Wonderful Wedensday #209

{Just allowing myself this one snow photo...}
Well hello there!  How the devil are you and what great-ness have you been up to since we last spoke?!  I'm writing this weeks post back to front.  By this i mean that i was overwhelmed by all of the lovely things i wanted to share on this mid-week post and decided to type 'em all down so that i didn't forget them {i mean one day i'll be that organised person who makes notes as the week goes on but for now....} and i'm only just realising as i head back up here to write a little somethin' somethin' for my intro quite how  wordy this weeks post is!  


Sorry about that.  I've had a few days by myself this week and feel as if i've opened up a cannon ball of good and great as soon as my fingers hit the keyboard!  But a good catch up is good for the heart and the soul isn't it?!  


Let's dive straight in with this weeks #wordywonderfulwednesday.....


1.  Mornings.  I've had a funny week where it's been an 'at work a day off a day at work a day off two days' and so i've felt a little.....all over the place!  Praise be for making the most of slower mornings when you can snatch them - of sneaking down to the kitchen as the sun rises and making Lady grey tea and sipping it back under the duvet; for morning face masks and BBC 6 Music with a candle lit and for not feeling even a little bit guilty for still being in your pyjamas at 10:30am even if you have been awake since 7:30am.  I remember reading something ages ago that said that you could 'bank sleep.'  The idea being that if you slept more than usual {due to days off etc} for a few days and then lost sleep another few days due to whatever might be going on; that it all evens out and that actually your body will have appreciated the extra rest gained earlier on in the week?  Am i making ANY sense?!  I know that i'm rambling BUT i like to think that the same goes for rest and for slowing down and being kinder to yourself:  You've just got to take those moments when you can get them because your body and your soul will thank you for it when it needs it most.


2.  Shorter hair.  I did it, i actually got my hair cut a lot shorter than normal.  Even my hairdresser looked alarmed when i told her it was what i wanted.  Seems she knows me too well!  We all know that the sign of a good haircut {ie:  one that you can maintain and 'do' just as lovely at home} is in how well it washes and dries and behaves when it's just you, no fancy pants hair products {i mean does anyone really buy shine spray?!} and no one to professionally blow-dry it for almost fifteen minutes.  I washed it with trepidation {it also felt funny almost having not very much to wash!} and can confirm that HURRAH all is well and i flipping LOVE it!  Turns out that my hair needs very little doing to it now it's just it's own natural colour and i just leave it alone and only wash it once a week.  If only i'd never coloured it in the first place.  I mean who even am I?!?  Well you live and learn i guess....


3.  Sourdough crumpets spread with raspberry jam, a huge teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter and scattered with toasted coconut chips.  I feel like maybe i shared this on last weeks list did I?!  Who cares it's still going strong as one of my very favourite things to snack on lately.  This weeks few more days off has meant it's become a firm staple in my breakfast repertoire too and something you should definitely try!


4.  Citrus.  I think it's important to listen to what your body wants to eat.  I'm a firm believer that it will 'ask' you for what it needs when it needs it and what will make you feel the best at any given time.  Is that odd?!  I've always thought this way.  At the start of this week i was feeling under the weather and like i might be getting a cold and my body wanted nothing but citrus.  Weird isn't it?!  I stocked up on blood oranges, extra lemons and two massive pink grapefruits and snacked on them when i fancied them; also drinking lemon in warm water with honey instead of just my usual warm lemon water and a couple of days later and i feel a squillion times better.  Hurrah for cramming in extra vitamin C and for zesty goodness!


5.  Together-ness.  I think i've done quite well to get to almost-half way though this weeks #wonderfulwednesday without mentioning the snow!  Who knew that when i was tip-tapping about it last Tuesday that it would all get so dramatic?!  I won't go on too much but suffice to say that our city that never gets snow got snow in a pretty bad way and got completely cut off.  I don't ever remember as much snow in the whole of my life time! Isn't that crazy ?!  Aside from the slippy-slidey walks to work since The Mr driving was a no-no; i flippin' LOVED it:  Actual real life powdery whiter than white snow that engulfed the whole of the city {and most of the U.K too!} covering it in a thick blanket of 'Narnia.'  What was the loveliest though was how much everyone pulled together:  The news was filled with rescue stories and everywhere you looked people were helping each other with food, digging out drives or offering lifts and help which ever they could.  Life went on and we got by and it was a little bit lot heart-warming.


6.  It being a small world.  It's true.  Often this little universe and planet and even country we call home can feel vast and huge.  But sometimes life throws something {say...an email for example...}at you that makes you realise that actually it's not. An email popped up in my inbox a few weeks ago, hidden in amongst the Anthropology 'New In's', and social media notifications {that i really need to turn off because #overwhelming} from a book publisher.  They had somehow stumbled across my little blog and were about to publish a beautiful book called 'Hetty's Farmhouse Bakery' that is set right in Cumbria and wanted to know if i'd like a copy!  I'm forever harping on about the fact that my attention span is pretty much zero when it comes to reading.  So far this year all i've managed are three cook books {yes i do read them word for word and cover to cover!} and my monthly subscription to Simple Things magazine.  I've just dipped into this sweet little book and it's BEAUTIFUL!  An easy pick-up-whenever kind of read that suits me perfectly as i don't have to think too hard!  Hop right on over HERE to pre-order a copy!  


7.   Home.  There is stiil so much i want to do with it and still so many things i'd like to change but this week - and maybe the amount of hours i've spent indoors due to weather i'm really very grateful to have a space that feels like home and one which as soon as i walk into of an evening; my heart feels full and i feel an instant sigh of relief.  I feel like i'll forever be faffing and fiddling with it but sharing somewhere with the person i love most in the whole wide world {sorry!} is something to feel grateful for and something that maybe i should be grateful of more often.


8.  Face masks and candles.  Now you and i both know i need no help to remember to light a candle at any given time.  I religiously light one {at least!} every evening as part of my wind-down routine and have started to get into the habit of lighting one in the morning when i have a day off BUT face-masks?  Not so much.  I just forget.  Yes i am someone who really loves taking their make up off of an evening and my nightly eucalyptus-y shower followed by lovely evening skincare BUT face-masks?  They just slip off my radar.  SO this week i started to incorporate them into my day-off morning routine and have LOVED feeling a little bit more relaxed in the AM.  Maybe this could be the way forward?  Maybe just maybe i might even try them on a work morning too.  My skin has felt...well just better somehow:  More even, toned and {dare i say it without cringing a little?} - well - glowy.  


9.  Beetroot.  I can't get enough of the stuff lately.  I made baked polenta sweet potatoes earlier this week and had mine piled high with a beetroot-y quinoa, a great big spoonful of beetroot and mint hummus and half a sliced avocado and honestly i almost had to put on my sunglasses it was so bright and beautiful.  Just the colour of beetroot makes me want to eat it!  It's so versatile and so underrated!  One of my very favourite summer-time juices is beetroot, ginger and apple - so good.  I remember my mum using it in our chocolate cakes when we were younger - it goes so well with dark chocolate!  I think honey roasted carrot and beetroot might have to be incorporated into this weeks suppers somehow....


10.  The return of birdsong.  I'm not sure if they did infact go anywhere but when the county was all buried in a wonderful white blanket of snow it felt like there wasn't a bird to be seen or heard anywhere.  It does that though, snow:  It sort of muffles and swallows everything up, doesn't it?!  The most wonderful thing this week has been watching the snowdrifts melt and seeing and hearing birdsong on a morning again.  I made sure to pick up plenty of bird seed and fat-balls for our garden and it's been ever so lovely to watch the birds start to come out of hiding again.  Because it's not Spring without bird song, is it?!


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And i'm done once more!  Thank goodness i hear you all cry for i thought she'd never stop!  It's okay.  I'm back at work today {Wednesday} so you can rest assured i'll talk the socks of everyone i see and get it all out of my system!  Don't forget to share what's been making your week wonderful below {i love to read comments and i'm forever grateful to anyone who does comment on here as i know how bad i am for reading posts in between taking bites of something beetroot-y on my lunch at work} AND make sure you skip right on over to  Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's OH and Ellie's because they write their very own #wonderfulwednesday list of great and good and that's inspiration in itself.  Because who's ever heard about reading about too much happy-making stuff ?!?  I know i havent....
See you next week you lovely folk!