Quiet things, low stakes living, a Log Lady, scrappy dinners, grand-kitties

Friday 24 May

When I opened the back door this morning, the dogs belted straight to the back fence, so keen were they to stretch their little legs. Imagine having that sort of energy? Raring to go and tearing out into the world at first light? If ONLY!

You’ll never guess what I made for breakfast, after a mostly boring (and delicious) breakfast for the last month or two … Avocado on Toast! I know! Amazing. LOL. I just felt like something old/new, and there was an avocado waiting to get brown enough to go into the compost, so I nipped it in the bud before that and I am very glad that I did. It hit the spot and I had it with sriracha and lots of black pepper and a little salt. (I’m very salty, generally.)

Getting dressed: A blue op-shopped dress (it’s the same as this one), black leggings, a Fair Isle cardigan, flowery socks and Chelsea boots.

I popped in on one of my kids, then came home via Bunnings (with a packet of Calendula seeds — thanks to this podcast, which my friend CatRabbit recommended to me — and a small Clematis plant) and Officeworks (three $1.09 scrapbooks and 5 $1.50 pens). 

When I was driving home, a lady was crossing Sydney Road at Bell St wearing a lovely and thick grey and white Fair Isle jumper. I had to restrain myself from winding down the window and yelling “I LOVE YOUR JUMPER”. She was about my age, and she had slightly messy hair and I just thought she looked like the nicest kind of person. Probably she would have waved happily if I yelled at her, but I did not want to risk scaring her. I just stayed put in my car, waiting for the lights to go green and snacking on a packet of lolly snakes (it was way past lunchtime).

I see my grown-up kids very, very often just because they don’t have their dads around (Rin’s dad lives o/s now and the boys’ dad died in 2022)  and I think mum-dad-grown-kid bonds are super important to hold tight to. Especially if there have been tough times involved. It feels hard to be the only routinely involved family person for them, but it’s also rewarding. I want them to know they can rely on me, no matter what, thick and thin, and I want to be available, no matter what. It was so hard when I was much sicker, but I am slowly mending and I can be even more hands-on again now. Of course, I wish it wasn’t this way, but sometimes life is like this, isn’t it?

If you have accessible ride-or-die family around your kids, count yourself a very lucky duck. You’ve got a precious resource right there. If you are in a position like me, well know that you are not alone and also that you can make a small and nice life for yourself and your kids, regardless. No matter their age … or yours. And maybe things will change at some point for you (and for us!) I truly hope so. It’s good to talk about this stuff, even if it’s complicated, I think.

Anyhoo, the aforementioned podcast episode is so good (thanks CatRabbit!) and I have the audio book of Olivia Laing’s latest queued up to read after I finish The Borrowers. It’s called The Garden Against Time.  I really liked her novel Crudo (which I read ages ago) and I have Funny Weather and To The River in my gigantic to-read shelves. It’s quite hard to get other reading done when you are studying, as you likely know. But I am going to try and make room somewhere. We have seven ‘no contact’ weeks starting today, so perhaps there will be time to sneak in some non-study reading. And really, I guess all reading is for study via osmosis. So there’s that.

I did have plans to do some garden pottering, laundry and baking, but I was all out of puff, so I just settled in and did some crochet while watching some old episodes of Love Island. I know, I know. It’s rubbish TV, but the thing is, it’s very low stakes and quite funny. I’m feeling a bit fragile, so it’s just the ticket (I’m watching Season 2 and all seasons are on free to air catchup here.)

Saturday 25th May

A little sleep in on a chilly Saturday morning, followed by hot tea and a small stack of peanut butter toast. It’s the small comforts, isn’t it? The dogs were very snoozy this morning, and are getting more so as the temperatures drop. They were not keen to get out of bed, which is unusual, but once they were outside they did their usual bounding and wagging and all was right with the world.

Getting dressed: Old faded high-waisted Kmart jeans, grey skivvy, plaid shirt, fair isle socks, Merry People boots.

I did a load of laundry and made some Anzac biscuits, watched a little bit of telly and did some crochet. Basically I had a homebound day and it was just what I needed.

I wrote a little bit in my Commonplace Book (a Virginia Woolf quote), a little bit in my Woolfy journal and a little bit here.

I made a strange sort of dinner: sliced Bratwurst sausages (we had two in the fridge still from ALDI) and sliced potatoes, sauteed in olive oil with sliced onion. I cooked it all up with some paprika and oregano until the potatoes were tender, then piled it onto two slices of toast. Add a bit of Kewpie, a bit of Sriracha and salt and pepp. That’s it. It was actually really delicious and very improvised, but sometimes those are the perfect sort of weekend night dinners. I plan to cook something PROPER tomorrow, but I liked using what we already had to make something simple tonight. Scrappy dinners for the win!

Good Things

How great is this ‘knitting on the Subway’ video?
This child’s drawing of a bird’s nest turned into a huge illuminated sculpture is incredible.
The brilliant Favel Parrett’s icebreaker voyage.
Who could resist Paul Mccartney’s sheepdog? Her name was Martha.
Portobello Mushroom Burger heaven? It’s probable.
A vase made for tulips. Found via here where everything on the table is so very beautiful! Gasp.
French-style Rice and Tuna Salad looks good (and quite thrifty!)
Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting. So making this.

Sunday 26 May

Oof. Woke up with a very sore throat, but it tempered itself as the morning went on (and hot tea went in!) I didn’t feel up to breakfast, but had tea and then a coffee and then did some reading and then went to Rin’s house for a little catch up. 

Getting dressed: Old high waisted very faded jeans, plaid shirt, grey marle sweatshirt, mismatched Obus socks, Merry People boots.

On the way there I listened to the end of the Olivia Laing podcast and the host was mentioning David Lynch. A minute later I drove past a lady walking past the Pentridge complex carrying a plank of wood. I could not believe it. I wrote in my notebook at the red light, because I was so excited. Not the Log Lady of Twin Peaks, but the Plank Lady of Pentridge. What a moment!

It was so nice to see her and the grandkittens (Nancy and Tony) and to run through the week’s happenings together.  We had cups of tea and then I drove home past the op shop and nabbed a handful of good books which I am VERY pleased about.

I got:

The Bodley Head Monographs: Lewis Carroll by Roger Lancelyn Green, E. Nesbit by Anthea Bell, Howard Pyle by Elizabeth Nesbitt.
The Breakfast Book by Diana Troy
Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs by Heather Lende and
The Really Useful Cookbook by David Herbert

The total cost was $10 and when I went to pay they said I’d reached my loyalty card bonus amount and had $10 to spend on them (Vinnies) … so I didn’t have to pay for the books. They are all fascinating in their own way, and I am really looking forward to dipping into them.

I came home and made a knitting pattern chart and started knitting a cute patterned two-colour square that I designed myself. And I watched some telly. And after that I made a nice dinner of those Salmon Croquettes (although I made mine into patties) with mashed potato and iceberg salad.

Now I’m keeping half an eye on Masterchef and writing to you … Hope your weekend was low stakes and nice, pals. See you back here very soon.

x Pip

If you fancy, buy me a coffee —>  https://ko-fi.com/piplincolne

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