A conversation with enthusiastic polyhobbyist Cate Linden

“We didn’t mean to have five cats, but we do”.

My kind of woman.

Three of the five cats

Cate Linden may be known to you as a colour analyst, style coach, and she also recently started training other colour analysts. Listen to our conversation where we explore the lesser known sides of Cate Linden.

Cate and I go way back. We met in New York at a colour analyst conference more than a decade ago, and we have kept in touch ever since, and together we publish videos on YouTube with colour analysis related content. Besides both of us being colour analysts, we have several things in common, among them is a love of cats, but it turned out during this conversation, as with most other deep conversations, that there were several things that we did not know about each other.

Enthusiastic polyhobbyist

Cate has many hobbies, and we found that the best phrase for this condition is “enthusiastic polyhobbyist”.

Amateur = someone who does what they love

What we also talked about is how wonderful it is to do something just because you love doing it, whether or not you are good at it! What a pleasure it is to look at these joyful paintings that Cate has made. They sparkle with creativity and colour, just as she sparkles in this photo of her.

There is nothing mediochre about the exuberant enthusiasm displayed in Cate’s paintings.

By the way: We did not make up the phrase “enthusiastic polyhobbyist”. At comes from the movie The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the exentric painter.

And: Wain painted cats. Lots of cats. A coincidence? I think not.

Books and poets that have made an impression on Cate

The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler 

Lessons on Expulsion by Erika L. Sánchez

The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Grilled Cajun Shrimp

Ingredients:

2 lbs raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

For the shrimp:

Cayenne pepper

Black pepper

Salt

Tabasco or Crystal

Worcestershire

Fresh parsley, minced

For the butter sauce:

2 sticks butter

Juice of 2 lemons

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

Cayenne pepper to taste

2 tsp salt

1/4 cup white vinegar

4-5 dashes worcestershire sauce

4-5 dashes hot sauce (Tabasco or Crystal)

1 tsp fresh black pepper

Directions:

Sprinkle seasonings onto the shrimp and rub them in with your fingers. 

For the sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly. Let the butter cool slightly (you don’t want to cook the shrimp), then pour the mixture onto the shrimp (an 8x8 dish works well for this). 

When ready to grill, thread the shrimp onto pre-soaked wooden skewers and grill for 2 minutes on each side, basting generously with the butter sauce as they cook. 

Excellent served with grilled vegetables or a salad.

How to connect with Cate:

You can follow Cate on Instagram (highly recommended) and for style coaching and colour analysis, you can find information and get in touch with her on her website.

How to connect with me:

You can find more content from me and lots of stuff about simple and efficient dressing with Scandinavian simplicity here.

Would you like to be a guest on my podcast?

Write a DM to me here on Substack or click here to write me an email.