Wonderful Wednesday #13
A weekly post to count the small joys and littler things I'm grateful for each week.
A pup walk early doors on Sunday morning where i was over-layered and over… mittened. I underestimated that the sunlight had any kind of warmth before 9am on even a blue-skied morning when there had been frost there not-so-far from the very same time only a couple of days earlier.
I raced home, powered probably (read: definitely) by vitamin D and a ‘warmer than you’d think’ sort of a breeze and all i could think about was how much i could fit into the washing machine and how it was most definitely the kind of day where i knew i’d manage at least more than one line of of laundry before the day was up.
I wrote to you last week about how so much of the darker end of the year is spent keeping the outside out and the inside, in— curtains drawn from 3pm if i’m home: earlier or scarcely fully opened at all if a particularly dismal day calls for it— lamps and a smatter of fairy lights nearly always on—more than they’re ever off and—any excuse to light a candle. Windows are barely opened and doors closed as quick as we can behind us. Those icy days and frost-blown gusts make us gasp as the icy air wraps around our ankles, hands and cheeks and any visible bit of skin it can catch-quick in its icy grasp.
But, right here— right now—this short and precious season we call Spring is exactly that: The long-feeling winter and endless battle against the cold eventually wears even the very best winter weather-lovers—like me, down and desperate to lean into, instead of against. With and alongside and not away from and, even if lately these moments are precious and so very fleeting, gosh doesn’t that make them feel even more momentous and great?
On Sunday i filled up the washing line, twice. The last light clung on longer than usual, the way it does as we nudge into the other end of the year and also as it tends to do when there are barely any clouds for it to hide behind as it slips into tomorrow. I left the last line of laundry out for as-long as the light lasted, desperate for it to soak up every last bit of the fresh air and warmth that the day had so joyously spoiled us with. So keen was I to capture it and keep it a little longer in that magical way that line-dried laundry does.
Never has such a simple thing brought so much joy. The sweet scent of fresh air, sunlight, blue skies, that first-cut-grass-greeness and somehow maybe even hope. Hope that there will be more of the kinds of days where everything just seems easier, lighter and more lovely.
This week has felt just that: a little lighter and brighter. We are still dancing the dance with the cold: oftentimes the wind still takes me by surprise but i’m learning to linger in the warm and sheltered pockets of sunlight when i can and i know that the scales are tipping and that soon i’ll have forgotten this sort of an ice-cold winter weather altogether. There have been lots of small things to be grateful for:
1) Ceramics. A gift to myself in the form of not one but two new vases. Not least because they’re from two of my most favourite ceramicists: Nathalie Lete and Francesca Kaye and because i barely own anything to put cut flowers in save for kept and recycled jars. This year especially i have realised how much joy bringing flowers into my home is. Largely broken budded branches gathered on cycles home or a handful of daffodils picked along the riverbank. I can’t wait to show you.
2) Strawberry jam. Not very seasonal really but i don’t think jams count. I’m a marmalade gal through and through but there is more than a time and a place for jam and there is something extra specially comforting, familiar and just delicious about strawberry, isn’t there? Mines’ been spread on toast which has then been generously spread with crunchy peanut butter.
3) A new book. And a new book gifted to me by a very special person that i wasn’t so sure i’d even enjoy but that i have fallen right into and i’m currently enjoying being wholly and completely swallowed up by and cocooned under the duvet alongside a hot water bottle and a camomile tea each night. The book? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Not new, but new to me and one i already know i’ll return to again already.
4) Chocolate truffles. Not least because i picked up a couple of my favourites and nothing feels quite as indulgent as a truffle or two on a weekday does it? But after more than one day where i was wet more than i was dry and where there was a great deal of soggy cycle trips involved you bet that i appreciated a couple alongside a hot earl grey tea when i got home!
5) Cooking. Not something that has always come naturally to me or that i would have previously ever considered ‘my happy place’ but over the past year or so i have really found my stride and i’m so enjoying making nearly everything we eat from scratch now. It’s a commitment and it takes up a lot of my time but the better i get at it, the more i’m gently encouraged to do it! This week i have made a big lentil ragu and a squash and chickpea curry and there is nothing nicer than knowing that i did that.
What small moments and little joys have made you feel happy or grateful this week? I’d love for you to share. There’s something quite motivating and inspiring reading what small things bring joy to others, isn’t there? We’re all so different but there are so many things that we crossover and share joy and contentment in.
I hope that you’ve been able to feel a little warmth this week and have managed to get out and appreciate those first spring signs. Thank you so much for taking time to stop by and read here, it genuinely means a lot! Always know that you can drop over a reply directly to my email if you don’t actively use the Substack app or would prefer not to leave a comment here.
I can almost smell the freshly dried laundry! When I was little, my Mom would dry our towels and bed linens on the washing line and we LOVED running through them as the early Spring breeze whipped them dry. And I LOVED the way they smelled when we put them back on the beds. You've made me realize that I NEED a washing line RIGHT NOW and I'll be finding one as soon as I can to stretch across the back garden in hopes of capturing those lovely rays and smells of the outside to bring in.
That daffodil image is GORGEOUS! I just adore them :) Happy Easter week, Sally Dear. Thank you, as always, for a lovely pause filled with beauty <3 Jen