If you're new round here you might not realise I've been blogging for almost twelve years. Not all in the same place of course. My first blog, started in December 2008, was called Daffy's Garden, and ran until September 2011. I moved to A Cheerful Living Adventure, where I stayed until February 2015. Then I moved to Snippets of a Life, and then finally here in March 2018, just after we moved house. I'm not sure why I've moved around so much. Part of it was changing blog platforms (from Blogger, to Wordpress, and now to Weebly), and partly just that I like a change of scenery and a bit of novelty. I often look back on my old blogs, and it's nice to have a record of what I was doing day to day all those years ago. Some things are the same (gardening, knitting, reading, cafes, occasional running) and some have changed (chickens for a start). I've been looking back recently and enjoying reading those ordinary everyday posts, and so yesterday I thought I'd track a whole day, like I sometimes used to do, so I can look back on it in the future. Saturday started like most other days, going outside in my fluffy dressing gown and rigger boots to let the chickens out. Back inside to do a HIIT workout with Joe Wicks. After breakfast, we headed to a local market town for a quick sweep of the charity shops for the first time since lockdown. This used to be a favourite and very regular activity, but obviously it's not been possible lately. We went early, but not quite early enough, and some places just felt too busy. It was nice to be out with the sun shining though, and we had a bit of a wander round the town, which we also haven't done for months. One of the cafes we like to go to was open, with a space near the window, so we nipped in for a cuppa. It's hard to relax properly in a cafe when people are queuing nearby waiting for your table, but we did have an acceptable cup of tea and a bit of a read for twenty minutes. Back home - I love the drive to this town as you have to cross this little bridge which has the stream running over it. It's about as adventurous as my driving gets. We got home, made a cup of tea, and then I realised I had a couple of parcels to post. Yes, they could have waited, but they've been sitting around for long enough, so I nipped back out to the post office. Home again, and the sun was still shining (which felt like a small miracle after the amount of rain we've had lately). I spent an hour out in the garden, shifting damp hay to use as mulch on the windbreak and the raspberries, tidying up the compost area, and admiring the damsons. Back inside for lunch, and a nice cup of tea. And then back outside again - into the meadow this time. The hay I cut last week (or the week before?) has been lying getting more and more soggy, so I turned it all over to (hopefully) dry out a bit over the next couple of days. While I was working, the farmer turned up to check on his cows (there was a calf born that morning in our fields, which I'd not seen), so we stood either side of this gate for a while and had a natter. After that, I swapped the hay fork for the scythe, and cut another row of hay. I'm still going to be doing it at Christmas at the rate I'm going. The chickens spotted me eventually, so I headed back inside - heading swiftly back out again to peg out the washing. Back inside for another cuppa, and then a light rain started (of course!) so I got started on the next stage of DIY - drilling holes in the battens I cut the other day. Oh, and somehow my sister persuaded me to enter the virtual London marathon. Half an hour of that, and it had stopped raining, and was time to shut the chickens in. I gave their house and run a good clean out first and replaced all their bedding and cleaned food bowls - somehow I didn't take a picture of that, but it wasn't exactly picturesque so you're not missing much. Once they were safely in the run, I went for a wander round the veg garden to see what was ready to harvest. The peas had blown over in the wind, but I managed to pick some kale, chard, calendula and our first turnip. The dehydrator hasn't had much use since we first bought it, so I thought I'd try drying calendula flowers (not sure what I'm going to make with them yet) and some oregano. Finally I got round to making my tea (a kind of aubergine and tofu concoction). After tea, I did the washing up, crumbled the dried oregano and removed the stalks ready to store, and chopped the kale and chard to put in the fridge - I'm far more likely to use it if it's all washed and prepared, rather than having to start washing and chopping when I'm hungry, and preparing last night means that today I can just throw it in a pan. By that point it was after eight, and I was getting rather tired... I did have one last push of activity though - clearing up the mess from my chimney-sweeping exploits the other day, and trying to salvage these shoes. I bought them in Belgium years ago - I love them, but rarely wear them, and they'd been stuffed in a box and gone rather mouldy. I've wiped them over with white vinegar and we'll see what happens. By that point it was almost nine, and I was fit for nothing other than a soak in the bath.
A long, productive and satisfying day. Notably, it was also an internet-free day, which does rather increase the time available if, like me, you have a tendency to run off down internet rabbit holes when you could be doing something more useful. Hopefully this will serve as a reminder of just how much I can get done when I turn the phone and the laptop off. I enjoyed tracking my whole day - I used to do it quite often and I might start doing it again. I love to read what other people have been up to as well, so if you've done something similar please do post a link!
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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