Wonderful Wednesday #198

{Magical 'Wintery wonderlands' for always please}
This week will forever be remembered {by myself at least} as the week when Winter came.  Not just Winter by the month.  You know in an 'oh it's December, it's officially the start of Winter.' No, we're talking 'Winter by weather.'  I genuinely can't remember the last time it was so cold or the last time my face ached from icy temperatures and that i couldn't feel my toes through 200 denier tights that almost went up to my chin aaand woolly socks over the top!!!  That said it's been pretty damned magical {in an icy Narnia sort of a way} and even if i have worked the past seven days in a row; i'm ready and raring {and a little bit more rested after today off, Tuesday} to count some good things...
   



1.  Real Winter weather.  It's been icy, icy for most of this week and it's been SO beautiful!  I can't remember the last time it's ever been quite as cold in my whole life.  I awoke on Monday morning with my phone telling me it was -8 degrees outside!  What has been mostly lovely though is the brilliant and bright blue mostly cloud-less skies that have accompanied said 'arctic blast' type weather {save for the odd swish and swoosh of white whisps here and there} and seeing a fair few days in a row of Winter sun.  I wish that all of Winter could be like this - right up until about March time when the snowdrops start to scatter across the grass and the first brave little daffodils poke their cheery yellow flowers up and out of the ground.  When Winter is Real Winter, it's pretty magical.


2.  Roasted tomatoes.  There's no denying that tomatoes taste their very best after being sat on a sunny July window ledge for a few days and served only with flaky salt, good olive oil and some torn basil leaves BUT, they've been something i've been craving this week, so i've taken to 'Wintery-fying' them {which is totally a thing may i just say!}.  Tuesday's supper was a simple one:  Slow roasted baby tomatoes with a little dried thyme and oregano and served smooshed, salted and peppered and spread on top of hot buttery sourdough toast.  And yes, yes they were heaven!


3.   Beret-wearing.  To be honest come this time of year and most definitely this kind of weather; there's no chance i'll leave the house without some kind of hat on my head!  Lately it's all been about berets!  I've worn berets for years {i blame Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City circa season fiiiiive????} and since they've suddenly become all 'Trendy Wendy' i've managed to add a couple more to my collection.  There's something about wearing a beret that just makes you feel all kinds of pulled together even if underneath your put together hat and coat combo you're wearing your bobbliest jumper and your scruffiest jeans...


4.  Feeding the birds.  A few weekends back i picked up some seeds and fat balls for the birds over the Winter and as of this weeks' cold-snap i couldn't have timed getting them, better!  It was so nice on my day off on Tuesday, to sit and watch the sweetest pair of little robins flit from bird feeder to bird feeder and fill their little tummies up before swooping away.  


5.  Shopping independent.  I'm trying so very hard this year to buy local or if not local, to support smaller businesses in the run up to Christmas.  Not just that but i've also been trying to buy less too - which might  seem a little odd!  I just feel so overwhelmed with Christmas  this year - i mean i do every year but the older i get the worse i think i feel about it somehow.  My very favourite part of Christmas is having a day off, spending it with some of my very favourite people and cooking and sharing a lovely little feast altogether.  I just don't believe in spending lots, getting stressed and giving lots of things all for one day.  It just doesn't sit right in my little heart somehow...?!  


6.   First mince pies.   I can't believe it's taken me until almost mid-December to have one!  But it has and i did and it was GLORIOUS!  I just wish i hadn't got quite so excited and forgotten to pick up some kind of rum butter or delicious cream or ice-cream.  But there's the rest of December for that...


7.  A day off.  As i forever used to hear my mum say when i was small:  'I'm meeting myself coming back' lately!!!  I also truly understand the meaning of the sentence too!  At work lately the weekdays disappear into weekends and the weeks themselves are just rocketting forward like nobody's business lately!  I think because i rarely work the same days each week or ever a Monday to Friday, i lose weeks even more than the next person.  This weeks' Tuesday and Wednesday off together are needed more than ever and whilst i have about a squillion things to do; i really am trying my hardest to take time to take care of me too! Lying in bed this morning {Tuesday} and not rushing to get up and sipping my tea back under the duvet was heavenTomorrow {#wonderfulwednesday itself!} is for putting together that wreath i keep wittering on about and for tying up some Christmas present-shaped loose ends!  All with cups of tea aplenty and maybe some candles and Christmas play-listing for good measure....


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And i'm all done and dusted and a little bit in disbelief at how last week's post really and truly only feels like a day or two ago and wondering if there is a way that we could all just slow down a bit...please?!?  Don't you dare forget to hop, skip or jump right on over to Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's blogs and catch up with their list of lovely and stories of happy because in the hustle and bustle and little chaos that has become of lately; well we could all do with stopping to smell the roses count the little things.  Don't you agree...?


See you here next week...?