Edition 5
On my mind this week:
Brewing coffee in the small hours of the morning while watching the sun slowly make it’s way over the horizon. Opening the door of my tiny daughter’s bedroom when she is just awake, grinning up at me while determinedly voicing “mama” and doing her customary wiggle. Watching my dog follow the sun patches across the carpet, carefully creating a nest of dirt when the sun is at just the right point in the garden. Fresh earth. Dew on spiderwebs. New green leaves. Sun-bleached stones. The river rippling in widening circles as I stand on our local bridge, gum leaves drooping gracefully while cockatoos flock and call between neighbouring trees. Dogs leaping with abandon from the water’s edge to chase an old, sodden tennis ball. The crispy bits of melted cheese that escape onto the hot black surface of the toastie maker. My son calling them cheese and toasties. The tangle of vines at the back of our garden. The studio window where I sit to answer emails, scribble notes and write. The background hum of the neighbour’s lawn mower. The wood pile of old railway sleepers chopped and delivered from my father-in-law ready for the approaching autumn weather. Crisp nights, dry warm days. The anticipation of an old friend’s wedding. Fresh socks in new sneakers. Music that pulses so loudly at the gym I can’t hear myself think and what a relief. Lifting heavy weights that once seemed impossible. Growing into myself and my thoughts. Seeing aging as slowly getting to know yourself, what you need, how you thrive, how to protect yourself from things that work against you. The sense that you are here. You are present. Whatever happens the gentle joy of the ordinary days when life hums along and nothing much happens. The knowledge that comes from the low lows, from traumatic shocks, from events that can shake you to your core, the knowledge that for most of your life the ordinary days will be there. Steadily moving you on. They are the stuff that counts. The huge highs and lows are the punctuation, the catalysts for changes of direction, the arrows pointing you in alternate directions, but the tiny things inherent in the mundane days are the words that make your story, propelling the narrative forward until one day you’re dead. Now there’s a cheerful thought. May as well get on with the doing and the saying and the writing and the creating and the loving then hey? Something I noticed about lockdown. Our world upended itself and felt almost entirely unrecognisable except that I still had to do the washing, wash the dishes and decide what to have for dinner. So yeah, I've strangely found comfort in that. When disaster strikes, make a cup of tea, do the dishes, go to bed, wake up, drink water, eat, repeat.
Something to think about:
On Monday of this week over 100,000 women and men around Australia marched for justice, enraged by the seeming apathy and ignorance displayed by our political leaders and particularly our prime minister Scott Morrison. His failure (and the failure of so many governments before him) to meaningfully address the culture inherent in parliament house and in our country at large is staggering. Women and many men too are calling for change, standing up and saying enough is enough. Enough accepting that women can be sexually harassed and even assaulted and raped in their workplaces. Enough that every week in Australia one woman is murdered at the hands of her partner or former partner. In front of the Australian parliament house, Brittany Higgins gave a powerful and frankly incredibly brave speech right outside the place where she was raped by a male colleague only a few years ago. She outlined that it was only after coming forward with her story, evidence that had previously been swept under the rug came to light. She outlined that her family were then targets of a smear campaign to discredit her and she was in fact accused of being ‘a lying cow’ by her previous boss and the so called ‘minister for women’ who along with her prime minister wasn’t brave enough to walk the few hundred metres to attend the rally. Here is Brittany’s speech in full. I attended the rally in Melbourne and was blown away by the quality of the speeches and the energy and determination shown by so many seeking meaningful change in this country. It feels like a turning point, like there is momentum building for real change in our leadership structures. Enough is enough.
Something to watch and listen to:
The Grammys were held this week and I missed the live show but www.grammy.com is chock full of highlights and incredible performances. I think it’s my preferred way to watch an award show, picking and choosing the best bits. A few of my highlights were Taylor Swift’s mashup of her award winning album Folklore and the frankly wonderful Harry Styles in a green feather boa and leather pants singing Watermelon sugar. Who knew a green feather boa would quickly become the world’s new kink.
Suggestible podcast with the steadfastly wonderful James Clement is a mixed bag this week. We talk about the film Moxie and the British crime show The Departure as well as the devastating film Pieces of a Woman which leads us into a discussion about miscarriage, pregnancy loss and stillbirth.
Something to cook:
My Great Aunt Jo’s Pumpkin Scones
I made these deliciously simple scones for breakfast during lockdown. Not only are they the colour of sunshine but they are a doddle to make too. For both of these reasons they became a lockdown staple that got us through a very cold, dreary winter in isolation. May they serve you well. Warning steam the pumpkin the night before and pop it into the fridge. It does not work so well with hot pumpkin (as I have learnt from experience).
Ingredients:
1 cup of cold (important!) mashed pumpkin
2 cups self-raising flour
1 egg
½ cup sugar
2 tbs butter at room temperature
Method:
Preheat your oven! We want it nice and hot at 240 C or 450 F.
Beat butter and sugar to a cream and add the egg and beat again then stir in the pumpkin and flour. Form a dough quickly and lightly with your hands and then roll out onto a floured board. Cut into rounds and bake at once in a very hot oven for 10 minutes.
Eat immediately with lashings of butter.
And that’s it from me. One other tiny recommendation that has been a joy recently is finding this website www.wordgenius.com. It emails you a new word every week when you subscribe and it’s really satisfying. 30 seconds of reading and you feel like you are doing something useful with your scrolling phone time.
The biggest of love to you, hope you are doing okay out there. What a rollercoaster of a time to be alive! I’m off to give the dog a scratch, the baby a kiss and possibly have a piece of peanut butter toast.
Love,
Tonts x
