Wonderful Wednesday #211

{Wishing Spring lasted forever...}
Good day to you all!  Welcome aboard!  This weeks has been full of wonderful-ness! How about yours?!  I'm putting it mostly all down to a jolly good dose of sunshine at the start of the week.  When it's been so cold and so snowy or grey you forget quite how magical a little bit of it is for just cheering up your everything some how!  I'm wishing i hadn't hibernated so much in early Autumn and had planted something in the clay pots on our patio - they're looking a bit brown and crispy! But i am pleased to see new green shoots on our baby hydrangea bush!  I can't wait to start planning some garden bits once the temperature warms up a little.  I'm determined to grow some sweet-peas this year - for me their scent is just Summer all over.  And i also want to try to grow something edible.  We don;t have much space so i'm thinking maaaaaybe just edible flowers?!  You know me...anything vaguely pretty and floral!  I'm getting carried away with myself....i think a little does of vitamin D has gone right to my head!  


Shall we get listing before i digress any further?!?

1.  Spring air.  I write this after sharing only on my Instagram stories last Saturday that it was -9 degrees {yes really, my mittened hands were actually numb and i could have cried i was so cold walking home!} on my wander home AND that the snow had once more graced us with its icy presence up in sunny Cumbria.  I write this on Tuesday, my day off AND the official start of the Spring Equinox and SO the very first day of real life Spring.  It is 5 degrees outside.  It is brilliant and balmy and feels like a bloomin' heatwave and i cannot even begin to tell you how beaming-from-cheek-to-cheek kind of a happy that makes me!  The first thing i noticed on leaving the house at 11am this morning with those two wheels by my side was the smell.  The air smells....greener, calmer, fresher and full of promise?!  Do i sound excited?!?  I'm giddy as a kipper at the thought of longer, lighter more sunny days!


2.  Beetroot and mint hummus.  On everything.  Well okay not everything but as much as i can put it on and if we're being honest?  Sometimes just on a tablespoon straight from the tub sprinkled with some black sesame seeds.  Weird but good weird.  Have you ever tried black sesame seeds?!  I picked them up a little while ago in the supermarket because i was making sesame crusted salmon and i'd only ever bought the white ones before.  I was predictably attracted by the thought of covering the salmon in a mix of the two and how pretty it would look on my plate.  Yes really.  But they are game-changers!  Nuttier somehow.  and more savoury also too.  Now i put them on as many things as i can remember to.  I especially love them with granola and coconut yoghurt for a snack AND did you know they're great for your hormones?  I feel as i'm digressing here.... 


3.  A really lovely morning.  A great big stretch from the tips of your toes right up to as high as you can reach.  Hands round a great big mug of steaming hot tea.  The kind where the sky is crystal clear and the sun rise is the kind where you really have to cover your sleepy eyes it's so bright.  And even though it's minus who-knows-what because it's still a bit too dark to see the grass but you know you can make out tiny droplets off condensation on the bedroom window; it's the kind of morning which sort of makes you glad to be alive.  


4.  A yellow plant pot.  Because is there really a happier colour than yellow?!  I picked up the sweetest bright yellow ceramic plant pot which sits on the sweetest three wooden legs to go in our livingroom.  It's PERFECT as our livingroom is decorated in plain white and grey with pops of all kinds of colours.  We've got yellow striped curtains on our french doors and one yellow dining chair and one pale blue one SO a little extra pop of yellow is so lovely!  I've said for ages that i wanted a plant in there but i've also said not until i find the kind of pot to put it in that i love.  And so it was love at first pot sight.  Now i just need to find a fairly big plant, that doesn't require too much green-fingered TLC.  Thoughts?!


5.  Solo suppers.  Which actually translates to living off baked sweet potatoes for the past three nights AND piling in and creating colourful and delicious fillings each evening too.  The Mr has been under the weather lately and not really eating a lot bar toast SO if i'm left to my own devices i usually gravitate to baked sweet potatoes as i love them SO much.  Last night i made a honey glaze {equal amounts of runny honey and hot water} and brushed it all over the whole potato.  Then on a square of tin foil i put a shake of polenta, rosemary, seasalt, thyme and black pepper and i simply rolled it back and forward a few times.  I wrapped the foil around it, making sure to leave it mostly open and baked it for an hour.  I then stuffed it with a mix of leftover bulgar wheat, pickled beetroot, beetroot and mint hummus, torn up mint leaves and crumbled feta.  It was AMAZING.  Sweet potatoes might be one of THE most underrated vegetables ever.


6.  The smell of line-dried washing.  I mean it was the first of Spring yesterday it was only going to be a matter of time before i started harping on about this to you every single week!  After Tuesday's hit of bright blue skies and positively balmy temperatures {i mean, just give me above freezing and i'm happy} of course one of my first thoughts as i scampered through the door after my morning few laps of the park on those two wheels of mine was that i had to get my washing out on the line!  I washed our duvet covers and sheets and also our bedroom curtains and i'm BEYOND excited to hang them up later and let the heat of the radiator air them out whilst the sweet and lovely scent of sunshine fills our bedroom.  HEAVEN!


7. The shadow of trees blowing in the late afternoon breeze and the sunlight holding tightly onto their branches and creating sweet leafy shadows on our livingroom walls and wooden floors.  Watched lazily lay on the sofa with my feet up and a mug of Lady Grey tea.  


8.  Eucalyptus.  I've not really said much about it on here BUT over the past year or so i've been adding more and more essential oils into my day to day.  I have a couple of shop-bought Tisserand rollerballs which i use all the time.  One is to combat stress - so i keep that one in my bag and add a little bit to my temples, wrists and behind my ears if i'm having one of those kind of days.  The other is a sleep blend which i put on my wrists as i get into bed.  I find it really helpful to just focus on breathing in and out properly and inhaling the sweet scent of lavendar, bergamot and cypress to lull me off to sleep.  But lately i've added a little eucalyptus into my evening shower routine and it's such a magical way to clear your head and wash away the worries of the day.  It also really helps if you feel like you've got a bit of tension headache.  I first used it when i felt like i was getting a cold a little while back and then decided to add a few drops to a damp muslin cloth and leave it in the shower with me.  It means that the room fills with a steamy, menthol-y scent and it's BEAUTIFUL!  Have you ever used any essential oils?!


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Aaaand we are DONE!  Can you tell that just a little bit of sunshine has made a huge and whopping  impact on me this week?!?  If only you could book the stuff!  But maybe just maybe if you could then you wouldn't appreciate it nearly as much, what do you think?!  I'm crossing every single thing crossable that it'll continue for a little bit as i think we could all do with a dose of vitamin D.


Don't forget to hop, skip and jump right on over to Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's OH and Ellie's  blogs and catch up on their weeks and what's been so great and good and wonderfully Wednesday-shaped for them too.  We need all the wonderful we can get lately!  Well, at least it feels like we've got a little bit of catching up to do!


Sending so much love and thanks for dropping by!