No. 148: Garlic in, tomatoes out
The tomato plants came out on Saturday and forty cloves of garlic went in where they stood (sample entry).
Notes on walking the coast, baking rye, mending things and living by the sea
I’m Tessa Lund (sample), a copy editor in Springfield. I have written one entry here every Sunday since March 2020, and indexed them at the back, like a book.
Index
148 entries, March 2020 to last Sunday (sample)
A
- allotment see garden
- apples
- storing 61, 118
- windfall cake 119
B
- bicycles
- mending a puncture 44
- the old tourer 97
- night riding 112
- books see also reading log
- bread
- rye 88, 102, 131
- sourdough starter 23, 56
C
- coast path
- Springfield to Gull Point 74, 75–79, 101, 128
- cold water see swimming
D
- dad’s recipes 30, 91
- darning 147
G
- garden
- raised beds 17
- tomatoes 52, 121
- first frost 125
- garlic 148
L
- letters, writing them 66, 140
- lists 8, 95
M
- mending
- jeans 81
- a jumper 147
- moving house 2, 3–6
N
- notebooks
- how I keep them 1, 50
- the index 100
S
- soup, Sunday 33, 34–47
- swimming, cold water 109, 126
T
- trains
- to the coast 70
- the night train 146
W
- walking see coast path
- winter, things for 126, 127
- 88 the main entry
- 118 with photographs
- 34–47 a run of entries
- see look under another word
- 33 start here
Latest entries
No. 147: Darning a jumper, badly
Two holes in an old wool jumper, one library book on darning and a lot of unpicking (sample entry).
No. 146: The night train to the coast
Six hours, one sleeper berth and the best view of the estuary I have had (sample entry).
What I'm doing now
A now page: what has my attention this month, rather than everything I have ever done. Updated 2 October (sample).
Living
A terraced house on Harbour Row, Springfield, since March 2020 (sample).
Working on
Editing a book of fishing-town recipes for a small local press (sample).
Reading
The Natural History of Selborne, one letter a night.
Growing
Garlic, planted on 12 October. The last of the chard.
Walking
The coast path in stages: nine of fourteen done.
Learning
Darning. Slowly, and not very well yet.
Hello, I'm Tessa
I grew up inland, spent six years in Lisbon editing other people’s books, and moved to Springfield in 2020 for the sea and a garden (sample).
This site is my notebook, kept in public. I write about the small things I do every week, and what I learn from doing them badly first.
Series
Some topics grew into runs of entries. Each run sits in the index under its own word, with its entry numbers.
A soup every Sunday through one winter, with the shopping list and what it cost.
Nos. 33–47
Winter 2021
Springfield to Gull Point in fourteen stages, one Saturday a month, written up the next morning.
Nos. 74–79, 101, 128
2022 to now
Learning to bake rye bread from a recipe card in my father’s handwriting. The failures are included.
Nos. 88, 102, 131
2023 to now
On the shelf
What I read this year, newest first. Old books mostly: the library sale is good to me.
The Natural History of Selborne
Gilbert White
Letters about one village, written over twenty years. The reason this site exists.
October
Walden
Henry David Thoreau
Read for the bean field; stayed for the household accounts.
August
The Compleat Angler
Izaak Walton
A fishing book that is mostly about conversation and lunch.
June
Middlemarch
George Eliot
Took all winter. Worth every evening.
March
Reading log for this year (sample).
The Sunday letter
Once a month, on the first Sunday, I send the month’s entries in one email with a few things that did not make it onto the site. No ads, and one reply stops it.
- First Sunday of the month, around 8:00
- About a ten-minute read
- 312 readers so far (sample)
In the October letter
Entries
Nos. 145 to 148: plums, the night train, darning, garlic.
Left over
Two photos from Gull Point that did not fit stage 9.
Recipe
My father’s plum cake, written out properly.
Reading
Three pages of Selborne worth copying out.
A past letter (sample).
Work with me
On weekdays I edit other people’s writing. I also run small workshops on keeping a notebook, and give the odd talk.
Copy editing
Per 1,000 words. Books, reports and websites; one round of queries included.
from $28
Notebook workshop, half a day
Per person, up to ten people. Notebooks and pencils included.
$45
Talks for libraries and groups
Keeping a notebook, walking and writing, or how editing works.
from $150
Example prices.
Write to me
Questions about an entry, corrections, a recipe that worked (or did not): I read every letter and answer most of them within a week.