Add to List - #49
Plants mimicking life, the festive writer meet up, and general grinching
Add to List is the Sunday round-up containing the small things that brought me joy, evoked an emotional reaction or became some short-lived stability in the past 7 days.
Thanks for reading!
Obsession
This prayer plant.
This prayer plant recently grew a totally new shoot. Its leaves have been furled up in a scroll. (How writer-ly). And, only this week did it unfurl. How cute!
The shoot arrived when I got my first commission though since going freelance; it started to unfurl the week my bylines started to go live. Art meets life? More like life meets botany. I love nature.
Confession
I think we should cancel socialising before Christmas. I hate it.
Please excuse my grinching but with the exception of our nourishing writer meet up last week, I don’t get the need for this unholy festive spree at the busiest time of the year. If I hear another ‘I must see you before Christmas,’ I will scream. What is wrong with me in January? March? June even? I don’t die on the 25th December and nor does anybody else, not even Jesus.
It’s cold, it’s miserable. The drinking at this time of year always becomes ferally charged rocket-fuel for escaping crushing deadlines and expediting negative bank balances. Party to celebrate end of the fiscal year on April 6th instead anyone?
Shook
How busy London is ALL THE TIME?
Following on from the above, maybe I am turning into a grinch but I cannot stand being outside of the house past 3p.m. on any given day of the week. Weekends, especially.
I had to cross Hyde Park Corner on Friday night on my way to a short film festival opening. The festival opening was lovely but the journey? It short-ed my life expectancy.
Cook
Things in sauces, turmeric shots (and a shameless plug for a restaurant review).
I’ve been eating bean stews, chicken broth and warming hearty meals this week. Basically, anything with a sauce is on the menu. Plus, we’ve taken to making homemade warming turmeric shots every morning in our household to try and keep any festive lurgy away.
Concoction as follows: 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, grind of black pepper, shot of apple cider vinegar and mix with hot water. Not sure if it’s psychological, but I do feel better for it.
If that sounds disgusting to you and you’d prefer to read about the golden hues of food in a more decadent way, then transport yourself here. It’s my latest restaurant review of Oriole, Covent Garden.
Book
Will You Read This, Please? - Edited by Joanna Cannon.
Nearly finished this one. From post-partum psychosis, to bi-polar, gambling addictions to severe unknown forms of OCD, this book is a welcome education into the mind and the debilitating experience of mental illness. My reading time this week has mostly been spent on Substack, though. More info below.
Can’t Stop Scanning
Words from the attendees of our writer meet up.
On Wednesday,
and I hosted our festive writer meet up and caught up with some of our wonderful and interesting regulars (there’s now too many of them to list here!) as well as welcoming some lovely newbies into the fold.
We toasted to a year of good writing and exploration. We split into small groups and took a moment to reflect on the year gone by as well as collectively discussing future plans on the platform. It left me, as always, feeling inspired, interested and in awe of the huge amount of talent in this community and the way in which everyone is exploring themselves.
Thank you to
for promoting the event. It was lovely to meet Ana, Hannah and SJ IRL. Excited to recognise a handful more faces to wave to when I dial into their regular Writers’ Hours. And thank you Aleisha who was there to capture the vibe for us.
I am slowly but surely making my way through all the wonderful words of our attendees. So far, a few of my favourite reads this week were:
- : by
- , by Ally Gilbert
Forward Planning
A Substack collab (and some Christmas shopping).
I recently put a call-out on notes here to see if people would be happy to type up their gripes for a collaboration post. In the spirit of Un-Christmas, the inputs have come in thick and fast. Turns out people love letting out their inner scrooge! Next week I’ll finalise compiling them. I am laughing out loud reading these words come in. Excited to share this one with you!
Plus, I better let go of my inner grinch; it’s time to start the Christmas shopping. Ho-Ho-Hoverdraft.
Thanks so much for the mention and for setting up such an incredible evening :) xx
I’m extreeeemely there on April 6th. Thank you for the lovely shout out, and for hosting the one December hang I also didn’t dread?? This grinch also left feeling super fulfilled and inspired!