How to Relax

If you watch cooking shows to calm down, have I got something for you.

A super-short note to say, if you are finding yourself a little tense these days and are the kind of person who finds cooking and travel shows relaxing, do I have something for you.

I know a lot of people who watch the Great British Bake-Off before bed to calm their brains. If you’re one of those people, you’ll find the the Country Life Vlog from Azerbaijan will leave you feeling as if you’ve not just relaxed, but escaped. Blissed out, even. As if your brain has been replaced by quietly snoozing fluffy little kittens.

And this is coming from a woman who had a literal panic attack last night watching the news.

Oddly it was The Economist that alerted me to this video. They owed me anyway, as a necessary antidote to some of the polling they’ve reported on.

The country life vlog focuses on the day-to-day of a few people in a little village in Azerbaijan. No one speaks. There are only ambient nature sounds. We watch as a woman who is built just like my grandma, chops vegetables, tends the fire, occasionally stirs the food, mixes in handfuls of colorful spices from clay bowls, all while a multitude of cats snuggle underneath her work bench, ducks waggle their bottoms on their way to finding grubs to eat and a crow stops by for a snack. Meanwhile, the man I assume is her husband, gathers walnuts from trees, travels up into snowy hills with his frisky pup and cow bells plinkle in the forest clearing. And the rain, ah, the rain falls in big, satisfying drops.

You can find the Country Life Vlog here on YouTube

Let me know what you think.

This substack is a reader-supported publication. I cannot do it without you. If you’re able, paying for a subscription helps pay for the groceries necessary for recipe-testing and recipe development. Also, it supports me—a freelance writer—and ad-free journalism.

The pay scale for journalists and writers has not kept up with the cost of living. That’s why having a substack newsletter has become such a terrific venue for so many writers. Best of all, it puts mein touch with our readers like never before. And: Clyde would like to add, it keeps him in cat treats. He is obsessed with these little Temptations savory salmon flavor crunchies.

Can’t afford a subscription? Do the next best thing and give free subscriptions to all your friends. The more the merrier.

I need crunchies.