Back in September I posted a round up of some things I’d been enjoying over the summer in what was intended to be the first on a series called Watch.Read.Listen.Love… and then I completely failed to do the second in the series over the autumn. I’m going to go ahead and let myself off the hook for that one, with the reasoning that preparing for and then having fairly major surgery had me rather preoccupied. Now on the other side of all that excitement and at the start of a brand new year, I figured now would be a good time to pick the series back up again with a winter edition.

Without further ado, here are some things I’ve been loving this winter:

Watch

Hubby and I both had a couple of weeks off over Christmas and New Year and one of the things we did was cosy up in front of Netflix. By far my favourite thing we watched was The Witcher – a fantasy series based on a book of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski. By turns both gripping and amusing, it made for compelling watching and is one of the most entertaining series I’ve watched in ages. I’m a big fan of fantasy but frequently lament the lack of good fantasy series available – I often find they either take themselves too seriously or are super cringeworthy. The Witcher struck a great balance and I can’t wait to see more!

Read

My read recommendation for this season has got to be the long awaited second novel from Erin Morgenstern: The Starless Sea. I’ve not yet written a full review of this incredible book, partly because I haven’t been able to find the words for it yet, but it is utterly enchanting. I’ve seen quite a bit of criticism of it but I absolutely adored it and immensely enjoyed being swept up in Morgenstern’s magical prose once more. So much so, in fact, that even though I only finished reading it a couple of weeks ago, I’m currently listening to the audiobook so I can enjoy it all over again. Beautiful language, unique world building, and magical storytelling – it’s a fairytale for the modern age and I loved it.

Listen

I discovered a few new artists at the end of 2019 whose music I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to and will become a staple of my 2020 playlists as well. One in particular is Dodie. I love her sound and her music feels mellow but unusual and interesting. My favourite track of hers at the moment is Monster – it’s been on repeat a fair bit and I can’t get enough of the rhythm of it.

Go give her a listen.

Shop

I was talking to my lovely bestie the other day about how getting ‘smells’ for Christmas never used to be that exciting but now it’s the BEST! (Clearly, this is what happens when you get into your thirties…) One of my favourite skin care brands is Liz Earle. It’s not the cheapest stuff but it is such a treat to use and for the last few years at least one person has bought me some for Christmas and I’m always thrilled! It smells amazing, makes my skin feel wonderful and using it always feels indulgent. My new favourite daily ritual is to use the Liz Earle cleanse & polish to do a facial massage before I go to bed. I came across the facial massage routine in issue 11 of Lionheart Magazine and it works perfectly with the Liz Earle products and makes a dreamy, end of the day ritual. It”s particularly good for these cold winter months when skin take a beating and the dark days can leave us feeling a little weary.

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That’s it for the winter edition of Watch.Read.Listen.Love – there’s so much more I could share with you but short and sweet is the name of the game with this series so I’ll leave it here. All being well, watch out for another seasonal round up in the spring.

What have you been loving this winter? Let me know in the comments.