Wonderful Wednesday #95
The joy of real cold and some things I'm most grateful for lately.
This week the cold came. Not the damp sort that I’ve written too many words about lately. Not that sort of cold that isn’t even real cold but just masquerades as it: A damp cloak cold-but-not-cold-cold disguised. The sort that seeps into your bones and steals away what light we could have at this time of year.
No, this was the sort of winter cold that, despite it being at least ten degrees colder than only a few days before; made me feel (and will always make me feel) instantly better about most things. The light joined us earlier, I could see and feel the beginnings of it even as I let the pup out not long after 6am. The sky was ink-blue and smattered with last night’s stars and the delicious scent of wood smoke and the cold air curled quickly around my ankles.
Winter was coming. Not yet— not all at once either for there is still plenty of autumn left for the taking— but, it’s the nudge I needed to remind me how quickly the switch can be flipped and that winter is still possible because, I most definitely doubted it after what feels like weeks and weeks of endless grey drizzle and days that were more lacking in light than they should have been.
The sun climbed quickly: Perfect peach stripes danced across the kitchen wall as I pulled on layers: Tucked well-worn t-shirts into muddied jeans and pulled on a jumper and a hat before heading out into the woodland with the pup. I gulped in great big breaths of icy air, gasped as it clung to the back of my throat and felt my cheeks redden and warm. We walked quick, one head up and one down: Both of us grateful for the overnight change in the same familiar route we walk each day and how new and alive it suddenly felt.
It’s only another reminder how much the seasons count and how much they shape and influence more than we remember and, how delicately fastened to them that we are even if we don’t notice it.
It’s easier to count the good bits when things just seem exactly as they should be or, it makes the worse bits seem lessier somehow. I find myself distracted by it all, nudged along by maybe the cold or just the better energy that seems to come from days like these and the way I can instantly feel my shoulders drop and my breathing slow despite the drop in temperature.
Here are a handful of small things I have been grateful for lately. I hope it inspires you to stop and think of a few too.
1 Lighting a new candle. This one scented with citrus essential oils. It’s the season of candle light for sure and this beautiful scent is a gentle nudge of Christmas without shouting about it.
2 Cheese and chilli sourdough. Picked up at the weekend and toasted with honey and salted butter. And used to mop up homemade smokey beans and some sausage casserole leftovers too.
3 Cycling home under a sky full of stars. The only time where riding home in the dark is made a little more bearable. Along as I am wrapped up warm: Mittens tucked in and a wooden scarf and beret then it’s actually a lovely quiet way to unwind as my work days fill up and become busier each day.
4 Hot porridge after icy walks. Hot porridge always anyway but the warmth and comfort is simply just much more appreciated when the outside temperature drops.
5 A heavier duvet, a woollen blanket, a hot water bottle and a camomile tea aaaand being warm and tucked up before 10pm. Don’t these darker, shorter days make you appreciate the minute details of your every day so much more?!
What smaller joys and maybe nearly forgotten moments are you most grateful for these days? I’d so love to know. There’s been a flurry of new faces around here lately so if that’s you hello. I hope you’ve enjoyed some special winter light and a dusting of frost this week also.
I’m grateful for your writing help me to take and enjoy each moment even more, bit by bit