Wonderful Wednesday #87

{Autumn sunshine, check! Heather, check!} A good autumn is hard to BEAT.  I mean when Britain gets autumn right, don't you think it just blows all other seasons out of the PARK?  Maybe i'm fickle, or naive, or just a shallow soul kneeling at the feet of any season that it happens to be, but either way a good autumn is something to really relish.  Without running the risk of sounding too over the top, twee or quite frankly BONKERS, a golden just-cool-enough-for-a-light knit, bright and blue-skied sort of day is the sort of day you feel glad to be alive and grateful for every last drop of it.  It's not just ME, is it?
Lately has been busy:  TWO-ing and FRO-ing from one end of the country last weekend to the opposite end this weekend and landing with a gentle bump back into Cumbria late on Sunday afternoon, well there's barely been time to even rest a moment.  But i like that, quite often the busier i am the more productive i find myself to be.  My head has barely hit the pillow each night this week so far, and i've fallen into the HEAVIEST sleep imaginable and awoken exactly as my alarm tingles through the air and not a mere moment before.  It's been a while since that has happened.  Maybe these deliciously darker mornings have their benefit…..  Shall we share more of what's been equally super-duper this week so far…? Well go on then you've twisted my ARM…
1.  Relishing MORNINGS spent alone.  It's no secret that i like my 'me' time.  Whether that's my hour bike ride and few laps of our park before dinner, or a couple of hours wander with a takeout coffee on a mid-wek day off; i really like having a little bit of my own space to really think, re-charge and simply do as i please.  Lately i've been enjoying mornings that are exactly that.  The Mr leaves later than me each day and so sitting on the sofa cradling a hot bowl of porridge {you didn't think you'd get a Wonderful Wednesday post without me mentioning porridge did you?!} in pyjamas, an old pastel cardi and my slippers and watching and listening to the world wake up is a little bit lovely.  It sort of puts me into the right gear in the morning and this is crucial in how the rest of my day will go!
2.  Golden LIGHT.  I remember fizzing and whizzing out on my bike just a few months ago.  It was a hot, bright blue-skied day:  The bare legs, bare arms kind that is a real rarity in these parts.  As i gazed up at the bright green of the trees against the bluest, cloudless sky i remember thinking to myself that this was as beautiful as it got, right there in that very moment.  Nothing could ever compare to that bright, so  bright, day and it was so dazzlingly pretty.  But just like that instant, i had exactly the same thought on Monday evening.  It was so exact in feeling and i was probably sat not too faraway from the spot that i was some two months back that it became a funny sort of deja-vu tingle in my tummy.  The light wasn't bright, nor the sky blue.  The trees weren't green and the last of the day certainly wasn't nearly as warm.  But by jingo, the light was breathtakingly beautiful.  It fell upon a hazy low-to-the-ground mist which slid in sneakily from the river that circles the park.  The last of the daylight clung to the damp blanket and lit up the remaining golden, amber leaves tentatively clinging to the branches of the exact trees that had been so bold, bright and bravely coloured in so many shades of green.  And in that exact moment it felt like nothing could ever be more beautiful all over again.   
3.  Home COMFORTS.  It's funny how our habits also change with the seasons.  Just like what we eat, how we feel or i guess, what we do differently.  Summer is the time of year where everything possible that can be gets torn hurriedly from it's place and marched outside with the slightest sight of sunshine.  This time of year and all that it brings really has me appreciating our home and how much of a haven it can be and how lovely it sometimes feels to just be at home, curled up on the sofa, drinking tea from your favourite mug, in your favourite pyjamas and resting your head on your favourite one.  
4.  ROAST chicken.  Because it plainly and simply just tastes completely different when matched with cumin-spiced potato wedges, steamed tender-stem and stuffed with rich gruyere cheese and wrapped neatly in a parcel of proscuitto.    We're a hop, skip and {not much off} a jump away from celeriac mash or some kind of rich gravy too but let's not winter ourselves up and run before we can walk just yet.   
5.   Treat-THINKIN'.  I'm trying my hardest not to mention the 'C-word.'  Because quite rightly i'm all for living in the moment, not wishing my life or things away before they've barely begun BUT all i'll tell you is that in M&S Food-hall they have Christmas Cake Curd and Black Forest Trifle Conserve.  I can't even get into what that's done to what we'll just call my 'winter breakfast imagination.' Mind.  Blown.
6.  BRITISH Apples.  Knobbly, bobbly and imperfectly beautiful.  And the best you'll ever taste! I've been eating one or two a day since last week and they are delicious.  I can't wait to make an apple crumble when it turns just a little colder.  And apple season means we're just a hop, skip and a jump away from clementine, tangerine and satsuma season.  But before i go and drop the 'C-Bomb' again we'll just stop right there.
7.  WARMER pyjamas.  We're hangin' on to open windows in Tangle HQ.  We live in what might be {pretty and cute as it is} considered by some as a jolly big cupboard and so we've not even had any kind of heating on or felt the need to close our bedroom window at night quite yet.  What i haven been relishing though, is the joy and predictably deep and delicious sleep that comes from wearing a full set of pyjamas again.  In the warmer months i tend to curl up in a loose cotton cami and shorts or less {!!}.  But slipping on a prettily printed pair of cotton PJ's on Sunday night after hair-wash, clean sheets etc was WONDERFUL.
8.  WINDOWSILL tomatoes.  Because soon the very best and sweetest cherry or on the vine kind of tomato season shall have passed.  So while they're still hangin' and whilst we've still got a sunny sill we're topping everything with those little gems.  Monday's dinner was a flung together tomato pasta with grated courgette and topped with roasted sticky herby tomatoes and it was a DREAM.
9.   Lighting NEW candles.  Despite being tempted by FAR too many festively scented candles lately, i finally settled upon replacing our living-room candle {which was previously Black Rose scented} with one called 'Glowing Embers.' It hints at cinnamon, but not in an 'overkill it's only October' sort of a way and has a smoky undertone - a little bit how outside starts to smell come this time of year:  All first coal-fires and damp verges.  It's just perfect for as long as i can stay away from those too festive for my own good just yet.         10.  New to ME for NOW songs.  Predictably, if i know i'm seeing an artist live i spend the few weeks before listening to their most recent release:  Forwards, backwards and sideways; anywhere and everywhere. Afterwards i spend a good few weeks or more reliving the older albums, rare covers and forgotten gems peppered with newer material.  This week i've found pleasure in re-discovering 'Swimming' from Florence and the Machine's first album 'Lungs.'  If you never have before, curl your earwigs around a live version of it HERE and thank me later. Tell me it makes you want to skip too…?
11.  CORDUROY.  Or to this whole 'we're in the Seventies' vibe that's tickling everywhere lately and meaning that i get to relive my youth {navy cord dungarees when i was about four i'm talking to you!} and indulge a little in a rust a-line cord button down skirt to wear with chelsea boots and an oversized cable knit when Jack Frost comes.  What i didn't say it!  I didn't!  I said Jack Frost not Chr---- oh LOOK you nearly made me say it again….. *  *  *   C'mon you lovely FACES!  Don't be shy!  I bare my silly soul and often too many words and over-thoughts and nonsense here for you all to do the very same.  I'd love to know just ONE little thing that's been making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!  Share your equally lovely nonsense below orrrrr you can drop me a sweet tweet or little nudge on Instagram.  I'm @sallytangle on both. Have a stupendous rest of week all!