Falling into a routine - of sorts!

I have definitely fallen into some sort of a routine this week.

I've been getting up around 7:30 or so, after couple of cups of tea and a gentle slide into the day.  (I had turned off the radio alarm when I stopped getting up to catch the 07:10 bus, so we were both highly startled on the morning that the buzzer came on at 5:00!  We almost never use the buzzer, preferring to wake up to the radio so it was an unfamiliar as well as an unnecessary noise. Positively had us leaping out of bed to find out what the unholy racket was! It had been set by accident when turning the radio off the previous morning :-S  I have reset the time of the alarm to something more sensible, in case it happens again!)

I set myself the task this week of deep cleaning the kitchen between 9:30 and 11. I have scrubbed the tiles, scrubbed the stove top, cleaned the oven, washed the cupboard doors, cleaned the fridge, turned out the drawers and have almost finished turning out the cupboards.  I am positively exhausted.

I have also cleaned the bathroom and dusted throughout the house.  I have swept and washed the kitchen and bathroom floors.

I hate cleaning!!!!!!!

The Builder has run Henry the Vacuum Cleaner through the house a couple of times, cleaned the fireplace, put in a couple of replacement light switches, fed and watered the chickens and ducks each day and kept the bread, milk and wine supplies topped up.

We have done a bit of gentle gardening, when the weather has permitted.

Then at lunchtime we have poured a glass of wine and settled down for an afternoon and evening of TV watching, drinking wine, eating food and dozing.

So definitely a routine.  But I am not sure that it is ideal to treat every afternoon as though it were a Sunday afternoon. It's very pleasant and I have been enjoying the afternoon telly offerings that I haven't had the opportunity to watch before.  But it does seem to be a bit of a waste of time and the dozing means that I am not sleeping all that well at night. I tend to listen to the BBC World Service when I am wakeful overnight, so I am very well informed about all sorts of things - but also I am a bit tired.

I think when we come back from Scotland next weekend, I might need to find something else to do on weekday afternoons. Plus, I really don't want to spend all my mornings cleaning.  A bit less cleaning, a bit more something more interesting - perhaps like Japanese practice. Maybe the weather will improve enough so that we can spend the afternoons out doing useful things in the garden.  I think I need a new routine!

It's The Builder's birthday today.  Happy birthday to him!

An evening rainbow - or two

A spring morning

Catkins

Rosemary in bloom