I don’t know about you but the Christmas break was very much a return to normality, a normal family Christmas - everyone sat at the same table - a trip to the cinema, albeit masked up when not ploughing through the Butler Sink of popcorn. Even a trip to the theatre to see Circus 1903 - if you’ve been staring at the same few walls for the last two years then this is a visual treat that will pretty much blow your mind and make you feel ALIVE, if not a little lacking in any kind of circus skill. I highly recommend it.
I really love New Year, I’m all about the lists, the goals, the things I want to do. And this year actually feels like things could happen. I’m hopeful we will get to Barcelona to visit my grandmother who is in her 90s now, reading Anna Hart’s book Departures is filling me with wanderlust, from her Thailand adventure (excluding the accident) to her 6 month campervan road trip around New Zealand, it’s fueling dreams of escape. (I am well aware that being accepted at any airport outside of the UK may scupper all my wishful thinking) but even mentally plotting an escape just to Norfolk - which I love - or a camping trip and figuring out how I can stuff all the gear, the kids bikes and enough snacks into my Fiat 500 (apparently I CAN get a bike rack for my tiny car! Halfords will even fit it… or so the website says) is enough to make me feel more hopeful about the year ahead.
My biggest hurdle right now is Work Procrastination. I pushed back a few projects from December to January and those new deadlines are catching up with me. One of which is a monthly glut of recipes and photography for a non UK client, I’m always grateful for work, but it’s really not work I’m enjoying and whilst financially it’s definitely helped me plug a few gaps I’m almost in despair about picking up where I left off and getting back into that routine. Instead of getting on with it today, I’m here plotting a trip to anywhere but my kitchen and studio.
If anyone has any good tips on procrastination do let me know!
On a more productive note I’m almost finished converting my online course - Food Photography & Styling a 4 week online course - into a downloadable do it as and when you please format. This way you don’t have to wait for me to run the course once or twice a year you can get stuck in at a time that suits you and the information is for you to keep and refer to as and when you need to.
I plan to have it ready by February as something to look forward to once January is accomplished.
The plum tart images are a riff on a lovely recipe from Nadiya Hussain’s book Fast Flavours - she used peaches but they were out of season when I made this.
I hope your year gets off to a good start and there is some fun or adventure on your horizon’s. I’m off now to clean out the fridge and alphabetise the spice drawer.