Observation note 79: Three weeks. I have been blogging daily now for twenty-two days and I have noticed, as I am sure that those of you who have read daily probably have to, that I am slightly fatigued and writing shorter, unfocused posts. The daily effort of not only writing but making public my thoughts and ideas has meant that the notes and ideas I usually jot down throughout the week, hoping that they would one day coalesce into a longer, interesting post just aren’t emerging. I have several pieces that I am writing, one extrapolating further about walking in cities, and the other is on grief which I have had waiting in my drafts and notes for over a year, adding and subtracting from it as the days pass, my new reading adding to it and the world changing influencing it. Neither pieces are close to being ready to post.

Observation note 80: Process. With the exception of the first few days of June, I have sat down to write each post any time between 11pm to 11.30pm. Tonight, I started at 11.20. My aim is to hit “Publish” at 11.59 and I have done this successfully on all but one day having missed pressed “Publish” a tad too late with the clock ticking over to midnight while the upload occurred eventuated with no post for June 10 but two posts for June 11. So far, it is the only aberration.

On some days, I have been formulating the post as I have pottered around the house throughout the day, and others I start to get panicky by 11.40pm. Those are the days that I’ve resorted to photographs.

Reading Note 33: Too much and not enough. I am reading several books at the same time so I don’t really want to discuss any of them until I have finished reading them. However, I thought I would mention a couple of coffee table books that I have gone through in the past few days. I do like the interior decorating style called “maximalism” which I wrote about in Reading Note 13 so when I read about Abigail Ahern’s Everything: A Maximalist Style Guide I searched my library services and found a copy to borrow. The book is beautifully photographed with lush and fulsome home designs however the accompanying text was jarring and both repetitive and contradictory from one paragraph to another. I stopped trying to engage with the text after the first few chapters and just engaged with the decor. It disappoints me when more time is spent on luscious images and the text feels like an afterthought.

Reading Note 34: Christmas in July. For those of you reading who are not in the antipodes, this may be a rather peculiar phrase but I promise you that it is not odd at all to find abundant Christmas decorations and Christmas puddings and Christmas roasts being served up in restaurants and homes across Australia and New Zealand in the Wintry month of July. We celebrate Christmas twice a year (thankfully at least in my circles we only give gifts in December). It is too hot for Christmas nosh in December so we compensate. In preparation for July, I borrowed Lisa Nieschlag and Julia Cawley’s New York Christmas: Recipes and Stories. As well as some delicious looking recipes which I have bookmarked for my husband to make (what? me cook? have you met me????) there are also some Christmas extras such as Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story and some very white Christmassy photos. A really lovely book and a delight to browse through.