Midsummer ramblings
The Looby List: Notes from notables, basket weaving, a horror movie inspired pavlova, my monthly list of coveted items and more!
Hello,
We are just a breath away from Midsummer. I hope you have your fairy-spirit plans ready and will dance under the new moon. My youngest child turns 17 today. They are truly a little midsummer babe. Sprites and magic surround them. This is how magical they are: One year, they were out exploring the woods out the back of our house with their sister. The woods are strictly out of bounds due to local water preservation laws, but these two were too little to care about that at the time. They had both taken their iPods to play music but were way beyond the house's wifi connection limits. Lily rested their iPod down on a massive mushroom that had grown out of the moss just beyond our back gate. Suddenly the iPod had FULL wifi connection. How?! All I can say is that it was a magical mushroom for a digital-aged kid, for sure. Could the wifi signal be transmitted through the Mycelium layer? I am still totally bamboozled by this and have to put it down to magic, like a 21st-century Edith Blyton update.
Anyway, that's how my midsummer child, who loves to play video games and has at least two screens going most of the day, displays magic. And why not.
Reading
One of the best newsletters you could subscribe to is Noted by Jillian Hess. Noted brings you "tips & tricks from the world's best note takers." Jillian is a New York-based writer and an English professor at CUNY. She's been researching and writing about notebooks and note-taking for the past two decades. There is always something amazing to discover in Jillian's posts.
Coveting in June
Making
There is a woman on our island who teaches basket weaving. Her baskets are beautiful. I have always thought making baskets would be fantastic, as I have a bit of a basket fetish and tend to keep buying them whenever I find them cheap. Gayla Trail (she of You Grow Girl fame) has just written about making baskets using the dried leaves of daylilies, irises and cattails. I have some irises in the garden, and I am going to collect the leaves and let them dry. Could anything be sweeter than weaving a little basket out of dried leaves? Check out Gayla’s post and visit the suggested Wild Basketry Facebook group.
Watching
Variety’s Actors on Acting - Claire Danes and Kieran Culkin. If you are interested in the craft of acting, if you are a mad Succession fan, or enjoyed (or even if you didn’t) The Trouble with Fleishman, this conversation was super interesting. It was a good chat between two old friends who also happen to be smart and kind but not too earnest.
Other good ones:
Admiring
After all the stir last month around Martha Stewart appearing on the front cover of Sports Illustrated in a bathing suit, I am sending you in the direction of Miriam Margolyes spread in British Vogue. She is my true icon. I remember seeing her in a stage play when I was a teenager (I think she was playing Gertrude Stein), and I have been a huge fan ever since. I have just started watching Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian on Netflix, and it’s enjoyable so far. She’s funny, prickly, and unafraid to ask the straightforward questions. Also - I really love the contents on her tote bag. She is so totally unexpected, even if you are expecting unexpected.
Listening
Sigur Ros has a new album out - Atta, with the London Contemporary Orchestra. It is the first album since multi-instrumentalist Kjartan “Kjarri” Sveinsson rejoined Sigur Rós in February last year and the first in over ten years.
Here is a conversation with Jónsi, lead singer of Sigur Rós, interviewed on NPR’s All Songs Considered.
And don’t forget to follow my Endless Summer playlist for a constantly updated stream of music I recommend.
Crone Cooking: Midsommar Pavlova
In an effort to cook 52 essential recipes by the time I turn 52 (March 2024), I have started a little list, and this week was dish number twelve: Pavlova.
I have made Jamie Oliver’s basic meringue recipe for years. It’s such a good, dependable base for an incredible summery spectacular. This time I have decided to take some inspiration from this video for Pavlova Royale (which I guess was a coronation treat) and some extra inspiration from Midsommar and make a two-tiered Midsommar crown for a birthday kid. Gah. I can’t even watch the Midsommar trailer with that spooky music. It’s too scary. Sure, weird inspiration for a birthday cake, but Lily loves this film. Lil’s birthday is today, so I will be making the pavlova shortly. I’ll give you an update next week.
From my heart
Anti-Trans Moral Panics Endanger All Young People - Scientific American
Moral panics aimed against trans people are both attacks on that community and part of a broader strategy to control youth across the U.S.
I am not a U.S. citizen, but we live just a stone’s throw from the U.S. border, and of course, our Canadian culture and politics continue to be heavily influenced by our Southern neighbours. What we see daily in our news feeds and socials is alarming. Please keep pushing back and questioning oppressive discourse, policies and trends. Article link via. Kottke.
That’s all for this week! See some of you Wednesday and all of your next Sunday!
xo,
Claire
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My day lilies are just about to bloom, and already I'm excited to see them dry out - BASKET WEAVING! Yay!
I love the mushroom wifi story. That is amazing.