Wonderful Wednesday #144

 {Sweet snap stolen from my Instagram! Oh so pretty!}
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to you.  If there's one thing i've learnt over the past seven days it's how important these silly little happy lists.  In the grand old scheme of things, they're a drop in the ocean of the huge and massive world that we live in BUT they're also a bigger drop in the smaller little ocean of my life.  To sit down, even for just once a week and make myself a list of the very best bits of life so far - small or big - well that's important.  It forces me to appreciate what i've got, to be thankful and better still to look on the bright side, even for just an hour.  And better even still, i get to share that little list with you and moreover to read that special #wonderfulwednesday troop's posts and stretch out the warm and fuzzies for a few moments longer.  And for that, i am forever grateful.  

Shall we?! 

1.  Firsts!  Because what's a new season {if we excuse the last couple of days of oddly mild temperatures} without a fair few firsts?!  First sprouts.  I actually can't believe i've lasted this long!  But last weekend {i know, i know it's not this week but this is too good to not shout about!} we had the mother of all roast lamb dinners and we chucked a few sprouts in their along with some honey and mustard roasted parsnips and carrots and MY.  OH.  MY was it glorious!  I even enjoyed some leftover sprouts and butternut squash with an Autumn-y Winter-y inspired salad for lunch on my day off on Tuesday.

2.  Lazy days.  I crave them even more come this time of year.  Partly because of the shorter darker days but also as it gets busier and busier at work!  This one was filled with longer sleeps, blueberry buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and only leaving the house to pick up lunch and dinner. The rest of the day i caught up with house work, television and dipped many a biscuit into many a cup of Lady Grey.  These kinds of days are good for your soul i swear it!

3.  Clear outs!  Unseasonable surely?  Usually the kind of thing reserved for after Christmas and for Spring time, this year I'm getting on the bandwagon early doors.  It *might* have a little somethin' somethin' to do with ordering a new wardrobe last week FINALLY *does cartwheel*.  Towards the end of last week i photographed a huge pile of clothes to sell on Depop {I'm @sallytangle by the way and you can shop my wardrobe HERE} and it's the nicest feeling to have a little sort out and clear through on a few things!  I shall be popping up some more bits over the next little while so keep those peepers peeled!

4.  All of the spices!  Okay so i've gone from a little bit of cinnamon on my porridge to downright filling it full of ALL of the good things!  Typically i've been craving anything cinnamon - i know i know me and the rest of the world!  But on Monday i decided to throw a little more spice at my breakfast by putting a good sprinkle in each of Christmas Spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little Turmeric and OH MY.  ALL of the yum in my little tum!  I've promised myself to recreate it later on in the week with the addition of some apple compote....

5.  Speaking of which...It's funny.  We've only moved a few miles north from where we used to live but around and about our not-so-new-now house, everyone is so much more friendly and it feels a little bit like a village within a city.  On my cycle home on Tuesday's day off i spotted the sweetest thing outside one of the houses i regularly pass and swoon over *aherm*.  They'd popped a basket of picked apples outside their garden gate with a little note saying 'Please help yourself!  Freshly picked apples!'.  If i wasn't juggling far too many bags and what-not I'd have been tempted to grab a few for my porridge....

6.  Candles in the morning!  It's my new day off tradition as I'm tootling about in the morning and getting ready to go out.  It feels ever so lovely lighting candles in the soft morning light and a bit more of a treat somehow since as we always have them lit downstairs in the evening.  

7.  Cold walks home.  Okay I'll admit it i did think that once the days shortened and i couldn't cut through my little short cut along the river to get home, that I'd soon tire of the 25minute wander it takes to get home after work and maybe, just maybe i will the busier work gets and the tireder i become BUT i've really been rather loving my dark, cold walks home.  They give me {mostly!} silence, room to breathe and reflect and time alone with my own thoughts {the luxury of all of the luxuries} and i really rather enjoy them.

8.  Ballet and stretching.  In a little bit of a similar vain to the above, i have really been loving and appreciating time spent on my little mat.  I've got into a routine of how often i do my little workouts and can fit them into my day with ease and i really look forward to them.  And if you know me, apart from those two wheels I'm really not the exercising type!  Better still I'm getting better and better and stronger and stronger and can see and feel the progression in each little session i do.  Go me!

9.  Flapjacks.  I'm a snacker. I can't help it and i don't think there's a any shame in it either! My little tummy is happier with smaller, littler meals more often with a scattering of snacks thrown in for good measure.  Whilst a banana, a spoonful of any kind of nut butter or a handful of nuts are regular go-to's; lately has all been about the flapjacks!  There's just something ever so comforting about munching one en route home, when the 11am munchies call or even before bed with a cup of hot chai.  Hells bells I'll eat them at any given opportunity lately!  Ours are made with maple syrup and have dried blueberries swizzled through and they are the bees knees!  

10.  Favourite perfumes.  I'm all about perfume come the cooler months.  In summer I'm a 'body cream and go' kind of gal and somehow i tend to find that perfume just doesn't sit on my skin as well in the warmer months.  So lately has all been about spritzing my favourite perfume on my cosy scarves and enjoy the little comforting waft that it brings wherever i am.  
So that's IT, all done and dusted for another week, quick as a flash!  If this isn't enough happy for your peepers {and quite frankly can you ever have enough?!} then hop, skip and jump right on over to Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, Mimmi's, Martina's AND lovely Isabelle's blogs and catch up on what's been making their 'lately' all kinds of lovely!
And I'll catch you next week.  Same time, same place!