august ending, a list

the end of august always seems to perform a kind of seasonal alchemy; taking a dose of the winter dormancy from july and a hint of liminal august lethargy, mixing it with some blue skies and warming sunshine and turning it into a fresh new energy full of potential. things begin blooming and there’s evidence of new life around every corner

1. landscaping // during a break in the grey and rain, i remove soil from half wine barrels, shovelling it into the wheelbarrow, attempting to make the barrels light enough to move them single-handedly from beside the house to a garden near the studio. some of them disintegrate as soon as the soil is removed – a punishment for not carefully lining them in the first place to protect them from the roots that have weakened their structure. manually digging and shifting soil and countless buckets of mulch out to the garden areas i’ve been tending, resulting in some very small but tidy-ish sections of our property. a pleasing result so far with so much more (always more) landscaping to go
2. things currently on my desk // a small ceramic dish bought whilst in japan many years ago, a small piece of driftwood, three stones from different but forgotten locations, a photo printer, the power cord for my sewing machine, a piece of wrapping paper from a birthday gift, four books (three novels and a poetry collection), a bone-carved mermaid pendant waiting for me to make a new cord for it, approximately nine pencils and thirteen coloured pens, a love note found on a recent trip to coromandel, a pink plastic camera with flash attached, three notebooks, an unposted letter, a set of 3 hoya filters, various camera lenses awaiting their next use.
3. covid (me), then a cold (nic) interrupting my birthday plans twice.
4. a delicious and decadent mid-winter christmas lunch shared with friends, complete with reindeer racing and eggnog
5. an evening at la fuente, tasting some delicious new-to-us wines and meeting some very passionate boutique winemakers from a small region in nz
6. listening (again and again) to good bones by maggie smith
7. reading without reservations by alice steinbach for the first time (i know!) and thoroughly enjoying it
8. the adapter that turns my digital camera into something fun with a plastic lens. i love the softness of the imagery that plastic lenses make
9. made a batch of lemon & makrut lime leaf marmalade harvested from our garden + gifting some to our neighbours and receiving a lovely bag of juicy fresh limes in return!

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things from elsewhere

this pep talk

Whatever happens to your work when you send it into the world, with its sometimes treacherous landscapes, is none of your business, really. You made the thing, and now people can make up their own minds about it. Will everyone love it? Probably not. Will everyone hate it? Also, probably not.
But do you love it? Are you proud of it? Do you stand behind your choices? Have you made something uniquely yours?
Be for you first. Create for you first.
You’re not for everyone, but the people you are for will find you. Just keep going.
– a pep talk from maggie smith

twelve creative tips from women’s prize winning authors including:

1. terrify yourself at least a little with every new project, and
2. write whatever you damned well want. trying to please ends up pleasing no one, including yourself.

these recipes

• roasted cherries with burrata (substituting halen mon salt with the equally delicious hand-harvested sea salt from opito bay) is on my list to make when summer rolls around
• sour berry chicken pulao from rick stein’s india cookbook. equally as delicious without the chicken and with some leafy greens thrown in near the end
  (sorry, no link, i can’t find the recipe online. if you want it, please leave me a comment and i’ll get it to you)
• frozen pink cheesecake from green kitchen stories (bookmarked for when friends come to stay in october)
• apple cider donut cake by sue moran | the view from great island

on my reading list

• small worlds by caleb azumah nelson
• everything beautiful by ella frances sanders
• freya stark by caroline moorehead
• the artists way by julia cameron (revisiting once more as a creative endeavour)

what’s new in your world? tell me, i’d love to know