Okay. I’m starting to get the idea that at the end of every season here I am, again, blabbering on about how it was soooo awesome and my favourite season ever. Swooning, practically, like I’m in a Jane Austen novel (if I had pearls I would be clutching them, if I had smelling salts I’d be inhaling them). Is it getting tiring? Because after the last three months of clear skies, piles of potato-chip-y leaves and mandarins the size of cricket balls I think Autumn might just be, you guessed it, THE BEST SEASON EVER.
I have to say there’s something about keeping track of time in seasonal, three month blocks, that really rocks my world. Perhaps it’s the journal-writing-teen in me, perhaps it’s a hangover from corporate days of quarterly reporting (bleh. shudder.), perhaps it’s just the way us human animals were meant to live. Whatever the reason – how satisfying it is to look back at the season, led by the memories of what nature did or provided, and make summaries. I highly recommend it.
And you won’t believe it but this season I enthusiastically – read some stuff, listened to some stuff and baked some stuff. I know. Get. Out. Crazy times. Here’s the best of the best:
Ace stuff I read:
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (engaging, heart-warming)
Tu by Patricia Grace (all hail NZ Literature Royalty)
Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill (a re-read for me but worth a mention; non-fiction)
The Frank Show by David Mackintosh (I loved it more than my kids, penchant for stories involving crotchety old men?)
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein (about a chicken who tries to remedy the grisly bits in fairytales. Cute and funny.)
Ace stuff I listened to: (other than all this stuff)
Water Fountain by tUnE-yArDs (funky)
Carriages by Tiny Ruins (pretty)
Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover) by The Civil Wars (classy)
History Eraser by Courtney Barnett (nostalgic. Plus, the coolest name for an EP – “How to carve a carrot into a rose”)
Aaaaannnd if you have not seen / heard NPR tiny desk concerts yet then you should check it out. You’ll probably find some of your favourite artists in the archives – footage of them playing, all stripped down (as it were, ahem!), in a tiny office space.
Ace stuff I did and thought and pondered:
Completed four Run Auckland races (tick tick tick tick…boom) with my sensational sister
Bought this bag on sale. It fits all my stuff. Life transforming.
Went on a date with my eldest B – taking the ferry to the city, finding cake that looked and tasted like slices of watermelon and then hanging out at the Auckland Art gallery making kangaroo masks. It was perfectly lovely.
Watched this Brene Brown talk about critics.
Thought these Reineke Otten (“designer working in the field of visual sociology”) scarves were “Huh.”-worthy.
Became more deeply obsessed with Instagram. Posting and following; especially folks such as mimithor of MimiThorisson.com (who cause big sighs of life envy)
But of all the great stuff I did this season, top of the list has to be going to the Auckland Writers Festival. I saw Adam Johnson and Jang Jin-sung and went to workshops with photographer Harvey Benge and Elizabeth Knox. I was so enthused and inspired and humbled I could have cried. Oh yeah, I did. The final event of the festival (which, by the way, had 45% more attendees than last year, high five) was an honour bestowed upon and interview with the phenomenal Patricia Grace. I love Patricia Grace’s books, though I only discovered them recently, and I’m so impressed at her integrity and personal measurements for success (honesty and authenticity being high on the list). At the end of her interview her two daughters and a couple of friends came up on stage and performed a waiata and I wept like a baby.
Speaking of crying like a baby, my baby is currently doing just that. My cue to see ya later. But before I dash – tell me, what’s been your favourite thing about your season so far and, more importantly, what do you call an author / book / literary groupie? Is it just “geek”? Surely, surely, there is something better…
Here’s to falling in love with Fall! Winter, do your worst! Scratch that; winter, please be kind.
HUGS,
Hannah x
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