Friday Favourites :: 22 July

Hello! It has been a little while since I’ve been here! I was unwell at the start of June and have really had some trouble getting back into the swing of things, both with reading and writing and sleeping, and it has really thrown me out of whack! I have been feeling a lot more like myself over the past week or so though, and now that school holidays are done I’m keen to get back to some of my routines, including popping in here regularly again – and I felt like a Friday favourites post would be a perfect way to get back into it.

Previously I’ve tried to keep my Friday favourites posts at least somewhat “book adjacent”, but I think I’d like to change that up a bit and just make this somewhere that I share a couple of things I’ve been enjoying during the week, that aren’t necessarily as bookish as previously. These might be things I’ve seen or done or cooked or watched – just things that have made me smile during the week. I think today’s post is pretty typical of the types of things you’re probably going to see in these posts – a bit of my garden, some crafty bits and pieces, and likely a lot of my cat haha.

The photo at the top of my post today is the beautiful blossom tree in our backyard. I love this tree – it starts to flower between the winter solstice and the start of July each year, and really brightens our winter garden. It also smells amazing! You might have noticed a few little blossoms from the tree feature in my blog header.

While I have been reading less over the past six weeks or so, I have been catching up on a bit of (mostly terrible) tv, and I always like to have a craft project to keep my hands busy while I watch. I have been working pretty consistently on my “Rainbow Ripple” crochet blanket over the past week. The colours are so bright and lovely, and it has the added bonus of keeping me warm while I work on it. The pattern comes from one of my favourite craft blogs, Attic 24. Lucy from Attic 24 shares lots of free patterns and tutorials, and I love both her bright happy work and her chatty blog posts, full of little joys. Reading her ‘3 things’ posts was one of the things that got me thinking about what I share in my favourites posts. I bought the wool I’m using for this blanket from Bendigo Woollen Mills – it’s their 8ply classic. I actually first started this project in July of 2016, so it’s nice to be making progress on it again!

Jack looks extremely well behaved in that photo there, but the truth is he is quite a terror when I’m trying to crochet – he really is obsessed with chasing and pouncing on the wool as soon as I get it out, so I try and fit in rows when he is asleep haha.

The weather here this week and last has been some combination of glorious and weird. There was a lot of talk at the start of the school holidays that we would be facing 14 straight days of rain, but as it turned out we have hardly had any and most days have been typically bright and sunny (and cold) Canberra winter days. Last Sunday we hard dark dramatic skies, with clouds and rain at the same time as it was sunny and we saw the most spectacular rainbow over our back fence. It was so bright against those dark clouds, and not only was a full arc but if you look at the left-hand side of the photo you might be able to see the shadow of a second rainbow that appeared at the same time. I know that we have science to explain rainbows, but I do still think they look so magical!

I hope everyone has had a lovely week, with some magic of your own to enjoy!

xo Bron