I was walking down the cobbled hill this morning on my way to the shops and found myself thinking about you all, and realising that I was missing our friendly chats about this and that and nothing in particular. I love creating my weekly CAL posts but they are very time consuming and not nearly as easy for me to write as my normal everyday style posts.
So, hello-hello, I hope you're feeling good as we navigate these early days of the year, and as always let me tell you I am so thankful for your company.
J and I did our usual early morning walk routine this morning and it was a bit miserable really. It was cold, dark and wet, a light drizzle at first and then by the time we were coming out of the bakery it was full on pelting with rain and we got absolutely soaked. But as you can see from the first photo, by the time 9am rolled around all the rain clouds had disappeared leaving clear blue skies and the most glorious bright sunshine in their wake. Oh, I was so, so glad of it I can tell you. We popped down the road to the coffee shop mid morning and sat a while on the comfy sofa together drinking cappuccino. It's always a short and sweet kind of coffee break as it's a working day for J and he doesn't like to be away from his screen for too long, but I really love that we make this happen for ourselves a few times a week. It gives me a feeling of pure contentment right down to the ends of my toes.
I'm very lucky that I get to spend some wonderful hours each week in the company of great yarny friends at Coopers Café too, gosh, I do so value that part of my life. I've just looked back into my archives to try and remember when our creative group first started out at Coopers, and discovered it was almost NINE years ago, what a shocker! Wow, I honestly had no idea it was that long. I love love love my Friday mornings spent chatting and hooking - right now I'm working on my Harbour Colourwash blanket which is a really enjoyable way to spend a few hours. I'm currently a week or so ahead of the CAL schedule so kind of doing it in real time which is a bit seat-of-pants-ish, but all good fun.
So we're almost three weeks into January and it's been a pretty wintry month so far, but not unpleasantly so. We've had a real mixture of dull, foggy grey days.......
.....and the most delightful, clear, icy cold days which I've loved.
Even though I'm no longer doing the school run, most mornings I do still find myself heading out to walk somewhere for one reason or another. It's a habit that feels very deep rooted and I'm certainly not complaining, I welcome the quiet alone time, walking with just my own thoughts and enjoying a little bit of mindfulness.
I continue to observe the daily weather, sky, clouds, trees, views and reflections as I walk....and I can't imagine living a life where all this goes unnoticed. Everyday life is full of so much remarkable detail, don't you think?
Every so often I get the chance to head out of town and I really appreciate those times a lot. At the start of the year we renewed our annual season ticket for Bolton Abbey, and I walked there with a friend last week.
It was a cold, clear day and we were wrapped up in woolly socks, hats and mittens to keep the extremities cosy. It was a lovely morning, a chance for my friend and I to catch up and chat while also doing some healthy exercise which felt like a very Januaryish thing indeed.
You might remember that J and I are lucky enough to both have Mondays free from work commitments, and if the weather is good we often take a walk together. Lately we've been staying close to home and walking very locally from our front door, but this week we decided to drive out into the Yorkshire Dales and walk along the river.
It was such a beautiful morning, so still and clear that the river looked more like a pond in certain places. This suspension bridge across the river Wharfe is extremely bouncy and it's quite an experience walking across it - it makes my legs feel very wobbly!
Can you see me in the above photo, looking at my own reflection in the river?
It was a cold day, with the ground still frozen in places where the sun hadn't yet reached.
One of the lovely things about walking on a week day is the blissful quietness of the footpaths - this is a very well used, busy trail at weekends, but on Monday there were just a few dog walkers out and about enjoying the crisp, sunshiny winter weather.
Reflections in water.......it's my thing.......need I say more???!!
On the home front, my January days have been peaceful, slow and absolutely lovely. I've been gently easing myself back into familiar, well established routines and am feeling really good actually. I've not made any new years resolutions or set any intentions for the year ahead - for me personally, I find that January is the completely wrong month to try and do this. I prefer to come through January and February with as little change as possible, then come March I might feel ready to think about new intentions.
I packed away the Christmas decorations at the weekend which included a major sorting out of everything, repacking into some new storage boxes, and recycling a lot of unwanted stuff too. It was a long overdue job that's been on my virtual to-do list for about five years (at least) so I'm very happy to have got it done. I bought a few new decorations last week from Oxfam in the online sale, and thought you'd appreciate seeing them - aren't they beautiful?
They are handmade in India and the detail is incredible, I can't tell you how much I love them (there are still a few left online if you want to look - here you go). I can't wait to unpack them in December and see them on my tree, I'll most likely have forgotten all about them by then, so it'll be a nice surprise for future me. I do like nice surprises.
In celebration of the season we're in (and I'm really trying my best to celebrate Winter this year, rather than just enduring it), I treated my home to a new framed print. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm so excited to have it on my wall above my fireplace. It's by my fave artist Janet Bell and is called "Morning Light" - I already have three of Janet's prints that I've bought over the years so I guess I am now a collector (how lovely that thought is). My idea was to have four prints for the four seasons that I could hang above the fireplace, changing them around throughout the year. I'm pretty excited about the whole idea I can tell you. By the way, Janet currently has 10% discount on her website for the whole of January if you wanted to treat yourself or your home (use code HELLO2022 at checkout).
I haven't really taken that many photos indoors this year so far, so I really need to do more of that. I try to create one or two new photos each week for my Instagram account though, so I thought you might like to see them here too. The above one was totally un styled - this is pretty much what my sofa looks like on a daily basis, so I simply held my phone up and captured an image. Instagram can be very over-designed, but I much prefer the un-styled, un-filtered, natural look of things.
This is the photo I took earlier on today, and yes I obviously did have to spend time setting this up and getting it just so. I had an idea that I wanted to see my three coastal inspired blankets all together, so I had to go around the house to try and locate the coastal ripple (eventually found it in the Big Teen's room). I absolutely love how they look together - each so different, and yet they are very harmonious together too. I love my blankets SO MUCH. My goodness, words can't describe the true depth of my love for these handmade yarny things. Love love love love love, times a million.
Oh, do you know, thinking about coastal inspiration has reminded me that I haven't yet shown you any photos from our New Year trip away, how very slack of me!! Tut tut, shocking bloggy behaviour indeed. As you can see above, it was absolutely FabUlOus, we had fantastic weather, did loads of coastal walking and had the best time. I came home feeling so energised and re-charged, and definitely want to do that kind of thing more often if we are able.
I'll start looking through my photos to put together a holiday blog post very soon - it'll be nice to share some coastal inspiration in amongst my Harbour CAL posts I think.
Well, I seem to have come to a full stop (.) so I'll sign off for now.....I hope you are taking these days slowly and gently and finding happiness in your days xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
