Dailies: Sparrow spying, loosalutions, habit bundles, flowery diaries, The Split

Friday 10 January

Up at seven to drink some water and let the doggies out. I watered the seedlings while the kettle boiled, then fed all the pets and made tea to take back to my desk. I watched a video or two as I woke up to the day. I was thinking that I need to get some sneakers from the op shop because I want to start trying to walk a little bit in the early mornings and I don’t have any proper shoes for doing that. In the Winter I just wear my Blundstones to walk, but they’re a bit claustrophobic in the warmer weather, I think. Maybe I will do that today, actually. I haven’t been near the op shop all week.

Saturday 11 January

Hello pal. Guess what? I did go to the op shop yesterday. Guess what else? They did not have any comfy and sporty runners in my size. Darn it. Maybe I will just have to buy some new ones? I will go to Saver’s first and check if there are some there, though. Some non-sweaty ones, I mean. Some that were bought by someone who thought they were going to exercise regularly and then did not. *coughs*

It’s going to be hot today so I got up at 6 and did my morning dog-garden-tea routine. Breakfast was a little stack of toast with Vegemite, bread slightly scorched. Then I made a potato curry because Rin said she’s been craving it. I’m going to drop that over this morning before it gets too sweaty. And also go to the Asian grocer to get some supplies for this week’s Doobydobap-inspired meal prep.

A bunch of people have subscribed to Wallflower Cordial. If you are one of them thank you! And if you are not … I understand! There are so many emails out there now, perhaps you don’t want another one in your inbox? An alternative to that is to just use the Substack app on your mobile device. You can subscribe to publications like mine and altogether avoid watching those emails surge onto your screen. And if you don’t want to do that either, no worries!!

I popped in on Rin and then the Asian Grocer on Sydney Road (as planned!) and then came home to hide out from the heat for the rest of the day. I watched Friends Like Her on Netflix and after initially not being too sure about it, I liked it. A bit of ‘suspend disbelief’ involved (again!), but that aside the cast was great and the location shots gorgeous. Seven out of ten, dear reader.

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Good stuff

This paper mache is incredible.
Do you have a reading journal to track your reading?
The Gilded Age novel that helps explain our fascination with Luigi Mangione
A forest is awakening in the bay near us.
The documentary Our Tiny Islands looks so good!
A simple and helpful thing to say to a friend.
How groups of birds got their names (illustrated by Brian Wildsmith)
This series looks good, right?
Kate Moss as a little girl is SO CUTE!
Such a clever way to embellish a knit!
I love these cushions (found via Katie Considers)
How to make Rotisserie Style Chicken in your oven.
Your Natural Garden by Kelly D Norris looks v good.
So the Belle Gibson Netflix show is … a dramedy?
What’s your house specialty aka your standard best recipe?
Browse the Online Knitting Reference Library with patterns from 1849 to 2012 (found via Messy n Chic)
New public domain vintage images you can download and print.
The photos of this cabin did something good to my brain.
This patchwork-meets-Ganni vest is so cute and good inspiration for a DIY. (Via Katie Considers)
And speaking of vests … here’s a bunch to make at home.
This is a great food blog and of course Banana Bread has some origins in Trinidad. D’oh, Pip.
I really want to watch Roller Jam now.
Spiced chickpea and spinach pockets. Why not?
Free Art Nouveau floral patterns to download and use.

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Above: Vintage patterns found at the op shop this week.

Sunday 12 January

Up at 6.50 for the usual kettle/garden/pets/tea routine. The news has been all about the LA wildfires for the last week or so. They look absolutely horrific and it’s clear that thousands have been impacted, with mentions of mismanagement and arson also thrown in. Dare not feel lucky that it’s not happening here, lest I tempt fate.

Today’s plan is rest, garden, rest, knit, rest, cook. Hopefully I can manage some of that. I am confident about the resting, but the activity possible is hard to predict. I might make a green tea noodle salad, I think. It’s such a good one to make a bit batch of and store in one serve containers in the fridge.

Out my window a tiny sparrow is perching on the string of the neighbour’s fairy lights. It seems to be enjoying the morning coolness and is preening its feathers and wagging its tail and tilting his little head from side to side. My suburb is pretty treeless so it gets a few degrees hotter than the average forecast each day. No doubt the wildlife suffer because of this … why don’t they always always always plant masses of trees when they build houses? They bulldozed bush and farmland in the 1940s to build Fawkner and I get that it’s easier to do this and replant, but they didn’t even do that. They just made a little desert and expected people to live in scorching east-west houses that trap the heat. So stupid. I’m not sure that we do better because we know better even now in my State. I’m going to plant some trees and lots more trees around my rental this year – as budget allows – and not be such a part of the problem.

(And of course, these issues are nothing compared to the US fires at the moment, as well as innumerable other disasters going on. Please know that I know that.)

Above: L/ tomatoes from the garden R/ green tea noodle salad

Next, I watched a video or two while sipping my tea. Then made toast and more tea.

I had to go get something from the $2 shop near me today, and when I arrived the shopkeeper was sitting outside and the entry was barred with a little table. 

“Do you know what you want?” he asked.
“Yes, but why?” I replied.
“The power is out,” he said, handing me a torch and removing the barricade.
I headed in and said, over my shoulder, “you could charge extra! This is quite an adventure!” and then he laughed and pulled the table across the doorway again.
I got my things (batteries, a ball of yarn, some cupcake cases I happened to see via torchlight) and paid. As I left a couple peered in the door.
“Are you open?” the woman part of the couple asked.
“Do you know what you want?” the shopkeeper asked as I walked away.

My laptop is slowly dying so I spent a very long time today resurrecting an old iMac that I’ve been carting from house to house, finally triumphing at about 9pm. It’s comforting to know I have a back up now, in case my current ride dies. I’m also pleased because I don’t have to buy another piece of tech and also it has a DVD drive and I can watch old movies and stuff on it … because streaming has become so default and I don’t think that’s great (financially and mentally). I’m going to get a DVD to watch today, I think. And check again for sneakers. (The ones at Saver’s were all $25 for a very second-hand pair which seems ridiculous.)

Above: L/ Cheese and tomato on toast and R/ doctor’s visit pending

I went to bed feeling utterly knackered, yet accomplished, and watched an episode of Protection before I conked out. Lead character and Witness Protection sorter Siobhan Finneran is so good. I loved her in Happy Valley. Season Two of Liar and also Get Millie Black are on my list too.

Monday 13th January

Today will be for tidying and making hearty and nourishing food, I think. We have a rental inspection this week so best put our best foot forward. I got up a bit later (8.30) due to yesterday’s exhausting iMac escapades, then did my usual habit bundle of kettle on/dogs out/watering/pet feeding/face sloshing/tea making. Then I drank my tea with a nice Pachico video and made some Weetbix for breakfast. I thought I was super hungry but turned out I wasn’t. Still, a couple of Weetbix is better than nothing at all (especially when you need to take daily medications and they don’t do well on an empty stomach.) 

Habit bundles seem to be a sort of productivity tool for some, but for me they are more of a survival tool. I have programmed myself to cluster a bunch of small to-dos together and when they are completed I feel like I’ve got the day started in a can-do sort of way. Whether I can do things later in the day is a mystery each day, due to illness, but I like the early boost, the feeling of small accomplishment approaching things this way creates.

I’ve been reading Amazing Grace Adams (via the Libby app) in the bath this week and enjoying it too. So there’s also that. As well re-reading as our Old Lady Books Club book Winters Solstice. Don’t forget you can drop a comment about the book or a review or whatever you like that’s related at this link.

Wednesday 15th January

How? How are we nearly halfway through January, dear reader? I am determined to be organised with birthday gifts this year. They usually creep up on me and I find myself in a rush to get them wrapped and to their present-getter on time. Not this year. This is my loose resolution, I suppose? A loosalution. I will sort out the gifts early enough for them to get where they are going and be the best thing possible. 

I bought a diary this week, to help with this. I use Google Calendar as my go-to but I also like to write things out with a pen. They seem to lodge in my brain a little better that way. I looked at all the fancy diaries, but really the one within my budget that was cute enough was from Kmart. Sorry about that. It has flowers on the cover and the pages are very chatty-looking and I like it a lot. It was this one.

L/ 2025 Diary and R/ Poem for the Day op-shopped book

Above: L/ newly organised cutlery drawer R/ dumplings a la me

Today I tidied some more for the rental inspection tomorrow and then I wrote my midweek update for Wallflower Cordial. I liked it a lot. I like the flow state writing gives me. It feels like I’ve gone somewhere else, but I’m actually not and in the end I have something a bit reflective and a bit cute to show for it. Today’s post was semi-related to last week’s because I mentioned Curiosity Cabinets last week and this week I wrote about a kind of Curiosity Cabinet I grew up with. I’m posting there mid week and on the weekend from now on, now that I have gotten started properly.

I made a big green tea noodle salad yesterday, so I had that for dinner last night and for lunch today. It makes four servings so that is two for me and two for Max (who is my eldest son). It was so good. I put chicken and tofu in it and lots of avocado and cucumber and things. Would you like the recipe?

Above: Crafts in progress …

Friday 17th January

Little fairy light sparrow is back again this morning. It rained overnight and he’s looking a titch damp but also is twittering at the top of his birdy lungs, so something has gone right in his world. He flew off for a minute and now he’s back, turned the other way and tweeting right at me as though I am Mary Lennox and this is The Secret Garden.

It’s a slow day today, I think. It’s been a stressful week with budget juggling and rental inspections and computer issues and doctor’s visits and a few other things, so I am totally pooped and definitely not singing at the top of my birdy lungs. Next week is a new chance for better days, though. I’m starting next week from today.

I made cheese and tomato on toast for breakfast, inspired by a little chat I had with my uncle in the comments of Wallflower Cordial. Lots of salt and pepper, a little bit of Salad Cream under the tomatoes for a bit of extra umami. I had it with a giant cup of tea and it was delicious. Perfect spying-on-sparrows fodder.

Perhaps I could make a little bird feeder to put on the fence? That way the sparrow could come a little closer and also have a snack? I’m going to think on that and look at DIY options. This side of the house is currently blocked off to keep the dogs in and is overgrown with three years of grass, so it could do with some attention/bird accessories, for sure.

Also? I watched the new The Split and did some knitting in the evening. Both were v good. Especially loved the clever premise of the new The Split.

How has your week been, dear reader? Do tell. I would love to know.

x Pip

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