A Peek into my Day

Outside my window the early morning sun catches the hills creating a streak of light across the horizon.  The trees are putting on a beautiful display this year, so often strong winds will strip the trees before they have had a chance to show us their wonderful colours.

Around the house there is washing drying and piles of washing waiting to be put away,  a board game  lies abandoned on the dining room table having been played and left, lego mini figures arranged in tableaux on various surfaces, a chair full of teddy bears, it is all rather tidying considering how much time we have spent at home over the past week or so.

We have had a few plans this week which have all been quietly shelved as illness has slowly made its way through all of us.  Thankfully we are on the mend now and looking forward to returning back to our usual rhythm.

I am thinking about my brother.  A lot.  He has had a very difficult few years and this has been the worse.  He has been rarely out of my thoughts this year.

The cold and damp weather is now here, it is at times like this that I am thankful that we have a good supply of seasoned wood for our woodburning stove.

In my kitchen an oil bottle stands empty waiting to be refilled, a selection of jars drying having been washed before being put away to be used again another day, two jars of sauerkraut are gently fermenting and a further jar contains oil and yarrow leaves steeping to made into a salve at some point.

Our enforced hibernation means that I have been doing a lot of knitting, I am creating mittens, a hat and more rows on Alice's tunic.  The cardigan is now off the needles and waiting for the ends to tidied away, the underarms to be joined and a gentle blocking.

It is our local monthly farmers market this Saturday I am going to pick up our usual supplies.  I love spending time at each stall, chatting to the producers, getting to know them, making local connections to the food we eat.

One of the orchestras I play in has a study day on Saturday which I would really like to go to I am hoping that I will have stopped coughing enough to be able to join in.

I am reading, The Women who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés a book that I have read much about - all really positive -but now that I am reading it, am finding it really hard going and rather disappointing.  I have read so many sentences that are full of flowery prose and had to read them again and again to make sense of them, if at all.  I am close to giving up on it, perhaps it will be a book that I will dip into now and again.

My lovely husband bought me my first smart phone recently, I don't make use of many of its functions but I am loving being able to listen to podcasts at home and when out and about.  I am listening to and loving the weekly Wardrobe Crisis, I can really recommend it.  You might think fashion, nah that is not for me, give it a listen it is so much more than that and we all buy clothes.........episode 94 is amazing.

After our enforced hibernation, which I have actually really enjoyed, I am looking forward to meeting up with friends I haven't seen for weeks.

I am pondering our menu for the week ahead.  I am a meal planner, planning dinner and tea for a seven day period, meals based round the contents of our weekly veg box, I will shop for the rest of the ingredients tomorrow.

Over the past year I have been finding out about herbs and their medicinal/nutritional uses, I am learning slowly building my knowledge one herb at a time.  Whilst we have been ill recently I have been making many herbal tea mixtures to support our return to good health.

A friend told me a couple of quotes this month one in particular is my favourite quote this month, Better finished than perfect.  I definitely need to take this to heart as I often procrastinate rather than get on with things.

I am wearing a blue top with white stripes, a denim sleeveless dress and navy leggings and still no socks in the house.

A peek into my day