Wonderful Wednesday #229

 {Because being a tourist in your own city is severely underrated...}

Good day to you!  I hope there has been much sunshine wherever you are but not enough that you feel frazzled to a crisp!  Spare a thought for me when you drop by here since as i have a serious case of the back-to-work-blues!  Ho-hum.  I returned to work on Tuesday this week after a delightful seven days off and i feel like a completely different person because of it!  I don't have much to show for it, save for maybe less under-eye-baggage and a much more patient and less-frazzled self and is it wrong to already be counting down the days until my next few days off?!?  I must stop that at once!  Forever wishing time away and looking forward to the next 'thing' and the next, and the next and the NEXT!

Time to hold my horses and list some jolly great stuff about right now...... Not the past, or the future - the Now.... 

1.  A garden.  I cannot even begin to tell you quite how much pleasure our little patch of green has given me this year.  Having spent most of my rented life in flats or shared houses with no garden spaces this was high, high up on why i wanted to move to this little house.  Yes it's only a patch of grass with a small patio BUT it's amazing how much better i feel for starting the day and ending the day in there lately, due to all of this lovely weather.  I'm slowly getting more confident with my green fingers and definitely want to try and grow some edible things next year and not just flowers BUT i'm convinced gardening has some health benefits.  I feel infinetly better tinkering in the garden.  And how many times have I raved on about line-dried washing?!  Plus is there really anything better than bare feet on grass on a summer day!?!?

2.  Summer clothes. Hands up if you've sort of bankrupt yourself this summer at the sheer excitement at actually wearing more than one summer outfit?!?  Okay so it's not quite that bad over here *cough* but i have been more than a little giddy at all of this warm weather we've been having and have picked up a few odds and ends here and there.  Yes even though it's the warmest summer i think i can remember in my whole life {yes, really} i'm pretty much still a bit of a cross between milk bottle white and translucent when it comes to any kind of 'tan' {i burn at even a whisper of sunlight, it's factor 5000 all of the way for this pale gal!} but that hasn't stopped me enjoying wearing *sounds summer klaxon* WHITE cotton dresses, wafty printed trousers and bare legs most days.  Sort of makes every day feel like a holiday...or is that just me?!?

3.  Lime pickle.  Usually something i'd only ever think of having with Indian food and usually  something that would never cross my little mind to think to buy just as an every day condiment.  I'm not even sure where the notion came from but all of a sudden here we are on jar number two in....ten days.  I might need to reign it in somewhat.  I've been having it on every thing you can imagine but here's my favourite few ways:  Baked curried sweet potato and turmeric wedges {just wedges of sweet potato tossed in olive oil, turmeric, cinnamon and roasted curry powder and baked - HEAVEN} topped with the thickest, creamiest cottage cheese, nigella seeds and a great big dollop of lime pickle.  A spinach tortilla wrap spread thickly with turmeric and yellow split pea hummus and filled with iceberg lettuce, cucumber, torn mint and coriander, toasted seeds and a great big dollop of lime pickle.  Toasted sourdough topped with curried turmeric tofu or eggs and topped with nigella seeds, fresh coriander, sliced avocado aaaand you guessed it:  Lime pickle.  If you cut me open now i'd mostly be lime pickle.  Anyone else not eat something for YEARS and then all of a sudden eat it all day every day until you're thoroughly exhausted from it and have tried every conceivable way to eat it in the whole wide world?!?!?  Except most of the time these 'phases' don't stop, so much as just morph into a new obsession.....

4.   Dusky pink.  IF somebody said to me, pick your favourite colour palette ever, i mean i'd really struggle because just like my dalliances, phases or downright obessions with foods; my love of colour can change with the wind just as much.  One colour that rarely leaves whatever colour combo is inspiring me or making me happy as a clam lately, is a soft, dusky rose pink.  I rarely find something it doesn't go with.  It's that colour for me:  It comforts me, makes me feel better and it's the one i gravitate to most at anytime of year.  This summer has all been about rose pink, mustard and white for me.  Maaaaybe with a hint of tan thrown in for good measure.  Do you have a colour you're always drawn to no matter what?!

5.   Chocolate porridge.  Yes i'm that gal:  No matter the weather there will forever be two things at breakfast:  Lady Grey tea and porridge.  Yes the flavour combinations become influenced by the seasons:  I've been adding coconut to it most days and fresh or frozen berries on top and often find i crave the fruitiness or zestiness of something fresher but it's still all about the porridge. Sometimes though, breakfast has got to be the comforting 'hug' of sweet, rich, delciousness.  The sort of hug you don't get from fruity flavours or from a rosey coloured 'anything'.  Sometimes the only thing for it is a bowl of rich, creamy chocolate, coconut and banana porridge and on my first day back at work on Tuesday, it was the invisible superhero cape i needed!

6.   Wavy hair.  Because dontcha' always want what you definitely don't have?!?  Naturally my hair could at best be described aaassss....'flicky.'  It's not perfectly straight, but there's also really not enough wave to work with naturally either.  Generally {and especially in this heat!} i'm a wash and leave it be kind of gal and only stick a hairdryer or heated appliance near my fringe {fringes are a different beast altogether!} BUT LATELY i've been wavin' it just a little bit.  It's been nice to mix it up a bit, and i do find that oddly once my hair has been waved, it does last and needs very little else done with it bar a few spritzes of dry shampoo here and there.  Sometimes a little change is a good thing....

7.  Silence.  There was a time when 'switching off' for me was playing music in my ears as loud as i could and running or cycling as fast as i could until i felt better. And there's nothing wrong with that.  That worked then.  But it doesn't now.  Now doing that feels like....drowning out the 'hum' of life and the things that are bothering me, worrying me or causing me stress.  Now calm comes in the form of total and complete silence.  Of hearing nothing but the breeze tickling the grass as i wander home and the birds calling to each other as the sun slips into tomorrow.  It's only in total peace and quiet that i can truly switch off and be still.  Any kind of noise and i can't help the urge to do everything quicker, and usually end up in a bit of tizz.  

*  *  * 

 And i'm all done:  Sat, listed and feeling much, much better for it.  I'm off to endeavor to make something for supper that doesn't contain Lime pickle....and then to have a long, cool lavendar-y shower and maybe some tea and biscuits before today becomes tomorrow and all of a sudden Wednesday becomes Thursday and maybe even before we know it we'll be knee-deep in August and thinking about things hat aren't white dresses and bare legs....maybe.  

Quick, quick right on over to  Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri's, and Peta's and Ellie's beautiful blogs and revel and roll about in a little bit more #wonderfulwednesday loveliness and catch up with what's been keeping a grin on their little cheeks this week.  

Thank you SO much for reading.....