Jennifer Michie

Tag: cozy (page 1 of 7)

October 1, 2025 / 0 Comments

HELLO, October

Hello, October! We’re ready for more crunchy leaves underfoot and these cooler days to remain. The nights are drawing in sooner and there is a definite change to the colour of the light and shift in the shadows. Evenings have a distinctly different kind of glow with the sunset now. 

We’re ready for all things apple. We’ve already been grating apples into yogurt in the mornings and eating slices with cheese and crackers as the perfect afternoon snack. Soon our annual weekend apple butter making session will occur, so we can relish in those jars of reddish chocolate gold for the months ahead when your season has long past, but we can still taste it, savoured over oatmeal on a cold winter morning. 

We’re ready for the Fall break you bring at the end of this month and the chance to slow down for just a bit. As well as all the Halloween movie watching, popcorn eating, long stroll taking, museum visiting plans we have. 

We’re ready for pumpkins, shaded in all the glorious bejewelled tones of fall. We’re ready for the first hot apple ciders of the season while gobbling up fresh gingersnap cookies alongside and listening to a nice fall jazz album. 

We’re ready for all that you hold. There is a magic to one season slipping into the next and we’re not going to miss a moment of it. 

{Image FOUND | Pinned HERE}

February 1, 2025 / 0 Comments

HELLO, February

Hello February, we’re very excited for your coming. For you bring along with you St. Valentine’s Day and a winter break from school which feels luxurious this time of year. It gives way to the opportunity to move more fully to our own beat even if only for a short time. 

We’re ready for our long winter evenings to continue marching on for a while yet. We’re savouring nightfall with our eventide rituals of drinking tea enriched with lemon and honey or hot chocolates studded with marshmallows and watching cozy movies while snuggled under blankets.  

We’re ready for more “breakfast for dinner” nights in which we feast on scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits or pancakes dotted with blueberries or waffles with lashings of butter and syrup. 

We’re ready to continue to enjoy winter. Slowly and surely the earth is awakening. I see bulbs shooting up with their green heads from the soil and the smell of damp earth permeates the air. But, I’m not quite ready for Spring yet, I’ll enjoy her when she arrives, but I like each season to have its due. 

We’re still keeping our fingers crossed for one snow day in there, where school is closed and we get to stay home reading books and chatting while lingering over a second cup coffee and stopping mid sentence to watch the snow fall and breathe it all in.

We’re ready for quiet weekends mixed in with long London strolls seeing where our feet take us, stopping for coffee and pastries when we need a break to warm up again. We’re ready for all that you bring in this last month of Winter. Welcome, February! We greet you with arms open wide. 

{Walt Disney “Once Upon a December” poster, 1954 | Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

December 1, 2024 / 0 Comments

HELLO, December

Hello, December. We’re ready for frosty mornings and quiet evenings where we sit by the glow of the Christmas tree and listen to Patrick Stewart reading from “A Christmas Carol”, with hot chocolates in our hands.

We’re ready for the hustle and bustle this season brings and the moments of stillness as well, which are so very important for body and soul. We’re ready for our first chance to wish someone a “Merry Christmas!”, two of my most favourite words. The thrill that gives me to offer those heartfelt wishes, as there is only a finite amount of time in which to do it in.

We’re ready for weekend rambles and visiting a few Christmas markets. We’re ready to delight in frosted sugar cookies and gingerbread men with currant eyes and buttons. We’re ready for the excitement of peeling back the windows each day of our German Advent calendar to see what awaits us behind our little paper door.

We’re ready to relish in this season as well as this time for reflection of what the year has been and where the New Year may go. We welcome you with open arms, December and await all the delights and blessings that you will bring.

{The Nightcap | Will Bullas | Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

January 9, 2024 / 0 Comments

We Need A Little Twinkle & Glow

Although, I find setting goals both personally and professionally, important. I feel that this is the time of year where it is equally important to simply be. To let things wash over you, to move with the season. Winter in the natural world is a time of rest, a season that supports rebirth in the spring.

Our current working culture does not allow for this to easily happen. It’s head first, jump in and just keep swimming. It’s not a straightforward road to walk, to find the balance between “being” and “doing”.

This is a season where we need to consciously make time to rest, to move a little slower, to breathe. And so, we shall continue to have the glow of our twinkle lights for awhile longer and linger at the table after dinner while a record spins and take opportunities as they present themselves to simply be still. Because we are now within the darkest part of the year, the part where we need the most light, the most twinkle and glow; where we need to be cozy, where we need to relish in the season that we are in and look forward to the season that is yet to come.

Last Tuesday, I had to walk past my first dumped Christmas tree of winter. I thought my heart was going to break, I know there will be more to come as I’ve already witnessed it. After all the warmth and twinkling lights, it’s so sad to see nothing but darkened windows. So for a little while longer, I’m going to share a few more moments of sparkle and glow before all of that disappears with the yule log ashes.

{A quick snap of an adorable snowman on top of one of the Christmas trees at Lamb House. | This year the theme was a 1970s Christmas based on the time period that Rumer Godden lived within those walls. It was a delicious step back in time!}

November 1, 2023 / 0 Comments

HELLO, November

Hello, November. We’re ready for the days to fully turn cooler as we move into late autumn. We’re ready for long walks with mugs filled with hot apple cider. We’re ready to continue playing our board games late into a Saturday night, or a quiet afternoon spent working on a puzzle. 

We’re ready for Bonfire Night that you will bring this weekend and making our first apple crumble of the season with a generous scoop of homemade ice cream on top. 

We’re ready to settle into this season of coziness and candlelight and the build up to Thanksgiving. We’re ready to feast on leftover turkey sandwiches and decorate for Christmas near the end of this month. 

We’re ready for the smell of woodsmoke in the air on a crisp night, mixed with the scent of a stew simmering on the stove, while fresh bread bakes in the oven. 

We’re ready to soak up this season and to find peace in the quiet moments, for the world right now is far too loud. We welcome you, November with open arms. 

{Vintage Turkey Illustration found HERE via The Biodiversity Heritage Library | Pinned HERE}

December 1, 2022 / 0 Comments

HELLO, December

Hello, December! We’re ready for the frosty air that you bring that bites at our cheeks and the smell of woodsmoke circulating on the evening breeze. We’re ready for the streets to be lit by the glow of Christmas lights while we stroll with hot chocolates in hand to “ooooh” and “aaaah” at Christmas window displays and house bedecked for the festive period.

We’re ready for the arrival of the numerous sacred days to this most spectacular season and month. In particular Santa Lucia, for she brought light into the darkest of corners and so should we all follow her lead and ensure that we are the bearers of light wherever we may tread.

We’re ready for Christmas music to be spinning while we sit on the couch bathed in the warmth of the twinkling tree. We’re ready for our pace to slow as the sun goes to bed and to play endless games of scrabble or cards while sitting at the kitchen table where all the best conversations always happen.

We’re ready for the house to smell of gingerbread and peppermint and fresh pine. We’re ready to watch Christmas movies by the glow of candlelight and snack on buttery popcorn. We’re ready to simply drink in this season and all that it has to offer.

{Vogue, Christmas Photoshoot, 1956, photographer unknown, found HERE | Pinned HERE}

November 1, 2022 / 0 Comments

HELLO, November

Hello, November. We’re ready for our Indian Summer to finally give way to chillier days and nights. We’re ready for hot apple cider packed in a flask to take with us on walks in the nature reserve. We’re ready to smell woodsmoke in the air and the taste of a freshly toasted marshmallow on our lips.

We’re ready for the day to draw to a close sooner and the evenings to be filled with games of Scrabble or cards while records spin and conversation keeps us lingering at the table longer than usual. 

We’re ready for bonfire night with crispy sausages and gingerbread cake with homemade toffee sauce and lashings of whipped cream. We’re ready for Thanksgiving because the next day you will be bringing us a heavenly leftover turkey sandwich and cold slice of pumpkin pie, which brings me endless amounts of joy.

We’re ready to continue to soak up this season and this year, for it is going far too quickly. Welcome, November, we’re ready for you. 

{Autumn Palette by Mary Charles, 2015}

November 1, 2021 / 0 Comments

HELLO, November

Hello, November! We’re ready for the full shift to autumn that you will bring, early nights and darker mornings. We’re ready for leaves crunching underfoot and the smell of woodsmoke in the air and crispy apples packed as snacks.

We’re ready to feast by the glow of candlelight and sip hot apple ciders and munch on gingersnaps for our evening dessert. We’re ready for the promise of Thanksgiving that comes near the end of your monthly reign this year. And the smells of turkey and gravy and baked sweet potato pie that will fill the air.

We’re ready to move into “sweater weather” and take rambling walks with our wellies on, through the muddy fields and up to the hills to look out over the water. We’re ready for twinkle lights to glitter from every nook and cranny and we’re ready for the stillness that you bring with late autumn evenings where all the world is quiet except for the whistling of the wind.

Welcome November!

{The Mushroom Gatherers, by Abigail Halpin // Pinned HERE}

October 1, 2021 / 0 Comments

HELLO, October

Hello, October! You’ve arrived so swiftly on the wind that I’m not entirely sure what has happened to September? It has passed in a haze. But, we’re happy that you’re here with all the heady scent of autumn and magic that you bring. 

We’re ready for a chance to be still for just a little bit as that was not an opportunity we were given last month. We’re ready for the evenings to draw themselves in sooner. We’re ready to make our first batch of butternut squash soup for the season, with crusty bread to dip into it and a plate of sliced apples and cheese to go alongside. 

We’re ready for crisp clear autumn days to hike in the nature reserve with a sprinkling of rainy Sundays thrown in so we can curl up and read books with a cup of tea close at hand. We’re ready for our front porch to be decorated with pumpkins and mums to bring a smattering of colour to grey days.

We’re ready for our annual household festivities to begin in the lead up to Halloween, with decorating and witches’ hats and bowls of candy scattered around. We’re ready to feast on marshmallow popcorn balls while watching some of our favourite old Halloween movies. 

We’re ready for all that you bring and the enchantment that you hold, for you are truly the month that walks us into autumn and all of her glory. 

{Laurel Goodwin modeling for E.J. Brach & Sons, 1966 Halloween Ad HERE // Pinned HERE}

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