WTTW: The joy of face-to-face friendship + the spud salad I’m obsessed with
A weekly hello and welcome to the week :)
Hello! Happy Monday! And happy Wimbledon to all who celebrate!
It’s a fresh new week, the sun is shining, and the tennis is starting! Even better, my house is *almost* in order due to several lovely ‘pop-ins’ over the weekend. I love it when you do a full clean ahead of people coming over just.in.case and then all you dirty are a couple of mugs and a tray (for my go-to gooey cookies! Recipe this week!), so I didn’t even have anything to tidy or mountains of washing up to prune my fingers with this morning, which put me on the right, relaxed track mentally. This is the stuff that brings contentment in your 30s, guys! Maybe the good mood is also down to face-to-face social interaction. I’m still on a comedown from leaving London and not having pals in my house at least once a week, so when I get a visitor to the countryside it’s extra exciting. Alex says the transition has resulted in me getting puppy-style ‘chat zoomies’ upon other human beings entering our home - and in particularly dry spells, just him entering the room in between meetings - where I have to get EVERYTHING out, then, eventually, my batteries give out and silence descends. Come anytime, I’m loads of fun!
Thanks so much for all the congrats re my last post <3 and the sympathy re my ever-failing spine. I’m sticking to just one physical task a day at the moment, so as much as I want to prep the office walls for wallpaper today, I’m going to sit on my hands until tomorrow in the hope I’m confident enough to bend and, let’s face it, wobble, at yoga tonight having missed the last sesh. This week though, those walls are getting prepped! And maybe wallpapered. And I want to do some weeding. And touch up some paint. Herniated discs and volume of fifth sets allowing!
Have a great week, don’t work too hard, buy the brownie and organise some nice stuff to look forward to x
Meet Truffles, a stray cat adopted by an optician to help nervous kids get their glasses. This pic is cute, this video is cuter still.
2. Holidaying in your own town. On Saturday morning we got up early ahead of the hot weather (we say that’s for Hugh, it is also for me) and ended up plonking ourselves down on the terrace in front of the cathedral and sharing a scone with cream and jam and it felt like being on holiday! If we were abroad we’d 100% appreciate an old church and be thrilled to sip something tasty in its shadow, why not at home!? Hard recommend.
3. A non-invasive smear test has been invented! The (female, obv) PhD student behind it hopes to encourage those who are currently not going to the doctors to out of fear to test themselves at home using a sample of menstrual blood. There’s lots to iron out and clinical trials to run but isn’t this amazing?
4. So nice! @jennaisfeeling
5. This crispy potato salad - which is less salad, more roasties doused in mayo and spiked with sour things - from Poppy Cooks. So good!
