Wonderful Wednesday #228

{Getting outside as much as possible in this GLORIOUS weather}
Well hellloooooo! How do you do and how has your week been? Catch me up!  Mine has been long-feeling {and saying that as i type this to you on {ONLY!}a sunny Tuesday evening is not a great way to feel!}.  That said, after working the last six days in a row i now have some much-needed time off!  Quite often when you work most weekends and don't have the same one day off though the week each week you struggle to realise the end and the beginning of your working week.  If it's super-duper busy {as mine has been lately} not stopping for long enough means you're left feeling a little bit sorry for yourself! 


Fear not!  It's nothing that some fresh air, some one on one time with those two wheels and little bit of TLC wont fix I can be sure of that! I've been off only one day and i already feel better!  


Let's get some happy listin' started shall we?!? 


1.  A light shower.  Now before we all get carried away i am most certainly not complaining about that glorious spell of sunshine and summer-feelin'-summer myself and most of the U.K has been enjoying BUT when i woke up this morning {Tuesday - the evening of the week i tip-tap this post out} the sky was heavy with rain clouds and the air smelt heavy, damp and delicious.  I made a mug of tea and sat with the french doors open and watched a misty warm rain shower fall on the grateful parched grass and our endlessly thirsty plants and it was really quite lovely.  Even though it continued to shower on and off all morning i threw on some jeans and a striped tee; scraped my hair back and took my bike out to run some errands all of the same.  It wasn't a fierce, angry, 'let's get home quick before we get soaked' sort of rainfall.  It was soft, misty, gentle and cool and calming.  And the few laps of the park i did before my few jobs was much quieter than usual first thing too. Even of my hair was three times the size upon my return home..


2.   Multi-coloured tomatoes from the window-sill; cold-pressed olive oil and flakey sea salt.  AKA Heaven.  


3.  A new rug.  I love a rug.  Sad but true.  I was actually sort of sad that our house only had wooden floors downstairs and not all of the way through when we moved in.  I mean of course that kind of thing is changeable but the carpets are fairly new and there's nothing wrong with them and so it seems almost wasteful {?} to spend so much time and money on ripping it them all up...For now *wink wink*.  But rugs!  I love them because they can change a room so much, bring a colour scheme together and really add warmth, cosiness and comfort to a space.  They're also a great way of breaking a big space up or creating 'zones' within an open plan space.  I digress.  We've got a long, long hallway and I've been looking for a runner rug long enough and lovely enough since we moved in.  This week i picked it up for £31 reduced from £95!!!  Maybe i'll show you once it comes?  It's berry red, inky blue and has a beautiful faded Moroccan print running all the way along it's length.  Since as our hallway and front door is white i thought it would be the perfect pop of colour to it.


4.   Rest.  It's so easy to power through when you feel less than best.  To not listen to the 'signs' and to push them back believing that you'll stop when you've done this, or that, or crossed off just one more thing off the list and before you know it you've got your head in a cupboard at work having a little cry.  Sometimes taking time out and admitting that you haven't 'got this' isn't a sign of the defeat it can feel like at ALL.  It's actually a sign that you're strong enough and brave enough to admit you can't do it all and that you're okay with that.  Huge great and whopping love to anyone that sent over a lovely DM this/last week regarding my teary tweets and know that every single one of them meant the whole and entire world.  Extra shout out to the ever beautiful Ruthie of 'Cawligraphy' who sent me THE most beautiful post.  There have been FAR too many tears since we were last here!  Fear not, there's not much but rest and loveliness on the agenda for the next few days.  


5.   Water.  I drink gallons of the stuff.  I haven't always and if i'm honest if i'm feelin' a little less than best - whether that's just under the weather, tired or a little less than best - i often want to drink tea:  My favourite mug, with my favourite citrussey, bergamot-y Lady Grey in.  And i do.  But know that it's mostly the gallons of water in between that make a difference.  It's genuinely one of the things i really notice if i don't drink enough of the stuff.  I feel tired, i can't concentrate; my skin looks dull, i struggle to sleep as soundly:  I am generally just not my very best self.  Lately has been so warm that i've been spiking that humble H2O with anythings and everythings:  Half a lime juiced into ice-cold water with torn up mint leaves.  'On their way out strawberries' halved and frozen and dropped into water with some leftover basil leaves.  Sometimes the juice of half a lemon and some fresh sliced ginger for extra 'zing.'  Sometimes {read most of the time} i've got an ice-cube tray on the go with one of these combos so i can have it on tap.  Ho, ho do you see what i did there?!  The lemon and ginger one is also great bobbed into an ice cube tray for the cooler weather:  Half freshly boiled water, half cold water and drop one in and you have yourself a spicy lemon-y concoction!  I always add a little raw honey for extra delicious-ness.  Water?!  Not so humble now hey?!!  Ps:  HOW have i written SO MANY WORDS ON WATER?!?  I need to get out more.....


6.  Rose. That smell, well between you and I, cliche or not cliche it's always had my heart.  Not the old lady sort of a rose scent - the deep, heady, rose absolut type of a rose scent.  I have an expensive rose body oil that i was kindly bought for Christmas last year and man alive do i wish i could bottle that exact rose scent.  I've been adding it behind my ears and dotting it across my chest and wrists on these warm summer days and smelling it all of the time has been the bees knees.  Somehow i just makes me feel better. Is that odd?!?


7.   Rescuing lavender.   I discovered only last week that most of the fairly reasonably priced bedding plants you buy at garden centres {ie:  for me the ones i buy when some of the plants i've grown from seed die a death in this hot, hot weather} don't actually have nectar, due to the way they are produced en masse.  So in effect, it's sort of false advertising to bees and butterflies and the like since it's bright and blousy blooms but no pollen!  Most of the plants i have - including the crazy out of control sweet-peas that i think i Instagram Story each day, and the Hydrangea plant that is just coming into bloom and a few other wild flower mixes should be okay but the bedding plants i do have, have all of a sudden made me feel awful for the bees!  On today's errands about town i spotted two big lavender plants reduced because they were just looking a little neglected.  Naturally i bought them both {because 'sorry for themselves' plants or reduced flowers in supermarkets are my kryptonite it seems} home balanced all of the way home {evenly!} across my handle bars and they are now sitting pretty on my patio after a little drink and some afternoon sun.  Be right back, i'm just waiting for the bees......


8.  Being outside.  I'm forever happier outside instead of in - no matter the weather!  Of course lately has been a little bit of holiday-shaped heaven - even if that outside time is my wander in the sun on my lunch hour for fifteen minutes; a leisurely 'take it all in' type of a scamper home after work or even sipping a cup of peppermint tea in the garden as the sunsets - it doesn't matter when or how i fit it in, it's just important that i do.  Just like my harp-harping on about drinking that water; being outside in the fresh, clean air does me just as much good mentally and physically!

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And i'm only done for another week of #wonderfulwednesday 'in and happy listin'! Life has felt a little....emotional and tiring and hard lately but i'm looking forward to slowing it right down and putting me first for a little bit.  Don't forget to hop right on over to Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's and Ellie's #wonderfulwednesday posts OH - AND LU's TOO lovely #wonderfulwednesday happy lists when you've finished here!  There's no such thing as too much of a good thing in my estimation, especially when it's a happy list!

See you in seven days you wonderful bunch!