had cheated on his wife and now didn’t understand why she didn’t trust him - their response to that was gold). You might notice that my listening habits tend to reflect the fact that when I’ve really enjoyed an interview with a particular person, I start listening to everything I can find with them in it! I’ll try not to be too repetitive or boring in that regard, haha.

My main writing playlist on TIDAL - it’s so full of goodness, for my writer’s brain at least!

Eating

We made fresh pasta dough with chickpea water and it was utterly amazing. Like, life-changing. I couldn’t recommend trying it more highly!

It seemed to be the week of pasta - I also made a Moroccan pumpkin, chickpea and feta pasta which was delicious.

Lots of hiking and road trip food - energy balls, apples, muesli bars, mini packets of chips.

Today is Good Friday so I’ve procured fresh hot cross buns - as this is the appropriate day of the year to eat them, not on Boxing Day when the supermarkets start selling them! I enjoy a fruit bun as much as the next person but I do think we lose something when something that is meant to be saved for a particular time of the year is simply made available once another major holiday is out of the way, or even all year round as is often the case. OK, I’ll get off my soap box now.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the potatoes with garlic, oil, herbs and preserved lemon at my cousin’s wedding (made by another cousin)!

Picking

The remaining red (or red-ish!) tomatoes and there’s still a few zucchini that may or may not be coaxed into their fullest expression by the heatwave we’re expecting over the Easter weekend. I will also dig up the first potatoes over the long weekend, I think.

Watching

American Beauty - I hadn’t seen this film for many years and we enjoyed it last Friday night. On this rewatch, I found it more funny than I did dark (as I had on previous watchings) and I wondered why that might be so - perhaps it was because I found it rather amusing to watch a privileged white man explode his current life in the pursuit of a supposedly more authentic one. And I agree with Stephanie Zacharek’s take that American Beauty is “a movie from a time when we didn’t know what we wanted. From where we stand now, the dark, buried desires of affluent suburban men and women, no matter how ludicrously they’re presented, seem even a little touching. Maybe that’s partly because our eyes have been opened to the way so many men—unlike Lester, regardless of how you feel about him—have simply taken what they wanted, with no regard to whom they’re hurting.”

Fences (iTunes) - another great film based on an August Wilson play. We saw a clip of this played in Brene Brown’s Atlas of the Heart and were immediately intrigued. It’s set in 1950s Pittsburgh and centres around a middle-aged garbage collector named Troy (Denzel Washington), a man who appears jovial and charming on the surface but deep down is very bitter about his failures in life and his missed opportunities in professional sport, which were primarily due to being too old for the professional leagues by the time Black people were allowed to play in them. His son Cory (Jovan Adepo) now has the opportunity to go to college thanks to his talent in football, but Troy is dead-set against the idea. Odie Henderson said in his review that “anyone who had a strict taskmaster as a parent will find parts of Fences unendurable” and, indeed, Troy’s brutality and pig-headedness in dealing with his son is hard to watch and ends up driving Cory away. Unfolding in parallel is the revelation of Troy’s infidelity which devastates his devoted, long-suffering wife Rose (Viola Davis) and has some permanent consequences. It’s superbly acted, and very powerful, but we weren’t wild about the ending, which seemed a little neat and sentimental given everything that had preceded it. But worth a watch, for Viola Davis’s performance alone.

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - our addiction to this fabulous show continues, but we only have a few episodes left! I hope they make more!

Wearing

I had at least five people comment on my outfit at the wedding - which was my glorious Keshet jumpsuit, both stylish and incredibly comfortable! The photographer came over at one point and just said “Keshet?” which made us both laugh! They are certainly a distinctive Tassie brand for those in the know. I do want to get some more of them because they are so wonderful to wear.

Quote of the week

“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” - Jean-Luc Godard

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post with me, please do! A Happy Easter and Pesach Sameach to those celebrating this weekend xx