tiny happy

Three pleasing things, for today:

+ + + This collection of old threads — cream, grey and perle cotton — given to me by my Mum's oldest friend. They used to belong to her mother (a very skilled craftsperson), but she's in a rest home and can't use them any more. I hope to do them justice..

+ + + A pincushion made from old linen scraps. This one features (what I like to think are) clematis flowers.

+ + + A bowl of cherries. I took this photo last month, and now cherries are finished for the year. So good while they lasted though, sweet and sour, glossy and soft.

+ + + And the fourth pleasing thing is this poem, Delphiniums in a Window Box, by Dean Young. 

During our summer holiday we drove from Westport to Karamea on the western coast of the South Island and our car overheated – while Tom was collecting water from a stream I stopped to capture the lush green of the native bush and mist. It was such a beautiful place, so damp and cool with birds calling out to each other from the treetops.

Also pictured above: a knitting project that is nearly finished. It will be a gift and I've used merino, possum, alpaca and other yarns to make it. 

+ + For inspirational purposes, go to Pinterest and search for 'mina perhonen'– it makes me want to drop everything and become a fabric designer. I mean, look at this for example!

+ + And this is another beautiful thing I found recently: Bògòlanfini mudcloth from Mali.

I found this calendar in a second-hand bookshop (this lovely place) a while ago and had to buy it – even though it's a calendar for 1994.

Each page features a watercolour painting of New Zealand native plants, and there is a small blurb on the back about the artist:

In 1942, Marjorie Henderson left her birth place Napier to go nursing in Wellington, then later in Fiji where she was married.

For more than 10 years, she has operated her acupuncture clinic in Taupo and living close to the Tongariro National Park has made it easy for her to spend many hours in the area gathering knowledge and specimens to record their beauty in water colour for all to enjoy.

We've been enjoying some beautiful settled weather here in Wellington and have even been able to eat outside without our food blowing away in the wind. Last night we packed up our dinner and took it to a beach on the south coast where friends were waiting with their dinner. So lovely to do that mid-week, and watch the sun sinking behind the hills.

And being late summer, it's zucchini time. Do you have a favourite way to use them? We've been making fritters galore to go on the bbq, but then i came across this recipe for crunchy courgette pickle. It was very easy to do, and used up a few kilos of vegetables in one evening.

Aaand… the finished pickles taste delicious on bread, with cheese and salad (which incidentally is exactly what we brought to the beach for dinner). I recommend them, if you happen to find yourself flush with courgettes.

What a beautiful Friday it's been: a lot of rain then a lot of sun, good chats with friends, general happiness.

Here are three other good things:

+ Tom brought this hydrangea stem home from work as a 'happy weekend' gift.

+ + I have had this bright and cheery 'Welcome to Palmerston North: the Rose City' tea towel sitting and waiting for something and today I sewed it up into a market bag. I didn't know that Palmerston North is considered the rose city. I need to go and check it out.

+ + + Our vegetable patch has some monster rhubarb plants getting slightly out of control. I trimmed them down and made some cordial from a recipe I found in a Women's Weekly magazine at work. The method is quite similar to this version, except that it uses maple syrup for sweetening, instead of sugar. 

I think it would make an excellent addition to a cocktail if I can find the perfect combination. Sounds like a task for the weekend. I hope you have a good one!

I found Jekka's Herb Cookbook at the library, and have been enjoying it a lot – the illustrations are especially beautiful, a full culinary history of each plant is given, and there are lots of delicious herb-utilising recipes, too. Lemon verbena sorbet, for example.

Also pictured above: some herb-like embroidery on a piece of beautiful hand-dyed linen I bought in Nelson over the summer. And a photo I snapped in my Mum's garden.

Semi-related long-reads you might be interested in: Is urban farming only for rich hipsters? 

And Here's how to solve world hunger (thanks to Helen for this link)

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

Here are two things I had a nice time making lately.

+ + + + Pressed flower gift tags. These were a mash-up of this project, and wanting to find a way to use up scraps of plastic covering the kids used on their school books. I pressed some more flowers (this took 2-3 weeks) and lightly glued them to brown card before covering with the clear seal. And tied through some rainbow thread, for attaching to presents, because who doesn't like rainbow thread? I'm really pleased with these little cards, and intend to use them on every present I wrap from now on. And etsy shop orders, etc.

+ + + + This is a tiny taco, made from felt, that holds my headphones so they don't get all tangled up in my bag. I found the tutorial here (it's from Frankie magazine) and every morning on my way to work I smile when I pull it out of my bag. In fact I love it so much that i've also made felt headphone holders for everyone in the family, to request: a purple monster (Keira), a folded newspaper (Tom) and a chocolate biscuit (Arlo). Though none of them are as good as my felt taco.

Happy end-of-the-week! It's felt like rather a long one here. Wellington has been unusually warm, wind-less and humid. We're not used it at all.

The garden loves it though, and in celebration of lush flowers and leaves I made some botanical-related things to put in my etsy shop. Bags, baby shoes and pouches. And also a pincushion with hollyhocks, just because.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend ahead. I'm hoping to get some rows done on a big-ish (for me, anyway) knitting project. And do some preserving, along the lines of spicy condiments in jars. Will be sure to report back soon.

Here's the reading list, as promised. All the books here were recommended by readers of this blog in the comments section of this post – thank you for your suggestions. I've tried to arrange them into rough groups (again, no doubt imperfectly) for usefulness. 

I'm currently reading two novels: My brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante and Life after life, by Kate Atkinson and I noticed these popped up in the list a few times – so I'm looking forward to checking out more of these reading ideas throughout the year. Hope you find this list useful, and happy reading!

+++ novels +++

The world without us - Mireille Juchaus 
A Man called Ove – Fredrik Backman
The Clasp - Sloane Crosley
The pursuit of love – Nancy Mitford
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Fault in our stars – John Green
Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
Clifton Chronicles – Jeffrey Archer
A strangeness in my mind – Orhan Parmuk
Life after life – Kate Atkinson
My brilliant friend (part 1 of the Neapolitan novels) – Elena Ferrante
The Invention of Wings – Ann Monk Kidd
Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
Dalva – Jim Harrison
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley
The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton
Catherine, the Great – Robert K. Massie
In the unlikely event – Judy Blume
Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert
NW by Zadie Smith
Remainder – Tom McCarthy
The Vegetarian – Han Kang
The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro
Tower of Thorns - Juliet Marillier
The Bear – Claire Cameron
Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources - Marcel Pagnol
The Preacher's Bride – Jody Hedlund
The Fates and Furies and Arcadia - Lauren Groff
Love Walked In and Falling Together – Marisa de los Santos
The Dressmaker - Rosalie Ham
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín
Euphoria - Lily King
The Bride of Lammermoor – Sir Walter Scott
The Cave – Jose Saramango
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
Mr. Norrel and Jonathan Strange - Susanna Clarke
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra
A Book of Silence – Sara Maitland
Mr Penumbra's 24 Hr Book Store – Robin Sloan
The London Train and Married Love – Tessa Hadley
Knit one, Pearl one - Gil McNeil
The Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

+++ mystery/thriller/speculative/fantasy +++

The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
Cold Earth – Sarah Moss
Messenger of Truth: a Maisie Dobbs novel – Jacqueline Winspear
Bazaar of bad dreams – Steven King
Agatha Christie books of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot
I'm Travelling Alone – Samuel Bjork
Seveneves – Neal Stephenson
Leviathan Wakes – James S.A. Corey
Obernewtyn Chronicles series – Isobelle Carmody
Girl on the train - Paula Hawkins
Think Twice – Lisa Scottoline

+++ non-fiction +++

The Pantograph Punch (NZ arts and culture website)
Body and mind – Keith Campbell
Travels with Herodotus – (Polish journalist) Ryszard Kapuściński
The Art of Travel - Alain De Botton
The man who planted trees – Jean Giono (nature writing)
Letters from Marianne Williams (1800s NZ missionary)
Becoming a writer - Dorothea Brande
Homeward Bound: why women are embracing the new domesticity - Emily Matchar
Outsiders – Gerard Hindmarsh
Women who run with the wolves - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
The Pursuit of Unhappiness - Paul Watzlawick
Dear Sugar – Cheryl Strayed
La Isla Secreta – Xavier Moret (about Iceland)
The Wild Places – Robert Macfarlane
Moa: The Life And Death Of New Zealand's Legendary Bird – Quinn Berentson
Quake Cats - Craig Bullock
The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District –James Rebanks

+++ poetry +++

Teaching my mother how to give birth - Warsan Shire
Rapture – Carol Ann Duffy

+++ memoir/autobiography +++

M Train – Patti Smith
Goat Song – Brad Kessler
My family and other animals – Gerald Durrell
Births Deaths Marriages – Georgia Blain
The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
Island Home – Tim Winton
Wild - Cheryl Strayed
Tove Jansson's Letters
The hospital by the river: a story of hope – Catherine Hamlin

+++ younger + older readers +++

Sam and Dave dig a hole – Mac Barnett
Out of Time - Jen McLaughlin
Lord of the Rings Trilogy - JRR Tolkein
Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer - R Riordan
Fairyland series - Cathrynne M Valente
Happy Times in Noisy Village – Astrid Lindgren
Boy – Roald Dahl
Miss Peregrine's school for Peculiar Children series – Ransom Riggs

Near and far: the view from my bedroom window, with extra sea-fog on a humid summer's day this week. And aquilegia flowers in bloom in the garden.

As promised, here's a list of recommended music gleaned from the comments section of a recent post. Thank you for the suggestions. It's quite fun I think to have this list: music that readers of this blog enjoy – a kind of collaborative resource.

The job turned out to be much bigger than I thought. I tried to group the music into rough categories (with imperfect titles) – hopefully I didn't make any big errors! It was especially great to discover so much new (to me) music from around the world.

If you're on the search of some new music, you might find something you like here. 

+ + + + + (global)

Södermalm Sessions, The Real Group (Sweden)
Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japan)
Sankofa by Yerko Fuenzalida Lorca (Barcelona)
Sami Yusuf (Iran-UK)
Cirque Afrika
Avtomobili (Slovenia)
Sigur Ros (Iceland)
Of Monsters and Men (Iceland)
We Banjo 3 (Ireland)
The Chieftans (Ireland)
Sofia Karlsson  (Sweden)
Sam Lee (UK 'gypsy' songs)
Levon Minassian (French-Armenian)
Boogarins 6000 Dias (Brazil)
The East Pointers (Canada)
Isbells (Belgium)
Françoise Hardy (France)

+ + + + + (antipodean)

Sun/Son by Eb and Sparrow
Tami Neilson
Tiny Ruins
Crowded House
Holly Arrowsmith
Missy Higgins and the Waifs
Ainslie Wills
Open Swimmer
Halfway
Powderfinger
Paul Kelly
Sometimes I sit and think and sometimes I just sit, Courtney Barnett

+ + + + + (classical)

Martha Argerich plays Chopin
Pablo Casals' 1936 EMI recording of the Bach Suites
Kronos Quartet
Morten Lauridsen
Lydia Artymiw (piano): The Seasons byTchaikovsky
Beethoven's 5th Symphony
Bach's Cello Sonatas
Works for Children's Voices, Benjamin Britten

+ + + + + (contemporary)

Divers, Joanna Newsom
Josh Garrels
Kate Tempest
Michael Kiwanuka
Benjamin Clementine
Alabama Shakes
L'Orange
Sharon van Etten
Belle and Sebastian
Carrie and Lowell, Sufjan Stevens
Andrew Bird
Foals
Burn Your Fire for no Witness, Angel Olsen
London Grammar
Mac de Marco
Leon Bridges
William Fitzsimmons
Jose Gonzales
Hosier
The National
First Aid Kit
Kodaline
Hombre Lobo, The Eels
The Parting Glass, Ed Sheeran
Ari Hest
Fuel
Coheed and Cambria
Cage the Elephant

+ + + + + (US country/folk)

Elisabeth Mitchell (esp great for children!)
Gillian Welch
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
The Jayhawks
The Breakmen
Ben Rector
Ellie Holcomb
The Wailin' Jennys
The Brothers Comatose
Michael Hurley

+ + + + + (soundtrack)

Bella Vita (film)
Romeo and Juliet (film)
Everybody's gone to the rapture (game)
Searching for Sugarman (documentary)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (film)

+ + + + + (established)

Joni Mitchell
Bob Dylan
Björk
James Taylor
New Order
Nick Drake
Blackstar, David Bowie
Patti Smith
Adele
The Specials
Van Morrison
Elliott Smith
Grazing in the Grass, The Friends of Distinction
Nina Simone

+ + + + +

Coming soon – a reading list! Have a great weekend.