Field Notes: March
Spring is here!
Apologies this is late. I sat down to write this last Friday, but had one of those days where nothing goes right. I felt completely umotivated and lethargic and the whole day was a write-off. Subsequently, I’m now going to have to work Bank Holiday Monday to catch up on work. Freelance life is going well and I love that I can organise my own time but I’m not very good at giving myself time off.
I’m sat writing this in my garden, on a beautiful sunny Spring morning, surrounded by pots filled with tulip foliage and the sound of birds singing. Finally, my favourite time of the year has begun and we can kiss those cold, dark days of winter goodbye. I’m now excited for the days lengthening, the temperatures warming and the first day that I brave the water for a long swim.
This past month has been a strange one. We had the deepest snow I’ve ever seen here just a few short weeks ago - drifts five-foot deep up on the hills above my house. There’s also been hints of what is to come - I dipped in the sea then soaked up the sunshine on the beach on a recent trip to Brighton. At home, I’ve been sowing seeds, potting tubers, moving a few things around in my garden and completely filling both my window sills and the greenhouse with seedlings. I love this time of year, when I have a task to tick off in the garden everyday, encouraging me to spend more time outdoors. I’ve been making the most of the days creeping longer by gardening or going for long dog walks in the evening.
The seasons always feel a bit behind where I live, but I’ve started to notice leaves appearing on trees, blackthorn blossom blooming and more spring flowers over the past week. April will bring the cherry blossom,more greenery and my tulips bursting into bloom. I also have a long-awaited trip to Mallorca this month that I can’t wait to share with you. I can’t wait to swim in the sea and feel the kiss of the warm sun on my skin.
We’ve also been making plans for our garden and home this past month, and I have two exciting projects for Spring. At the end of April, we will be transforming our back garden to add more beds for flowers and vegetables. And at the end of May we will be redecorating our bedroom and the box room/library/office. I’ll be sharing both projects on my Instagram, so keep your eyes peeled if you like renovations and gardening.
FIELD NOTES UPDATE
Thank you to everyone who has joined the paid subscription to Field Notes so far! This has fast become my favourite place to write online, and I am writing on here far more frequently than on my blog. I’d say if you prefer more image-heavy posts, stick with my blog - but if you want to read more of my writing about living seasonally, gardening, slow travel, sustainable fashion and my book recommendations, Substack is the place for you. I’m keeping my subscription affordable at just £3.50 a month.
Last month I wrote about Things I’ve Learned Since I Moved to the Countryside, How to Live More in Tune with the Seasons, Affordable Sustainable & Ethical Brands and My Favourite Places to Buy Seeds & Bulbs. In April planned posts include Gardening Lessons I’ve Learnt, The Best Books I’ve Read so Far this Year, and a list of My Favourite Places to Stay in the UK.
I’ve also launched the Field Notes book club this month. This is open to all subscribers, so if you are reading this monthly newsletter you will also have access to the book club. You can find out more about it here, but this month we are reading Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker. I’ll post my review at the end of each month and we can all discuss in the comments.
GARDEN UPDATE
Last month I talked you through the changes we’re making to our back garden, so I won’t repeat myself here, but the work finally starts at the end of April! I have lots of plants waiting to be planted and many more seeds to sow, so I’m excited to finally get going with this project.
Elsewhere in my garden, I’ve been making slow but steady improvements. The first bed you see when you approach our house has always been a bit of a mess of poor quality soil and a tangle of strawberry plants that produced pretty tasteless fruit last summer. We’ll be planting strawberries elsewhere this year, so my main project for the past month has been to prepare this bed for planting. I dug out all the old srawberry plants, weeded, added a layer of compost and turned over the soil. There is a geum from last year already in this bed, and I dug up a perennial from an overcrowded bed to relocate here, splitting it into two in the process. This will be a perennial bed going forward - I’m starting off a new astilbe, catmint and sidalcea in the greenhouse which will be transported here when the soil is slightly warmer. And I’m toying with the idea of adding an oxeye daisy, as I’ve always wanted one.
MONTHLY EDIT
Some of my favourite slow brands have released their Spring collections this month, and I’ve been quietly coveting pieces. I love The Simple Folk’s artisan trousers, Amente’s gingham dress, Missing You Already’s cotton volume pants, Hannoh’s natural Reja dress and Linen Fox’s new blue shirt & shorts coords.
For my Instagram recommendations this month, I’d like to highlight some of my absolute favourite photographers. @wishwishwish, @lucylaucht, @_folkandkin, @katylawrencefilm, @clairemenary, @mark_anthony_fox, @lavieclarie, @finn, @charlottebland, @cokebartrina and @frecklesnur.
BOOK CLUB (*affiliate links)
The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer (ad/pr) (sorry - could only find this on Amazon)
I really enjoyed this poignant coming-of-age story located in one of my favourite settings for a novel: a college campus. The Adult follows Natalie as she arrives at Toronto university and increasingly feels out of place and awkward. When she meets Nora, an older woman, she begins a complicated secret relationship, lying to her new friends. I really enjoyed Natalie’s voice and found this very hard to put down.
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin (sorry - could only find this on Amazon)
Another novel set on a college campus involving a relationship with an older person, My Last Innocent Year is set in the 1990’s, against the backdrop of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky’s affair. Aspiring writer, Isabel Rosen, embarks on a relationship with her professor during her final year of college. Daisy Alpert Florin writes beautifully, the ploy progressing at just the right pace while I had to read some sentences twice as I just adored her writing.
Sunburn by Chloe Michele Howarth* (ad/pr)
I read a lot of good books in March, but I think Sunburn is my favourite read of the year so far. The writing is beautiful, the protagonist is layered and interesting - even as she made terrible decisions I was still rooting for her - and the depiction of being a teenager in the 1990’s is spot on. The story focuses on Lucy, who is 15 at the start of the novel, growing up in rural Ireland in a very traditional and religious community as she wrestles with her sexuality. Lucy has a close group of girlfriends and her best friend Martin, who everyone thinks she will marry. But recently Lucy has become enfatuated by her friend Susannah, and soon both girls fall for each other in such a tender and wonderful way. Lucy slowly learns to accept herself as she struggles with choosing between two very different futures. It’s completely brilliant. I also found it very cinematic, and thought it would make a beautiful film.
On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniels*
I enjoyed this (as much as you can enjoy a book about prostitution, drug addiction and child abuse - but I didn’t love it as much as I was expecting. I found Tiffany McDaniels’s writing style too ‘flowery’ and overwritten for my taste. The story (based on the true unsolved murders of six women in rural Ohio) is devastating as it flicks between protagonist Arc’s childhood and the present day, but there is just so much unnecessary writing that I skimed over parts. The twist at the end made me cry, and I found that I really cared about the characters and their fates, I just didn’t enjoy the writing itself.
Stolen by Ann-Helen Laestadius*
This is brilliant! The story of a Sami girl named Elsa and her life living north of the Arctic Circle, fusing a coming-of-age story (Elsa is 9 when the book begins, 19 at its end) with knowledge of the Sami community. I was completely invested in the story, and loved the writing and the character of Elsa, but it was the intricate details of the Sami folk’s relationship with nature and how they have been treated by their Nordi neighbours that really had me hooked.I love reading books that teach me something new, and I now want to read more about the Sami way of life.
The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings by Joanna Nadin*
I loved this, despite figuring out the twist very early on. It features quite a few of my personal favourite tropes: twin characters, concealed identities, an outsider falling in with an alluring group of friends, and the narrative unfolding over two timelines and multiple perspectives. I found it to be slightly over-written at times, but I really enjoyed it and would like to read more from the author.
BOOKS RELEASED IN APRIL (*affiliate links)
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson*
The Bequest by Joanna Margaret*
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater*
Go as a River by Shelley Read
Emma xx
This was such a lovely read, Emma. Really enjoyed it! Love a monthly edit (shared my first one last week!) and there's so many recommendations here I've not seen - will get stuck into checking them out. ✨