In April
My blossom-filled garden
Blossom, quite a lot of TV, and one errant uterus
A quarter of the way through 2026, and I have yet to write the plethora of essays and books I’d secretly planned at New Year. I am not yet bench-pressing my own bodyweight because I haven’t been to the gym - nor even joined one - and I don’t seem to have renovated the kitchen either.
Ho-hum. Life continues in much the same way as ever, then.
While others are filled with the joys of spring, I think April is the month when I always feel a bit defeated. I’ve emerged from winter’s dreaming to find that I’m essentially still me, moving at a glacial pace, catching every bug that passes my respiratory system, making more plans than any human can possibly fulfil. Life is an all-you-can-eat buffet, but I get full after half a plate, and I suspect there was something funny about those prawns.
But we are only just past the equinox, and as I wrote in a chat post last week, ‘It is not an extreme, but an equilibrium, a still point in the year. We might picture ourselves on a fulcrum, the year teetering, yet to choose its direction; or on a flat plain, able to see in all directions.’ It is hard, always, to be in a moment where all things are possible but nothing is happening. Yet this is how life feels most of the time.
I should say, though, that my garden is full of blossom, the white fluff of the greengage tree, the elegant pink flowers of the clematis. Dark purple hellebores are setting off the acid green of the euphorbia. Things are happening, the result of efforts of planting and pruning that happened long ago. I sometimes forget to own my part in them, instead thinking that all this beauty happens without me. Sometimes, we need to take a longer view.
Cups and prizes
Congratulations to @audrey564365 who won March’s prize draw, and who is about to receive a parcel of spring delights!
And this means a new box is ready to give away to one lucky person who starts or renews a year’s subscription to The Clearing, my Substack newsletter, in April. This one contains a beautiful handmade notebook, a copy of Requiem, Invitation and Celebration from Emergence Magazine, a signed copy of Enchantment, a refillable ink pen, Writer’s Blood ink, Blackwing pencils, wildflower tape, plus exclusive Clearing postcards, bookmarks and stickers. We’ll pick a winner at random at the end of the month!
My news
There’s no elegant way to announce this: I had a hysterectomy on Tuesday! Farewell, my uterus; you were not my favourite organ. My kidneys are far better behaved.
I didn’t get very long to plan, but I’m doing well, and I’m going to take a couple of weeks off to heal properly. (I wrote this post in advance, because I am nothing if not obsessively prepared.)
That means that we will start our planned Book Club read - M.F.K. Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me - in May instead. Thanks for understanding!
What I’ve been up to
We closed Season 1 of The Clearing Podcast with Carissa Potter, Jen Hatmaker and Elissa Altman! I’m so proud of what we achieved over the past few months - thank you to all my guests, and Producer Alice who has made it all sparkle. I’ve just reecorded the first three episodes of the new season in May, and they are all wonderful - can’t wait to share them!
Reading suggestions to illuminate this dismal moment
Water Practice, the first in a new series of prompts to explore our relationship with everyday objects and experiences.
‘The turning of a giant key in an iron lock; the long views from the Gatehouse windows; the rugged heft of the stone doorways: I felt like a child in my own, private castle.’
April notions…
Small Prophets, the new BBC series from Makenzie Crook. It’s whimsical in all the best ways. There’s a certain texture of experience that Crook captures (I’m also a fan of The Detectorists) which makes me tingle.
Kusubashi Mon-Ori, the Japanese textiles and ceramics brand with gorgeous animal designs.
Missing the Oscars. I really enjoyed fixating on that for a while. I just can’t interest myself in Eurovision in the same way.
Poaching blueberries in maple syrup until they explode, and then pouring the resulting purple elixir over Greek yoghurt.
SNL UK - just like Saturday Night Live but with British accents and more swearing. Look, SNL is always patchy, but that makes the highs even higher. It’s a showcase of the creative process itself, and that’s surely a good thing. I think the NYT reviews got it about right. (I’m also loving Last One Laughing. Sam Campbell is surely unbeatable in this format?)
I mean, I have been watching quite a lot of TV due to my dastardly uterus. Thrilled to see Shrinking back (but worried for Harrison Ford), and Bert is watching The Middle, which is a gem I’d entirely missed.
Gaining Ground, Joan Barfoot’s nearly forgotten novel about a woman who leaves her family to live in a rural cabin. It’s spectacularly good, and is being reissued by Faber in July. Possibly a future Book Club read?
I’ll be back in a bit. Until then, take care,
Katherine
