MsCellany

Notes to self

Places ⸱ Gita Bapat

Autumn in the country

I've been round and about recently and regular readers of my blog will know that I post a lot of mushroom pictures at this time of year. I find it fsacinating how the fruiting bodies appear overnight; their varieties; the difficulties people have in identifying them definitively; that

28 Oct 2025

Food ⸱ Gita Bapat

Bread and butter

I am so sorry. My poor blog has been neglected, if not by my heart. I have incomplete posts but I've had a lot on. Maybe I'll be able to post my Türkiye and mushroom and autumn colour thoughts soon. I had a craving for bread

27 Oct 2025

Politics ⸱ Gita Bapat

Why is it so easy to throw us under a bus?

I emailed my (now Labour) MP this morning. Here is the body of my message: Dear Liam, I hope you’re well. I was on our LibDem stand in Beckenham yesterday and at one point found myself standing up for you as our MP when a visitor to our stall

14 Sep 2025

Gita Bapat

Keep calm and carry on

“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

7 Sep 2025

Gita Bapat

What do I do with my mum's paintings?

We have at least our fair share of junk and clutter knocking about in our house, waiting to be sorted out... somewhen. Three or four whole rooms are bedecked with the stuff that one accumulates over a lifetime of having parents and children, with mess that you're left

5 Sep 2025

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Dr. Maya Angelou

Trying out a newsletter

Of late I've heard dark rumblings about Substack being funded by Nazi-sympathisers, and its algorithm being loaded towards white supremacy and whatnot. I don't know about that but I do know that I want to distance myself from that sort of drama - though Amanda points

Up to date

I need to mark the occasion and share it. Today I finished all the Apple Fitness + 30 minute Treadmill workouts, all 126 of them. From my first few, mid-menopause and recovering from anaemia, where 6.0 km per hour was an achievement and I had to stop at least 3

It's happened again

Why anyone would behave in this way is beyond my understanding, but this keeps happening, and it's happened again. Yet again, someone I considered a close and loyal friend has, for some reason known only to themselves (or more likely unknown) decided that they would twist my words

Norfolk in May

I confess that I don't really know what to do about the difference in emphasis between this Ghost blog and my Substack. I sort of decided that shorter comments on topical thoughts would go onto the Substack, whereas more carefully-considered and durable writings might go on here. I&

Nectar Studios' Milk and Honey Medispa Show - Dr Bell's Baths, Leith 15th April 2025

To Edinburgh and a Frow VIP seat at the first fashion show produced and directed and generally put together by Eliza's Nectar Studios brand. It's been months in the making and she's rightly talked about little else. 0:00 /0:52 1× Eliza is

Steps in sourdough

Trigger warning: if you are still experiencing post-Pandemic sourdough trauma, please don't read this. I know that I'm late to this but if, like, everyone else in the UK can make sourdough bread, I need to be able to as well. I missed out on the