Hello! How was your weekend? Mine involved a lot of sleeping, a bit of sniffling, and the most gorgeous succulent I’ve ever laid eyes on.
After not one, not two, but three trips to the doctors in our house (nothing major though) Ben and I basically cancelled everything and took the weekend off to recuperate, eat lots of clean, healthy things and try not to play too much Hearthstone. The fact that this was also the weekend Netflix released the new season of House of Cards was pure serendipity.
But, before delving into the murky world of Frank and Claire, we got the tissues out and said goodbye to basically its polar opposite, Parks & Recreation, by watching the show finale. To say the show is near to our hearts is like saying Leslie Knope is only okay with waffles. Some of my favourite early memories of dating Ben centre around watching Parks & Rec together, and we have lots of silly P&R references around the house – from prints to the name of our WiFi network and even a Valentine’s card, so watching the very last episode was a bit totes emosh. But they show had an amazing run, and the last season brought back tons of favourite characters – and hey, there are plenty of memes out there to console us.
Something that definitely brought a smile though was a trip to The Garden in Powerscourt on Saturday – I walked in and whoop, there was a burro’s tail succulent. I’d been lusting after one for an absolute age. Native to southern Mexico, the burro’s tail (or donkey’s tail, or Sedum morganianum if you’re keeping it official) is a succulent that boasts beautiful, long, blue-green leaves that kind of look like they’re woven. I carried it home wrapped in tissue in a little wooden crate – which led to a few funny looks on the bus, but also some great advice from a plant-loving passenger who told me that, like so many succulents, it “thrives in neglect”. This makes it a great house plant as it doesn’t need really regular watering, just plenty of drainage and a few hours of sun a day. It’s now it’s proudly sitting on my mantle and I seriously can’t stop looking at it. Sad, I know.
The new issue of the mag also went on sale over the weekend, and I’m very psyched by all the lovely, supportive feedback it’s getting. It’s our Northern Ireland special and I got to shoot in some really great places, meet some incredibly inspiring people and eat some seriously good grub. There’s a little sneak preview over on Image Daily.
It does mean that we’re all stations go on the May-June edition – the week ahead is going to be a mega one, with two shoots, lots of meetings (many of them fun, tbf), my ceramics class and a nice mid-week dinner date with my mum thrown into the mix.
Hope you have a good one, and, no matter how busy it gets, remember what’s important with these words of wisdom from the one and only Leslie Knope.
Top pic: One of many gorgeous new desktop wallpapers over on Designlovefest.
