A Wet and Windy Week in Wales
Because the rest is still unwritten…
Pull Up A Chair is a weekly newsletter containing all the things I’d like to be chatting about if we could hang out together in real life. Every week, I start with three things I’ve enjoyed, and then write in more detail about something I’ve been thinking about.
☕️ YETI Rambler 14oz insulated mug. This had been hanging around on my wish list for ages and I finally cracked during Amazon’s prime days offers last week. I love it. Because of the handle, it feels like a normal mug, but it keeps a mug of tea hot for at least two hours. It was an obvious part of my packing list for Wales (more on that later) and really came into its own during the travel shenanigans of the journey home. Also, unlike a lot of insulated mugs, it’s dishwasher-safe. Which is handy.
🧴 Simple “Protect ‘n’ Glow” Triple Protect moisturiser with SPF 30. This is one of those products that I rebuy time after time after time. It’s a no-frills, no-fragrance, daily moisturiser that makes my - extremely dry - skin feel refreshed and nourished all year round. The built-in SPF isn’t enough for days spent mostly outside in summer sunshine, but it’s perfect for everyday activity. Despite being a light formula that sinks in easily, my skin feels really ‘looked-after’ using this.
📕 After The Rain by Lucy Dillon. I’m the first person to reach for witchy books as part of my seasonal reading in the autumn, but as this week’s weather in Europe has reminded us… that’s not the experience most of us will actually have of the season. Therapist Tara is trying to put her life - and her community’s - back together after devastating floods, when a new colleague challenges her to reconsider what she believes to be true about her family, her friends, and herself. I really enjoyed this. (Bookshop.org | Amazon - ad, affiliate links)
I’m specifically - still - not talking about current events this week - they’re really scary for everyone lately and I hope we can see peace soon.
This week, I finally crossed off the final two of the things on my “when it’s safe” list I made in the scary days of March and April of 2020. I got my first tattoo (which I’ll tell you about when it’s healed), and I went back to Ty Newydd, Literature Wales’ writing centre near Criccieth, North Wales.
I had been every summer since graduating from university until the pandemic forced the cancellation of the course I was booked onto in 2020. Every trip had been better than the one before; the novel I finished writing last autumn had even been sparked by a conversation over lunch there.
But this week.
This week topped them all.
The focus area for the week was food writing, with the incredible Kate Young and Ella Risbridger as our tutors. On top of being expert food writers and cooks themselves, they both have a fondness for romantic comedy - so I couldn’t have chosen a better place to get the booster jab for creative confidence I was in need of.
Early this year I told you about the completely unhinged fiction project I was working on. It reached a point in the late spring where it was diverging from my original plan and I had no idea what to do next. With the house move approaching, I put it on ice “until I go to Wales in October.”
For once, putting off a problem HAS helped me solve it! Ella and Kate helped me figure out where the story might be going; it turns out that it’s a different place than I thought it was - but that’s fine, because I’m now recharged and ready to go there.
More concrete than that, and partly thanks to the foodie theme of the week, every time I open my kitchen cupboard or consider the menu in a coffee shop, I am reminded of an anecdote or metaphor someone shared. The box of All-Bran cereal in the cupboard is someone’s father with a row of bran sticks sticking out of his mouth like fangs. The Cheese & Pickle baguette in Pret is a security alert that closed an international airport. Marshmallows… well, did you know they’re punk? (More on that soon!).
The group of writers who found their way to North Wales this Monday came from all age groups, and all parts of the world. We had one thing in common: food. Fuelled by Chef Tony’s incredible cakes, cookies, and sausage meat plait (not to mention his vampire-killing houmous), we worked, and played, and laughed. We shared poetry, and allotment stories, and recipe recommendations. And now, like the passengers in Philip Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings, we’re scattered back to where we came from - but with a shared experience of a very special place, new friends on Instagram, and a renewed appreciation for the power of storytelling.
On top of a creativity booster, I needed to rest; this has been a tiring year and getting Covid at the end of September didn’t help. I had long naps every afternoon, and fuelled my body and mind with fantastic cookies and conversations. This was my fifth visit to Ty Newydd, and for the first time I barely left the house all week - except for a few minutes standing at the end of the garden watching the sea and feeling the rain on my skin. For an idea of how very special the centre and its team are, you can enjoy the Wes-Anderson style video they’ve made on the centre’s Instagram:
A few courses over the winter and in the first part of next year are available to book on the centre’s website; the full 2024 schedule will come out next Thursday, October 26th.
Speak soon,
Lily
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So lovely to meet you Lily - I am very sad I had to leave early with such a dramatic exit (all is now calm) but I am so happy to have to been introduced to Ty Newydd and such an amazing group of people. Hope to keep in touch (did you collect the email addresses??).