New Challenges!

36 Monuments & Public Artworks
In an effort to make me look ‘up’ a bit more… this year I’m going to be seeking out and learning about all sorts of statues, monuments and artworks. Ancient, modern, UK and beyond. Think the only rule is they have to be man made, and either commemorative or expressive in some way.

36 Berber & Q Recipes
Two of my all-time favourite recipes come from Josh Katz and his restaurant Berber&Q. The epic cauliflower shawarma, and their Cumin Lamb Chops. I’ve now got both his books, but I haven’t strayed much further than those original two recipes. So I intend to make 36 new things from across the two books. Cocktails and sides included.

36 Health & Wellness Practices
Second attempt at this one, and not sure if it’ll do any better than the first time I tried it. But the intention is to try out different health, wellness and fitness practices; from new exercise routines, to different treatments, to interesting supplements and nutrition.

Have had a few days off, so I’ve managed to post an update pretty quickly this time. The challenges this year were just as much of a struggle as last year – work got in the way, and didn’t have a ton of time to explore and discover new stuff.

I did manage to finish the ice cream challenge though, which was as fun as it sounds. And we now have an ice cream maker at home, so we can create our own weird and wonderful flavours. But the Anya Hindmarch project was a big help in getting me over the line for 35 flavours – I visited at the start and the end of the challenge, and tried some bizarro flavours including Twiglets, Hobnobs and Pesto.

The experimental type challenge did get started, but I didn’t finish it. It wasn’t top of mind enough, if I’m honest. And I’m pretty sure I finished the children’s book one, but I was so god awful at keeping track that it didn’t feel right to say I’d ‘completed’ it. And anyway, we’ve been reading so much Harry Potter during the second half the year, that it didn’t feel like an honest representation of our reading.

Here are my 35 photos from across the year:

Thoughts on 2024

The Big Stuff:
Family life in full flow. School going well. House coming together. Kids settled and happy. Meanwhile, a year of wintering at work. Slow sign-offs, hard decisions, unpleasant conversations. But pockets of brilliance to be found across the agency – something to grow from. Wist moved from her London agency and started working remotely. Pottery slowed down, as busyness took hold – some Tuesday mornings and a few Thursday evenings, but far fewer than I wanted. Next year, next year.

The Small Stuff:
Too few museums and too much coffee. Enjoying the rhythm and ritual of village life. Friday night drinks with friends. Saturday ballet and butchers. Evening BBQs and Sunday roasts. Fireworks displays and lantern parades. Foliage and lights. Nativities and panto. Falling behind on this years challenges.

Travel:

Quote for the year:
“If you’re going to go wrong, go strong.”

Books read: 20
Best three books:

Number of photos taken: 7680
Number of songs starred on Spotify: 138
Most listened to track: Down in New Orleans – Anika Noni Rose
Series watched:  Colin From Accounts, The Traitors, The Imagineering Story, Taskmaster, Junior Taskmaster, The Outlaws, Beckham, Clarksons Farm, Ludwig, Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country, Gladiators
Album of the year: Julie is her name – Julie London
Film of the year: The Holdovers
Pub quizzes partaken: 0
Pub quizzes won: 0
Trips to the doctor: 2
Trips to the dentist: 1
Trips to the vet: 0
Museums visited:

1. Vanilla – Homemade – 21.07.24

2. Tiptree Marmalade – Anya Hindmarch Icecream project – 25.07.24

3. Filippo Berio Classic Pesto – Anya Hindmarch Icecream project – 25.07.24

4. Kikkoman Soy Sauce – Anya Hindmarch Icecream project – 25.07.24

5. Mint Choc Chip – Homemade 28.07.24

6. Cherry – Homemade 29.07.24

7. Vanilla – Worton Kitchen Garden 03.08.24

8. Millionaires Shortbread – Treleavens 17.08.24

9. Brown bread – Palais Provisions 20.08.24

10. Fig Leaf – Palais Provisions 20.08.24

11. Banana – Homemade 01.09.24

New challenges!

35 Children’s books
Both of our children are now reading, and really enjoying it. And the more time we spend with children’s books, the more I realise how much of a craft it is to put them together. So I want to read 35 new books with them, that are in some way celebrated, or experimental, or distinct in their craft.

35 Icecreams
You can see I’m trying to think of challenges I can get my family on board with… But actually, I’m really excited about this one. There are so many interesting ice cream makers doing fun stuff at the moment – from il laboratorio del gelato in NY to Palais Provisions in Cornwall. The plan is to try 35 new ones – new flavours, new types, new formats, new combinations. Whilst we’re out, or at home.

35 Bits of Experimental Type
I love typography, and quite a lot of the art I like is typographic. I’ve not got any formal training in it, and I don’t think I’ve got the patience to attempt the kind of studious work that true typographers do. But I want to experiment with it, and try out some different mediums and forms. No real rules, other than I’ll probably keep to latin alphabet, with maybe some old/middle-english letters. And there’ll probably be an ampersand in there somewhere too…

Later than usual. It’s been a busy year.
Challenges were a struggle this year; we’ve been so busy with work and life, and it’s taken a bit of a backseat.

That said – I loved listening to so many podcasts. And I heard some wonderful episodes that I wouldn’t have otherwise listened to, were it not for the challenge.
Favourites include: How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, Reply All, and How to Win an Election.

Pots didn’t end up getting logged, but I did make significantly over the 34, and had a lot of fun doing so. I worked on the form of my mugs most, but also made plates, vases, bowls, candlesticks and more. It’s something I want to keep doing. I may do another challenge soon, but just pick one single form to practice over and over again.

Here are my 34 photos from across the year:

Thoughts on 2023

The Big Stuff:
A year of contentment. Family life atop the miller’s hill is bliss, and the kids are so much more relaxed and confident now we’re more comfortable letting them explore. Felt like a slower year at work. I’d have rather made more, but it wasn’t to be. The sabbatical in the middle of it didn’t help matters. But it did allow me to make a lot more outside of work; bowls, cups, cake-stands and candlesticks. Side project time is slowly returning, and I’ve got a number of things I want to do in 2024.

The Small Stuff:
Spent far too much money at Dose coffee. Lots of time spent on James’ sofa (thank you). Slowly becoming a local, at the local. Making use of the BBQ – from Xmas turkey to ‘Thors hammer’. Plenty of Colour’n’Climb, ballet, stagecoach and swimming. The wonderful Lantern parade, once again. Lots of running around the kitchen, both cooking and playing. An angel and a shepherd under one roof.

Travel:

Quote for the year:
“Maybe The Good Life isn’t such a bad life, after all.”

Books read: 17
Best three books:

Number of photos taken: 10,575
Number of songs starred on Spotify: 105
Most listened to track: Ace of Aces by The Fearless Flyers
Series watched: Only Murders in the Building, Pretend It’s a City, It’s Always Sunny, Taskmaster, The Crown, The Bear, Happy Valley, Succession, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, The Traitors,
Album of the year: Johnny Flynn – A Larum
Film of the year: Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Pub quizzes partaken: 0
Pub quizzes won: 0
Trips to the doctor: 2
Trips to the dentist: 2
Trips to the vet: 0

Russell kindly put me in his new book, Do Interesting.

My mention notwithstanding, its an excellent read, and well worth putting on your Christmas list.

34 Pots
I recently took up pottery, and during my sabbatical went quite deep on some pottery courses (including an intensive at the Leach Pottery in St Ives). It made me realise how many different pottery forms there are to explore and learn. And so I want to throw and document 34 of them this year – perfecting them as much as I possibly can. I think I’ll mark them in some way, so I know they’re part of ‘the 34’ I’ve tried. And I’ll repeat forms where I think I can learn something.

34 Podcasts
I love podcasts, but I’ve tended to go very deep on one or two (looking at your three bean salad) rather than sampling more of what’s out there. So I’m going to do that this year – try out 34 podcasts I otherwise wouldn’t usually listen to, and hopefully stretch beyond the spotify algorithm.

34 Fish Dishes
I really enjoyed the BBQ challenge last year – it was great to cook outdoors more and push beyond my usual recipe repertoire. It was very meat based though (obviously) and a week in St Ives reminded me just how wonderful fish can be. So that’s the plan – 34 different fish recipes, cooked by me. They can be as simple or as complex as I want – and can be starters, mains, snacks or whatever.

And hopefully I’ll document them a bit better this year, vs. last year. We’ll see.

Late, true to form. A fun 33.

Challenges this year were great fun – the BBQs were excellent, and really stretched my cooking ability. I’m sorry to see that end.

The coffee got finished incredibly quickly. It was good, but I wish I’d done more side by side tastings. I don’t think I could say my coffee palate has improved all that much over the year.

The lectures didn’t get finished – I enjoyed the ones I did, but struggled to focus on it enough to make any reasonable headway.

Documentation was very poor across the year – I started taking photos early on for the BBQs, but quickly forgot. So very few visual props this time.

But I did take a lot of photos of other things, and here are the 33 that best sum up the year. Always fun to search through and see what we’ve been up to.