Cardigans, pots of tea, digging-est dogs, crumpets and Margaret

Tuesday 23 April

I ordered in dinner last night! This is NOT like me, but I was so tired and I didnt want to eat more of the same again. I order in maybe twice a year, if that. I am super disciplined about using delivery services because they can be so pricey and my budget will not accommodate. But last night I felt like a little congratulatory laksa, so that is what I did. My uni work is going really well and finally starting to take some tangible shape, so this felt like something to celebrate. I can not tell you how pleased I was when I’d eaten that delicious surprise dinner and tucked myself into bed. I had such a cosy night’s sleep because of it, I think. The sleep of the ‘feeling-accomplished’, I shall call it.

I woke up late and made breakfast (Weetbix!) and a pot of tea. Now I’m just pottering, thinking of getting some dinner supplies and needing to get dressed.

Getting dressed: Grey leggings, a green Montaigne dress from a couple of years ago (thanks to Lexi!), Birks.

I decided we will have dumpling soup for dinner. My friend Gemma and I were talking about how good the ALDI dumplings were when I visited her on Sunday and now I can’t stop thinking about them. I usually just make a big pot of chicken stock with star anise, black pepper and ginger tossed in for good measure. Then we have egg noodles and dumplings with this broth. Sometimes I’ll roast some chicken thighs or tofu in a spicy marinade, just to add an extra element. And often I throw in some baby spinach and broccoli. Such a delicious and customisable dinner. YUM.

I went past the Vinnies op shop before ALDI and picked up a couple of books. While I was scoping out the bookshelves there, I met a lady called Margaret. She was telling me that she’s thinking of becoming a vegetarian and has been eating crumpets, baked beans and pumpkin soup lately. I told her – quite truthfully – that I had too so we hit it off right away. She likes to buy books from Saver’s and other op shops and she gifts many to her friends and family. Basically we were twins, although she is 20 years or so ahead of me. She told me that there are no coincidences and reiterated the importance of having some kind of faith – religious or otherwise. I believe both of those things. We chatted for about ten minutes as other shoppers wove in and out of us, trying to look at books. She lives with her son also. And she lost her husband a little while ago. She didn’t find a book she wanted, but typically I found four. Perhaps I will be more restrained in 20 years time, like Margaret? We said goodbye and that we hoped we’d run into each other again, at Saver’s or at Vinnies or somewhere in between.

My books were:

The Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam
Slow Cooking by Jared Ingersoll

I also picked up Eat My Words by Marion Halligan and An Episode of Sparrows from Golden Bowl.

I’m really trying to make an effort to talk to people more when I am out. I spent a long time at home when I was at my sickest and got out of the habit, became dare I say, almost averse to talking to strangers. I hope I can turn over a new leaf and be a bit more social without wearing myself out or feeling like a faker or feeling anxious or all of these things combined. I’m going to try at least. That’s all we can do, right?

While I was out I set The Secret Garden audiobook aside temporarily to listen to Taylor’s new album. It’s such a good one to sing along with. When I got home I was super tired, so I rested and watched last night’s Masterchef premiere. It’s such wholesome entertainment, right? I think I watched one or two seasons and then moved on to other things, but I might stick with this season because I love Poh and the new lady seems really smart and funny (Sofia?). Anyway, I watched it and was so impressed with some of the cooks. Some people are SO clever. This episode’s winner was earnest and super talented and creative. She deserved to take the prize, in my opinion.

EDIT: Turns out the Immunity Pin winner (Nat) used to work at Wide Open Road where two of my kids worked for a while. GO NAT!! Apparently she is as nice as she seems. Rin and I were messaging on Wednesday night and she said “guess what? I’m watching Masterchef this year!” and I said “Oh my gosh! Me too!!” and then she told me about Nat. Also … remember when my friend Emma Dean won Masterchef a few years ago? Maybe Nat is going to win this year?! And also how good is Stephen? I hope he is as nice as he seems. He’s such a good cook!

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Good Stuff

I’ve shared this before, but I went looking for it again because it’s so good.
I love the idea of ‘save the day’. What did you do to save the day? (on TikTok)
Crispy rice salad with cucumbers and herbs. Gosh. Yum! : Recipe
Ten books referenced in The Tortured Poet’s Department.
Lots of pretty home-y photos in this post.
How to make wildflower seed bombs.
An interview with Harriet Baker about her new book The Rural Hours.
Love all these crocheted diagonals. So snazzy!
Why libraries are the best places to write.
This kid! She’s a delight. (on TikTok)
The Super Bloom Handbook looks very beautiful. (below)

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Wednesday 24 April

Crumpets. Inspired by The Margaret Chat yesterday, I had crumpets for breakfast. I know I said Weetbix with warm milk felt super comforting to me, but crumpets are actually neck and neck with them. I like them with peanut butter (crunchy, always crunchy!) but sometimes I have them with Promite, which I think is weirder. Today I have a quick catch up with my oldest friend planned at lunchtime, so the rest of the day will be tucked around that. I watched this video while I had my tea and crumpets. Then I had a hot bath, got dressed and planned my day.

For my uni work, I know I have to address the formatting of my fiction. It’s been so long since I wrote fiction (I did all sorts of essays for the last year and a half of my creative writing degree) that I’ve forgotten the correct structure. Where paragraphs begin and end. The format of dialogue. That kind of thing. The next few days will be a refresher of those skills and a reworking of the 1500 or so experimental words I’ve written as I work towards my story. I’m feeling more confident about my ability to complete a longer piece now. I’ve done it before, but it’s been a while. I’m rusty. This week, however, I swung about to feeling much more capable. I feel like I’ve got all the ideas, a rough plan and the (rusty) skills. I think I can do this!

Getting dressed: An old dress from ASOS, boots from ASOS (from 3 years ago), leggings.

I’m going to nip to Saver’s before I see my friend for lunch …

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This post’s op-shopped cookbook is Slow Cooking by Jared Ingersoll (2011), modelled beautifully by Bruno (below)

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Thursday 25 April

I conked out yesterday before I could write about my day – either in this format or in my handwritten Woolfy diary –  but I’m here now pals!

Clearly I suck at learning to do things without exhausting myself, but I don’t really know what the remedy is. I suppose I will just roll with the punches and perhaps the conked out days after doing small things will become fewer and fewer?

Yesterday before I met my friend (Yvonne) I went to Saver’s on the hunt for some wintery things. I found a second hand Alex Mills Fair Isle Cardigan (this one!), an ASOS cricket jumper (this one), a red and blue plaid shirt and a pair of high waisted jeans – all for $25 – so I was chuffed with that. My cats wreck all my jumpers when I hug them, so new/old knits were on the list. I think Claudia WInkelman’s The Traitor knits have inspired me …  I also got a copy of Still Life with Teapot by Brigid Lowry and Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall (which Reannon has been recommending to me for ages!) 

On the way to lunch yesterday I saw a ute drive past with a rocking horse strapped to its tray. The rocking horse appeared to be having the time of its life and I could not help but think where it was going and who was destined for such a cute surprise. When I was little I had a friend with an attic playroom and they had an old fashioned dappled rocking horse up there. I can’t remember who it was. It might even have been a cousin. Whoever it was, that storybook attic and rocking horse made a real impression.

I think I might make some buns today. My brother-in-law sent me a video of my very amazing nephew making some bread rolls yesterday and he’s inspired me to bake something too. I feel like some more older-person-ish buns though. WIth fruit and allspice and things in them. The day and weather feels just right for them. Perhaps I’ll use the Australian Women’s Weekly Hot Cross Bun recipe with some adaptations … and I might half the ingredients so I don’t end up with so many.

Getting dressed: Newly op shopped jeans, newly op-shopped plaid shirt, old Sportsgirl cardigan, bed socks with cats on them, Birkenstocks.

Smaller Batch Sultana Buns
Adapted from AWW Hot Cross Bun recipe

Makes six buns

2 teaspoons of dried yeast
1 cup of milk
¼ cup of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 cups of plain flour or bread flour
50g butter
1 egg 

Mix the flour and butter until well combined (I use a stand mixer for this, but you can do it by hand). Add the milk, sugar, spices, yeast, and egg. Mix until a sticky dough is formed. Put the dough into a greased bowl and let it rise until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 220C/425F degrees.

Turn the dough out onto a clean, floured surface. Cut into six even portions. Pop into a greased square cake tin. Cover with plastic film or similar. Allow to rise until doubled in size.

Optional: Brush with egg wash (beat one egg with ¼ cup of water OR cream).

Bake for 30 minutes or until puffed up, browned and hollow when tapped

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Next, I read a few pages of I Leap Over the Wall after lunch (which was two fresh-baked buns and a cup of tea!) Monica is settled in at Aunty A.B.’s place and is now considering her re-education in all things current London and surrounds. She has “passionate cravings for miscellaneous information” and finds the wireless “instructive” but is a bit miffed that A.B. will only allow it on for thrice daily news bulletins.

She heads to the library to begin filling in some of the gaps in her knowledge, describing herself as “a monstrosity” due to her inability to assimilate comfortably after so many convent years.  She mentions reading Mackerel Sky by Helen Ashton and then a cascade of other titles which remind her of the library back in the convent where unseemly pages of books were simply pasted together so the nuns could not view them.  Post-convent, books by Rachel Ferguson – particularly A Harp in Lowndes Square and The Brontes Went to Woolworths – impressed her profoundly, Monica writes.

One day, she bravely heads off to Brighton on a “big green bus” for a day trip, but feels a sense of “ellynge” (pronounced “el-ling” and meaning eerie) in the surrounding countryside. Consequently, she leaves quite rattled, mourning the ”gay and glittering town” she’d visited in younger days. 

I’m going to use the word ellynge in conversation from this day forth, reader. Misty late Autumnal Fawkner cemetery walks are the very definition of ellynge, I think. I’m leaning into el-ling.

Also? This lovely quote is from Chapter Two, Part III

“All my life I have felt far more alive to the past of the places I have visited than to their present; everything that is seems to be somehow overshadowed by what has been.”

Speaking of outdoorsy things and places, Bean (my eldest dog), keeps jumping on the garden beds and I am more often than not to be found outside saying “get off the garden, Bean!” very, very crossly. I think he might have sabotaged some of the poppy seeds … or perhaps he’s just broadcast them further about the garden? We will soon find out …

We still have heaps of dumplings in the freezer, so I think we will have dumplings for dinner tonight (with lots of angry lady chilli crisp oil!) Hoping you have a delicious dinner and an a-okay next few days, dear reader. (And sorry I’m a bit slow with replying to comments but I am going to do that in the next day or two.)

x Pip

Top image: Quick Silver Climbing Rose from Roses Victoria