Here's looking at you in this week's Heyday Friday newsletter
A collection of compelling images, a singing superstar, a murder mystery podcast with an real-life twist at the end and a warming winter soup recipe in this week's newsletter
Hello!
I started last week’s newsletter with a welcome to all you lovely new subscribers, and I want to begin this one with a huge and heartfelt thank you to those of you who have generously become paid subscribers to These Are the Heydays. I really am enormously grateful for your support for the work I put into each of these weekly missives. Thank you.
I guess I should crack on with the aforementioned work then!
Starting, as I almost always do, with directing you to this week’s blog. Which is an review of a really fantastic photography exhibition I saw last week in probably my favourite art gallery in London.
Find out what both the exhibition and the gallery are by CLICKING HERE. Here’s a taster to encourage you to do that
WORDS OF WISDOM
What French-Swiss director and screenwriter Jen Luc Goddard said about portrait photography is the perfect lens (sorry, not sorry) to view the exhibition featured in this week’s blog through. CLICK HERE to find out why the image is so particularly relevant too.
A far more seasonally appropriate recipe for you this week than the salad I shared a couple of weeks ago - which I’m still preparing for myself several times a week I have to say. But in-between I’m relishing this super-simple, store cupboard soup that’s fabulously tasty and healthy.
RED BEAN SOUP
This amount serves four and takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook.
Drain one 425g can of red kidney beans and rinse until the water runs through clear.
Heat 1tbsp of oil in a large saucepan and cook 1 onion finely chopped, and 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped, over a low heat for 2 minutes.
Add the kidney beans and mash them slightly with a fork. Then add 1tsp oregano, 1 400g can chopped tomatoes (or whole tomatoes which you chop up yourself. I’ve discovered the whole tomatoes are MUCH tastier than the chopped ones. Apparently its because they’re better quality), 1tsp chilli powder and 600ml beef stock (you can use vegetable stock if you want to keep this vegetarian).
Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 mins. Stir well to break down the tomatoes then cook for another 10 mins and adjust the seasoning to taste.
WHAT’S MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK
I’ve always been a huge Adele fan. I mean, how could you not with a voice like that? But even more so because she seems to have managed to stay true to her fabulously down-to-earth self in spite of her absurd level of global fame (I saw her in concert in a huge stadium when one of her musicians broke the neck of his cello climbing up onto the set for a section with just her, him and a guitarist. She fell about laughing and screeched “Oh my gawd. What the **ck are we going to do now?!” Needless to say she carried off that bit of the set, minus the cello accompaniment, with absolute aplomb). If possible, I love her even a little bit more because of this. And hats off to this little girl’s wonderful dad.
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN…..LISTENING TO
The setting for this riveting real-life murder mystery podcast is the remote south west of Ireland, where, on December 23rd 1996, the brutally beaten body of 39-year-old French TV producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found near her isolated holiday home. Not only was Sophie’s shocking murder the worst crime that has ever happened in the rural community, it remains one of the highest profile and longest-running unsolved cases in Irish history.
Husband and wife journalists Sam Buney and Jennifer Forde present the 14 episodes of this detailed and gripping podcast. The couple spent three years immersing themselves in their investigations into Sophie’s death and talking to the people involved - locals from the tight-knit village, Garda officers who were involved in the investigation, members of Sophie’s family and, at greatest length, the chief suspect in the case, blow-in (the local term for somebody who moves in from outside the area) former journalist and would-be poet, Iain Bailey.
Iain is certainly a man it’s hard to like - his personal and professional history are seeped in, at best, reprehensible, at worst deeply unpleasant, behaviour - but whether due to the quite remarkable ineptitude of the Garda investigations, or because, in spite of the suspicious of so many, and several attempts at proving his guilt in court, he really was innocent, he remained un-convicted (albeit having been found guilty in absentia in France). I say ‘was’ and ‘remained’ in the past tense, because in a final flourishing real-life twist, Iain died suddenly of a heart attack aged 66, on Jan 21st this year.
The complexities of the story are sensitively and admirably dispassionately unpicked by Sam and Jennifer, and the richly layered, evocative soundscape immerses you in the settings of this intriguing tale. The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier may remain tantalisingly (or frustratingly depending on your view) unsolved, but West Cork will leave you feeling satisfyingly absorbed and intrigued.
You can listen to WEST CORK on Audible
And there’s a trailer HERE
I know this is a double helping of
WORDS OF WISDOM
but looking for a quote for this slot I couldn’t choose between this and the one above. So lucky you, you’re getting them both. Consider it a two-for-the-price-of-one special offer. You’re welcome.
I have no idea who Katie Thurmes is, but I love her description of what a photograph does for us.
That’s it for this week. But before I go, in response to the comment/question at the end of THIS BLOG and several others I received as direct messages - here’s the hat I bought on my flying visit to Munich (you can find out why it was such a fleeting visit and why I ended up in possession of a new hat in the blog). I loved the colour and how it can be worn so many different ways. I wonder if you agree?
See you next time.