Finding Comfort, And A Naughty Magpie

As I mentioned in my earlier post, life has been a little challenging of late, and as I have finally settled down to catch up with you and share some sips of tea, I have been thinking of the things I have been doing of late, and realizing that I have subconciously been craving comfort.

I have been taking a lot of warm baths in the evening. Sometimes I have more or less come in from work, made the dinner, and hopped right into the tub. I have been hoarding a Bathos Bath Bomb from Lush, which is purple with green glitter and scented with violets, and other such treats. I have a pink candle which I light, and as I lay back in the hot water, I can feel my whole body release the tension I have been holding, like a sigh.

I have been voraciously reading the Hamish Macbeth series by MC Beaton. I devoured the Agatha Raisin series a year or so ago, and always resisted Hamish Macbeth. I took one home to read (I must have something to read on the bus!) and was hooked. The gentleness is just what I need to soothe my mind. They are not great literature, but they are cozy and comfortable, and they are helping me turn over another idea in my mind. Last year, when we went to Lyme Regis, it was a hazy day, and I decided that the sea looked so beautiful, I wanted to crochet a ripple stitch blanket inspired by it. The colours that I saw then are echoed very much in the Hamish Macbeth novels, they are full of twilight, gloaming, mist, heather, and such beautiful muted tones of blue and grey and mauve. I think now it might be a granny blanket after all, but I am nearer to narrowing done my colours!

We have been nesting in our dear little flat, too. We spent Monday doing just little things to make it more cozy. We used to have a roller blind in the living room (not our choice, the landlord put it in) but we have never really liked it, not least because it is not quite wide enough...we now have a very simple pair of calio curtains hanging, and it makes the room look entirely different, much more peaceful and homely somehow. On the windowsill is a little white tin lantern that I bought the other day. It caught my eye and was only £3, so it had to come over with me. It has glass sides, and the white tin makes the pattern of a little bird sitting on a branch. We have a new bedside lamp in the bedroom, and we feel snug as bugs in rugs!

Of course, I do have to venture away from our little home to work, and Saturday was one of those days. The weather was glorious, and we had the doors to the library throw wide open to let in the air (needless to say I was in the little branch library, not the big County library!). I was chatting to the lady I work with about rearranging some of the shelving, when we heard the most awful squawking coming from outside. I went to the window to see what was wrong, and saw a magpie pecking a baby bird to death. Well I wasnt having any of that! I rushed out and smacked him with the rolled up envelope I was holding! Away he flew, and happily the baby bird was ok! Enid Blyton had led me to believe that magpies just stole necklaces from pixies!