Weekend supplement
free edition!
Good morning! Before I forget - Lucinda’s picks for January will appear next week because finding ourselves almost halfway through the month has taken us both by surprise. I’m still mentally in that limbo, when all I really want to do is potter about, read, have snacks, look at paint charts and seed catalogues and - it’s related - avoid the news wherever possible for reasons of sanity. Anyway: Lucinda’s January AGAIL will be up this coming week, sorry for the delay.
What I really want to do is discuss The Traitors at vast and epic length, though I’ll keep it brief. If you haven’t seen it this week yet, scroll down to the next lot of dots.
Fiona! On Thursday’s episode she was like the nice lady who makes cakes for the village fete and also turns out to have a sideline in poison pen letters or petnapping. It was a really trollish eruption of pure jealousy and I was quite shocked by it. It blew up in her face last night, surprising no one except Fiona herself, but talk about something straight out of a cosy-ish crime novel. Brr. (Rachel was always going to triumph, but although she now has some heat off her, beady Harriet excepted, I’m not convinced she’ll be there at the end. Needless to say I am glued to it all).
As noted, I am still in sloth-like slow motion, apart from house stuff. The lime plaster person is starting next week, hooray, and I am having a lovely time looking at paint colours (as you’ll know from my book if you’ve read it, I love the transformative power of paint). Here was the kitchen one night this week. I’m so glad I went for yellow.
What I’m finding so nice about the new house is that I am growing to really love the old-fashioned bits that I had been planning to replace before we moved in, even the agèd bathrooms, which have fitted carpet. They remind me, in the best way, of going to stay at friends’ houses in the country when I was a teenager, jostling for mirror space on a Saturday night before a party, swapping Miners makeup while the adults ate coq au vin downstairs (and drank 75 bottles of claret even though the dad was coming to collect you later, because it was the olden days).
I’m going to take the bathroom carpet up for reasons of mild squeamishness about ancient pee drops. Until that happens, though, I do love the feeling of toes on wool straight out of the bath. Surely bathroom carpet is due a revival, like coloured suites? Ditto the kitchen cabinets, which aren’t necessarily the ones I’d have picked - but I’ve never ripped out a kitchen in any of my houses, and when you sit with a house for a bit, you often realise that the things that give it soul are the old things that were comfortable in the space loooong before you came along.
We’d better get on with the actual things I’m supposed to be writing about, namely what I’ve liked this week.
I write these posts for paid subscribers once a week, and for free subscribers once a month. This is a free post. All posts auto-paywall after 4 weeks.
The Cotswolds
I don’t know why a load of posts by Alan Rusbridger are suddenly appearing weeks after the events they describe, but never mind because this is very funny and beady about how parts of the Cotswolds have become not very Cotswoldsish.
Country clothes
Some overlap with the above: how to actually dress in the country.
Things that make a house a home
I couldn’t have loved this more - it’s a paid post, but Christene’s newsletter is one of the very very best, full of charm and delight and beauty and mega-usefulness, and is therefore a WISE investment.
And then a few days later she did it again with this post. (I have such deep cabin envy).
Cake
Jolene Handy’s posts are another paid must. Here she is on Twelfth Night and cake.
This bra
Or rather, this family of bras from Aubade, very specifically the ones with the stretchy mesh bit above the lace part of the cup. I know - the price makes you want to pass out, though some of them are currently in the sale.
I bought one after trying at least a dozen bras on recently and it is simply the best bra I’ve ever owned - the most flattering and best fitting, the most comfortable, the one that sits perfectly under clothes, and the most attractive, as well it might be at this price.
(My new thing is not buying false-economy tat because I’ve got carried away by the cheapness - I’m doing far, far fewer clothes, but better ones. It’s not all expensive - e.g. these, so so good, though I don’t know why they’re called jersey trousers because there’s no jersey in them. Also did you read Lauren Collins’s piece on Uniqlo last year? Completely fascinating).
Speaking of sales
Here are some things I’ve mentioned in the last few months that are now reduced:
Obviously the If Only If nighties. I can’t tell you how the fleecy one has enhanced my evenings recently, with something on tv and these socks, or these, and cheese on toast with a thick layer of kimchi underneath
My beloved coat - a proper, weighty, brilliantly cut, forever wool coat that I can’t recommend enough - was briefly in the sale but then for some reason went back to full price. But this one looks nice too
And the useful shirt (various iterations) that is great under tanktops/vests
And the Vivienne Westwood jacket
And the Uniqlo weatherproof coat
Actually, do you know what, now that I’m clicking about, there’s too much to list, including my favourite earrings. If anyone - anyone?? - is feeling flush at this time of year, go and have a look in my shop ↓ - there’s a strong possibility that the thing you like the look of is currently reduced. And as I say, they’re all intended to be keepers, at least in my view.
Arthur Parkinson’s dahlia picks
I’ve literally obeyed Arthur to the letter for years, ever since he hove into view on Instagram, and have been rewarded with incredible flowers even though back then I had absolutely no idea of what I was doing. Don’t sleep on his newsletter, his brilliant books, here and here, and very much here, and also here if you keep hens or are thinking about keeping hens. All of them are indispensable. And here are tubers to order for this summer:
This street in Deptford
Specifically, an early Georgian street that has somehow swerved ‘development’.
Natural nails
Well, natural-ish. Not completely buggered up by gel polish, at any rate. I love the brand Manicurist and I really like their whole Active range, these being polishes that make your natural nails shine while also giving them a bit of nourishing help. My favourite of the products is this one (various shades), but they’re all really pretty on the hands.
For lunch today
Brown butter pasta with lemon and sage. She’s also got a really stonking-sounding cauliflower cheese recipe for paid subscribers this week.
Literary cocktail napkins
Look at these from Pentreath & Hall! They’re going to sell out any second now.
(I also really enjoyed Ben Pentreath’s latest blog post - the photos are heaven plus there’s quite a dramatic weather-based arc).
This magnetic shopping list for the fridge
My old one is in a box somewhere and this one is a pleasing small self-gift.
Tim Walker’s house in World of Interiors
Treats for the eyes. Here’s the article.
In brief:
James Marriott hath returneth from writing his book, thank God
Industry is back next week! But at 10.40pm, which may as well be 4am
New London hotel incoming. I like the look of it
New (to me, it came out in November) Wyndham & Banerjee from Abir Mukherjee! (you need to read these in order, or the audiobooks are very well done)
Have I posted this recipe for Three Cup Chicken before (guest link)? Sorry if yes. I’ve made it twice in the past two weeks, so desperate am I for fresh flavours after all the stodge of Christmas. It’s really easy and really delicious. Claire Thomson also has a vg recipe for it in New Kitchen Basics, one of my stalwarts
I have to go now because I’ve been sent a copy of this. Yesterday I decided to go back to the beginning and re(rerere)read all of them from the beginning, with this one as a present at the end. I have really high hopes - Louisa Young is the perfect person to trust with it, I think. You can pre-order here, it’s out in September, and obviously I’ll report back when I’m done.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful weekend! I’m planting myself on the sofa with the Cazalets as soon as we’ve had breakfast, walked the dogs and opened 10 boxes, which is the new daily target. The boxes rarely contain what I want them to contain but never mind, we’ll get there in the end (the lampshades are still hiding - it’s like a joke at this point - as are my two favourite paintings, my wall hanging and my Instant Pot, which I really need).
Do please really kindly leave this post a ❤️ if you liked it, thank you, and I’ll be back in the week with Lucinda and maybe a post about being an adult, or rather about the many, many small ways in which I am in fact about 14. I started making a list in my head and it is quite long.
Before I read the rest I just have to boast a little bit. I KNEW it was Fiona all along. Her eyes were cold and she smirked instead of smiled. She was not the village fete cake baker. She was the mean girl in the playground. But then I grew up in Wales. I came across a fair few Fionas in my formative years.
I can’t believe how you quickly you have achieved the cosy homely India look in you kitchen, it looks as though you have been there for years! Really looking forward to seeing the rest of the house🥰