Hello 2019.

Photo by Sylwia Forysińska on Unsplash

Seasoned readers of this little space will know that, rather than set a number of resolutions for the year ahead, over the last few years I've decided to choose a word for the year instead - an intention, of sorts. I love the feeling of a new year, like a brand new notebook it sits before me fresh and unmarked and full of opportunities.

I usually start pondering which word to choose when Christmas passes, a word that encapsulates how I'm feeling at this moment in time, but also how I feel looking back over the year that was and what I'd like to accomplish over the year to come. Lots of words popped into my head but after a little thought, I quickly discounted them thinking that they would be too easy to forget as the months pass. I wanted something that encapsulated something more, the little things that are important to me but which I so often lose track off as work takes over - family; friends; my little home and transforming it into our space; travelling and discovering new places; art, writing and the time to be creative in a myriad of small ways; health; and also considering our impact on the world and what can be done to make the world a better place.

This year, I've opted for 'priorities' as my word to focus on for 2019, to help me keep sight of the all-important 'life' in the 'work/life balance' and to do my best to prioritise each of the above. 

And with that, I'll leave you in the hands of Neil Gaiman who has written many new year wishes over the years and who always manages to send a message that is both touching and empowering at the same time, and so much better than I feel I ever could:

Be kind to yourself in the year ahead.

Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.

Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.

Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.


Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.

****

Happy New Year to you all and thank you for stopping by over the last year, for every comment and every friendship sparked by these pages. Here's to 2019 being everything you wish it to be and more! Do let me know if you've chosen a word or an intention for the year - I'd love to know!

A festive to-do list

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

Yesterday my Mum and I visited the Country Living Christmas Fair in London where we spent a wonderful few hours browsing all the festive goodies, picking up some treats and enjoying planning the weeks to come (primarily food-related!) I treated myself to a Christmassy candle, some new decorations for our tree (I do this every year!) and some amazing cheddar and chutneys, which I'm already excited about digging into on Christmas day.

I love this time of year, it's my favourite. As Autumn gets colder and crisper, the leaves change colour and fall, and then the nights get darker but interspersed with the festive lights twinkling from windows and trees. This year will be our first Christmas in our own home so it feels extra special.

A few years ago I sat down and wrote a wishlist of things I wanted to do over the festive season. It was a really good chance to reflect on what's important to me and all the little things that I look forward to this time of year, so I've decided to do it again this year.

Here are a few things that I'd like to spending some time doing over the course of the weeks leading up to Christmas and the festive period itself:

• Write Christmas cards while listing to my favourite Christmas songs.
• Crafting some more Christmas decorations - last year I made reams of paper chains and it was so fun to do and they looked wonderful!
• Go out to look at some Christmas lights while sipping on something hot and preferably mulled!
• Visit a Christmas tree farm and choose our tree.
• Buy a tub of Christmas chocolates (we're a Cadbury Roses household!) to enjoy over the Christmas period.
• Decorate the tree by candlelight - bring on all of the hygge cosiness. 
• Bake some festive treats.
• Donate to our local Foodbank and Toybank.
• Enjoy my favourite Christmas films - Gremlins, White Christmas, Home Alone, Muppet Christmas Carol, The Holiday, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Scrooged...it's a long list and that doesn't even include the cheesy holiday specials on Netflix, which I looooved last year.
• Attend a carol service.
• Partake in some favourite festive foods - mince pies, cheeses accompanied by chutney and picked onions (I could eat them on their own really!), sprouts, bread sauce and allll of the chocolate. 
• Go to the ballet - this one's already booked, we're going to watch the Nutcracker!
• Wrap presents by the tree.
• Jólabókaflóð - this is the Icelandic tradition of exchanging books on Christmas Eve before spending some time together reading. Isn't that a lovely idea? Apparently people tend to take their books to bed with some chocolate, which sounds extra cosy. We'll probably be very busy on Christmas Eve as we're hosting this year (eep!) but I'm hoping that we can make the time to do this.

Do you enjoy this time of year? What would be on your festive wishlist?

Too many tabs...

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

So, I sat down with my laptop on Tuesday night to type up a Wonderful Wednesday post for the next day and...didn't get any further than the first few lines. 

I did, however, watch a TV show with my husband, catch up on Instagram and Twitter, browse birthday gift ideas for my mum and research some places to visit during our holiday next month. But if you asked me anything specific about what I was looking at or even what happened in the particular episode we were watching, I doubt I'd be able to tell you. 

I know that so many of us are guilty of doing too much, trying to cram too many things into every free moment we have and becoming distracted, particularly by social media (Instagram is a huge vice for me!) I've read so many posts about the quest to spend less time on our phones, which are a real distraction now and especially when you should be doing something else or even just devoting your time to one specific task. When did these little devices become so all-consuming? It's got to the point where I struggle to even sit down and focus on one thing without my brain constantly running through a to-do list of other things I should be doing at that very moment. So instead of just focusing on one task, I'm trying to achieve that and 8 others but getting very little done instead - so nothing is actually getting crossed off the list and the cycle repeats itself. I feel like my brain has too many tabs open and, just like they would on a computer, they're slowing everything down!

How to resolve this? As of right now, I really don't know. I suppose, like anything, it will take work and focus, which is an appropriate word for the task at hand - focusing on one thing at a time. And, as I do in the office when  I write my to do lists, I need to look at things in terms of the order of importance and just cross them off, one at a time. And, perhaps most importantly of all, recognise that when I'm doing something relaxing like reading a book, watching TV with my husband or sitting down to collect the happy highlights of the previous week, that those things are good and necessary too, so I shouldn't have to try to cross off other must-dos at the same time. Just being a little more mindful in my actions.

Are you guilty of the 'too many tabs' mentality too?!

A poem.

I've never been someone who has really appreciated poetry. I remember liking some of the poetry we studied at school and enjoying some of the poems that my husband has shown me over the years we've been together but I've never felt the urge to pick up a poetry book and just lose myself in it, as I would with a novel.

But last weekend I was listening to Cerys Matthews' show on BBC 6 Music while I was getting ready to go out and she was talking to William Sieghart, who founded the Forward Poetry Prize. He said that people turn to poetry in times of need and often the challenge is finding the right poem for the right difficulty. This made perfect sense to me, that sometimes you discover things and they stay with you when you need them most. 

He then read out a poem which gripped me so completely that I forgot what I was doing for those few moments and just listened. 

It felt like the perfect poem to read at the beginning of a new year, with all its new adventures to come, because how dull would life be if you planned every moment and knew what was to come around every corner? I'm sharing it here because I thought you might like to read it too - who knows, perhaps this is the right poem for your difficulty too?

What If This Road by Sheenah Pugh

What if this road, that has held no surprises

these many years, decided not to go

home after all; what if it could turn

left or right with no more ado

than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin

were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,

that is shaken and rolled out, and takes

a new shape from the contours beneath?

And if it chose to lay itself down

in a new way; around a blind corner,

across hills you must climb without knowing

what’s on the other side; who would not hanker

to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know

a story’s end, or where a road will go?

Hello 2018.

Hello hello and happy New Year to you!

It feels like forever since I last sat down at my computer, loaded up this page and tapped out a post...about 4 months ago. There was no sinister reason for my absence, or even an exciting one. It was just that little thing called life getting in the way as usual.

Over Christmas I stumbled across a link to Susannah Conway's Unravel your Year workbooks. I downloaded this year's and sat down on New Year's Eve to start working my way through it, unravelling 2017's highs and lows, and noting down my dreams and plans for the year to come. It's a really lovely idea and something I think I'll try to come back to year after year. It made me take some time to take stock and, what I think was most important for 2017, to look for the good times in a year that I've really struggled to see the good in. It has monthly reflection posts for 2018 too so I have no excuse not to check in and do the exercise on a smaller scale each month.

As I was completing my workbook and thinking back to January 2017, all those months ago, when I wrote this post about my chosen word for 2017 - 'balance' - I came to realise that despite my best intentions it's something that I'm just not very good at! When things get stressful (and 2017 really had its moments!), I often lose sight of what's important to me - the little important things that I need to keep me going and retain a sense of self. For a while there I couldn't even focus on reading and hello to the 4 months hiatus on this little space! In fact, looking back at last year's post, I said exactly the same thing at the end of 2016 (perhaps the lead-up to Christmas is particularly stressful?!) which in turn made me feel even more stressed because I hadn't achieved enough/done enough/ticked enough off my to do list. I think the quest for balance in my life is something that will take time and I don't think I'm alone in that.

It took me a while to decide what to choose for this year's word but I eventually landed on 'kindness' - kindness to others is something I think I'm ok at (right, people who know me in real life?!) although that's also not something to ever stop doing, but to be a bit kinder to myself and to try not to heap so much pressure on these shoulders. Practising self-kindness will involve reading, yoga, blogging, more adventures with my love and saying no more. As a dear dear (half Danish) friend said to me, "you need to find more time for hygge!" and that's particularly pertinent on this chilly January evening. So instead of listing 801 things that I should be doing tomorrow, I'm curled up by candlelight with a big mug of tea, a chocolate egg (because yes, they're already in the supermarkets!) and catching up on some of my favourite blogs. 2018's off to a good start.

What are your plans for the year ahead?

Hello 2017.

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

 - Neil Gaiman

I've never been a great one with new year's resolutions. I would sit down, think hard and write a long list of things, which I would valiantly abide by for about a week, then spend the rest of the year feeling ever so slightly guilty that I just couldn't manage the life overhaul I'd imagined for myself at the beginning of the year.

A few years ago, I decided instead to give myself a word for the year, which I find a far less oppressive solution. You see, I like the idea of a new year being a fresh start and a chance to make some important changes or set out some goals, but without all the pressure that a list of resolutions imposes.

I've been thinking about what to choose for this year's word over the Christmas period and I've decided that my word for 2017 is 'balance'. The last few months of 2016 were exhausting and, until I had a little time off in December, I felt as if the weeks were racing by and I was struggling to focus on anything apart from work and a series of seemingly never-ending to-do lists. I love my job and I really feel like my career is going in a direction that I'm proud of but I want to make time for other things too, which I know will only help me to be more focused and balanced in all aspects of my life.

So how to bring more balance to my life? This year, I'm planning to really set aside some quality time with my husband and friends, exploring more of this amazing city/country of ours and putting my phone to one side as much as possible and really give all my attention to these moments, which can be so fleeting. At the same time, part of the balance I think I need will be learning to say no when necessary - that may take some work. I want to pay more attention to my health and focus on some me-time, by reading more, getting back into yoga and taking some time for crafts and baking (which I loved doing during my days off over the last few weeks!). I think it'll be an important lifestyle change for me but one I can implement gradually and which will make me happier, healthier and more productive in the long term. I'm excited!

Starting as I mean to go on...with tea and a good book.

What are your plans for the new year? Have you made any resolutions or chosen a word to live by over the coming months? Whatever you've decided to do, I hope you have wonderful, peaceful starts to 2017. Here's to the year ahead!

Hair woe.

Should I?!
Link found here.

I think we've only noticed one casualty from moving house over the last few weeks - an old red bobble hat. You might think that that means a move well-done but you would be very wrong! Let me take you back a few years...

Is anyone ever truly happy with their hair? Ever since I can remember having to tackle it myself, I've never been able to manage it! It's not straight all over, not curly all over, just both of those in places with an overall dose of frizzy. I suppose growing up I didn't take that into account and have had a wealth of ill-advised hairstyles - I went through a huge George from the Famous Five phase when I was about 12 and cropped it short like a boy, which was fine when it was short but then growing it out was a nightmare. It grew out in all directions, for what felt like an interminable age, and for some reason I thought pairing it with an elasticated alice band was a good look. It wasn't. I had the Rachel cut when that was THE haircut to have. Fab when styled by the hairdresser but without hair straighteners, it led to more huge hair days than I like to recall. I thank everything holy that Facebook and Instagram weren't around when I was a teenager.

Do not get me started on how lucky teenagers are nowadays to have hair straighteners. I remember getting my first pair at university and the hair possibilities were suddenly endless - I could have a smooth bob! (I've never been able to manage the same effect with a hair dryer.)

But even the hair straighteners are no match for my mortal enemy - rain. In fact, it doesn't even need to be raining, just the merest hint of damp in the air and my hair starts to frizz, my fringe in particular. It's a constant battle! I've tried lots of products in the past to try to stop that from happening but they range from doing nothing at all to giving me limp greasy locks, which somehow still frizz! The only thing that's worked has been covering it up with my trusty bobble hat on the way to and from work! If I tuck my fringe underneath, I'll get into work and shake it free, and feel like I'm ready to tackle my day.

Jess from New Girl...fringe inspiration.
Image found here

Now that the first part of my journey into work involves a walk through a park, which is lovely, but the morning dew goes straight to my roots, I've taken to clipping back my fringe over the course of the last week. I can't keep doing that though - I'm not me without my fringe! So yesterday, I ordered a new bobble hat. New house, new hat!

So come on folks, I'm appealing to your hair genius here! Is there anything you've found that works to repel hair frizz? Should I just stop being lazy and learn to master the hairdryer rather than relying on my straighteners and burning my hair every morning? Am I destined to wear a bobble hat every morning until retirement? Send me your tips!

Some musings on homesickness...

Homesickness is a funny old thing, isn’t it? It kicked in for me on Saturday morning, before we’d even moved out and waves of it keep washing over me at sporadic moments. I feel stupid just thinking it, it’s not like we’ve moved far away…we’re still in London for goodness sake…but anyone who knows London will know how different each area is and it almost feels as if we’ve moved to an entirely new town.

We’ve known we needed a change from our old place for a while – it was tiny, for one thing, people often said that if a relationship could survive in such a small place, we’d be fine. I’ve talked about my commute being horrendous before but it really really was – almost two hours and four trains each way, I was exhausted all the time. It was a fantastic area but expensive – a bustling high street and lots of amazing bars, cafés and restaurants all just inviting you to spend lots of money.

Our new flat is closer to my office (my journey has magically decreased to about 35 minutes and only one train!), more spacious and in a more suburby area – lots of families around and really peaceful (no buses roaring past our window every few minutes). We want to spend more time at home and this place will let us do that, which is what we both want but my brain is just fighting that at the moment.  I don’t think it’s unnatural to miss somewhere you know really well and have lived for almost four years – it was our first little home together too.

But I really don’t want my first post in our new place to be all blue because I’m not at all, so I thought I’d share some of the things that I’m looking forward to doing in our new little home.

Yoga…well exercise generally

I used to go to a yoga class with my mum when I lived at home, then with a friend near our old place (until she put her back out – the teacher wasn’t great and this really put us both off!) I miss it. I don’t enjoy a lot of sports (yoga and swimming only really) but know that I need to do something and this is an exercise I can do in the sitting room without having to venture out and show the world how unfit I am.

Plan our wedding album

We’ll have been married a year in September and we still haven’t got together an album of our photographs! (Please tell me that that’s not unusual!) I spent hours poring over our photos when our photographer first sent them to us but then got really bored of our faces and put them away, after popping a favourite one in a frame in our bedroom. I don’t want them all over the house but I do want to put together an album to illustrate each moment of such an amazing day. I may be biased but our photographer was ace too and it would be a shame not to show off those images!

Gardening

I know I’ve talked about this before – the wee garden was one of the things that most excited me about our new home. We have a few earthy patches and I’m going to turn one into a vegetable patch – I’m thinking beetroot, tomatoes, courgettes and perhaps some beans to begin with…

The garden itself is exciting too – after some early rain on Saturday,  the sun shone gloriously and we dragged some chairs outside to bask in it with a cup of tea and a biscuit, taking a break from moving the boxes around. It was blissful.

Crochet

This is a new one, but something I’ve been thinking I’d like to try. I’ve tried knitting but never seem to be able to keep it up – is crochet a little easier?! To tell the truth, it was this post from Jo (one of the fab Wonderful Wednesday crew) that really kicked this little wish into more of a tangible aspiration. I love the idea of making one of these ‘patchwork-style’ blankets. Tips from keen crocheters would be gratefully received – is this something I’ll be able to pick up with the help of a few YouTube tutorials?

So yes, new home, new start. It’s exciting! Away, homesickness!

My Happy Place

 I love London, I really do, but I also love escaping it for the peace and quiet of the countryside. My mother in law lives in a small village in Norfolk and we're staying with her over the Easter weekend. I've always loved the thought of living in the countryside. Hubby, who grew up here, tells me it's not always so fun but it's hard to persuade someone who grew up on a diet of Enid Blyton books that it's not picnics, ginger beer and collecting eggs from local hens all the time.

We try to visit the mother in law for a visit at least once a month but the beginning of this year has just been nightmarishly busy, with a sprinkling of house hunting and packing thrown in for good measure, so this is the first time we've come for a visit this year. We got the train from London on Thursday evening, to give us three full days here over the long weekend. I always notice the quiet as soon as we arrive. We don't live in an incredibly noisy area in London but I suppose you get used to the background hum and don't notice all of the hubbub - the trains and buses in the distance, and the sound of people spilling out of bars and pubs on a Friday or Saturday night. But I really notice the peace when we arrive here, lying in bed on the first night the silence is almost deafening.

Coming here is slightly different for me than for the mister. He usually has to spend at least one of the days trimming hedges or cleaning out gutters for his mum but I can curl up in her lovely conservatory, looking out at the birds in the garden (there was a pheasant strutting around today!) and reading a book or a magazine, with copious cups of tea. I've kept that thought in my mind over the last few weeks, when work has been particularly busy. My new issue of the Simple Things arrived just yesterday so I saved it to enjoy this morning and the content seems designed just for me this month - a veg patch could-do list, yoga (which I really want to get back into) and a recipe for cardamom banana bread which I can't wait to try...hopefully a straight gluten free flour swap will work fine.

The next few days ahead should involve nothing more taxing than what to have for dinner, when to open another bottle of red wine and from Sunday onwards, chocolate! Oh how I've missed you.

Hope you all enjoy wonderful Easter weekends!

Moving House

Found via Pinterest

Things have been a little quiet on here for the past few weeks as the mister and I have been busy flat hunting. We've lived in our current place for almost four years now and although it is lovely (fireplace, window seat oh my!) it's also tiny and too far from my work. A daily commute of almost four hours all-in just isn't fun. So we've been looking for a new flat which will give us more space and is closer to my work, but without having to pay an eye-watering level of rent in exchange.

As much as I love noseying around new places, there's something about the pressure of finding a new flat in enough time to enable you to move out of your old place without too much overlap or spending huge amounts of money that fills me with dread. My goodness, there are some horrible flats out there too - dark, dingy, smelly, damp places, being rented for far too much money. Ugh.

After a day of wandering around a succession of no-hopers and getting more and more apprehensive in the process, we arranged a viewing in a slightly different area to the one we'd planned on moving to and loved it immediately. We learned this week that we passed our reference checks with flying colours and now I can actually start to get excited about moving! The new flat is in a lovely Edwardian house, with gorgeous high ceilings and wooden floors. We'll have an extra room, which we'll turn into a spare room/study, and we even have a small garden! I've started planning a vegetable patch and summer BBQs...I can't wait.

Image found via Pinterest, but
originally from here

We've got a fair amount to get done over the next few weeks though before I can start choosing which vegetables to grow, plotting the layout of the spare room and deciding where to hang our pictures on our new walls. I've already started making lists of things we need to do - book a removal van and cleaner, order boxes, reminders to redirect post and cancel utilities - and the next few weeks will (must!) be a whirlwind of packing and organising. It's amazing how much you accumulate over the course of a few years in one place, even a very small one, so it'll be a good chance to go through as much as possible with a critical eye and throw out, or donate, a good few things. Well, I say that now, hopefully I won't be just haphazardly throwing things into boxes the night before the removal van's due to arrive!

Any tips for making the moving process as stress-free (and economical) as possible?! 

Getting Hyggey with it - Thoughts on 'The Year of Living Danishly'

Taken from my Instagram here

Ok ok, I know that title doesn't really work. 'Hygge' is actually pronounced 'hooga' but that didn't open itself up to quite so many obvious jokes, or at least the one that's sat above. What is hygge though and why am I so excited about it? Read on.

I had high expectations about this book - so many people had raved about it and mentioned wanting to move to Denmark afterwards, or at least recreating a little of Denmark at home. The author, Helen Russell, is persuaded to move from London to Denmark for a year after her husband gets a job at Lego. As a journalist, she decides to investigate why Denmark is labelled the happiest country in the world, speaking to famous names from Denmark's worlds of art, culture and education (to mention just a few). The book is divided up into the months of the year, focusing on a specific topic and discoveries that month, wrapped up with a 'things I've learned this month' section. If the book had simply focused on facts and statistics, I don't think I'd have kept reading but I really enjoyed discovering Danish culture through Helen's eyes, as she was even able to find the funny side of moving to a new country in January, when the cold and dark drives everyone indoors, and they're sternly reprimanded by their bearded neighbours (the Misters Beard) for running the wrong flag up their flag pole. It turns out that Denmark is a country that loves a rule, where tradition is keenly prized, where although the citizens are eye-wateringly taxed, they are really well looked after by the state and this fills them with a sense of national pride and people appear to genuinely trust each other.

Image found on Pinterest here

To be fair, I was hooked as soon as I picked up this book and opened the prologue, where Helen initially talks about her life in London. Phrases like "Sunday evenings had become characterised by a familiar tightening in my chest at the prospect of the week ahead, and it was getting harder and harder to  keep from hitting the snooze button several times each morning" and "I was always trying to do too many things at once and always felt as though I was falling behind" felt terrifyingly familiar. I was keen to discover if there's anything I can do to try to avoid feeling like this all the time, without having to relocate to another country.


Trust, as I mentioned above, seems to be the key to happiness - making people around you happy, and yourself happier by not stressing so much. There's also so much importance placed on family and friends, which I love - the traditions and rituals which form a great part of Danish society all focus on spending more time with the people who are important to you. Doing activities outside work is massively encouraged - sport, craft, whatever you're interested in. As play forms a huge part of children's education, it's something we shouldn't stop doing as adults - life is to be enjoyed! And what about hygge, which after reading this book, seemed to be a concept I've spent my whole life looking for without realising it...

Image found here

I'd describe it as 'cosiness', about searching for contentment rather than perfection in life, about taking pleasure in the small things. Candlelight is an important part of hygge - the simple act of lighting a candle makes me feel calmer and there's nothing cosier than sitting in a room filled with flickering candle light or, the ultimate cosy, beside a roaring fire. When it's dark and cold outside, hygge is spending time with people you love, creating a warm and cosy environment and also just making time for yourself so that you become more content. That's not to be sniffed at.

Also, if this book doesn't leave you craving Danish pastries, then you're a stronger person than I am. They're hygge too, you know.

40 days*

Image found via Pinterest here

I may have done something stupid.

I've decided to give up chocolate *gulp* AND crisps for Lent. 

I'm not a hugely religious person but I always usually try to give something up for this period, or do something special. There was a year or so after I was first diagnosed coeliac and felt like being forced to give up gluten was enough. That was before the gluten free options were so good though...now I definitely don't feel like I'm missing out on anything (apart from maybe fish and chips without planning waaay in advance because fish and chip shops that do gf nights usually do them during the week, when I crave them particularly on a Friday night... But I digress.)

Chocolate is my vice. I adore it. It's got to the point where I can happily munch through one of those large snack bags over the course of one evening, which as I only have about 2 hours by the time I get home from work and before I drag myself to bed, that's not a long time. And I'm always so hungry by the time I get home from work that I fall on crisps like a piranha. These are definitely not going to be easy things to give up over the next six weeks.

Perhaps I'm hoping that I'll be able to recondition myself into eating slightly more healthily? Hopefully it won't mean that I just line up larger quantities of cake and biscuits. That would not be good.

Are you giving anything up for Lent? Please tell me there's someone else doing this too - we could 'spot' each other, like at the gym. Is that even the right term?! I never go. I should have given up the gym, that would have been much easier.


* Looking at the calendar, Lent is actually 46 days...if the six Sundays are included. They're not usually because you don't have to fast on a holy day but that seems slightly like cheating. Well, we'll see how desperate I get for something chocolatey and delicious, or some kettle chips, or nachos. Wait, do nachos count as crisps?! Oh gosh, what have I done?!

Saturdays.

How would you spend your perfect Saturday? Well, mine felt pretty perfect this weekend. A lie-in (of course) but not one that's too long where you feel like you've wasted most of the day. Alas, I'm now of an age where spending the day in bed is not something I want to do - I must do something to avoid returning to work on Monday feeling like i'm owed an extra day. I actually woke up at 6.30 because my body is programmed to wake up extra early during the week but it was absolute bliss to be able to curl up and close my eyes again. In fact, I put on the final episode of the Radio 4's Book at Bedtime's 'The Pursuit of Love' by Nancy Mitford, which i've been listening to on the way to work recently, and snuggled into the duvet accompanied by the soothing tones of Diana Quick reading one of my most favourite books.

I wasn't aware of hubby getting up but I woke up again at 9.30 just before he went to the gym. I listened to a quick mindfulness meditation (don't hate me - I really need to try to relax my brain so the practice is great), before getting up, making a cup of tea and cleaning the flat with Saturday Kitchen mumbling away in the background. I find something incredibly restful about this show and my weekends just don't feel right if I have to leave the house before it starts...

The mister returned just as I was finishing the cleaning...and my slightly cold cup of tea...and after
showering, he made us a tasty brunch - eggs and toast for him, gluten free pancakes and jam for me, washed down with a big pot of coffee. All memory of a stressful week seemed to disappear at that point - perhaps it was the food, the company, or the knowledge that the weekend still stretched out ahead of me and the flat was clean...I don't know, but I just felt very content at that moment.

We then headed out to the Natural History Museum to meet up with my friend H and her new mister, and go to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. I've been to this exhibition a few times over the last few years and, I don't know, it leaves me quite cold. There are some amazing photos on display but, at the same time, there are some photographs that look so over-developed and just like Windows wallpapers...if that makes sense. I suppose going on a Saturday afternoon didn't help the experience either, there were just so many people there that a lot of the time you had to struggle to peer over a wall of people to read about the image on display. Frustrating.

The Natural History Museum though is one of my favourite museums in London and I could happily spend hours wandering its halls, discovering new things. This Saturday, we discovered an area where there are a number of jars with various creatures preserved in formaldehyde - from the smallest insects to rats, mice and birds. Creepy but fascinating. Beside them, you can peep into various private rooms, like archives with shelves and shelves of specimen jars. Not a place where you'd want to find yourself locked in at night.

The four of us then headed to Casa Brindisa near South Kensington station for some drinks and nibbles, and to catch up about the exhibition and our Christmases, and to get to know my best friend's new mister. The streets outside were busy with people rushing around, the rain was heavy and we were cosy inside, in a small nook with some delicious wine, olives and caper berries to snack on. Such a wonderful day. If you go to Casa Brindisa, you must try the olives stuffed with orange - so so delicious! We talked about plans to go back there for a proper meal at some point - it's always good to have things to look forward to, and I'm not the only one who thinks that great plans also involve great food, right?

The week ahead is going to be tough but having a good weekend to look back on and exciting plans to look forward to definitely helps. Hope you all had great Saturdays!

[Pictures taken from my Instagram - come and say hi!]

How does your garden grow?

Found via Pinterest

There's something terribly English about spending a bank holiday in your garden - pottering around in a contented fashion before sitting down with a glass of Pimms and enjoying the peace and quiet, perhaps with a bee buzzing lazily in the vicinity (not too close, mind!)

We escaped the city and headed to Norfolk for the long weekend, which meant that I actually got to spend
some time in a beautiful garden. I love our little flat in London but it is exactly that, very very small, and unfortunately doesn't have a garden. 

Found via Pinterest

So as the sun was shining brightly today, and I curled up in my mister's mum's conservatory with my first cup of tea of the day, watching the birds chase each other around her gorgeous garden, I started daydreaming about my future cottage and the fabulous garden I'd love to have.

There would be heaps of flowers of course, blooming around little stone footpaths leading to little concealed nooks where you could sit with a book on a warm day.

Fruit trees, herbs and a vegetable patch where I would grow all manner of seasonal delights, and make pickles, jams and chutneys to store in my larder. (I have a LOT of free time in my imagination.)

Found via Pinterest

A little pond.

Some sturdy trees for hooking up a hammock on a summer's day, and a wooden swing hanging from a high branch.

And last, but by no means least, some chickens scratching cheerfully through the grass and leaving eggs for me to go and collect first thing in the morning.

For now, as the buses pass outside our window, the foxes rummage through our bins at night and we can pop downstairs for a pint of milk late at night, I'm happy with our little London nook, but I'm counting down the days until I can have my own little cottage by the sea. And until that day, there's always Pinterest!