weekend wanderings #45

(images from unciaandtigris.com, thefirstmess.com and ninegrandstudent.co.uk)

• I love these photos from Anya at Peppermint Pencil - I don't have a telephoto lens but there are some bird hides near where I live and I think it would be cool to try out my camera this year by taking some photos of birds and animals...
• Without Christmas to look forward, and the realisation that you should go back to healthier food (or less indulgent food, at least) January can seem long and cold, and you need hearty dishes to cheer you up. This sweet potato and carrot dal with coconut leeks sounds like it would really hit the spot.
• Sometimes I get really sad and miss printing and the print studio - I know that I'll return to it one day but it sadly isn't that practical right now - I can live vicariously through these photos of other peoples printing studios until then, though.
• These pictures are from the summer, but I'm still feeling the palm-themed stuff for 2015, that wallpaper is amazing.
• And on the topic of wallpaper, this homemade wallpaper is so freaking cool, I love the juxtaposition between the copper, the toile print and the photographs of driftwood and seas, particularly with all the copper stuff in the kitchen.
• I'm trying to reign in my baking now I'm trying to get back on track with my eating but I do reallllly want to try Chloe-Ellen's peanut-butter cookies recipe; I really cannot resist anything with peanut butter in! 
• I love a photo of a wintry morning walk, and Jessica's photos are just perfect.
• And so are Artemis & Nao's photos of a frosty day on the Isle of Wight, so beautiful, as all of their photos are! 
• I was literally just talking about getting back to healthy eating and trying to bake less, but how can I resist a gingerbread cake with salted caramel? I will make this one day, maybe in a couple of weeks time when January really sets in on us.
• I feel like Ruth must have a natural affinity with deers, because she seems to take the most amazing close-up photographs of the deer in Richmond park, I must get her to take me one day because I think she's a deer whisperer.. haha.
• Sci-fi and fantasy seems to be having an amazing revolution at the moment, and I love that because other people seem to be really embracing it all. Cat over at Oddly Lovely talks about 21 of her favourite sci-fi and fantasy TV shows, and some are definitely on my list to check out.
• Here is an amazing and beautifully curated Pinterest board, Inspired By Nature, by the girl behind TLV Birdie. In all fairness, all her boards are pretty beautiful! 
• Rosie's photos of a day out at the beach in the New Forest remind me of my own little adventure down there earlier in the year (you can read that here, parts one and two). There really is something beautiful about beaches in the winter, and the quietness of a seaside town in the cold, it makes me wish I could uproot and relocate there.
• A great post from That Grace Girl about her personal 'blogging criteria' - basically why she likes to read a blog or not, which I found really interesting as I agree with a lot of the things she has said.
• Becky shared a resource-packed blogpost today with all kinds of things that are really useful for a blogger - I skimmed a few of the posts she's linked and they look great, but after writing this Weekened Wanderings, I'm going to sit down with a coffee and have a more thorough read!