Monthly Dispatch
Welcome to the Monthly Dispatch, in which I look back over the past month and share a few highlights with you all. The Monthly Dispatch is for free and paid subscribers alike and will hopefully add new depth to the journey we a taking together. Though short, February has been a busy month, so let’s get started.
Last Month in the Van Build
I have a floor!
It took over fifteen hours spread across three days and there are still snags to finish, but it is real, it exists, and I made it.
The van came back from the mechanic last week and magically the cold February sun decided to shine down on St Ives for 4 days, providing the perfect weather to get started.
Everything part of the van needs building in the right order because everything is connected to everything else. It’s an intricate puzzle that I am both learning and designing as I go along. My first day was spent on rust treatment, followed by fixing a sound dampening material to the walls and ceiling. Then came batons, insulation, and plywood, building up from the ridged metal floor step by step. It sounds simple, but the van is full of odd shapes and uneven surfaces, so measuring and fitting took careful planning.
It also involved a lot of kneeling, squatting, and crawling, not things my body is used to doing. But every ache or bruise is worth it. Watching the floor take shape beneath my hands was incredible. Every night I came inside, fingers chilled and heart full. And every morning I woke up giddy to take the next step until, on Sunday afternoon the floor was real and I could dance on it.
Today’s step is shopping, I need vinyl, insulation for the walls, solar panels. I’m hoping that if I buy them today, they will arrive for later this week, when the sun is forecast to come back and I can return to building.
My Art
I am currently dividing my weeks up between the van, The Seagrass Walk, and my book proposal hoping to find balance between all three. It’s challenging but I think it’s working. This month has been full of forward momentum in both my book proposal and The Seagrass Walk. I’ve edited my first extract from my field notes and gotten approval from the Aquarium for my plans. It’s been hugely productive but without getting to make anything. My days are full of designing and editing, planning and research. These are wonderful things, but I have itchy fingers. Thankfully there is an element of The Seagrass Walk that needs more detailed designs, which means I need maquettes. It’s the perfect reason to buy oven drying clay and start making. My plan is to play tomorrow, turning these incredible photographs taken with the scanning electron microscope into sculptures. It is the next step on the road towards larger seagrass sculptures created for the NMA. I look forward to sharing the maquettes with you.
Other Thoughts and Stories
I had a cold this month, a nasty one that kept me curled up in a cocoon of blankets for a week. Thankfully I had books for company, old favourites that I haven’t read for years by the incredible novelist Jacqueline Carey. I love fantasy fiction and Carey’s are some of the best. At the core of the finely wrought fantasy adventures and incredible characters these books have a simple message – the power and importance of love. Love for you family, for your friends, romantic love, passionate love, gentle love, love of your home, and love of your country. These books teach the importance of believing in love, trusting in it, and protecting it.
As Russia wages war on Ukraine, I reminded of the power of love by the bravery and actions of the Ukrainian people, fighting for the country they love and the people in it. As Europe opens its heart with love to fleeing Ukrainian refugees I am reminded of the love that drives the survival of people in Afghanistan, in Syria, and in so many other places around this world where people are living through the impossible.
A few years ago, the charity Choose Love released a t-shirt with the words I have Refugenes printed across it. I bought one and wore it with pride until it fell apart, pride in the truth of the statement, and pride that I had chosen and will continue to choose love. If you can afford to donate, they are a wonderful charity supporting refugees around the world, including those fleeing the hideous war currently raging in Ukraine: https://choose.love/
Monthly Recipe
One of the things about reading fantasy novels is that the characters spend a large amount of time eating incredible sounding food. Even crusty bread and soup eaten around campfires as the characters flee from or towards danger are described in delicious language. Reading a good fantasy novel always leaves me hungry. With that in mind I thought I would share one of my favourite soup recipes, inspired by one from Abel and Cole’s amazing online archive of free recipes.
Carrot, Apple and Thyme Soup
Ingredients
500g Carrots
2 Apples
2 Garlic Cloves- whole
1 White Onion
Thyme
Dried Chilli Flakes
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
700ml of stock- either homemade or a stock cube/bouillon
Sriracha or similar hot chilli sauce
Cheddar
Bread
Method
Preheat your oven to 180C fan assisted
Peel your carrots and cut into 2-3cm chunks
Core and cut your apples into chunks a little larger than the carrots
Peel and cut the onion into similar sized chunks
Place in a roasting dish along with two large garlic cloves still in the skins and a few thyme sprigs. Coat in olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, freshly ground pepper and a few pinches of chilli flakes (depending on how hot you like things)
Mix well and roast on a high shelf in the oven for 30-45 minutes until they begin to caramelise, turning the veg every 10/15 minutes so they cook evenly.
Remove from the oven.
Remove the thyme sprigs
Squeeze the garlic from their skins (be careful they are hot)
Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan
Add a handful of thyme leaves
Add the roast veg
Boil for 10 minutes to bring the flavours together
Blend however you blend your soup
Put back on a medium heat, adding more salt and pepper to taste
Serve in a large bowl with sriracha and grated mature cheddar
Eat with the best bread you can find
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