Philippa Moore's Blog, page 6

interview in australian country style magazine

I am delighted that one of my favourite magazines, Australian Country Style, has featured me and my beloved late grandmother in their April 2022 issue, out today!

If you turn to page 130, there’s a lovely interview with me about my dear Nan, Beth, and her fascinating life, particularly her baking prowess. Nan’s Anzac biscuits have been a huge favourite with my friends and well wishers over the years, and the recipe is also shared in this issue, together with some sweet pictures of Nan in her youth. The shoot was styled beautifully, with vintage tea cups, a touristy tea towel and knitting, all things that remind me of her. It was such a thrill to see it!

Thank you again ACS for featuring us - and if you pick up the issue, I hope you enjoy it!

this week

Looking forward to

The release of Sophie Hansen’s new book on Monday! I have her other two and they’re both just lovely. Is there anything better than the anticipation of a new book that you already know will be brilliant?

Going for my first run in my new running shoes, which arrived today. Honestly, the last pair I bought wore out so quickly, and I have been feeling the roughness of the trails through the soles for months now. This is a long overdue purchase!

Reading

The Brownie Diaries by Leah Hyslop

Planet Simpson by Chris Turner - I haven’t read this book since 2004 when it first came out, and I had forgotten how brilliant it is, and how timeless/prescient so many of its observations are.

Do Inhabit: Style your space for a creative and considered life by Sue Fan and Danielle Quigley

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics: The ethics of fiction writing (PhD related, obvs!)

A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf

Why I Write by George Orwell

Sydney Review of Books: Circuit and The Writer’s Clutter, both by Vanessa Berry

Listening to

TIDAL’s Baking Beats playlist - I really like lo-fi music for cooking, reading and working to.

Rethink Moments with Rachel Botsman: Trust Issues/Vulnerability is not a Weakness

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown: Accessing joy and finding connection in the midst of struggle, with Karen Walrond

BeWILDered: Self-Doubt and Creativity

The Creative Penn: Your Story Matters with Nikesh Shukla and Dealing with Self-Doubt and Writer’s Block with Dharma Kelleher

Happy Place: Clover Stroud

The Tim Ferriss Show: Interview #366 with Neil Gaiman (Neil loves fountain pens and Leuchtturm notebooks too!)

Eating

Noodles with fried tofu and orange nam jim from Ottolenghi’s Flavour

Apple and fig crumble (using my parents’ apples and my own figs) smothered in this.

Otherwise, it’s just been tomatoes and zucchini every which way - curry, soup, risotto, pasta.

I made a batch of dukkah this week which is fabulous on top of avocado toast, or just with good crusty bread and olive oil. I also like it sprinkled over hummus and cucumber rolled up in a wholemeal flatbread, which has been my regular work lunch this week because cucumbers have been plentiful, thanks to our generous neighbours.

I also made stewed apples (for more crumble, or maybe for porridge), pickled tomatoes and pickled cucumbers.

Picking

Zucchini, tomatoes, beans and silverbeet from my own garden, and our neighbours invited us to go over to their garden and pick whatever we wanted as they’re away and didn’t want the vegetables to go to waste. So there were also cucumbers, in addition to more zucchini and tomatoes!

Watching

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) - what an incredible film, beautifully acted and written. A powerful reminder of why art is so vital, and the terrible price we sometimes pay in the pursuit of it. And Chadwick Boseman’s monologues are all the more powerful knowing that he must have had his own mortality in mind as he shot those scenes, as it was his last film. What a loss he has been.

Black Mirror (Netflix) - I enjoy surreal, futuristic dark comedy that still feels like it takes place in the real world, and this hits the spot while feeling terrifyingly prescient.

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - safe to say we are now completely addicted to this fabulous show, and have also started learning French on Duolingo again.

What do you think - is being off social media agreeing with me? ;)

Wearing/applying

I bought some new jeans last November and they are the best I’ve had in recent history - Curve Embracer by Jeans West. I highly recommend them.

New Vitamin C serum and a new night cream - I may return to the old favourites if these don’t pass muster but so far so good. I’ve had an occasional mild bout of maskne and Go-To’s exfoliating swipeys cleared that up within a day, so I will have to restock those as I am perilously close to running out.

Apart from having them shaped regularly by a professional, I’ve never paid much attention to my eyebrows but a beauty editor friend recommended Rimmel London’s Wonder Last Brow Tint for Days and I’m not sure what it is but (I think) I look more polished and put together on the days I use it! Very easy to apply. I, obviously, use the blonde shade.

Thinking about

My friends currently in isolation/quarantine because their children caught covid at school. I know at least four families in this situation at the moment!

The fact that when I was born, if my mother had wanted to get a passport, she would have needed my father’s permission to do so. Australia didn’t change that law until 1983. That blows my mind and frankly makes me incredibly angry. I love writing historical fiction but oh my god am I glad to live in this time, as a woman, despite how far we still have to go.

An essay I started writing this week about superstition, friendship and the writing process. I’m going to have to dig deep for this one. It will be interesting!

Favourite experiences of the week

Getting a Wordle in two guesses - and Tom got one in ONE! I am yet to experience that phenomenon.

My monthly seminar with ACT Writers - this month’s lecturer was Claire G. Coleman and WOW, what a powerhouse she is. So generous, insightful and fun to learn from. “Don't be afraid to write garbage” was one of her many pieces of pithy advice.

Meeting up with my new PhD supervisor, who is actually an old acquaintance from London! One day we will share the incredible story of how our paths crossed and now have crossed again. It makes me believe in magic.

this week

GRATEFUL FOR

The world has felt very wonky and fragile these past few weeks (and years), so it goes without saying how grateful I am to be safe and healthy. But this week I was also especially grateful for a quiet place to work while I had a deadline, and a kind and understanding husband who made me lunch and brought me tea at regular intervals.

IN AWE OF

Nature. It’s the best reset button.

READING

Meanjin Quarterly: How writing can shred you

Sydney Review of Books: Ditching the New Yorker voice

Smokehouse by Melissa Manning, a magnificent collection of short stories set in a part of Tasmania not far from where I grew up.

An Onion in My Pocket: My Life with Vegetables by Deborah Madison. A dear friend bought me Madison’s Vegetable Literacy for my birthday many years ago and it’s one of my favourites - I didn’t know anything about her though, and now I do! Foodie memoirs are such a comfort genre for me, I find them really cosy and fun to dive into for bedtime or rainy day reading. I loved Madison’s exploration of her life through food, vegetarianism, Zen practice, travelling and working in restaurants. I particularly enjoyed her recounting of when she was basically the assistant to a fairly eccentric woman who lived on the east coast of the US - as I had met many similar characters on my own travels through that part of America, I could picture it all very clearly! I also loved her chapter on her most memorable meals, which I might have a go at writing about myself sometime.

LISTENING TO

Mary Lattimore’s Til A Mermaid Drags You Under - I’ve had this song on repeat all week, for writing, yoga, and meditation. It’s just exquisite.

Wild with Sarah Wilson: This is why you’re finding the world too much, with Johann Hari, Oliver Burkeman: 4,000 weeks, it’s all we’ve got in this lifetime, folks! and David Whyte: the insta-calm of poetry and asking beautiful questions. I love this podcast. I’m constantly in awe of Sarah Wilson’s passion, integrity and fierce intelligence. And her guests are pretty interesting too!

I wrote SO much this week and therefore cycled between all my writing playlists - I have four. A general one (heavily leaning on Einaudi, Frahm, Richter and Hutchings), a Morning Pages one, a “moody and dramatic” one (where I really want to stir up some big emotions, possibly even cry while writing) and a “writing beats” one which is chilled house and dance and more for editing or corporate/freelance writing, where my brain needs to be more alert and focused rather than completely lost in its own world.

EATING

Bruschetta - one of my most favourite things to make and eat this time of year, when tomatoes are at their fragrant, juicy best. And the smell of fresh basil just makes me swoon. You seriously couldn’t get a more delicious, satisfying meal from such a small number of ingredients. If you have grown tomatoes yourself and they’re ready to pick, eat them like this. Mine were still warm from the sun.

A summer tomato and green bean curry (pictured) - all homegrown produce, braised in mild spices, tamarind, coconut milk and curry leaves. Absolutely delicious, though when I make it again I will add potatoes to make it slightly more substantial as it was a little liquid from all the tomato juices (though the broth was beautiful). Let me know if you want me to write up the recipe.

Tofu fried rice (several times!)

Vegan banana bread

I also cleaned out the freezer and made breadcrumbs from all the end pieces I had stored in there, and now have a giant jar of crunchy crumbs ready for an autumn of gratins and pasta bakes.

DRINKING

I’m a bit of a fan of the Twinings Infuse bags for cold water (though, they come in plastic, SIGH) and this week I tried the blueberry, apple and blackcurrant flavour, which I think might be my new favourite. Fruity but not sweet, just how I like it!

I’ve also rediscovered T2 Tea’s New York Breakfast - with soy milk, honey and a pinch of salt. Divine.

PICKING

So many tomatoes. Zucchini verging on marrowhood. Green and yellow beans, cooked to a melting softness in the aforementioned curry. Celery, getting thicker and prouder by the day. Figs, though the netting has obscured their ripeness from me and therefore there were many past their prime rotting in the bottom of the pot, but a feast for the ants. Strawberries are still cropping nicely, and swiping one as I water the garden in the morning or evening is a delightful treat - these are without a doubt the best, sweetest strawberries I’ve ever eaten in my life.

My parents also brought round more tomatoes, zucchini and apples. I’m going to make Pip Lincolne’s spaghetti with roasted tomatoes tonight, and zucchini relish and stewed apples over the weekend.

WATCHING

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - I think I am more obsessed with this show than I was with Pam and Tommy. Such a finely written and acted comedy about the French film world, and more specifically a Parisian talent agency and all the hijinks the agents and clients get up to. We’ve laughed so hard watching it. It’s lovely to see Paris again too - the Paris I remember. It’s seriously brilliant and I highly recommend it!

WEARING/APPLYING

Country Road sweatshirts - I have two (navy and citrus) and live in them. They’re perfect for this in-between time of year where it’s 28 degrees one day and 15 the next!

THINKING ABOUT

A book I saw in a country charity shop two years ago, in the Before times, only just. I really wish I’d bought it and I wonder if it’s still there. I might take a road trip next week and find out…though, with the price of petrol at the moment, perhaps not.

FAVOURITE EXPERIENCE/S OF THE WEEK

A 9km bushwalk with my friend and her dog…and getting an ice cream afterwards!

I also loved having my mum over for coffee and aforementioned vegan banana bread. I know I’ve been back for three years now, but the idea that my mum, who I often went years without seeing, can now just pop round to my place for a coffee is still a novel one, and utterly delightful.

this week

Figs on my tree. I think this time next week they will all be ready to eat.

Grateful for

Health. Safety. Love. Enough to eat, clean water.

More granularly, I was grateful for the kind words and encouragement from my friend and fellow creative writing PhD candidate who just gets it, as it’s been a bit of hard slog this week. Also deeply grateful for this Charlotte Wood interview where there were two very comforting things said that I really needed to hear:

“It’s taken me a very long time to trust that the book will show me how to write it if I just pay attention. If I don’t freak out too much, if I don’t resist what’s happening as I write…but it’s hard to trust that, because a lot of the time you’re throwing stuff away because it’s wrong! With the first draft, the only thing I can do is go with it.”

“I’m always telling younger writers to normalise rejection. It’s not something that you can avoid and it’s not something you should attach too much meaning to. Your work will find its way if you pay attention to the work. The best way for me to deal with rejection is to go back to my work. When I’m really dug in to a work, all of that anxiety about the outside world and what people think of you just drops away. Which is kind of why I write, I think.”

In awe of

Those in the medical profession. How they stay so calm, professional and caring through it all.

Reading

Frankie Magazine: Where to recycle your clothes and shoes in Australia

The Saturday Paper: Bruce Pascoe on why we should bring back Aboriginal food industries

The Audacity: The Ladies Room by Nancy Powaga - “Listen, you can’t tell a person’s gender based on how they look, and you shouldn’t assume or tell someone they’re in the wrong bathroom.” A very moving and powerful piece. I particularly appreciated Nancy’s point about how all forms of oppression are connected.

The Planthunter: A Message From The Flood Zone - “I have read many peer reviewed scientific papers about the link between a warming climate and extreme weather events like flooding and bushfires. I knew, intellectually, that events of this nature would happen in my lifetime. But knowing something intellectually is very different to living it.“

The Conversation: The new IPCC report’s grim predictions, and why adaptation efforts are falling behind. This is rather terrifying reading.

My Body by Emily Ratajkowski. The perfect read to follow bingeing the Pam and Tommy series.

Listening to

Black Magic Woman: Interview with Reconciliation Australia’s CEO, Karen Mundine

ABC Conversations: Dr Anne Aly’s passion for justice

Life Examined: Alain de Botton and the complexity of modern day love

Eating

One-pan orecchiette puttanesca from Ottolenghi’s Flavour (pictured)

Crowd-pleasing Tex Mex casserole (perfect vehicle for leftover cooked rice, FYI)

Tinned tomato risotto - but this time with fresh tomatoes from the garden, and I veganised it.

I also turned some of the huge pile of cucumbers my neighbour gave me into a pickle, which we’ve eaten with tofu and rice so far. Homegrown cucumbers are indeed a revelation.

Drinking

This jalapeño and lime soda is nose-pricklingly tangy and really good! Perfect with Friday night nachos, which seem to have become a thing.

Picking

Silverbeet, chard, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes and… celery! A friend gave me a celery plant during the national lockdown of 2020, which I kept in a pot until a few months ago, when it became increasingly clear it was confined and starting to suffer. I planted it in the ground and it has thrived. Instead of being more like a herb that I’d use as a parsley substitute, it has become quite substantial. Hence I am now harvesting pencil-thick stalks of celery.

Watching

TV-wise, not much! The last episode of Pam and Tommy (Disney+) which I am still reeling from and a bit of chain-watching The Simpsons (also Disney+) because we haven’t watched it for 10 years and suddenly have hundreds of episodes we’ve never seen, which is a huge novelty. I’ve also caught up with my YouTube favourites in my lunch breaks…but that’s about it.

Wearing/applying

Despite Tasmania lifting the mask mandate for indoor retail spaces, I am still wearing one everywhere.

My Bell Jar t-shirt and favourite old Jack Wills hoodie.

Yoga leggings and smart jumpers for WFH (I know - JUMPERS, when it was 27 degrees last week) and posh jeans and dresses for the office. Which nobody sees unless I’m walking to the kitchen or the library, as I’m all alone in my office. Which is not a bad thing when you’re trying to write a book, but I do miss seeing people. As masks are mandated in any shared indoor spaces at uni, which I fully support, either everyone is WFH or coordinating it so we’re not in the office at the same time. It’s just what we have to do right now but it is a bit lonely.

My Vitamin C serum has run out but to be honest I wasn’t wild about it so I’m on the hunt for another…

Thinking about

Things I’m looking forward to. It’s the only way to stave off the despair and overwhelm - but, as Sarah Wilson put it in her excellent newsletter, maybe we should be overwhelmed. We should surrender to it, because then we will stop being so tolerant of the intolerable. Maybe then things will change.

Favourite experience/s of the week

Coffee with my PhD friend. Starting a new embroidery. Listening to compositions for the violin from 1815 by an early Tasmanian composer in an empty room in the library, marvelling at the two centuries that have passed, at how humanity has been here before and it will be again.

this week

A sourdough donut eaten the sun in a quiet, leafy corner of a city park is a pleasure I don’t indulge in enough.

On a current hiatus from social media, I’m finding myself wanting to blog more. So I thought I’d try something different here and do a little newsletter-like update of things I’ve done and thought about during the week.

So without further ado, this week I’ve been:

Grateful for

My health and my safety. To live somewhere untouched by severe floods and war. Moving back home has not been without its challenges, but there hasn’t been a single day that I’ve not been unbelievably grateful to be here. I don’t feel I have anything of value to add to the horrific, terrifying events currently unfolding both in Australia and overseas. But there are many ways we can help.

In awe of

Olia Hercules, Alissa Timoshkina and all the food writers in the UK who have banded together for #CookForUkraine. I have Hercules’ first book Mamushka on order.

The community in Mullumbimby who are coordinating an incredible local rescue operation in their flood-ravaged region, where landslides and broken roads have left countless people stranded. This was sobering reading.

Reading

An old favourite, What Helps by Satya Robyn, a book I often turn to when things feel overwhelming.

I discovered the American poet Jane Hirshfield in January and have just finished her 2020 collection Ledger. How her poems manage to be so confronting as well as consoling I do not know, but I loved every minute I spent with them.

Devotion by Hannah Kent, a writer of beauty and integrity who never disappoints me, whose lyrical power keeps growing and growing, and whom I’ve been fortunate enough to interview!

A pile of Flow magazines I “borrowed” from my sister.

Listening to

My inner autumn and inner winter playlists on TIDAL.

James and Ashley Stay At Home: How to remake the world with Sarah Senteilles, author of Stranger Care

Writes4Women: Heart of Writing, Nikki Gemmell on her new memoir, Dissolve

The Diary of a CEO: Fearne Cotton, THIS is how to build confidence and set yourself free

Wild with Sarah Wilson: All the Ask Me Anything episodes

Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Sophie Hutchings - all their albums, on repeat, always. Perfect writing music.

Eating

The Nacho Average Nachos from Charity Morgan’s amazing book Unbelievably Vegan - this is the fourth time I’ve made them in two weeks. It’s our new favourite summer meal! Lots of prep, admittedly, but you get enough of the fixins to get about 4 dinners out of them. The queso is quite out of this world. Everything I’ve cooked from Charity’s book has been delicious but this dish has been the stand-out so far.

I made Tasmanian culinary icon Sally Wise’s vegan coconut blackcurrant ice cream which turned out beautifully. I was delighted my basic ice cream maker I bought in 2013 still works! I will experiment with a salted caramel flavoured one next.

There’s also been our standard pizzas on the barbecue (I will write you the recipe at some point as they deserve a post of their own), this new favourite zucchini pasta, and as I’ve had a few nights working late, curry from the freezer!

Picking

I grew these!

Strawberries, chard, kale, spinach, a few figs, a handful of tomatoes. I also finally successfully grew my own garlic! The green beans are back with a vengeance so I’ll look forward to picking those next week. The potatoes are also starting to look ready to dig up, but they might be a few weeks more yet.

Watching

Pam and Tommy (Disney+) - I really didn’t think this would be for me, but I am OBSESSED. Also adoring all the 90s music.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Amazon Prime) - not only starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, but Taika Waititi and Nick Cave as well, so what’s not to like? A biopic about a little-known (to me at least) eccentric inventor and artist in Victorian London that is hilarious, sad and utterly charming. A refreshingly diverse cast too. We loved it!

Wearing/applying

This jumpsuit from local Tassie designer Keshet which has elicited many comments from friends and strangers alike. You can see it in the first photo with the donut too!

This is my SPF - I wear it every day, in every season.

This is the perfume I wore this week that got the most “you smell great” remarks.

Thinking about

Covid. Floods. Incompetent public officials. Ukraine. Peace. War. Mental health. Climate change. Insecure housing. All the biggies.

Favourite experience/s of the week

Spending time with my sisters - I had dinner with one and her family on Saturday and got a pedicure with another on Sunday, such little things I couldn’t do for many years - and going for a run on Tuesday morning after we’d had heavy rain the night before, inhaling the incredible scent of dripping eucalypts. I also got a Wordle in two guesses (that’s only happened twice).

Same time next week? Wherever you are, I hope you’re well and finding things to savour. Thanks for being here xx

a jelly-fish

Visible, invisible,
A fluctuating charm,
An amber-colored amethyst
Inhabits it; your arm
Approaches, and
It opens and
It closes;
You have meant
To catch it,
And it shrivels;
You abandon
Your intent—
It opens, and it
Closes and you
Reach for it—
The blue
Surrounding it
Grows cloudy, and
It floats away
From you.

— Marianne Moore (“A Jelly-Fish”)

This morning I woke up from a disorienting dream about someone I haven’t thought about for a long time. In the dream, an encounter was recreated and, unlike what happened in reality all those years ago, I left. I had to swim through a pool of jellyfish to get away. As I tried to cross the pool, and avoid the jellyfish, they multiplied. Not necessarily more dangerous, just harder to avoid. I found that if I swam slowly and carefully, and ironically didn’t fear them, I could pass through safely.

This afternoon, I drew this.

Bad memories are a bit like Marianne Moore’s jellyfish, aren’t they? Visible yet invisible.

But if they’re memories now, then you have already survived. There is nothing to fear. And even if they do show up again, you can swim through.

zucchini pasta

This isn’t the prettiest dish you’ll ever cook, but it will certainly one of the tastiest. It’s a great recipe to have up your sleeve this time of year when zucchini (or courgettes, I use both names interchangeably in my house!) are in season and plentiful. If you grow your own, no doubt you have them going out of your ears and are trying to think of ways to eat them. This mixture would also be a lovely dip, once cooled, or enjoyed with chunky pieces of grilled bread. Goodness, I feel hungry just writing these words!

You need to use quite a bit of oil in this recipe but that’s the secret to the creaminess of the sauce, and the reason the zucchini go so beautifully soft, as they are effectively braised with the onions and garlic. It’s not greasy at all, I promise!

Zucchini pasta

Serves 4

Good quality extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
3-5 zucchini (depending how big they are), chopped into cubes
1 garlic clove, crushed
Chilli flakes, a pinch or two
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegan sour cream (or ricotta)
Fresh basil, finely chopped or torn, as much as you like
500g dried pasta (penne or rigatoni are my preferred shape for this dish)

In a saute pan, a wide and shallow one you’d use to cook risotto or this pasta, pour in enough olive oil to cover the base, enough for the vegetables to paddle in. Place over a low-medium heat. Add your onions and a pinch of salt, stir, then leave to stew slowly. I probably should have warned you, this is the kind of dish you make on a balmy summer evening when you’ve got music playing and some other nice thing to occupy you - a book, a lover, anything where you won’t feel too impatient waiting around for something to cook.

I find the onions take about 15 minutes, you don’t want them to brown, just stew and soften. Add the zucchini, salt, garlic, chilli, black pepper, give it a good stir, then replace your lid and leave to simmer slowly over a low-medium heat until the zucchini are juicy and, when you stir them, starting to fall apart. It takes anywhere for 20 minutes to a full half hour.

Now cook your pasta, which will give the zucchini even more time to braise and soften. Drain it once it’s cooked to your liking, reserving a cup of the cooking water in case you need it.

Add the vegan sour cream and basil to the zucchini mixture, stirring well, then the pasta, stirring well to coat it thoroughly in the sauce. Add some of the pasta water if it seems dry. I like to add a final grinding of black pepper. You could add some Parmesan too, if you like.

Serve and feel inordinately blessed in your garden’s summer zucchini glut this year.

my favourite books of 2021

As it’s March tomorrow and having a blog post with 2021 in the title signifies being somewhat behind the times, I thought it was time to finish this one which I’ve had sitting in my drafts since…December 2021!

I’m going to switch things up this year and disrupt the structure of previous favourite books of the year posts. I really like how Roxane Gay writes her year-in-reading retrospectives where she writes in depth about a book she really loved, her favourite of the year, and then comes up with pithy one-line summaries for the others she enjoyed.

So, let’s give that a try!

My Favourite Book of The Year

Recipe for a Kinder Life (2021) by Annie Smithers

In what was a less-than-kind year, this book was truly balm for the soul.

In Recipe for a Kinder Life, chef Annie Smithers takes us on a tour of her property in country Victoria where she and her wife Susan are attempting to live as sustainably as they possibly can. They grow food for their own consumption as well as for Annie’s restaurant, and keep a number of animals for their eggs and wool (not to eat). Living this way means having to think about so many things you never need to worry about if you’re a city-dweller who gets all their food from an online supermarket. Things like weather, water, soil health, pest control, to say nothing of the physical labour, planning and daily maintenance that goes into a successful large-scale garden. Annie reminded me of something I too have learned from growing my own food - you have so much respect for the journey a vegetable or fruit takes from seed to table when you’ve grown it yourself, and you’ll never waste anything again.

But this is not just a book about growing your own food, a journey to self sufficiency and how to live the good life. It’s about a kinder, sustainable life in every sense of the word, right down to the hours you work, how you manage your time, how you prioritise, and how you can craft your life around what you value without burning yourself out. Annie shares the lessons she’s learned in this arena, especially after a long career in hospitality and restaurants, which entailed often working unsociable hours. It all comes at a price and Annie encourages you to ask yourself if you’re prepared to pay it.

The book is not instructional or didactic in any way - Annie tells the story of Babbington Park, sharing what she and Susan have done and why, what has worked for them, what hasn’t and what they still have to learn. The reader is free to take from it what they will. But you can’t help but be inspired by Annie’s vision and hard work, and the desires and values she’s designed her life around: to tread gently on the earth, treat resources with reverence, and live in a sustainable and kind way that ripples out beyond your own household.

I have a feeling this book will be a great companion for the next chapter of my own journey to a more self-sufficient, sustainable and kinder life. If you read it, I hope you get as much out of it as I did!

The book everyone was talking about which is 100% worthy of the hype

Sorrow and Bliss (2021) by Meg Mason

A sumptuous, riveting, clever novel with a shock ending that I can’t stop thinking about

From Where I Fell (2021) by Susan Johnston

The book that made me ache with rage and recognition

Dissolve (2021) by Nikki Gemmell

A beautiful and harrowing book set in two places I’ve lived

The Cookbook of Common Prayer (2021) by Francesca Haig

An incredible novel every Australian should read

After Story (2021) by Larissa Behrendt

The book I bought the day it came out and in which I made the most notes and annotations

The Luminous Solution (2021) by Charlotte Wood

A marvellous and moving meditation on nature, politics, art, power and truth

Orwell’s Roses (2021) by Rebecca Solnit

A library book I loved so much I bought my own copy and bought more for friends

The Details (2020) by Tegan Bennett Daylight

The book that changed me

Bowerbird (2018) by Alanna Valentine

A powerful and confronting book I read in one sitting

Misfits: A Personal Manifesto (2021) by Michaela Coel

A gripping, well-crafted tale of domestic bliss gone wrong which I adored from start to finish

Magpie (2021) by Elizabeth Day

A marvellous novel with a bizarre ending set in Tasmania that is also about writing, life, ambition and legacy

Wood Green (2016) by Sean Rabin

A collection of beautifully composed short stories that was arresting and haunting, and surprisingly modern

Tell It To A Stranger (1947, 2000) by Elizabeth Berridge

A book that inspired me to watch a film that has a perfect and moving ending (Big Night)

Taste: My Life Through Food (2021) by Stanley Tucci

A witty and charming romance about identity, language, belonging, and a couple that doesn’t believe in love

A Lover’s Discourse (2020) by Xiaolu Guo

A book that comforted and uplifted as the year came to an end

These Precious Days (2021) by Ann Patchett

quitting social media: an experiment

At the start of January 2022, I decided to have a somewhat permanent break from social media.

I didn't announce it nor did I particularly plan it ahead of time - it was a combination of the lingering effects of some stressful events at the end of 2021 to top off what had not been a vintage year anyway; and despair at what felt like a maelstrom of anger and fear everywhere I looked online around the time of the omicron surge in Australia. For my mental health, I knew something needed to change.

I was also increasingly dissatisfied with how many hours I knew I was losing to basically what is the psyche's equivalent of the pokies.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there are some great aspects to social media. It’s not a bad thing in itself. But what many of us don’t appreciate is that the companies who own the platforms (Facebook/Meta/Zuckerverse, etc) designed them deliberately to be as addictive as possible. Therefore, trying to get some semblance of balance in your usage of social media is so much harder than you’d think.

So, I disappeared. Cold turkey.

Has anyone noticed? I have no idea! But what I have noticed is an incredible difference in my mental health, my stress levels, my equilibrium, my energy, and my creativity. It might be a combination of other changes I’ve made (more about those later) but I can’t recall ever feeling this clear-headed in my entire adult life.

Connection with others is what fuels me. And I value the connections I’ve made on social media over the years very much. But many of them have been taken offline - I now have two penpals who live in Melbourne, both of whom I follow on socials, but during the lockdowns we started writing letters to each other, which we’ve continued. As a result I know far more about what is really going on in their lives than what they choose to share publicly on their grids - and likewise they know far more about what’s really going on with me. That is real connection. That is what I want more of.

The video below (please forgive the portrait mode it was shot in, I know it should be landscape!) is a little stream-of-consciousness ramble I recorded three weeks into my break. Another month has passed since I recorded this and I still feel no real need to return. I am missing the connection and interaction with others but I know with a bit of effort this can be sourced elsewhere. And I think more and more people are catching on. Perhaps blogging is about to have a big renaissance.

Stay tuned. This is an interesting, and exciting, experiment. 

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hello everyone! It’s the thirty-first of January, which means I have been off social media for three weeks today. And, as I've alluded to in previous videos, I've been so surprised by the fact that I haven't missed it at all.

I feel calmer, I feel less panicked, I feel less anxiety, I don't feel as angry or tense or on edge. I don't feel like my attention or focus is compromised. I feel clearer in the head and more alert. I've been able to choose where my energy goes and that's incredibly empowering.

I really thought that I had a handle on my social media habits. I really thought that I chose when I looked at these various platforms, that I chose the time of day or the period of time that I allowed myself to have a look but I really didn't appreciate how many hours each day I was clocking up, refreshing and losing time when there wasn't really anything new to see and, more to the point, there wasn't anything new for me to say or share! It was just very basic stuff that I'm not sure people are really all that interested in and it's not content I want to devote my precious time and creativity to. I want to use my creativity for my creative work and so to have this time back, this brain space back, feels like such a gift.

And it was a gift I was able to give myself with basically no effort. All I had to do was make the decision. It's amazing what a transformation it has been.

I didn't realise that the average social media user spends 2.5 hours a day on the various platforms – that’s 15-18 hours a week? That's a part time job! So when you think about it that way, that’s 15-18 hours a week that you could get a part time job, that you could use to learn an instrument, to train for a 10K, to write a novel, to build websites, to exercise, to start a garden, to spend time with your family - all of these things that we think we don't have the time to do, we actually do but it's making a choice to use your time consciously and to make conscious choices. That’s something that I have advocated publicly for a very long time, but it was always within the health and fitness context. I’m slowly appreciating that making conscious choices is something that effects every aspect of our lives - physical health, mental health, wellbeing, financial freedom, financial health, career, everything! We have far more choices than we think we do. We have more power than we think we do.

I guess as I've gotten older, my life is just more and more about wanting to live in integrity and really wanting to live my values. Having had this little time out to figure out what those values are and articulate them for myself and know deep within what I want to stand for and how I want to spend my time and the difference I want to make…if everyone could have this kind of epiphany, I wonder what kind of world we’d live in.

I'll leave it there for now. I don't know when I'm going to go back on these things. I don't know if I'll go back at all! We shall see. Thank you for listening.

Would you like to share your thoughts on this post with me? Please do - I’d love to hear from you!

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chilli chickpea and sausage casserole

Chilli chickpea and veggie sausage casserole
Adapted from Stylist
Serves 6

You will need:
Olive oil
1 large onion or leek, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed (you can use as much garlic as you like, great for warding off colds!)
1 small chilli, finely chopped, or 3/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
2 boxes/packets of vegetarian/vegan sausages (12 in total) [I use Linda McCartney, they are the best veggie sausages ever]
2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
1 x 425g cans organic chickpeas
1 x 25g tin tomato puree
1 x 370g pouch chopped tomatoes
100ml wine (red or white)
250ml vegetable stock, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Spinach, roughly chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C/Gas Mark 4/375 F.

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a large casserole pan (treat yourself to a Le Creuset if you haven't already) over medium high heat.  Add the onion, chilli and garlic, cook until softened and golden, then add the sausages.  They don't need to be browned like meat sausages, but just coated in all the oniony chilli oily goodness.  Cook for about a minute then add the drained chickpeas, paprika, tomato puree, wine, stock, vinegar and seasoning.  Mix well.

Cover and place in the oven for about 45 minutes.  Check and add more stock if it gets dry.

Stir in the parsley and spinach just before serving so the spinach wilts.