Housekeeping

Organising and cataloguing, and an update

I’m putting a few of those plates I’ve been spinning firmly away on the rack.

In other words, I have (as usual) a few too many things on the go. Aside from the essential stuff (house improvements, life admin, work) there are various creative undertakings which are ongoing, and yet more I’d like to either pick up again or start.

Firstly, there’s The Book. I was struck by the realisation that I want to add an entire new strand to it - through it - and that’ll take a lot of work.

And this place. I’d actually started an additional Substack, and written a post and began another. But then I thought, ‘What are you doing?’ Too many (mental) tabs open etc.

And so I’m focusing only on Frond & Feather, and tidying it up, and learning a bit more about Substack so I can create tags and different sections for my little essays. I’d like to resurrect things like Elegant Economy, Precious Things, and perhaps write more Food Memories posts too.

And so, after trying to get a handle on it on Tuesday at work (and failing because we had a massive book delivery and some rather… particular customers), I’ve finally figured out how to do just that. Hence the new little titles on the header of my site.

‘Housekeeping notes’ will be home to anything house-related. ‘Kitchen’ will contain articles about food: cooking, eating, foraging.

‘Bookshelf’ is where my Reading notes posts will live, alongside any about the bookshop and bookselling. ‘Writing nook’ covers not just my own writing process (The Novel), but also photography because that’s where I edit my images - at my little desk beneath the loft stairs.

You can find seasonal content and general goings-on in ‘Journal’, and I’ll be filing fortnightly Postcards in, of course, ‘Postcards’.

Musings on our little plot, and all things growing-related, will be in ‘Garden’. ‘Thoughts’ covers more in-depth posts; the ones that are perhaps introspective in nature. And finally: ‘Travels’. This will be an album of sorts containing notes and images from our doorstep adventures here in West Yorkshire to trips further afield.

Right now, I’m going back through my archive and tagging each post. It’ll be a process, and there may be some overlaps as I tend to cover several topics in each, occasionally straying into different territory altogether. But hopefully it’ll work and make things feel that bit more organised.

It’s like a spring clean.

Free subscribers will be sent two Postcards monthly whilst paid subscribers will receive additional weekly posts. I like a structured approach - but enjoy spontaneity too, so expect the odd surprise here and there.

I’m always brimming with thoughts for new posts: I won’t divulge the number of half-finished drafts I’ve written (but they’re there, and I may well return to them and redraft a few). There are many actual notebooks with seeds of ideas scribbled inside. Scraps of paper stuffed inside my diary or floating around in bags and drawers.

Yesterday at work I found a clipboard holding a torn-off piece of invoice, and on the back I’d written a list of seemingly unrelated and random items. I know what it all means, but my colleagues probably think I’m slightly odd. Which is fine, because you have to be slightly odd to work as a bookseller.

This is more of a quick ‘hello’ kind of post than a considered and thoughtfully conceived one. The photographs are from the archives, and are as follows:

A windfallen nest I found at Bolton Abbey, when Joe was around three years old.

Coffee and Cake signs (I also have the Tea one to complete the set), taken in Edinburgh.

Joe and I on holiday on Skye before we moved there.

Geraniums in the cavernous outbuilding at our own house on Skye.

One of the canal boats near here (I liked the folksy window covering).

Me (photographed unawares) contemplating life, in our garden back in Lancashire. It would have been not too long after my mum passed away.

Having announced I was going to have a Saturday table at the village Open Gardens weekend in June, I’ve now decided not to. It’s something else I’d have to prepare for, and there just isn’t enough time right now. Plus, I’m on the rota to work in the bookshop on the Sunday.

This morning, I grouted the tiles in the kitchen. It had needed doing for several weeks and it took far longer than anticipated. But it’s a job ticked off the list and the whole thing now looks finished, if slightly uneven charmingly rustic.

Next weekend my brother’s coming to stay over. I’m looking forward to it; first I’m heading over to Lancashire for a pre-birthday lunch with my friend and then I’ll collect him and we can bumble back here over the moors. I think he’s looking forward to seeing the cats most of all.

In between, I want to go and get some lilac for the house. Naturally, just as I was about to grab my coat and secateurs, the heavens opened and it’s now raining steadily. But I’m going to go anyway.

So a floral post (with photos to accompany it) will be put together this afternoon. I was working at the shop yesterday, and I’m back in tomorrow so things are feeling a bit disjointed right now. Weekends in a tourist town are something I generally try and avoid, but Sundays in the shop feel far less frantic than Saturdays. For a start, we have no deliveries. And we’re only open from 11am until 4pm. And people seem more relaxed on Sundays, for some reason.

One of my photographs I posted on Substack - a ladybird inside a wood anemone - seems to have received a lot of online attention, and on the back of that I now have new followers and subscribers. So: hello to you all, and welcome.

And now: into the rain.

Thank you for reading.

Sarah.