Long weekend love - this weekend's pearls

I love long weekends! And the four day Easter weekend is the ultimate long weekend on the calendar. It might be a week ago now, but I'm still buzzing from my long weekend and what may have been the last few days of sunshine, it this week's weather is anything to go by.

I decided to abstain from the Easter themed baking pressure this year and instead focussed on a few things that truely made my weekend.

Loading all of my CDs onto my computer (because iTunes deleted everything when I got my new phone dammit!). It was so fun to go through all of my music, I've got a pretty random mix from 90s, through the norties up to last year really. Great reminiscing material that's for sure and can't wait to make up a few new play lists and revisit old favourites.

Baking banana bread. I love banana bread and MR loves it too so it's a cute thing I like to do... baking it for him. (Ofcourse getting to eat it is a welcome outcome.) Add loads of walnuts and blueberries - yummy weekend treat!

Family and friendly gatherings. Oh so many! That's the thing about long weekends, everyone wants to see everyone (and drink loads - eekk!) Lots of fun and laughter certainly had. 

15 minutes of us. Ok so it was more like an hour over breakfast, but in a weekend full of gatherings it was nice to take a short moment to have a wee breakfast out, on a windy day by the beach.

Harvesting and planting. Ok so I didn't do anything too strenuous but I loved getting this tiny chilli haul from our plants in the courtyard and planting a few other things around to bring our garden to life more this Autum.  
 

What did you get up to on your long weekend?

In between it all

Between a crazy, hectic work schedule, a significant birthday for MR, a dead MacBook and the rain messing with my washing cycle, there hasn't been much attention paid to this there blog lately. But suffice to say, the weather has certainly awakened my dormant pile of sticks and cinders and sparks are beginning to bounce of my belly like an atomic reaction. Bubble and fizz my head is filled, well largely with air ofcourse but that's the stuff of bubbles really isn't it. 

I have been scribbling away with the chances I get & I just say I prefer scribbling to structure for a change.

So far autumn has brought me everything but a drenching (thank goodness). There have been visits from beautiful family members, sunflowers, snuggles under blankets on the couch, copious amounts of red wine, coupled with so much love and friendship. In the spare minutes I daydream. Mostly about little trips. I love little trips & that's all there will be this year. I am feeling quietly content in the quirky mess of my mind & there is a great deal of joy in that. 

And for now that's all I've got. 

Cool, calm, creative

And so it is finally, FINALLY, autumn. The days are cooler and the nights are chilly. The fans have been switched off and blankets for snuggling up on the couch brought out. I have worn/carried a cardigan with me every day this week. There have been several moments when I have genuinely felt cold. Finally green leaves are starting to brown, although others might skip this stage entirely and just fall anyway. And the best thing - it's finally red wine weather. I forget just how fond I am of red wine during the summer months. But now that burgundy stained corks have been popped, it's making me think that I really am a cool weather person. There is something so intimate about cool weather. It's romantic, the dark and the rain. It's cosy, cuddly, couchy weather. It's dinner parties in cosy apartments weather. It's love in a jumper weather.

I've not yet donned tights and I'm still yet to purchase a new umbrella and I don't want to even contemplate how my jeans will be fitting this year (note to self, buy tights, buy umbrella and for god's sake keep up the exercise!) but the change in weather is already bringing with it a change of mood. I am always more creative in the cooler months, and my brain it ticking away with lots of little ideas to fill the time spent mostly indoors in cooler months. 

So let there be words and wine and creative endeavors. Let there be curling up on the couch and reading and chatting together. Let there be storms that rumble (but l

et me know be caught out in them). Let there be friendship and cardigans and love.

How does the cooler weather effect you? Do you see a distinct change in mood with the change of seasons? Or am I just getting old?