"Every Little Creep Has A Right To Be Angry"

Little My appreciation, drawing the seasons and recent travels.

Welcome to my July offering

What a month.

The rest of June and early July involved a whirlwind of absolute chaos of trying to wrap up the semesters teaching, trying to prep for our roadtrip, trying to enjoy the sun (without spiralling into climate anxiety) and trying to enjoy the company of friends and loved ones without thinking about my “to do” list.

In amongst seemingly major but in the current landscape of the world, extremely minor worries, I have found joy in moments in the garden, reading books with familiar characters that I love and enjoying making and looking at lots of lovely art. Including, ordering myself one of Gabrielle Reith’s new risograph prints, with funds (minus production, postage and packaging costs) going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. Link is listed below if you want to order one yourself.

Be Kind - Gabrielle Reith

Sentient Roses

Our rose bush is SO full and when it’s sunny, particularly when the sun is hottest around midday, the breeze carries the smell of the roses across the garden to where I sit and work. I don’t take this for granted. I feel more than ever, I am noticing “small” things, mostly parts of nature I get to interact with, which just make me so happy. And that seemingly simple feeling is not lost on me. Happiness is something which hasn’t come easily to many of us - relief, sure. I’ve confused relief with happiness in many instances - for anyone who spends a great deal of time in fight or flight mode, I think this experience may be familiar. 

There something about a rose, I’ve always thought, that’s very human. Wild or pruned, sprawling or contained, surprising sharpness in unknown thorns, the capacity to be beautiful in the right environment, ultimately fleeting. I love them. I love big, giant, wild roses that grow and exist without permission - seeds of Rosa Rugosa, dropped by birds who eat their hips. I’ve really been enjoying roses this June.

And now to July. I love watching and feeling and tasting the seasons change. 

I’m continuing to work away on images for a cookbook for a third sector organisation. It’s been a long project, spanning years now, which seems fitting - moving slowly but surely along, like the seasons.

Read and fed  

For this month, what has been keeping me read and fed is a very zesty dill and lemon pesto and Moomin Papa At Sea.

Dill and Lemon Pesto

1 cup walnuts (or whatever your preferred nut/seed is) 

3 cloves garlic

3 cups fresh dill 

1 lemon, zested

Juice of one lemon 

salt and pepper to your taste 

1 cup olive oil 

This is a bright, lemon-y pesto which is really yummy stirred through potato salad, pasta salads, served with fish or spread on crusty bread with cream cheese. 

Bung all these ingredients into a blender and mix to desired consistency.

Moomin Papa At Sea

I’ve always love the Moomins, as you will become evident in the Little My character discussion, later in the newsletter.  I read the comics and watched the TV shows but the novels are new to me - I feel so lucky to have unknown aspects of a familiar family to explore. 

Moomin Papa Goes to Sea had such a beautiful descriptions of the island and the coastline, really bringing the island itself (along with the sea and the plant life) into characters in their own right that we come to understand and care about. Jumping in the Baltic sea felt even more special after reading Jansson’s descriptions. This book also gave me insight into Moomins Papa need to be needed and the Grokes motivations for her icy presence. The book also lets us get to know Moomins Mama (also a rose lover) on a deeper level which I particularly enjoyed. 

Character’s we know and love or know and despise.

Little My

When I was reading this book, I fell in love with Little My, all over again. Since I was a little girl, she has been one of my favourite characters, not only in the Moomins, but out of all the children’s (and adults too actually) books I have read. 

This gave me an idea to start a review - all the characters I love the most, now and/or as a child, and the ones I definitely did not. As I work on my own portfolio, what qualities make a character endearing or detestable to a child? Who is necessary and who is superfluous in a childhood? Aside from my portfolio work, it gives me an excuse to pour over childrens books so there’s really no downside.

This month, I’ll focus on Little My.