Heliotropic List #11
Colour theory, post-punk and spinach anchovy gratin
Greek Mythology has popped up in threes for me since Christmas in a very overt way that feels almost like a cosmic nudge (if you believe in that type of thing). The first; I was given Madeline Miller’s Greek mythological fiction Circes. The second; was finding the names of the God’s echoed in another ‘vein of interest’ (as mum calls it); astrology. I’ve managed to ignore astrology most of my life and never thought I’d be into it. But thanks to a friend who promised to voicemail me my chart and forgetting—and second thanks my compulsively curious brain—I went in search of my chart myself. I unexpectedly recognised the names Chiron and Venus in my chart from Madeline Miller’s books. Thirdly; a friend recommended Martin Shaw’s books without me mentioning the other ones I’d been reading. Shaw is a mythology-interpreter. Strange coincidence? I think so. Maybe the moral to wrap up this intro is the one that Ma shared, which is that following veins of interest in your reading is much more fulfilling than just being scatter-gunned in your approach.
Anyway, onto the list — there’s more pics than usual this week, a tip to turn your smart phone into a dumb phone, a sad-girl playlist and both food you can eat and food for thought.
Recipe - Anchovy and Tomato Gratin. From a cookbook my brother and his partner gifted me for Christmas and there are just so many good recipes in it. I recommend.
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Audiobook - another friend recommended Courting the Wild Twin by Martin Shaw. Thank you
! It’s a beautiful retelling of myth and commentary on how it can help us understand our lives and how to live.Quote - I finally bought Rick Reuben’s book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Here’s a quote from there I loved.
Listen - music mood of the week was what I call sad-girl rock, my partner calls shoegaze and Google calls ‘post-punk,’ ‘new wave,’ ‘dream pop’ and ‘ethereal wave.’
Thought - suddenly and randomly, I find myself interested in Josef Albers colour theory — the idea that our perception of colours change in relation to the other colours surrounding it. This is a great explainer. See how the red looks lighter against the green and darker against the white?
Jean-repair inspo - if you’ve been following previous posts, you may know I’m in a real crochet era. I took a break after making a friends wedding bag (pic below) based on a 1920’s pattern, but now I’m inspired again and one of the things on my list is to make patches like this for my jeans.
Turn your smart phone into a dumb one - this week, in desperate attempts to meet my new years resy to spend way less time on my phone, I downloaded an app called Blank Spaces that made my phone look like the Light Phone (see pic below). I also grey-scaled it in settings and downloaded an app blocker called Opal (I’m using the free version) that tells me my screen time has dropped 47% since doing so. Can confirm it works.
