https://tuesdaynotes.com/ A small personal notebook. en Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:17:01 +0000 https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/starting-a-new-long-book.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/starting-a-new-long-book.html Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Started another big one. Not the doorstop from before, I got through that over the winter in the end, mixed feelings and all, but something nearly as thick. J. mentioned it last time we met. I turned it over in my hands in the shop for a good while before I let myself pay for it… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/late-summer-slowing-down.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/late-summer-slowing-down.html Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 The light's changed. It comes in lower now, more gold than white, and by the time I get to the park after work the shadows are already long across the grass. Not autumn yet. The first note of it. My tree, which I've started calling mine, absurdly, still has all its leaves. A fe… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-third-batch-of-jam.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-third-batch-of-jam.html Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Third batch this summer, done Saturday, and it set first try. Didn't even stand over the pan the way I used to. Plums from the market, sugar, a squeeze of lemon, done in under an hour. M. brought up the very first batch again, the one that never actually turned into jam. We spo… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/midsummer-and-the-long-evenings.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/midsummer-and-the-long-evenings.html Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 The evenings have gone so long we keep getting caught out by the clock. You look up sure it must be nearly dark and it's still bright and gold and hasn't even started thinking about it. We've started taking tea outside after dinner, in the last of the light. Two mugs, the two c… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/half-finished-books-and-peace.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/half-finished-books-and-peace.html Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Four books on the little table by the chair, all with a bookmark stuck somewhere in the first half, and I feel completely fine about it. Which is new. For years an unfinished book sat on me like a small unpaid debt. The big novel I finally got through over the winter seems to h… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-same-bench-in-may.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-same-bench-in-may.html Tue, 19 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 There's a bench on the path by the water I seem to have adopted without ever deciding to. It's been the same one all the way round the year, and I only really clocked this week that I've watched a whole circle from it. Last May the tree next to it was all new leaf, that almost… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/giving-a-loaf-away.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/giving-a-loaf-away.html Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Gave the neighbour a loaf this week. Handed it over the fence still warm, wrapped in a tea towel I'll get back at some point. It was only on the way back in that it hit me: this is the same neighbour who, a year and a half ago, watched me wrestle with these dense sad bricks and,… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/planting-fewer-things.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/planting-fewer-things.html Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Second spring of trying to grow things on the little bit of space we have, and I've taken last year's lesson, when I planted far too much out of pure optimism and ended up with more basil than two people could eat and three apologetic tomatoes. So this year, fewer pots. Better… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-stew-i-keep-changing.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-stew-i-keep-changing.html Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000 There's a stew I've been making on and off for over a year and I don't think two batches have ever been the same. Started as a real recipe, printed out, gone soft and stained and shoved in a drawer. Haven't looked at the page in months. First few times I followed it exactly and… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/back-to-the-dough.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/back-to-the-dough.html Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Went lazy over the winter and just bought bread for a while. It's easier, it's fine, nobody suffered. But somewhere in the cold months I started missing the actual ritual of it, the slow Saturday morning, so this week I mixed a dough for the first time in a couple of months. St… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/snow-that-didnt-stay.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/snow-that-didnt-stay.html Tue, 10 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Snow on Sunday. The soft slow kind that hushes everything. It didn't last. Patchy on the grass by early afternoon, wet and dark again by evening. I went to the park while it was still coming down. Nobody about. My prints, a dog walker's, that was it. The bench had a neat white… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/a-lighter-stack-of-books.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/a-lighter-stack-of-books.html Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Finished the big novel last month and swung hard the other way. Short story collections now, mostly. I like finishing a thing in one sitting and putting it down done, no bookmark sitting there like a small chore I owe. Re-read an old favourite too, one I've had for years, spine… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/no-resolutions-this-time.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/no-resolutions-this-time.html Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Last January I wrote a list. Early mornings. Less scrolling. Empty inbox. A longer walk every day. It was gone by March and then I felt bad about it for weeks. Daft, really. No list this year. The stuff that actually stuck wasn't on any list. The drawer got fixed in spring beca… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/another-quiet-year-end.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/another-quiet-year-end.html Tue, 30 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Second year of writing these is nearly done, which I only clocked because I scrolled back to see what I'd put this time last year. Not much has changed and I mean that kindly. Same flat, same kettle that takes too long, same view of the bare tree from the kitchen window. M. tau… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/finishing-the-book.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/finishing-the-book.html Tue, 16 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Finished the big novel. The one J. gave me over a year ago, that I gave up on a third of the way through last winter, then started again from scratch in September. Read the last pages last night by the lamp with M. asleep, closed it, sat there a while. Not sure how I feel about… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/fixing-the-latch-at-last.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/fixing-the-latch-at-last.html Tue, 09 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Fixed the door. The spare room latch, the one that's been drifting open with that slow creak since October. It took, and I want this on the record, about fifteen minutes. It was exactly what I'd assumed and been ignoring. The metal plate on the frame had slid down a couple of m… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/a-year-of-week-notes.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/a-year-of-week-notes.html Tue, 25 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Worked out it's been about a year of these. First one was some grey week last November — a loaf that came out like a brick, a drawer that squeaked. I didn't think I'd keep it going. I don't keep most things going. Still can't really say why I do it. It's not a diary; there's no… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/bread-i-got-lazy-about.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/bread-i-got-lazy-about.html Tue, 11 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Confession: I've stopped making bread. For now. The loaves had got good over the summer, really good, to the point where I'd stopped weighing anything and was just going by feel. And then over the last few weeks I quietly stopped. It's the dark. The whole rhythm of it, the long… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-door-that-wont-latch.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/the-door-that-wont-latch.html Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000 One for the list. The spare room door won't latch. It swings to and leans on the frame but doesn't catch, so every draught pushes it open a few inches with a slow creak that's honestly worse than a slam. Had a look at it. The little metal plate on the frame has shifted, or the… https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/pickling-what-was-left.html https://tuesdaynotes.com/notes/pickling-what-was-left.html Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000 The market's gone properly autumn. The stone fruit that ran the summer is finished, and it's roots and squashes and the last of the beans now. Came home Saturday with more than I could reasonably use. So I pickled. Cauliflower, some carrots cut into batons, and a jar of red oni…