The Ides of March

It’s hot. The weather suddenly changed this past week and I went from huddling under the covers in bed one night to flinging them off me the next. I can’t really see that the temperature is up by too much, but it’s like summer suddenly realised that it’s arrived, a little late to the party (compared to last year when summer started towards the end of January), and is determined to make up for lost time by diving into the punch bowl, dancing on the table, and getting this party started, dammit.

So, naturally, with me being me, I chose this past week to remember just how therapeutic baking can be. I have been baking bread (brioche and cinnamon buns), cupcakes, which I iced with green (spinach; don’t worry, you can’t taste it), orange (papaya), and pink (freeze dried berries) frosting, and biscuits (homemade oreos sandwiched with a cream cheese filling and almond financiers). It was such a very happy lineup. My food blog isn’t anywhere near ready yet; it’s still under construction. But I promise that Cam (my friend who is helping me with the website) or I are going to get to it really soon and set it up, and then I’ll be able to do food blog updates every week.

I’ve been ill, and I have virtually no appetite, so I haven’t been able to eat the things I made. That means I got to give most of it away. People love it when you give them food (unless you’re a stranger and they don’t want to touch the food you’re holding, nothankyouverymuch), and everyone who got presents of baked goodies have offered me favours I can cash in any time I like. This baking lark is a bit of alright.

March has been awful; the worst month in a while (yes, even worse than some months in 2016, which is saying a lot). But I’m fairly confident that 2017 will pick up again; the promise of the first two months will reignite, and I will once again be on fiiiiiiiiiiire.

And that’s really all I want to say about March. Beware, as they say, the Ides of March.

I’ve been resolving to spend less time on Facebook during my down time and spending more time reading; I have the most delightful pile of books to get through, and I really ought to be reading more. Emily has been sending me books every two weeks or so, which is really darling of her, but that just means my pile is growing ever larger. I was complaining to Alex that I find myself empty quite a lot of the time; there’s nothing to fill myself up with, living as I am in the back of beyond. Okay, so Chennai may not exactly be the back of beyond; it is a bustling city, after all. But it’s also a city that is quite devoid of any beauty or inspiration of any sort and I find everything about Chennai exhausting. From its incessant inquiet to its dusty streets to its complete lack of green anywhere you look (although not my garden; my garden is still amazingly riotous in its growth and vigour) – ugh. This is all possibly a result of my not having been on holiday in six years; a change of scene is necessary to fill oneself up, after all.

I can’t wait for May.

And that’s it for my weekly missive; I note that despite my asking you to leave me comments in my previous post I am still lacking largely in the comments department. FINE. Be that way.

(No really. Talk to me. *insert trembling doe-eyed emoji here*)

Have a great weekend, you lot.

2 Comments

  • Mary 31st March 2017 at 1:38 pm

    March is done. Send it on its way with a kick in the pants and look forward to great things for the rest of the year.
    Lovely to hear from you.

    Reply
    • Awanthi Vardaraj 31st March 2017 at 1:41 pm

      And it is lovely to hear from you!

      Yes, March is done, thank goodness. Here’s to the rest of the year; it will be amazing. 🙂 Hope you’re well!

      Reply

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