September: 50 Shades of Groundbreaking
On the mutability of spring, and what the heck that even means.
Florals. Green. For Spring?
Groundbreaking.
Yet I am unapologetic. I am so happy to see spring poking its little perky head into my world, with its picnic weather and its verdant vegetables and its shorts-with-jumpers.
It was so fun to compile this first mood board – a regular thingamabob that will now pop into your inbox at the start of each new month (for free and paid subscribers). I hope you love it!
Of all places, this passage from Mireille Guiliano’s French Women For All Seasons inspired me as I pulled this collage together:
What we sometimes forget to appreciate … is the satisfaction of the season passing. If cherry blossoms lasted for months, it would fast become a banality. It's mystery, it's command for our attention, is exactly in proportion to its fleeting presence – what the Elizabethaen poets referred to as mutabilitie, a Norman word.
Mutability is the quality of being changeable.
So it’s my hope for you that you may notice and feel more mutability in your life this month, whether its the sunshine on your back a little later in the afternoon, the condensation collecting on your glass on a warm evening, or the chill in the air as you enjoy your morning coffee.
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Here are 10 happy, greeny spring links and suggestions:
Literally peas in a pod, this appetiser looks like a delicious start to a BBQ. (Also, wow, remember when blogs looked like this and everyone was perfectly happy about it?)
Currently disciplining my c. 2020 apartment with table lamps, so I don’t need to turn all the overhead lights on. I’m loving this well-proportioned design ($$$) with its ceramic base.
With or without a garden, one needs a pitcher ($) to fill with homemade lemonade or mint tea or slightly lethal pre-batched martinis.
Herbes de Provence is a mixture of thyme, basil, fennel, savoury and lavender flowers, and this one ($$), stored in a beautiful ceramic crock, is worthy of any Francophile’s kitchen bench.
Why not compile a wine glass collection (odds and ends are fine) in a pretty wicker tray ($) and keep on the sideboard, ready for rosé?
Stop giving baguettes all the attention. Spring is for picnics laden with fougasse. (If making your own, sprinkle with your Herbes de Provence from above.)
Mix up your every day breakfast. Try Pigeon Hole's gingerbread granola, or Sophie Hansen’s Wholemeal Orange and Almond Breakfast Muffins.
Open several bottles of Champagne. Listen to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring as a group. Live to tell the tale.
One of my favourite dishes in spring is Nigella’s scallops on the half shell with thai-scented pea purée. The perfect start to a dinner party.
Is this the year to start your collection of vintage French copper pans? (Yes.)