We’re still a couple of weeks from the equinox, but hallelujah, you can sit outside again without getting a blue nose. In our snail-filled, too-shady London garden, where I’m pecking at the computer, the resilient hellebores look hale, and some pre-potted tulip and narcissus bulbs that I ordered from Sarah Raven (cribbing a suggestion from last year’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide) are already on the move. The tulips in particular—a new-to-me, early-blooming variety called “Danique”—are really going for broke all at once, bursting blousily in pinky-yellow. They’re so nice to look at that I’ve been moving their zinc pot around the house with me, like a leg iron.
Before we go any further, I should tell you something. In thinking about joyful, useful gifts for mothers this year, I’ve been led by my own condition, which is nine months pregnant and mostly horizontal. I bring it up because, reading things over, I notice that this list has become a treasury of batten-down-the-hatches-type recommendations. I can’t imagine that’s a coincidence. Anyway, in case anyone is out there thinking “but where is the write-up for water skis?”, now you know.
1. A Sourdough Starter Pot
Like everybody else during the pandemic, my husband started making sourdough. I had nothing to do with it. The whole thing was an amazingly positive development in my life apart from one aspect: the weird, congealed-looking sourdough starter that lived in a glass jar in our fridge. Enter this pot. It’s made by Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall, sold through TOAST, and makes me glad whenever I see it next to the pickles, which is about thirty or forty times a day. The hand-thrown stoneware is porous, meaning that the yeast is sheltered but enjoying the air, and that is apparently the optimal state of things if you are a single-celled microorganism. In any event, the sourdough is excellent and the old glass jar is living a new life as a vase.
2. An Air-Purifying Bonsai Ficus Ginseng
There are several air-purifying plants in our house (a pint-sized Money Tree; a large, staked African Fig), but my favourite is the Bonsai Ficus Ginseng, and the preference is down to appearances. It sits next to the kitchen sink and is absurdly handsome—the kind of thing that looks as though you need to tend to it with a specialised pair of scissors, only you don’t. You just leave it alone. The online plant company, Beards & Daisies, has a large, useful selection of plants that are meant for air purifying—palms and snake plants and Devil’s Ivy and so on. There’s almost always an option to add a pot, so most varieties can arrive as gifts.
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3. The LORTON 010 Cardigan
I hate to look like I’m out of ideas, and the truth is that I went on about the British jumper-maker Navygrey a couple of years ago. But this boxy, structured cardigan (so substantial that it is almost-but-not-quite a jacket) is such a belter than I couldn’t leave it alone. It’s made in Scotland using lambswool, finished with three Corozo nut buttons. The texture is soft and weighty, and the cut is slightly short and roomy, with slim cuffs and an elegant hood. I have the lighter, biscuity colour, but if it hasn’t sold out (it’s a limited run, no repeats) by the time my birthday rolls around in June, I might spring for the darker, heathery brown version too.
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4. Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen
Due to a complexion the shade of kitchen roll, I wear sunscreen every day. It’s a boring thing to have to do, so I complain about it. As a result, many, many people have told me about Supergoop!, pulling little white and yellow tubes out of their bags and suggesting that I try it out in the middle of lunch. Well, now I’ve tried it. And everybody is right. The formula is thin and colourless, as opposed to every other chalky sunscreen I’ve tried. Supergoop! seems to vanish. I forget it’s there. I’m hooked. I look forward to telling you all about it at our next lunch.
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5. Wireless Headphones
I came to wireless headphones late. And they were such an improvement, I wanted to mention it in case there are any stragglers like me still out there, charging around in the wilderness with cords stuck into their coat zippers. The crucial thing is to find a pair that fit your ears especially, but I like this new set from the audio darling Marshall for their textured case, which is easy to grip, and the especially lightweight earbuds, which stay put for me.
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6. STAUB Cast Iron Brasier
Over the past few years, in an effort to move away from nonstick cookware, we’ve been frying eggs one at a time in a cast iron skillet that belonged to my grandmother. This 28cm cast iron brasier is both a whopping upgrade and comparative workhorse. It still fries eggs (three at a time—four if you’re nimble), but it has also become the standby for braised chicken, frittatas, and apple tarts. There’s a slow-cooked, Moroccan-style crispy chickpea supper I’ve made approximately eight thousand times, and it’s richer, more tender, and has better texture when baked in the brasier.
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7. Paravel Luggage
Paravel Luggage has a chic, hit-the-road Instagram account, and I followed them for about five years before committing to a set of Aviator luggage in navy, with midnight blue trim, last autumn. Every piece of luggage is made of 100% recycled materials, from the polycarbonate outer shells to the aluminium detailing and vegan leather trims. For the Aviator collection, Paravel also offsets the carbon emissions involved in manufacturing and shipping the suitcases. The house style is an updated take on Golden Age steam trunks and it is impossible not to envision yourself on an ocean liner.
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8. Niwaki Sakagen Flower Scissors
Florists are devoted to these comfortable flower scissors, which you can wield at length without your hands stiffening into claws. The handles have slightly grippy finish and are generously sized to accommodate gardening gloves. In terms of snipping action, they’re sharper and more controlled than regular scissors, but smoother than secateurs. As a layman I use them for cutting roses and trimming hedges, opening boxes and sometimes packets of crisps. They’re workaday and beautiful, like most things at Niwaki.
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9. A Wool Blanket from Community Clothing
Community Clothing launched in 2016 with two objectives: to create jobs in industrial regions of the UK by manufacturing high-quality textiles, and to sell them at prices accessible to people on average incomes. They started with jackets and denim, and have since expanded to jumpers, trainers, aprons, and more or less anything else you might need to pull on. I have one of their tri-colour wool blankets, made in Pudsey, Leeds, at the foot of my bed. It’s gratifyingly larger than a run-of-the-mill throw, soft and stylish, and usually commandeered by my children for dens.
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10. The Belazu Hamper
There are a handful of Belazu products that are treat-staples in our cupboard: smoked paprika, tahini, sherry vinegar, tiny glass jars of saffron. Belazu is a B-Corp that brings Michelin-grade ingredients to home cooks as well as chefs, and this hamper is a hoard of bestsellers and award-winners, like balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy, preserved Beldi lemons, and rose harissa paste. For anyone who gets a kick out of Ottolenghi-type recipes, I can’t think of anything I’d rather unwrap.
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11. Photo frames from Rebecca Udall
In an obvious sign of age and sentimentality, I now collect frames. As soon as they arrive, I fill them with oddball snapshots that I will never have the heart to change. What kind of monster would update a photo of a baby, mug down in his first chocolate cake, or a cycling tot about to bloody your shins with a glider bike? I’m too soppy to think about it. Rebecca Udall is a steady resource for well-made, fairly-priced frames with enough personality to zhuzh whatever surface is not covered in pictures already. The styles are complementary but not matchy-matchy; I have my eye on a stripy blue number next. We’re going to have to move.
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12. Onyx Home Work Out Set
This is new territory for me, health-wise. But the all-change reality of three young children makes a person reconsider their habits. Onyx is a small, female-owned company in South London that manufactures home exercise equipment. The pieces are designed to be easy on the eyes: soothing colours, sleek weights, cushy mats—everything looks and feels like it belongs in a Scandinavian health retreat. The Home Work Out Set is ideal for barre workouts, and includes a mat, resistance bands, and three varieties of weights (hand weights, bracelet weights, and a ring weight).
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13. Smeg mini espresso machine and grinder
There’s an argument that Andrew and I have been having for a decade and it goes like this. Him: We should get an espresso machine. Me: You are bananas, we hardly have the counter space for a toaster. On and on. This “mini” espresso machine and grinder, both new creations from Smeg, feel like they were dreamt up by someone listening to us fight. They’re small enough for an urban kitchen, but also lookers, so you don’t mind so much that you will be staring at them. We’ve tried out the new kit, and with practice, produced flat whites that will probably be a predawn balm for our marriage.
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