Dailies: Dud tomatoes, twinkly lights, sea shanties, lacy stitches, woodland endpapers

Sunday 21 December

So, I needed to get some Christmas lights and some drying racks (for our laundry) and a garden hose fitting, but I was a bit terrified of the Christmas mood out there (not the festive one … the stressed-out one). Thus it seemed like the best idea to go to the shops at 7.30am on a Sunday. I am so glad I did. It was super quiet and I got the things we needed and was home by 9.30, ready to make breakfast and do last night’s dishes (oops) and settle in before the storms hit Melbourne.

Getting dressed: Sportsgirl granny square jeans, gingham dress, silver Birkenstocks.

Today I am going to work on that last blanket, watch some nice stuff and drink tea, tucked safely away from the world. At some point this week I want to buy a ham for our family … I’m thinking if I wait until Christmas eve they are often marked down. Fingers crossed for that more affordable situation.

Things spotted on a morning walk …

After breakfast I fixed the hose, watered the under-cover pot plants and got the lawnmower under cover and away from the incoming rain. I picked a little bunch of flowers, but I admit that the heat has really taken a toll on the blooms this year. Never mind, though. Once the Christmas chaos is done and dusted I am going to do some weeding and tidying and planting too. Refresh those beds and make plans for March/April flowers, like I did this year. Do you remember? I planted lots of things so I could take Rin flowers everyday in the weeks after June was born. That was such a nice ritual, going outside to pick a little posy and then heading over to see if the exhausted mum and baby needed anything/a chat/a cuddle.

After that? After that I made tea and sat down to watch a couple of interesting YouTube videos. High recommend.

Last night I finished The Compound and then quickly read two chapters of my next book Margo’s Got Money Troubles. Apparently it’s being made into a series and I am so glad because it’s so funny and cleverly written. I’m only a couple of chapters in but I totally recommend it.

I managed to put the Christmas tree up today. It’s the first time since COVID, so that feels VERY cheering. I unpacked all the glass ornaments from their tissue paper wrapping and popped a robin on the top because why not. I’m going to finish the beaded fish and put them on too. There’s something very optimistic about it all, I think. The lights are very impressive too, flashing like an eighties Blue Light Disco at bonkers intervals.

Good things

Favourite experiences, favourite curiosities, favourite analogue comforts, favourite digital finds …
I loved reading this Helen Oxenbury interview.
And also this Tove Jansson piece.
The deer-filled park that Virginia Woolf refers to in her diaries sometimes.
Have you ever watched Polar Park?
Some great reading recommendations from the brilliant Kerry.
These pretty shoes!
This china pattern!
The quilts collectors are going nuts for.

Things spotted on a morning walk …

Tuesday 23 December

Trying to stay slow and calm at this busy time is quite the challenge, right? I’m spending a lot of time taking deep breaths, reminding myself that moving through the world at a steady and relaxed pace is best, making not-too-long lists, keeping an eye out for the gems amidst the chaos. So far, so … quite good. Not perfect, but that’s life as a flawed human, I think.

This morning I got up early and tripped off to the Preston Market, arriving at ten to eight before the crowds. The queue for pastries was only 4 people deep (rather than the usual 20 or so) so I snaffled two raspberry danishes, tucking them into my handbag for safe keeping. After that it was into the seafood fray – prawns and fish fillets for us this year – and then onto the greengrocers for mangoes, raspberries, passionfruit, tomatoes, wombok, spuds, sweet potato and broccoli. Next was a loaf of Irrewarra Sandwich Bread and a jar of raspberry jam. I bought the rest of the supplies yesterday, before things got too hectic out there, thus I have finished all the food shopping and can now concentrate on blanket-finishing, kitchen prep and general tidying today. That feels very doable.

R/ blooms on a walk L/ still making fish …

I popped in on Rin and June yesterday and we had a lovely play. I took a ball that I’d bought on the weekend at Kmart (after seeing video of June and a baby friend playing with a ball at the park together a few days earlier.) Do you think the ball was a success? It was not. Far too upredictable and rolly. Rin hid it in the bathroom after about five minutes because CLEARLY it is way too scary (it was this one.) Lesson learned. Nothing with unpredictable movements allowed – balloons, bubbles, balls … or perhaps it’s nothing beginning with B? That said the bear book I also took over was a huge hit, and that’s TWO B’s so I think it’s the chaotic moves that are O.U.T.

Thankyous!

A whoppingly huge thankyou to these supporters: Kate F, Kazza, Tina, Leonie, Lara, Kerry F, Melinda, Judy, Kara, Alison, Alyson, Yvette, Ro, Jan.

Op shopped book for June (those endpapers!)

Wednesday 24 December

Well, the rest of yesterday was spent finishing up the three Christmas blankets (done!) and watching Enid and doing a bit of tidying. The weather turned out lovely and Max (my middle kid) and I managed to restring the clothesline in the late afternoon sunshine to great success. We also picked up the fixings for gin and tonics from Dan Murphy Campbellfield, which was surprisingly quiet (to the great delight of the young gents on the registers.) I made a batch of Pad See Ew for lunch and wasn’t hungry at dinner time due to its comforting heft. Instead I had a very hot shower and climbed into bed to watch this documentary which was WEIRD. (Some) people are nuts. I got up again at about 11 to go outside and look for a giant flying fox. I saw it on Monday night and it “whooosh, whoosh, whoooshed” overhead with its giant wingspan and tiny head. It was magically enjoying the summer solstice then, arcing above our street and then whooshing off in the direction of the cemetery (oooh … bats … graves … spooooky!) Perhaps it will show again tonight?

L/ Peach in December R/ A little family lunch at Laksa House

This morning I got up at 7 and had a hot bath with a bunch of this tipped into it. I read two chapters of Margo’s Got Money Troubles and then hopped out, got dressed and ate a (raspberry) Danish for breakfast, alongside a big cup of coffee. After that I watched the latest KrisAtomic video and then made two slices of toast with raspberry jam and another coffee. Christmas is for raspberries. I’m going to make some of my OWN raspberry jam this year, I think. My Nan used to make it and I’ve been thinking about her a lot. I might make a blackberry jam too, in honour of my other grandmother and the brambles of Tinderbox where our family shack used to be. Very often we would head off with an ice cream container and a heart full of hope down there, returning to the holiday house with pink-purple-stained hands and mouths, berries spilling out of their tubs.

I’ve got some cooking to do today (tomato sambal, ikan bilis, chocolate cake, fish curry) and some resting to do too. I want to work on those fish ornaments as well, so I can pop them on the tree tomorrow and give one each to the kids. We’re having Christmas evening at our house (I think I told you that already?) and it’s a Curry Christmas for June’s very first one. Not that she will be currying, but Rin grew up with Curry Christmasses (thanks to her grandmother, Dure) and she wants June to experience the same. I am all in. LOVE a Curry Christmas. We can always have turkey on Boxing Day, so there is no need to miss out on the ‘traditional’ anglo experience.

L / 2026 Christmas tree R/ Chippy at Christmas

Friday 26 December

That’s it. Done for another year. Gosh it’s a lot, isn’t it? The spending, the effort, the anticipation the heavy feeling out there in the world in the days before? I tried to keep a handle on all of those things, but I’m still feeling very relieved that we are on the other side of it. It was baby June’s first Christmas, which made it so much more special. She loved the Christmas tree so much and we talked through the ornaments together carefully. She also loved the Rainbow Brite doll I bought her, eating nectarines with her uncles and aunties, patting the pup and cats and watching the ceiling fans twirl around and around above our dinner table. So cute.

We had the previously mentioned curry feast: fish parcel curry, ikan bilis, potato curry, spicy green vegetables, veggie pakoras, gochujang prawns, tomato sambal, jasmine rice … and ham with mustard! Dessert was the Elizabeth David recipe flourless chocolate cake (which I have been making for thirty plus years) with raspberries, passionfruit sorbet, lemon gelati, hazelnut gelati and fresh fruit.

2026 Christmas dinner

The kids all loved their Christmas blankets and I finished up the little beaded fish ornaments so I gave each of them one of those too. The plan is to make a different beaded decoration each year times 4 – one for each of them, and one for me. That way they can grow a cute collection of wonky, handmade ornaments to hang on their own trees each year. It feels cute.

The kids bought me some new bed stuff and also the beautiful Alison Lester Gippsland map that I wanted. I am so LUCKY.

December breakfasts leaning heavily into raspberries, as usual!

Friday 2 January

I’ve been reading a lot and not using my computer much, hence the week-long  gap between this update and the last. It’s 2026. Hopefully the best kind of year for us both, reader. Hopefully we will step into each new day with a minimum of chaos and drama, and a maximum of wholesome goodness on the reg.

I went for a tiny walk this morning, trying to get back into the habit without making my illness worse. I think just small walks are best. Reaching for eleventy-billion steps only results in exhaustion and several days in bed, so I’m wrangling my expectations down, down, down. A little bit is better than nothing, you know?

Just things we’ve been eating …

I’m 2/3 the way through Expectation by Anna Hope at the moment. It’s the sort of book that you can see being adapted for screen. Three women finding their way through the absolute onslaught that growing ourselves up can be. I’ve started logging on (my newly revived) Storygraph and set myself a very achievable reading goal (27 books) for the year too.

After the walk I watered the plants for a little while, with a couple of hot days coming up they need a bit of fortification. My tomato plants are a bit of a dud this year, I think. I have been spending my gardening time doing granny things this year, so it’s all my own fault. Perhaps they will surprise me and run late into March? I hope so!

Our family’s special occasion curry – fish parcels in red curry

Saturday 3 January

June is nine months old today! Gosh that’s gone so fast, hasn’t it?

I got up early-ish and watered the plants. Overnight the cats had knocked down a very prolific indoor plant, detaching the foliage from the pot and leaving the leaves in a sort of purple nest on the floor next to the fridge. I am going to try propagating a bunch of the trailing bits in water. Poor plant.

After that I went for a little neighbourhood walk – listening to the Angela Harding ep of Desert Island Discs – then came back home for coffee and eggs and a bit of internetting.

Getting dressed: A randomly nice dress from Sussan which I bought ages ago at 40% off because I thought June would like the flowers and butterflies on it, Birkenstocks (the silver ones).

Just things we’ve been eating …

Later, I nicked over to Ari and Indi’s to feed their cats and then came home via the shops (grainy bread, avocadoes, cherry tomatoes, gift for nephew, prescription, pet food, etc.) I picked up a new notebook from Officeworks too … it’s going to be a sort of research notes and observations journal for the year. I’ve set myself a text for 2026 (it’s Virginia Woolf’s Selected Diaries) and I’m going to start an online document for my interests and findings too. They won’t just be about the 2026 text … but that will be a sort of spine for the year to pivot from and to. If that makes sense. While I was driving, I listened to the Maggie O’Farrell episode of This Cultural Life (she’s heavily inspired by Moominmamma, in case you didn’t realise.)

In the evening, I read some of my current book (Hydra by Adriane Howell – I am thoroughly enjoying it) and then settled in to watch a documentary about Mary Cosby (of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City) because literary fiction and reality TV really can go together, friends.

Sunday 4 January

It’s newsletter day again, after a tiny break. I’m looking forward to marshalling some goodness into a missive that sometimes lifts peoples’ spirits. I got up at half seven, went for a little walk to clear the cobwebs away, then came home to make a coffee, sit at my computer and write to you. It’s cool again outside after a couple of hot days. There’s a slight mist of rain which was quite refreshing … almost a spritz, really. On the walk I listened to the Helen Oxenbury episode of Desert Island Discs and thought of a good idea for a children’s book. I haven’t been having many ideas over the last few years, due to illness, so this is a promising sign that recovery might be possible.

I wrote some notes in my journal (about the Helen Oxenbury ep [one of my favourite illustrators Jan Pienkowski used to run a gallery called Gallery Five] and today’s Virginia Woolf Selected Diaries reading [according to VW people in the more unfashionable parts of town always had curtains or shutters to keep the world at bay]) and added some to-dos and ‘threads’ to my research document. A thread is a related topic that the original text/media has led me to … a sort of diverting path that links to and away from the original subject.

Tuesday 6 January

Some men are singing sea shanties on the telly this morning and it’s turned out to be a bracing and optimistic way to start the day … watching/listening to them, I mean. They’re dressed in striped shirts or other equally nautical colours (blue, navy, more blue) and jeans, and one of them is calling “hup! hup! hup!” intermittently. Honestly it was a tonic and I don’t normally like things men do. (I googled and it’s these blokes.)

I went for an early walk this morning, getting prepped for the very hot days ahead with earlier starts. It was nice out there. I saw a few other early walkers and a lot of slaters scrambling across the footpaths and a house with a pot on their fence that said “PLEASE TAKE A SPIDER PLANT. LEAVE POT.” (Which I did.) I listened to the Kate Atkinson episode of Desert Island Discs and when I got home I made coffee and followed some of the threads the podcast dropped – TV adaptations of her novels, an interview about one of her writing prizes, that sort of thing.

Yesterday I started a new blanket with a very wavy loosely lacy stitch. I’m liking it so much even though I’ve made a few stitch count mistakes. It’s still looking cute and I’m getting the hang of it. While I crocheted I watched a bonkers TV series called Killing Time. It’s about rogue lawyer Andrew Fraser and Melbourne during the gangland wars and it’s (almost comically) violent. It stars a young David Wenham, Colin Friels, the luminous Diana Glen and a very different ’00s Melbourne.

I’ve lingered over this Dailies for far too long, so sorry for that! I’m going to post it now!! Thanks so much for reading, friend.

xoxo Pip

PS: HNY!
PPS: Sorry for any typos or mistakes!

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