A third of the way through Winter!

 

I am sitting here at my desk, on a very wet rainy Winter afternoon, going through my list of Hygge activities that I can do to brighten up the day.

I had forgotten about my Hygge list, created 4 years ago, until I went through my old Winter blog posts. It was just what I needed 😊. So, I picked a few activities to do and set to work.

My first activity was to bake an "Easy lime and coconut cake." I found the recipe online on the Taste AU recipe website and luckily had all the ingredients needed to make it. This is the third time I have used my oven to bake something. It turned out nicely despite there being no temperature markings on the oven temperature dial! 

While the cake was cooling and waiting to be iced, I set about doing my second task which was to clean and rearrange my desk. I added one of the miniature cyclamen plants, which I bought a few days ago, for some cheerful colour.

My next Hygge activity was to dig out my favourite Gien filets bleu tea-set and make a large cup of Twining's English Breakfast tea with a slice of lemon in. The tea went perfectly with a slice of the cake I made. A bonus is that the cake was also liked by mum and dad.

As I had my afternoon tea I watched an episode of Gardener's World, which I really enjoy. And then I watched the latest Chateau Diaries vlog post on YouTube. It was lovely seeing the English Summer flowers and also the happenings at the French chateaux de LaLande.

As I looked out of my bedroom window, at the pouring rain, I felt happy and cosy inside and actually enjoyed watching the rain splashing on the deck outside. My cat Otto sat on my knee for ages cuddling and purring. Bliss. Otto then curled up and fell asleep on a chair by my side.

I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to start a jigsaw puzzle...

...But Otto was only pretending to be asleep. As soon as he realised that I was opening a jigsaw puzzle box he was there in an instant to help me!

Supervising me was quite exhausting work for Otto, and after deciding that I was capable of doing the puzzle by myself, he finally found a comfortable place to have a nap.

The last Hygge activity that I chose to do was to use the photos I took yesterday, of the new indoor cyclamen plants we recently bought, to create this blog post. Another thing that I love doing.

We chose a variety of miniature and large cyclamens in different colours, to brighten the house up for Winter. Our old cyclamens are dormant at the moment and are living in the potting shed.

I had a very lovely, relaxing time today. The Hygge things that I chose to do have left me feeling happy and cosy on a cold and wet Winter-day. 

Tomorrow morning I will plan what to do for the rest of the weekend. It is a long 3-day weekend. Matariki, the Maori New Year, is being celebrated here in New Zealand at the moment.

It is now time for me to have a warming cup of hot chocolate before bed.

I hope that this post finds you well and enjoying the season you are in.

Lots of hugs, 

Rose x