Your feelgood Heyday Friday newsletter
An overlooked holiday destination, a clutch of inspiring older women and an absurdly irresistible recipe in this week's newsletter
Hello there
You know how sometimes a gem of a holiday destination gets overlooked or overshadowed because somewhere nearby is bigger, showier, better known? Well that’s very much the case with the magical spot I write about in this week’s blog.
It’s somewhere I’ve returned several times and had a perfect stay on every trip. A place that sounds very much like its bigger, better-known neighbour (another reason it tends to get neglected) but which boasts just as much to see, do and experience for its compact size. A place that may not have as many nightclubs as its other, showier, neighbour but packs in more glorious beaches than you can shake a sunshade at.
Here’s just one of them
Find out where this beguiling destination is by CLICKING HERE, and why the end of June is a particularly perfect time to go there.
Right now, the idea of being anywhere sunny and warm is absurdly appealing thanks to spring weather here in the UK which is pretty much summed up by this
FRIDAY NOT-SO-FUNNY
I came across this recipe on Instagram. It really couldn’t be easier or more delicious. Or more perfect to cheer up a rainy day. (It’s American, so the measurements are in cups)
CHOCOLATE COVERED BLUEBERRY YOGURT CLUSTERS
Stir 2 cups of blueberries in 1 cup of greek yogurt until they’re well covered.
Scoop 6-8 spoonfuls, depending how big you want to make them, more if you prefer them smaller, it’s really up to you onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Freeze for 20 mins.
In the meantime, melt 1 cup of chocolate chips together with 1tsp coconut oil (this makes the chocolate super smooth), either in the microwave in two to three 30-second increments, or in a bain marie.
When the blueberry/yogurt mix is fully frozen, take the tray out of the freezer and dip each cluster into the chocolate mixture, then put it back on the tray to set. The chocolate will form a shell on each one.
You can add a sprinkling of flaky salt on the top if you fancy.
They can be stored in the fridge or freezer, but if you actually have any to store once they’re made, you’ve got a lot more willpower than me!
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN……READING
Seeing my, still determinedly feisty, 90 year old mother become slowly more frail, I was interested to read a review of Ladies’ Lunch which described the novella and selection of short tales in this slim but satisfying book as ‘capturing the everyday stuff of ageing’.
And indeed that’s exactly what they do. With clear-sighted, unsentimental but entertainingly enjoyable wit and widsom. Which can certainly be attributed to the fact that the book was published on the 95th birthday of its author, the former Pulitzer prize finalist, Lore Segal.
The novella part of the book introduces us to a group of ninety-something year old friends who meet together each month. Not much happens in the vignettes of their meetings and conversations in terms of plot (unless you count one of them being put into a home by her children and the others planning to ‘rescue’ her), but that’s part of the pleasure of Lore’s delightfully scant writing style.
There’s no embellishment beyond what we need to know about each of the women and their lives. And that’s fine, because their lively, sometimes argumentative, conversations and company are more than enjoyable enough without any extra or extraneous detail.
As well as the lunching ladies, there’s a little collection of other, unconnected, short stories and autobiographical pieces including one describing Lore’s experience of being hospitalised with pneumonia. “My pre-existing condition” she writes with the witty pragmatism that is peppered through all her stories “was being ninety-two years old.”
Ladies’s Lunch is a slight book to savour, and an engagingly discerning vision of old age to contemplate. “Our children,” one of the women says, “would not believe how calmly we look around the table wondering which of us will be next.”
WORDS OF WISDOM
At 101, the irrepressible Iris Apfel knows better than most how to age with your sense of joy and playfulness fully intact.
Those are certainly sentiments that equally exuberant Heydayer Jill would agree with.
Find out what made her start dyeing her hair at the age of 85 by CLICKING HERE
I’m feeling positively spring-chicken like compared to Jill, Iris and the lunching ladies, but with plenty of fun to look forward to (provided it stops blinking raining…)
Stay dry and see you next week.
Diane x