2018 Christmas goodies…

A different kind of Christmas gifting this year. I’d been influenced by the extreme simplicity of the picture below, chanced upon earlier in the year, and chose to extend this to exercise equipment. I bypassed many of my regular Christmas favourites in favour of a ‘biggie’: a walnut rowing machine (wood sustainably sourced, and no connection required to a power-source) by WaterRower.

I kept a few of my regular seasonal gift traditions going though. A calendar (from the Landworkers’ Alliance, my dad’s a member), kitchen equipment in the form of a griddle pan and some measuring spoons (for tinkering around with essential oils in the kitchen), vintage finds via the simplest work-out trousers I could muster up (shorts felt a bit chilly in the British winter, so I settled on 1960s deadstock wool long-johns from ebay) and a cream wool cardi from Jane Mayle (again from ebay, a mere £1.20), plus books from the Cambridge health-shop institution that is Arjuna, the Great Dixter annual journal and 84 Charing Cross Road (because strangely for me, I’ve seen the film several times but never read the book)…

Looking ahead...

Some years I luxuriate in winter. Other years I don't. This year is the latter. Whilst I am still scrolling through ebay snapping up holey jumpers to visibly mend for chilly days, truth be told, the real focus for my next crafting project is to start knitting up this beauty. Roll on summer...

2019: Setting the Scene…

Earlier last year, I spent more than a few hours flicking through early pictures of Zen Buddhist communities in the US. This was followed (not intentionally), by reading Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City where a few pages about hoarding had a huge emotional impact on me (pp. 167-170).

It’s perhaps no surprise then that the above pic from Donald Judd’s kitchen, master of minimalism (whilst strongly rejecting the term), has set the scene for this coming year (I've thrown in the dining area as a bonus).

Everything that you need to cook is here. No scrabbling around in drawers required. I’ve been trying this out, not just in the kitchen, but for bathroom unguents and the bedroom wardrobe too. Laying things out and deciding what it is that I want and need. Always, much less than I thought.