And… breathe.
🍽️ Carrot and onion tarte tatin. I downloaded this recipe from the Riverford website last week to make the most of the fridge full of carrots I’d ended up with, and I’m so glad I did. It was really easy, and incredibly delicious.
🩱 Lands’ End ‘Carmela’ Swimsuit. I’ve been aware for a while of how high-ly recommended Lands’ End’s swimsuits are, but could never quite bring myself to click ‘buy’ (they’re pretty pricey). With this weekend’s spa trip, though, I thought that was a good excuse to try them out, and I’m so glad I did. I’m extremely long in the body, so finding swimsuits that fit is an annual nightmare. This is one of the designs that Lands’ End offer in a ‘long’ fit; they also have suits designed for people who need a bigger cup size. It was so comfortable - I’m now completely a convert to Lands’ End swimsuits.
📕 Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian. I love Cat Sebastian - her historical romances are an auto-purchase for me at this stage. In Hither, Page, we meet Leo Page, a spy (sort of) whose arrival in a quiet English country village disrupts the tranquil post-war life traumatised doctor James Sommers has been building for himself. As ever in a Cat Sebastian novel, there’s plenty of ‘hurt/comfort’, for those of you fluent in fanfiction tags… (Amazon - ad, affiliate link)
(PS, thank you all for not pointing out that I forgot to include the words describing why I recommended Lauren Eliza Green’s The World After Alice last week - I’ve edited last week’s post to include the reasons now… #EverythingIsFine!)
Yesterday, I had a massage, for the first time in my life (if you don’t include the time an ex tried to wrest the tension out of my shoulders when I had a complete breakdown after seeing a mouse in my flat - no exaggeration - which I don’t), and spent what felt like hours in my happy place. That is, submerged in warm water in an outdoor pool, with (weak, feeble, springtime) sun on my skin.
Let me rewind and explain. For my mum’s birthday, my uncle had given her an ‘IOU’ for a spa day, and she very generously took me along with her to the Macdonald Bath Spa, having realised that their ‘overnight spa breaks for two’ were very keenly priced in comparison to the day spa packages, and had the added benefit of not having to get up early and fight with various train operating companies before a day of relaxation.
So after I logged off from work on Friday, I packed a bag, hopped on a 15 minute train, and met my mum in Bath for a cheeky hotel room gin-in-a-tin (a tradition of ours when we go away!) to kick off a 24 hour break. I genuinely felt like I’d been on a week’s holiday by the time we finished off with afternoon tea.
It got me thinking about intentional relaxation. To me, that’s the difference between accidentally spending a day doing not-very-much-at-all, and kicking yourself at the end of the day for ‘wasting’ it, versus setting out at the start of the day knowing you’re not going to do much in particular, and that’s the goal.
I think that’s why so many of us kick ourselves for ‘doom scrolling’. I’m no saint here - having taken Instagram, TikTok, and The App Formerly Known As Twitter (‘TAFKAT’?) off my phone and iPad, I still find myself spending hours reading web pages about nothing in particular, often with a closed book or my Kindle sitting right next to me. And I think we’re all familiar with getting to the end of a film or TV show and realising that we couldn’t tell you anything that’s happened, because we’ve been so immersed in what’s happening on a smaller screen…
I especially love getting absorbed into something tangible and analogue - cross stitching, knitting, or my newest love, Lego sets. Last weekend, I finished the A-Frame Cabin (set 21338), which is one of the sets whose existence got me into Lego in the first place, thanks to it being shared by other fans of Chloe Liese’s Bergman Brothers books (you’ll have to read them to find out the link!). I can hit ‘play’ on an audiobook or my podcast app, open the instruction booklet, and before I know it, time has just passed without any worries. Life can be messy - and our world continues to be incredibly distressing - and it’s so satisfyingly relaxing to lose myself in the sequential, logical process of building a Lego set.
Speak soon,
Lily
PS: The Amazon affiliate link above only works to give me commission if you click through from the Substack app or website, rather than directly from your email program. Other ways to support this newsletter include liking, commenting, and sharing it with a friend who you think might like it. Thanks in advance!
If you liked this, you might like this piece about prioritising play:
Or last January’s chat about bringing back old good habits:
Intentional relaxation is so important! I'd much rather actively choose a calming activity to do for an evening instead of browsing the web and trying to convince myself that I'm switching off 😅
I really loved your idea of intentional relaxation - it really chimes with how I've been feeling too. I'm thinking I definitely need to buy one of those cute Lego sets - I used to lose hours building Lego once upon a time