IT IS FINALLY and officially summertime! And it's been really hot. It's also the Euros, so there has been a lot of football on lately and P's been making marvellous food and snacks to go with the matches. As you know, I am a very girlie-girl, but as you may not know, I'm also very easy-going about watching sports with P.
SOMEHOW, SUMMERTIME casts an enchanting spell. Even when trying to focus on work, the beckoning sunshine streaming through wide-open windows makes my gaze wander and the languid rhythms of summer days slows everything down.
WHILE routine often carries a negative connotation, the film Perfect Days (Wim Wenders, 2023) invites viewers to find beauty in the mundane. It follows Hirayama, a Tokyo-based toilet cleaner who finds contentment in life's simple pleasures and the daily rituals that lend his days structure and tranquility.
LAST WEEK, during cardio, was watching a film in which two of the main characters were a British couple living somewhere in Italy. Italy, of course, was very much a main character itself, with its terracotta orange and olive green and blindingly sunny skies. It looked idyllic.
RECENTLY finished reading Susan Sontag's essay, "The Double Standard Of Aging" (1972) and found it very enlightening. Made a lot of notes, some of which I'll share in an upcoming article, but mostly, thought for a long time about her ideas on the subject, and what it it means to be a woman in today's society.
TWO MONTHS ago, I wrote an essay exploring the concept of baggage (emotional and otherwise). In the past two weeks, I've been on a cathartic journey of sorts, parting with possessions that once held sentimental value by selling them on eBay and Vinted.
I FINALLY finished Little Women and understand now while it did not end satisfactorily. Louisa May Alcott had written it for money, at the request from her publisher (and a little nudge from her father), and she apparently did not enjoy the process. She also wanted the main character, Jo, to remain unmarried, but at the time (1868–69), this was not possible and the character had to be married off.
P WROTE LAST week's Newsletter, and it's about American Fiction, as well as the author whose work inspired the film, whom he is now reading. (You can find it here.) While still in the middle Little Women, of course I started two new books—the latest being In the Swarm: Digital Prospects by philosopher and cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han.
P IS IN THE middle of reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray and I've just finished All Made Up by Rae Nudson as well as Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (yes, I know, it's crazy that this is my first time ever reading that classic), and am now just starting The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
THERE is a word in Greek—meraki, (pronounced may-rah-key) that translates to “essence of yourself.” There is no English equivalent, but it means doing something with soul, creativity, or love; to put something of yourself into your work.
LAST WEEK at our newsletter, I posted a lengthy and intricately crafted post on The Return of Rich Woods, filled with wonderful information and even more beautiful interiors inspiration. In hindsight, it might have been much better suited here rather than there. We're still figuring out how to keep these two spaces separate and what sorts of content would work best where.
THIS WEEKEND was the May Bank Holiday, yet, today, we've chosen to forgo the leisurely pace and return to our usual routine, save for a walk in the rain in the early afternoon hours. The current state of upheaval, a time of transition and change for us, is making it challenging to concentrate on work until circumstances stabilise a little.
I HAVE BEEN making these oatmeal breakfast cookies lately with maple syrup and dark chocolate chips. If you subscribe to our newsletter, you'll have the recipe. Both P and I have been reading quite a bit about manifesting, as well as the concept of dopamine fasting...
There are golden, springlike days peppered intermittently in with the cloudy ones, but we're waiting for a proper London summer, hot and filled with untold meanderings and adventures. I've been having issues with my hair for the past few weeks (oily at the scalp, discoloured, and extremely dry at the ends) and thought that I needed to switch up my shampoos and conditioners, but then dry patches began appearing on my skin.
IT WAS A chilly, rainy, blustery weekend and we’ve become very disenchanted with winter now. It’s true that the longer days make everything a little better, but it still feels like spring is a long way off, despite all the pink magnolia buds on the trees and beautiful falling cherry blossoms.
