Nine things i'm into
one of my irregular lists
1. Drinking white port and tonic with a slice of orange
I had a small gathering on Friday ahead of my birthday this week and I served this drink. I also tried to make ice cubes with violas in them, but it didn’t go very well – the flowers floated to the top of the water, so by the time it froze they were half in-half out and they didn’t have the romantic look of being a delicate insect encased in amber that I’d envisaged. But the drink itself was very refreshing and I could mix it in a big jug and didn’t have to faff about.
2. Poole Pottery hand painted lamps
I specifically like the unfussy, painterly design. I have one which I bought from eBay and had rewired and I’m hoping I’ll encounter another in a charity shop one day.
3. Henri Gillet’s Nouvelles Fantaisies Décoratives
I would love to buy a copy of this but it’s incredibly rare and expensive. If I had a copy I’d have a go at painting some of the designs onto things and fulfil my ornamentation fantasies.
4. Perpetual calendars
This one looks identical to one my grandma had that I think my brother asked to keep after she died. At least I hope he has it, and we didn’t give it to a charity shop. For all I know he could be the one listing it for sale on Etsy right now.
I recently ate two versions of this at Murger Han and Xi’an Biang Biang and at each meal they were easily my favourite thing! So, I tried to recreate them for my birthday drinks and managed a pretty good attempt. I messed up the chilli, spring onion, chilli oil that’s described in the linked recipe and had to throw it away and use a load of pre-made chilli crisp instead, but it was decent!
6. Toad Bakery’s Meringue Surprise Cake
I entered Polyester magazine’s fundraiser for a fellowship in memory of their beloved friend Eden Young and I won a cake from Toad Bakery. I ordered it for my drinks, and it was unreal.
7. Tabitha Lasley’s Sea State
My friend Bryony lent this book after she read it on holiday, and I absolutely loved it. I’d read an essay by Tabitha’s in Granta a while back and found her writing really exciting then, but Sea State surpassed my already high expectations. It’s so alert and sharp and compellingly frank I felt I was reading a psychological thriller.
8. Lavender and apricot as a colour combo
Last year I began to accumulate lots of things in lavender – my phone case, a raincoat from Cawley, a cardigan. In a botched attempt to tidy I hung up the cardigan on the back of my bedroom door where it lay against an apricot-coloured hoodie and felt deeply pleased by the contrast. Then in April I came out of my self-imposed Amy Paints Pets retirement to paint Dolly Alderton’s cat Goldie to say thank-you for her support for my book and chose lavender for the background colour to Goldie’s beautiful fur.
9. Babyyy by Grace Ives
I’ve been listening to this for a while, but it seems to have hit differently in this woozy weird non-summer weather.
My neighbour Sanj who is deeply into all things healing always notices when I keep wearing items at the same colour and says it’s the colour of the chakra that you need to attend to!!