Quotidian living

Although it is slightly boring I find I’m fairly settled into a routine. I’ve found I didn’t set out to find a routine but it has gradually evolved,. Although it is the way I spend many days I think I have enough variety in various ways to ensure I’m still fairly flexible.

So in a typical day I wake when it’s light. Like many older people I don’t sleep that well and it is not unusual to wake early and read for a while. Anyway we usually get a cup of tea, I read for a bit and we may listen to the Classic FM news. Our bedside radio is permanently tuned to Classic FM which is our preferred radio station.

After getting up my first  task on going downstairs is to rake out the ashes, make the fire and bring in the coal and wood. Between about October and April we have a fire almost every day lighting it in late afternoon. Only then do I have breakfast. I’m quite ready to miss breakfast which annoys Annette. I usually have periods of enthusiasm for particular things, at present cereal and dried fruit. The dried fruit includes cut up dried apricots as part of my effort to boost my potassium level. Low potassium has been a persistent issue for a few years so much so that I was told on one occasion that I should go to hospital A&E immediately.

Depending on the weather I potter in the garden for a while. This may be odd jobs around the garden or cutting up wood for our fire. Our gardener who comes about every week does all the real work and my efforts are pretty limited. We are gradually growing less and less every year so that our vegetables will only be runner beans this year. We do grow both soft and top fruit. The top fruit is almost all apples as our efforts growing pears have not been very successful

Over coffee I ‘m reading again .As will be seen I spend a lot of time reading both magazines, where I subscribe to the Economist and New Scientist, plus books of all sorts, about 60:40 fiction and non fiction. I’m generally very interested in science and technology plus recent history ( 1900 on ). As a member of 3 book groups that provides fiction often beyond my normal boundaries.

After a light lunch I’m then on the internet. There are a number of sites I visit regularly mainly for financial news and then browsing more widely for whatever interests me at the moment. Many of my domestic records are computerised so I tend to do all the usual household paperwork while sitting at my desktop. This desktop is situated in my home office which contains also paper files in several cabinets. The office also contains most of my library. I’ve lost count of the number of volumes ; I guess 1500 or so.

My library is almost entirely non fiction. Annette is forever asking me to be more tidy and I must admit my home office is incredibly untidy partly because whenever the main house is tidied the overflow finds its way in. I am very reluctant to throw stuff away so it has accumulated over the years. She grumbles I dare not move because tidying my room is more than I can face. In one nod to cutting down I am being fairly strict with novels. With only rare exceptions I read and then donate to charity or book club colleagues.

In late afternoon I light the fire and help prepare our evening meal. I am gradually being introduced to cooking but my more usual task is preparing vegetables. Around this we are watching Pointless on TV ( mainly because I have a shot at knowing the answers unless on sport or music ) while we aim to be eating while watching the six o’clock news.

In the evening  we often watch TV- catch up has made a huge change in our viewing habits. Annette often has her laptop open unless it is something engaging; otherwise she often retires by 9 or so. I probably retire around 10 and read for a while before settling down.

Deafness has led to abandoning local groups I was part of such as parish council and village school governor and reading support.

The major break in routine is that we spend roughly a week in every month at our flat in Whitby. We usually spend some time with Martin and his family who live nearby. This visit is still enough of a novelty that it feels rather like going on holiday.