The clocks went back last night, and while I'm not looking forward to the darker evenings, I'm enjoying the early morning light today. I've had a rather busy and stressful few weeks at work, and now that the worst is over, I feel like I'm emerging, blinking and stumbling, back into real life. I feel like I've forgotten what to do with my evenings. I've been working until 7 or 8, having tea, then being so tired I'm asleep by half 9 some nights, so there's been barely any time to do anything else. What did I used to do in the evenings? This week I'm going to try to remember. I've (mostly) not been working weekends though, so regular cafe trips have remained, thank goodness. This weekend we tried a new (to us) place which was cheerful enough and will likely become our new haunt when we're over that way. And of course we've not been forgetting our old favourite cafe. Aside from that, though, I couldn't really tell you what I've been doing at the weekends. Sleeping. Hanging out with the chickens. Looking in despair at the state of the garden. Last weekend the Permaculture Association held its annual convergence, online this year, of course. I signed up, and spend several hours watching sessions while I did a bit of knitting. It was nice, and felt relatively normal. I've still got a few more sessions to watch. At the minute the desire to watch them is outweighed by the desire to not stare any more at a computer screen, so maybe that's not a job for today, although listening while staring out of the window isn't a bad compromise. Yesterday I had a day of gentle pottering, not doing anything that needed doing, except slowly restoring my body and soul, which of course is really the most necessary thing. I had a long bath with an escapist book. We went to a cafe, and a charity shop, I had several long conversations, and I raked some leaves into a pile, which the chickens promptly spread back out. It was a good day. Today it's not raining, so I want to spend some more time outside, maybe doing a bit of weeding (although we're already straying into 'ticking things off the internal to-do list' territory there). Perhaps a cafe breakfast, although at the minute it's 8.30am, which of course feels like 9.30am, and the cafe doesn't open til 10am, so I might have to have pre-breakfast first.
I want to spend some time thinking about this list of ways to thrive during the pandemic. Kt was my tutor for my permaculture diploma for a while, and through her own illness has gained a lot of insight into ways to live a good life when you can't do all the things you would usually do. I love her work, both written and drawn, and today plan to spend some time pondering, reflecting, and seeing how I can build some of her tools into my days. One thing I have started doing recently is keeping a small jug of flowers on my desk. It reminds me I have a life outside of work, and that there are cheerful things outside if only I step away from the screen for long enough to see them.
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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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