Winter Self-Care - Cooking, Reading & Other Things

Instinctively we want to hibernate in winter, and our activities change - with more reading, writing, cooking, television, music and cosy nights in. 

We're fending off endless coughs and colds by consuming smoothies and soups. 

A few tasty treats I've been making are:

• Chicken & sweet corn soup,
• Spring rolls,
• Bread & banana pudding,
• Peanut butter & banana pudding,
• Adzuki red beans,
• Duck pate,
• Portugese duck rice,
• Garlic and chive crusts,
• Fig with salt n pepper squid,
• Slow cooked duck, and 
• Banana and nutella spring rolls. 

GIlmour Girls is my happy place and I'm mixing it up with American Horror Story and Mad Men. My fascination with Gilmour Girls, which I'm not rewatching has even resulted in a long blog post about it. 

I've just finishing reading Crazy Rich Asians which has made me think more about identity, memories and history. I've also dipped into some of Hilary Mantel's short stories and am half way through Butter. 

Accepting the weather doesn't equate to not missing gardening and photography, meanwhile the weight of deadlines and work is pushing me to squeeze in some yoga. A complimentary yin yoga session at the beginning of the year has brought a new joy to doing a slower practice occasionally. 

Fengshui and energy also interests me after attending an online session with Inner Space. 

These ideas and the winter are feeding into a novel I'm working on. There's something about starting a new one that helps me let go of the old one and be ready to complete it. I realised that was one of my obstacles - a fear of not having something else, though I have plenty of other novels I've started and also a sequel to my current in my future. A different shiny project, injects freshness and this creativity does wonders. 

Of course learning things is a huge part of my life and I'm looking forward to sharing more of that soon. 

Blogging also is easier, and I'm doing less social media because I'm out less until the energy levels of spring kick in. I played my Spring playlist on spotify yesterday so I'm gearing up.