💐 Spring Guide: Links & recs for joyful renewal
Take the rest of your life as seriously as you take your job
February was spent almost entirely horizontal as wave after wave of illness passed through our house. Oscar went down first, arriving back-lit in the bedroom doorway sometime around 12:45 AM with his little fists balled up, rubbing his eyes.
“Mama my eyes hurt.”
“Climb in my love, I’ll scratch your back.”
So first it was pink eye, followed a few days later by a surprising spike in his body temperature and then a late-season snow, each one lashing us tighter to the leaded, grey winter sky.
By Wednesday I was cheerfully ignoring the existence of a warm, cottony feeling in the back of my throat because it’s just got to be dry air and not the virus my child has been aggressively coughing into my eyeballs for the last five days.
“Yeah, Jory had made reservations and everything.” I said when I called my mom to wish her a happy Valentine’s Day.
“I’m sure it won’t be so bad — we just want to get a good rest tonight so we can go out this weekend.”
I crawled into bed on Wednesday, proud of myself for prioritizing my rest and didn’t get up until the following Monday, when I realized the flu had been joined by pink eye and an unrelenting cough that was keeping my husband awake all night.
Oscar returned to our doorway, hands on hips.
“I guess I’m going to have to take care of you guys now.”
It’s been three weeks and we’re finally better, just in time to enjoy the longer days and warmer weather. The truth is I couldn’t bear wasting the sunshine to write an essay behind a computer screen, so I’ve been back on my bullshit and overdoing it with home and garden projects — starting about 1,000 seeds and believing that without a shred of experience, I could strip the paint off of a 60-year-old window frame to deal with a small chip. (I cannot. I called a professional after making a remarkable mess).
All to say, I’d been hoping to send y’all a great big essay today that would continue on the themes we started last week, but I’ve been too busy enjoying my health and the good weather so instead I’m going to send you some of the things that have been making me feel alive and hope they give you a spark too.
If you like it, I’ll make it a thing 🌷
I’m insanely glad I can buy vegetables at the grocery store, but growing a little food in my backyard is a tiny reminder that we are part of the land we live on. I always start too many seeds because these trays are impossible to screw up. They self-water!
See the Idiot-proof seed starter tray
I asked for new gardening shoes for Christmas, and Jory first ordered Birkenstocks which were kind of clunky and loose. These stay on your feet effortlessly and they shine like the sun, even when you’re tromping around in the rain.
I listen to this episode of On Being with poet John O’Donohue this time every year and it always makes me feel a little closer to the divine. John believed that beauty is a human calling, and I can’t agree more.
Listen to a transformational lesson about beauty
I grew up eating tomatoes from my grandmother’s backyard in Alpharetta. Eating these sliced on toast with mayonnaise or ricotta is basically my entire reason for gardening — these are dense and full of flavor, all they need is a little salt.
See seeds for the most delicious tomatoes
Sun Ra said he was from Saturn. A pioneer in experimental jazz, he was devoted to showmanship and experimentation. I love the sense of the astral plane in his music.
Listen to dispatches from Saturn
As much as I love to eat Ottelenghi food, I do not always have time for all the chopping. His cookbook Simple is much easier (although still pretty persnickety), but the flavors are outstanding. This one is very fast and very easy AND always gone first when we have people over for brunch.
Make a spring brunch showstopper
Have you listened to the unedited version of the John O'Donohue episode? I think I relistened to that over and over again about four or five times. It's so beautiful. I want to live in that conversation.
I have the exact same clogs in orange! 🧡