Frugal Hedonism

 

How happy is the little Stone. 

How happy is the little stone

That rambles in the road alone,

And doesn't care about careers,

And exigencies never fears;

Whose coat of elemental brown

A passing universe put on;

And independent as the sun,

Associates or glows alone,

Fulfilling absolute decree

In casual simplicity.

Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) 

Is it me, or do the first tendrils of spring just fill you with a renewed sense of joy? I found reasons to enjoy winter's fallow time, but the ideas I incubated over the rest period are so ready to burst forth, and I feel so reinvigorated since the sun has made an appearance. The Spring equinox (on 20th March) bought with it an opportunity for setting new intentions and a rejuvenation for creating, which has seen my fiction writing take off again. I'm in that giddy romantic time of creation, where the ideas pour out of me and I daydream constantly. Whenever the kids sleep, or I get a quiet moment I'm on this laptop crafting tales. It's why my blog has taken a backseat over the last few days, every time I've come to add a post, I've had a burst of creativity and instead have wanted to focus on the novel. 

This year it's going to happen, I can feel it in my bones. 

The poem above is from my favourite anthology Ten Poems of Happiness by Deborah Alma: 

From it's cheerful sunflower cover, to the carefully curated poems on happiness or mindfulness, everything about it's 16 pages is wonderful. If you follow me on @hippietrailvintage you can hear me read out Giraffe by Bryony Littlefair, another firm favourite of mine.

This week I've continued my ode to 'Daisy Jones & The Six,' by dressing exclusively from 1973! Something about having the album 'Aurora' on repeat has helped me channel this aesthetic, as has the find of the century- a 1970's Sears, Penny Lane coat. I found it on Vinted for £35 and was poised to buy it immediately, but something told me to send an offer and by some miracle it was accepted at £30. The thrifting Gods were smiling down on me that day! It's a thick winters coat so not really something to be wearing this season, but as my style is pretty much a uniform now, (hippie dress, boots, waistcoat, coat), I know I'll be wearing this happily come winter! 

With the weather being so mild I finally have started on the garden. As of last year our 1970s garden was a rubble filled mess, but thanks to my partners dedication, we scraped the money together to have it landscaped. We replaced the broken paving slabs with some smart new ones and had turf laid which we've lovingly looked after, (not easy with a dog who prefers to do his morning constitution on springy grass and kids that like picking and throwing grass like confetti)! Its a big boring rectangle at the moment but I've gone wild sewing bee friendly flowers, herds vines, wildflowers and marigolds so hopefully in a few months it'll be bursting with colour. 

This year I'm determined to grow fruit and vegetables as a wholesome activity for me and the kids and a way to reduce my shopping bill. As my budget is VERY tight thanks to mat leave pay, I've had to get creative with veg beds as there's currently no infrastructure in my garden other than one bed. Thanks to a local gardening charity I was alerted to a place 20 minutes from home, Oxford's wood recycling centre where I could find some salvaged wood to make my own: 

In all honesty I haven't had much luck! From my toddler throwing a wobbler the minute I got there, to not being able to fit my purchases in my otherwise trusty ford zetec, to hitting my hand with a hammer - it has not been easy making veg beds! 

Baby Marina surveyed my efforts as I tried to convert a little pallet and offcuts from some building work we had done last year into veg beds. 

I wanted nothing more than to be able to show you a 'ta-da' photo of my finished veg beds but alas this is reality and the truth is I've been too busy and too frustrated to have another crack at it yet! We're having some more work done to the house soon, so we're hoping to have the lovely guys who did our landscaping last time, build us some proper beds. In the meantime I will be back out there having another go as I'd like to build some containers for growing strawberries and tomatoes. I'm not going to give up just yet, I'm just going to go back to the drawing board and make something a little easier! 

As it's the Easter bank holiday we've been filling our family time with nice activities. We had aspirations of going to the seaside but having seen the state of the M25 on Thursday afternoon driving back from my sister's house, I thought better of it! Instead we went on Friday to Beale's Wildlife Park, the brainchild of Gilbert Beale, who in the 1950's gave a piece of land in Berkshire to 'the people,' which later became the wildlife park. Apparently he had a penchant for Indian peacocks and had 99 at one time. His favourite was a peahen called 'Laura' who used to ride around in his Rolls Royce! I was particularly taken with the incredible statues which depicted scenes of Viking Valhalla and the beautiful Japanese garden. 

It's possibly a little hard to fully see my outfit in these photos but I really do wear 70's style clothes (vintage or otherwise) in my everyday life, here I've got on my vintage suede waistcoat, All about Audrey Vinted wrap top, H&M jeans (£3 in the sale over 15 years ago) and sunglasses bought for £2 off Vinted again! 

This week I've really gotten my reading mojo back and devoured Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes ,a  retelling of the story of Medusa. Haynes subverts the narrative from a male dominated perspective and reframes it from the 'gorgon' point of view, which is distinctly feminist. The prose is imbued with witty diatribe between petty, narcissistic Gods and has you frothing at the mouth about the treatment of women throughout the story. Truly brilliant - and if Vik from vintage vix is reading this - get this book it's 100% up your street! (Or better yet message me and I'll send it you)!

I'm currently half way through Still Life by Sarah Winman, who is one of my all time favourite writers. Her books are about relationships and if her word selection were food items on a buffet table, you'd marvel at the spread and call them 'succulent,' and 'delicious.'. She writes the way I want to write, with characters that get under your skin, make you emote and have you thinking about them long after the book is finished. She hurts my heart but in a way that makes me want to pick up anything she writes. I want to be that good. 

Still Life is set in post war Italy and East End London and makes you instantly want to book tickets to Florence. It's wonderful and I'm finding I'm using any spare moment to read it. 

Okay my lovelies, it's time I wrangled the kids, until next time! 

Love Soph 

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