Wonderful Wednesday #118

{Golden-hour bicycle rides are evenings well-spent lately}

Hello and good DAY good afternoon or i suppose good night to you!  How are you?!  Man alive it feels good to be back, on time and in my rightful 7am posting slot.  Posting this later last week left me feeling all kinds of discombobulation!!!  My week's been a lovely one.  Filled with about six watermelons {i exaggerate - but i do feel like I'm living off them lately!}, lots of sunshine, moving a little slower and feeling all kinds of happy summery-ness.  Oh and being and getting outside as much as i can! In that 'you never know when the weather might change' typically British kind of way that we all do.  I'm crossing everything that you've all had some rays of sunshine somewhere this week so far.  Let's get down to the good stuff shall we?!

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1.  Sunshine, sunshine, SUNSHINE!  Not even the half-arsed {sorry Cumbria but sometimes it really feels like you could try harder} hazy, not really warm enough for anything less than a t-shirt.  No no, the real and lovely  'pretty freckle-inducing actually' kind that has you walking, cycling - just being slower so as to soak in each and every last drop ray as often as possible.  I forever harp on and on about how much difference a peep of a blue makes to mine and everyone's' moods, so throw a twenty-three degree temperature into the mix and we've all been positively giddy as all of the kippers!  Hurrah!

 

2.  A 'through' breeze.  Most likely the most 'old lady sounding' sentence i've ever written.  Incase you don't already know, we live in an attic cupboard flat.  Our little bedroom gets the sun until about 11am and then it moves right the way around to the back of our little rooftop dwelling.  This is super duper since it's got the biggest almost floor to ceiling windows {excellent sky/cloud/general sky spotting for me!} and so it's the lightest room most of the day.  But when it's hot, hot, hawt it can be a nitemare!  The only way to rectify this dilemma {i mean it's only taken us the five years we've lived to discover said solution - just shows you how many 'hot hot' days we get!} is to prop both back bedroom attic skylight open and leave all the doors open and the livingroom ones as wide as they'll go.  Hence creating a 'through draft' of cooler air that tickles your cheeks and keeps you all lovely and cool.  Add great big wedges of watermelon and ice cold tumblers of water with torn mint leaves and slices of cucumber for extra effect.  

 

3.  Peanut butter.  Because, you dear and lovely faces; what's #wonderfulwednesday without some kind of a)food and b)breakfast-shaped mention?!  Now i love a nut butter {i do want to say probably more than the next man/woman?} - any kind of nut butter {I'm lately feeling all kinds of love for a particularly fancy pants jar of maple and pecan pie nut butter that cost me far too much money {i know, say whaaat?!  It's as good as it sounds i can tell you} but sometimes, sometimes just crunchy peanut butter is all you need and all you want.  This week has been filled with mostly peanut butter:  Spread {never liberally} on carrot sticks, eaten straight from the jar in times of desperation need and especially served on toasted rye bread with great big wedges of pink grapefruit on the side.  It's a taste sensation of sweet, sour and savoury that's almost so good i have to stop myself eating it for lunch as well as breakfast.  No jokes!

 

4.  Coconut shampoo and conditioner.  I very rarely match my shampoo and conditioner.  not out of choice, i just can never get both to run out at the same time and i am forever trying new flavours {scents?}.  This week i spoiled myself and bought the coconut conditioner to match the shampoo i've been using for the last month or so.  The excuse?  Well it's legitimately summer now right?!  For this week at least....

 

5.  Sleeping in less attire than usual.  Just like the joy that comes from those first few nights snuggled up in warmer nightwear with a hot water bottle and fluffy slippers; so too does that of sleeping with a lot less than usual.  Is there anything lovelier than crisp cotton bed linen and curling up underneath it in just a pretty pair of cotton smalls and a light, lacy whisper of a bra-let or little vest?  I think not.  Throw a night-time open window into the equation and you've pretty much got the best night sleep lined up right there....

 

6.  Ombar coconut milk chocolate buttons.  The bees knees thank you please.  Remember how i've wittered away about my taste in chocolate changing?  Was that last week?  The week before?  Last month?!  Who knows.  I'm on Wonderful Wednesday one-hundred and eighteen now, i think I'm allowed to forget.....  WELL when i was in need of a chocolate-y 'fix' somebody recommended Ombar chocolate to me.  It's not healthy as such but it is dairy-free and made and sweetened with coconut milk and coconut sugars.  So it's better for you.  And my oh my it's dreamy.  I don't think i've ever had a milk chocolate that's tasted so rich, so creamy and so.....well flippin' lovely as this.  I picked up the chocolate buttons from our health food shop but they do larger and smaller bars of milk, dark and white chocolate too.   Have you tried them?!

 

7.  White cotton.  I would run out of fingers and toes if i tried to count the number of white cotton tops i own.  I always manage to find an excuse to squeeze in another couple each Spring/Summer too.  They're the easiest, most lovely things to wear on warmer days and layer up with dungarees on cooler evenings too.  And essentially wearing them alongside prettily printed trousers and skirts kind of feels a lot like you're just wearing your jim-jams.  It's a win-win all around i guess. 

 

8.  Summer evenings.  Aren't they the best?!  Of course the sunnier they are the better {some of my very favourite bike rides lately have all been about the later evening sunshine} but even if it's less than sunshine-y, doesn'tt it just feel like you've got almost half a day to just be after getting in from work?!  I spend mine on two wheels, pottering with our little terracota pots outside, having a longer lazier and somewhat cooler bath-bomb bath or sometimes taking a spur of the moment wander out for icecream.  It feels like these kinds of evenings do something special for my little soul.  

 

9.  Some kind of porridge-shaped genius idea.  I know, i know after what i've just said about Summer what am i talking about porridge for?!  Because i eat all year round so there.  Last weekend i made cookies and after realising i didn't have any vanilla extract to pop in i remembered having some vanilla pods in the cupboard which actually worked all fine and dandy.  The genius part comes in sticking the used pods in my big jar of porridge oats after.  They smell amazing and you get the littlest, sweetest hint of vanilla when you heat them up with a little almond milk. It's really rather flippin' good!

 

10.  Freckles.  Because {and i suspect rather like the rest of the world...or woman-kind at least} when i was a little dot, i used to hate my freckles beyond belief.  Now despite slathering on factor one million {no jokes, i'm so milk bottle white that i'm practically transparent!!} they do still peek through on my cheeks and also on my arms come this time of year.  And you know what?! Just like others that have come before {read:  bottom, hips, funny 'not quite straight nose', my height, slightly crooked top teeth ' i should have listened and got a brace when i was little' teeth and my natural hair colour} i actually rather like them afterall.  It's a shame your thirty-two-shaped self can't go back and tell your aged thirteen self that it'll all be alright in the end isn't it?!?!

 

11.  New hair.  Which I'm still not entirely convinced isn't a little bit too short.  All of the same i love it. Thanks going out to all who said kind and lovely things on my Instagram photo or twitter feed or guess also to my real life face recently.  I don't think my face has ever had so many 'likes' ....it's usually all about my feet...or the sky......or my porridge.  So thank you thank you!

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And we're done!  I'm out of breath.  That was a wordy one this week.  I'm excited to hear about everyone elses' week.  How has yours been?  What's been great and good and what is powering you through into the weekend?! I'm working all this coming weekend so do share your rocket fuel!!!

 

Remember to bob on over to Michelle, Jo, Cat, Katie, Helen, Kate and Emma's blogs to read their #wonderfulwednesday loveliness to.  And don't forget to join in with the chat across all social media using the ^^^ hashtag as usual.  I'm @sallytangle on everything in the whole wide world!!!!!