Friday Mix Tape: 9 Jan 2025

With the idea of this blog being a mix of meanderings, music and making here is my first "mixed tape" of collection of randomness from this past week.

New music:

This week I discovered WITCH (We Intend to Cause Havoc), an early Zambian "Zamrock" band. The linked album is now in my Bandcamp wishlist. If you want to know more about Zamrock, a genre which emerged in post-colonial Zambia after the revolution, you can read more as a part of the Bandcamp blog.

I always find the blog a good source for discovering new genres and music. It's always so inspiring and to be honest, makes me think about how I could take my discovery of music deeper, beyond just the tracks and into the history or inspiration for different music. Especially as I enjoy a bit of research.

New plant: Monstera

I normally (accidentally) kill my plants in one way or another, but I really want to get better at taking care of them, so this year when I got a Monstera plant for Christmas, I've been reading up on care, how to know when to water, and other special considerations and potential issues with this type of plant.

When I got it home, one of the leaves was yellowing and curling in on itself, and the soil felt almost wet, even though it hadn't been watered for DAYS. So a quick read let me know this was likely due to overwatering and potentially the soil from the sales planter pot being too compacted. As I'm trying not to transplant it until as close to Spring as I can, as they say it's the best time, I poked a number of aeration holes and have also been rotating the plant to provide different levels of sunlight and slowly throughout the week I have seen the impacted leaf start to uncurl and today it's finally fully uncurled and looking a bit happier, if still yellow. It's giving me a little bit of confidence that maybe this time, things will be different.

Creativity:

Whether it was a trusted mentor reminding me that my way of processing and solving problems is different and unique, and that it is one of my assets I need to nurture and build upon, or the different types of craft supplies I’ve purchased this week as I think ahead to a couple of projects I want to work on, it’s a reminder that I need to embrace my creative side to really thrive. I hope that’s something I will continue to nurture this year. 

In case you’re curious, I’m hoping to knit a pair of cosy slippers, plus sew some patches onto one of my denim jackets. This is in addition to the multiple knitting and crochet projects I already have in progress!
Slipper pattern: Cosy Slipper Socks by Debbie Bliss

Currently reading:

The links will take you to The StoryGraph, a book tracking and review platform which was built and founded by British-Nigerian, Nadia Odunayo. It’s a great alternative to Goodreads, and if you want to make the switch, they even have an easy importing tool so you won’t lose your reading history. Want to know a bit more: https://thenodmag.com/content/storygraph-reading-app-goodreads-alternative-woman-founded

On to the books: 

• A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez: One of my favourite writers recently. There’s something about the honesty and dark themes within her writing always manage to bring me in. 
• The Waste Lands by Stephen King: I’ve been reading Stephen King since I was a kid hanging out at the library. What started with Tommyknockers for me, has branched into reading a number of his works. In this case, I started reading The Dark Tower series as a teenager, but never finished it (and the series itself wasn’t finished at the time.) So I decided when restarting my reading habit a year or so ago, that I wanted to re-read the series and this time to its ending. 
• The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett: A recommendation from a friend. I don’t really know what to expect as this is the first of my Terry Pratchett reads.