What I Loved: May 2025
Things we've been doing and reading and watching and eating this month
We’ve been heads-down this month (every single month?) working and parenting, with pathetically little time for anything else, but have managed to briefly slip away from desks and kitchens and playgrounds and bath time to do a few other bits.
Mainly, we’ve spent every spare minute working on the garden, visiting all nurseries within a five-mile radius of Margate (there are three huge ones; shoutout Youngs, Ramsgate Garden Centre - which even boasts a soft play and a decent Sunday roast - and The Secret Garden nurseries at Quex Park; god bless living in the semi-countryside) and lugging home bootfuls of compost on every single trip.
We figured it was worth prioritising our little outside space before summer arrives, rather than spending money finishing the kitchen, or redoing the half-demolished bathroom, or putting up the paintings which are still all leaning in piles against all the walls, or finally building shelves for the boxes and boxes and boxes of books that have been scattered about the house since we bought the place in November 2022….
So instead of any of that minor stuff we dug up all the overgrown weeds, planted some shade-loving greenery in the curiously positioned raised bed, built a very basic second raised(ish) bed in the actual sunshine using some leftover bricks in which to house the sunflowers and courgette plants we’ve been growing from seed indoors, and planted out various tomato, cucumber, padron pepper and strawberry plants in moveable pots. Mike rotavated the earth, raked the incredibly uneven ground flat, and we’re now waiting to lay down turf so we can eventually lie on grass instead of in mud.
The toddler has been busy inspecting her cherry ‘tatoes’ growing on vines, watering our new olive tree (in the soil of which we buried some of Olive’s ashes), and chomping on all the strawberries the second they turn red. I’ve also planted a blueberry bush which I’m counting on saving me the approximately £465 per month I’m currently shelling out on the silly little blue bastards.
All our remaining spare pennies have been handed over to the folk at Lovelys, Cliftonville’s beautiful arts supplies and framing shop. I reframed the puffin lino print I made at school when I was 12 (man, I peaked early artistically) and finally put my Gruff Pawtraits photo of Olive in something worthy of our late little queen. Two more paintings to lie against walls in corridors - hurrah!
We had friends visiting last weekend and seeing how excited they got about swimming in the sea made me remember how lucky we are to live by the coast. It’s easy to forget when it’s windy and grey and you don’t have time to go to the beach, but when the sun does come out and you make it down the front, it truly is magical.
During their trip took the toddlers to our favourite Margate restaurant, Bottega Caruso, for lunch, where the tots were given the restaurant’s special kids plate of homemade pasta with tomato sauce, always a hit, whether eaten off the plates first or later, off the floor, while hanging out underneath the table when it’s clearly past the sensible time to beat a hasty retreat home.
A few of us sampled the new brunch offering at Faith In Strangers, Margate’s sexiest co-working space and live music venue, where Jackson Berg (formerly of St John Bread & Wine, Barletta and The Goods Shed fame) is now on the pots and pans. The food was fabulous; lots of rich, super flavoursome treats and clever twists on classics. The extra fried, slightly vinegared chips were really special, as were the deep-fried devilled eggs with caviar. I loved the silky steak tartare with flaky, crunchy confit potato. The space is stunning and has very serene panoramic views across the sea.
At home we were terribly excited about the arrival of the new Lovevery Play Kit, the 19-21 month box, which we had delivered a little ahead of the toddler’s 19 month ‘birthday’ next week because we’re away then. These mainly wooden subscription toys - which land every two months until they’re one, then every three - feel like such a good investment. She adores the open-ended, imaginative play they inspire, they look pretty and calm, they last extremely well, and apparently have an excellent resale value for when you eventually want them out of the house. It also means we have very few shiny plastic toys in our home, and barely anything that makes noise, apart from actual musical instruments, which makes for a much more peaceful playroom-which-is-also-the-kitchen-which-is-also-the-dining-room-which-is-also-the-office. Thank god.
I hit up Vinted for a pair of the toddler’s favourite fresssh white Nikes in the next size up, then turned their little box into a treasure chest for her favourite things. Items that have been declared treasure-worthy thus far include: half a satsuma, a fridge magnet, several chewed crayons, some mud, a grubby chunk of Babybel cheese, a slug. Luckily I am reading Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl’s book on how Danish parenting leads to Danes being the happiest people on the planet, so I am feeling very zen about chaos and messy play (*DEEP BREATHS*).
Other books I’ve been reading this month include Hush, Kate Maxwell’s novel set across London and New York about a new mother who wonders whether having a baby, so at odds with her previous career-driven life, was the right decision for her; Fishfolk, my Ramsgate friend Steven Quincey-Jones’ incredibly imaginative and unique fantasy debut about the adventures of twin sisters Oona and Luna and some mythical beast in a waterlogged land called The High & Dry; and Jamie Glowacki’s - yelp - potty training bible. Wish me luck.
I’ve also secured Adelaide Faith’s debut novel Happiness Forever, about a veterinary nurse with a brain-damaged dog who falls in love with her therapist (the nurse does, not the dog), for if I’m allowed even one modest moment of reading time beside the pool on our - woop woop - holiday next week *crosses everything*.
This week, when we’ve finally crawled into bed, we’ve been watching on average one sixth of an episode of Netflix’s The Residence before falling asleep with the laptop on. This funny, spunky, fast-paced murder mystery written by Paul William Davies and executive produced by Shonda ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Rhimes about a body found in the White House during a state dinner has a terrific script and a brilliant cast led by Orange Is The New Black’s superb Uzo Aduba in the role of eccentric bird-watching detective Cordelia Cupp. At this pathetic rate we should finish all eight episodes by Christmas. Let’s chat more about it then.
Byee!
