Wonderful Wednesday #68

Good day to one and ALL!  I can't quite believe we are on Wednesday again already and that i have been back at work for exactly a week after my odd Wednesday to Wednesday week off.    Time has whizzed by and i also don't mind telling you that i am so very READY for a day off!  I worked both the Sunday and the Bank Holiday too which i don't usually mind as when you work in retail your days sort of just merge into each other.  I think i feel ever so tired because i have done a long stretch of days straight after a week of mostly pottering and scampering about picking wild flowers, re-arranging furniture and enjoying open windows, planting things and simply being. What else has happened since we spoke?!  For one i impulsively decided to get my hair dyed a little darker than the bright platinum blonde i have been rocking for the most part of my life.  Well since 18 at least and i am now 30.  You can do those sums to save me having to!  I have been SO suprised how much the whole thing affected me and i actually felt a little emotional afterwards.  What a silly bean!  More on that later on in the week though.  Hair aside, my evenings have been spent curled up reading magazines and drinking camomile tea.  They have been a welcome contrast to fizzy busy days spent careering around and about Monsoon Towers and the Half Term/Bank Holiday chaos.  I am waffling.  Shall we get TO it?  The #wonderfulwednesday awaits!

1.  Blustery days!  A silly positive but it's my positive corner and so be it!  My evening bike rides haven't been as frequent as i should have liked due to some very changeable 'can't-quite-make-it's-mind-up' style weather.  But the evenings i have scampered out have been bright and blustery in equal measure and it's made my heart happy watching flowers bob, branches wave and green, green grasses dance in a sunny Spring breeze.  All with a backdrop of bright blue and cloudless sky.  It's somehow how seemed even more beautiful because that sky hasn't been quite so constant….

2.  Hummus forever.  We've just done our grocery shop last night and there are currently three tubs of hummus plus a little 'three mini pot' sort of set(?!) in our refrigerator.  Houston do we have a problem?!  The Mr also informed me he was band practising for their next gig on Thursday and i may or may not have answered 'That's ok i'll just have some hummus for dinner.'  What's more than worrying is that he didn't really bat and eye…. I've been loving the stuff.  My lunchtime salads have been all the better for it!  I've been squirrelling sweet packed lunch boxes of quinoa, roasted sweet potato, baby kale, avocado and a great big spoonful of hummus to swizzle my carrot sticks in.  Mmmmm!  

3.  Baby Kale.  See previous point.  The bomb of lunchtime!  Well save for the hummus. I spotted this little gem in M&S recently and i'm a little bit in love.  I love Kale but i find i much prefer it cooked through a butter-bean and chorizo stew or marinated in lemon and tamari or better still all sweet, crispy and toasted in a hot oven.    In short Kale requires thought and effort which is sometimes okay.  Baby Kale requires no effort whatsoever.  It's much, much sweeter and is sort of a hybrid between Kale and and lettuce.  It's also a much softer texture and it's extra fab because you can whack it as a side to bulk up a salad or you can wilt it down (much like you can Spinach) a-top an omelette or stirred through Puttanesca pasta at the very last minute with a good glug of good olive oil.  Mmmm!

4.  Not having a fringe.  Something else that was initially met with much trepidation!  I decided that since my hair was quite a bit darker at the roots now, my full blunt fringe against my pretty much tranluscent white face wasn't really doing it for me.  So i'm going to grow it out.  Wearing it tucked back and messy has proven so low maintenance!!! So much so that i've enjoyed extra sleep because of it!  I never knew a fringe was quite so much work because well, i've never not had one.  Genius.  Jeepers maybe i really am growing up after-all!!

5.  First sleeps with an open window, even if it is just a little crack!  Just indescribably lovely.  To fall asleep with the sweet tickle of a Spring breeze on your nose, buried under a cotton duvet and with bare legs and arms.  The recipe for the sweetest dreams of your life i can promise you that much!  

6.  Ebay Summer dress bargains.  Because, well clearly i'm delusional and under some sort of weather spell?!?!!  Either way, the whole she-bang cost me a fiver, including postage and it's a Topshop summer dress from a good few years ago which i wanted so much at the time. Even if she hangs on the wall in our spare room for a wee while yet, i know i'll wear her one day and my little heart will flutter.

7.  The most bitter, tart and zesty marmalade slathered on toasted rye bread.  It's the breakfast that's been ever so floating my little sailboat of late.  If i'm feeling extra hungry i'll sneak two slices and have one with marmalade and the other with crunchy peanut butter.  All washed down with my signature orange-y Lady Grey tea.  Matches made in heaven right there for sure!  

8.  Discovering old and forgotten beautifully pressed flowers!  I had this idea to press some lavender and white wild flowers in a book a good while ago.  I stumbled upon them recently and i'm just deciding upon a way to incorporate them into my most recent botanically-inspired moodboard.  They've really worked and look so sweet and pretty!  Any idea what else i could do with them!? Every cloud and all that….

9.  Tidying up my Pinterest boards.  All kinds of 'productive' or a terrible case of procrastination extraordinaire?!  You decide.  Either way i had the same kind of 'i've cleaned the house from top to bottom and emptied the wash basket' feeling after so i think i win.  

10.  First bare-legged bike ride.  If you live up north you'll know quite how much of a big deal that is.  I sometimes wonder if Cumbria is actually a whole season behind London and the rest of the world…Either way this was all kinds of great and totally worth the midgey bites!

11.  Beetroot.  On everything.  Ok well not everything but as much as i can squeeze it into.  Cooked and grated through salads is my very favourite and easy-peasy go-to and a little salty feta crumbled though is extra amazing.  This week i also enjoyed a beetroot and blackcurrant juice that was so yummy and i'm sort of determined to make a beetroot and chocolate cake too. The only problem when making such a thing is that when there are only two of you, one cake is a lot of cake.  Maybe i shall treat the gals at Monsoon Towers to some chocolate-y beetroot-y greatness too.

12.  Instagram;  For it's pretty pictures but also for the inspiration, positivity and wonderful people it has brought into my life. Because it's hardly news but we're sort of going steady now, our love for each other has become a bit of a big deal!  I flippin' love it.  I can take or leave most social media as long as i get my Instagram and Pinterest fix.  What can i say, i love a pretty picture….

13.  Feeling ice-cold cotton sheets against bare legs.  The kind of thing that feels like the absolute worst come Autumn or Winter but now suddenly feels like the greatest and most simplest slice of greatness that there can ever be!    

14.  The excitement that a perfectly ripe avocado brings.  It's sometimes the very best part of my day really and truly!  I seem to have had a bumper run of late and the sweet little bowl of baby Hass avocados that have been sitting pretty on our windowsill in a printed china bowl are just the perfect amount of ripe that i've been half tempted on several occasions just to eat one with nothing but a spoon and a little sea-salt.  So far i've resisted…but i can't promise you that one's going to last for the rest of the week…

  15.  Tinkering with Willow the push-bike and making her feel better. I'm not going to lie, sure i looked a little bit at the technical side of Willow when i got her two years ago.  But it was really all about the looks and as soon as i saw her she could of been made out of cardboard and i'd still have brought her home.  When i was little dad always fixed our bikes:  Pumped up our tyres, oiled our chains and tended to anything out of the norm.  Over the last couple of years i've really enjoyed learning how to look after that pretty green bike of mine like it should be.  She was a little under the weather at the start of the week:  Some strange clinking and clonking coming from underneath her front mud-guard.  A little tlc and some bolt-tightening later, she rides like a dream and feels happy all over again.  And i sorted it out all by myself!  Huzzah!
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So hows about your LOVELY selves?!  Did you have a wonderful Bank Holibob?  Have you been basking in tropical temperatures-galore?!  If so can you please send some northward?  I'd love to know what's been making you smile so far this week.  It doesn't matter how little it might seem, sometimes those are the things that are the most happy-making!  Leave me a little comment below or better still, tweet me your #wonderfulwednesday.  I'm @sallytangle!

Enjoy the second part of your week DEAR faces!