Beyond Selidor

This has been a weekend of grey skies, and warm lights. I've had an aspiration to cover the ceiling of our living room with string lights, and — after years of procrastination — we've finally done so, at least in half of the room. We've also brought in our tiny Christmas tree from outdoors, and spent some time this afternoon decorating it, although somehow we've managed to lose all the baubles.

Yesterday evening Matthias and I went out to dinner with some of the people from our walking group, and other friends of theirs, and spent an enjoyable three hours or so chatting, eating nice food, in pleasant surroundings. One of the things I've been trying to work on this year is getting more local friends, and although it's been a bit of an uphill climb, I'd say we at least have local friendly acquaintances, which is more than I can say for my situation a year ago. It's so hard to make friends once you're no longer a student, though, unless you have children — and I feel so out of practice.

Today we spent this afternoon at the local wine fair, with an enjoyable few hours trying wines from a bunch of local-ish companies, and we came away with seven bottles. Luckily the wine fair venue is just down the road, which means it's more convenient to buy what we want and carry it home, rather than juggling deliveries on days we might not be in the house.

Other than that, it's been a fairly standard weekend — a couple of trips to the gym and pool, reading at home, cooking Indonesian food for dinner. I've been rereading more Benjamin January books, plus Tessa Gratton's gender-swapped, fantasy AU of Shakespeare's Henry plays, Lady Hotspur (amazing — I love Gratton's Shakespeare retellings, which really do a great job of conveying the damage done by the toxic weight of parental expectation, and have a fantastic sense of place and atmosphere). I've finished (although not posted) my Yuletide assignment, plus two treats, and have hopes of completing at least one (possibly two) more treat before the collection closes.

Next week is likely to be quite draining, in terms of work, so I will leave things here for now. I hope everyone has been having a good weekend.

I'm happiest when my days are filled with a good mixture of stuff, and that's certainly been true this weekend. In list format, in no particular order, I've done the following:

Read so many books, in a variety of genres (about which more in a review post later in the week)

Done a variety of yoga sessions ranging from the intense to the stretchy to the restorative

Roamed the outdoor market in the rain, picking up vegetables, fruit, bread and cheese

Swum a kilometre

Pottered around on Dreamwidth, overwhelmed by, and grateful for, the response to both my snowflake_challenge posts and the return of my Friday open threads

Walked out through the muddy fens with Matthias, under clear skies

Now I've got curry simmering, fragrant on the stove, and I'm winding down, and resting.



Today's snowflake_challenge prompt is: In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

( Unfinished visioncloths behind the cut )