Good morning! Here are some good things to read, cook and eat, shop for, bookmark and wear. I hope some of them alleviate the disgusted, incredulous feeling that so many of us in Europe have been experiencing since last Friday. What a world.
↑ The photo is from garden designer Butter Wakefield’s Instagram. Now is peak time for putting cheap supermarket daffodils and narcissi in every available vessel, and also peak time for plonking those little plastic tubs of ready-potted bulbs in cups, glasses, mugs, bowls, and anywhere else that will have them. I don’t bother decanting them - I just stick the tub they came in in a container and cover it with garden moss if the edges show.
This giant clump ↑ was £14.99 from the garden centre (I did decant this one before putting it in a salad bowl. It was very root bound and I felt sorry for it).
Canada goose fights off bald eagle in rare, symbolism-laden battle on ice.
Rukmini Iyer on getting breast cancer while eight months pregnant. Much more uplifting than I’m making it sound, and wonderful writing.
Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst, which I first wrote about here ages ago, has just won the Nero prize.
Fundamentally and A Little Trickerie, which I ran free-to read extracts from (here and here) have both been long listed for the Women’s Prize.
This, while savage, was also the most perceptive thing I read about Meghan Markle’s Netflix show, but unfortunately I think it requires a sub. It acknowledges right at the top that she was a victim of appalling racism. I’m not sure white women commentators realise how deeply brown and black people feel this - and feel it again every time it’s not mentioned in the rush to pillory her. Doesn't make her show any better, but it’s a … strange... omission.
Why we all need little journals.
Emma Beddington on the empty nest.
Ageing. Exactly.