Happy weekend my dears, I hope you’re experiencing some sunshine and have something very delicious looming on the menu. I’ve had the recording of my chat with the wonderful and inspiring
sitting in my drafts since we spoke, but a couple of days of exhausting solo childcare while Jamie was in London meant that I’m only getting around to sharing it now. So sorry if you’ve been wondering where it is!Thank you so much to everyone who tuned in to the season finale of ‘Kitchen Hangs’, and the earlier episodes, it was so lovely to see so many of your names popping up and I’ve had such fun having these conversations and dipping into the live video format — it feels like a brilliant way to connect with other writers and creatives who might be interesting for us all, and a real example of how this platform fosters community and connection, as well as connecting writers with their audience. Hopefully, by the time the next season gets going, I’ll be in the new kitchen (exciting), and I’d love to hear from you guys if you’ve got any requests of people you’d love us to chat to, so do hit me up in comments!
It was so fun and enlightening chatting to Leyla, who I’ve been friends with for many years and who I’ve always admired for her curiosity, creativity, determination and can do attitude. Leyla, who writes the newsletter ‘A Day Well Spent’, shared the news of her bold and brilliant lifestyle change earlier in the week (spoiler alert: she’s moving to Portugal to build an eco house and farm on a three acre plot of land), and I felt very privileged to be chatting to her so soon after she dropped this massive announcement. And also to have a snoop around her weird, wonderful and very unusual must-have kitchen gadgets. Those of you who also love to nerd out on obscure kitchen kit will really love this.
Leyla’s realisation that her urban life in London (the only one she’s ever known) wasn’t serving her in the ways she needed it to, felt personally very familiar to me, and I think will massively strike a chord with those of you who responded to my latest, very personal piece ‘On Moving To the Sea: Why I stepped away from the busy London life I built to live more slowly by the sea’ — and huge thanks for the lovely feedback on that so far.
Here’s a couple of clips from our chat for a sneak peak, and if you’re interested in Leyla’s journey and feel like you’d enjoy learning more about how she ended up having such a wild revelation, then you should absolutely buy her debut book(s) ‘Pathways: To the Land and Pathways: To Purposeful Living’. Part memoir, part manifesto, part guide, and with a foreword by the fabulous
, the Pathways story is split into two books. To the Land is an honest account of realisation and dissatisfaction with modern life, and answering a call to self-sufficiency in the hills outside of Lisbon.To Purposeful Living – is a book of mini essays and thought exercises to help face a simple question: how can we cut through the noise to identify the things that make us feel good and fulfilled? Both are being published (in true unconventional Leyla style) by the Pound Project - a disruptor independent publisher that crowd sources its books one project at a time, only printing and distributing the number of books ordered. This means that Leyla’s book is only available to buy until the 27th May and after that it will no longer be possible: so we should definitely all order them now.
They’d also make a great gift for anyone you know who may be feeling a bit stuck or lost or in need of a life overhaul. Order here while you still can.
Here’s a sneak peak from our chat, and paid subscribers can watch the conversation in full.
