1. Trip home

I had the most amazing trip home last week. My Saturday to Wednesday full of big blue skies, 25 degree heat, wine and good food. I read, I wandered the streets of Valencia, I caught up with my family and had lots of cuddles with our big dog Dylan. I just couldn’t get over the sky – so blue and searing even though it turned November whilst I was there. I’ll write more about Valencia in lots of separate posts but this part of Spain is really, really stealing my heart. And of course being home for TLC solves all of life’s ills.

2. Brunch in the sun

One of the highlights of my trip home was a visit to a brunch place on the beach. A huge brunch with all the trimmings with a killer view of palm trees, the beach and everyone relaxing on All Saints Day (which in Spain means a day off for most people). I will definitely be coming back here no matter the weather. Even if it’s just to watch the rather good looking waiters wrangling all of the people into tables as the restaurant slowly fills up: it’s certainly a popular place.

3. Home brewed coffee

I bought myself a stove top espresso pot this week. I used it for the first time on Saturday morning to make myself a café con leche and it was lovely. Nothing beats the smell of brewing coffee in the morning. I hadn’t made it before, so there was a lot of consulting the instruction manual that came with it, but my triumph at managing to make coffee and not burn myself or cause a minor explosion made it taste all the sweeter.

4. New books

Does anyone else find their desire for new books increases when your to-read list is at its longest I am currently about to finish Crooked Kingdom and to start The Improbability of Love. But on a Friday evening mooch around Westfield I went into WHSmith and bought two new books – Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz and Circling the Sun by Paula McClain. They are two very different offerings: abandoned child turned government assassin turned philanthropic killer with a conscience; and a record-making female aviator caught up in an affair in Kenya set in the 1920s. I can’t wait to read (and review!) them.

5. Tesco’s order

There’s nothing more wholesome and fulfilling to my nesting winter behaviour than a grocery order. I’ve been trying to do these every two weeks to bulk out my cupboard – I am sick of opening it up and finding so little to be able to make meals with. It’s also a great way of saving money and to get those bits and bobs you don’t get in your local stores. I really think hitting up the same shops every day means we tend to pick up the same things. We’re creatures of habit after all.

*This Take 5 series will be a way for me to look back at my week and write about all the features of the last 7 days.