A Day in My Life...

Given that I only seem able to post once a week lately and when I do it's a condensed version of the entire week in one post, inspired by Christina's post here, I thought it might be fun to ring the changes and give you a condensed version of my average day instead... not that there is ever an average day around these parts. Of course there is a chance I'll bore the pants off you and you'll never come back, but I'll take that risk because I always enjoy reading about other people's daily routines but maybe I'm just nosey! So this was yesterday...

• 6.00 am - the alarm goes and although I usually don't mind an early start to the day, often waking long before the alarm, for some reason I want to turn over and snooze for another hour. It may have had something to do with staying up late last night to finish my latest book. The Ashes of London  an historical thriller set in the times of the Great Fire. I found the descriptions of London after the fire interesting even if the plot wasn't terribly engaging at times, so enjoyed it overall... enough to stay up late to finish it anyway.
• 6.15 am - Old clothes are on and I'm out walking the dog. It is damp, cold and drizzling and feels distinctly autumnal considering it is still early August. I don't let Hector off his lead this morning because I can't be bothered with chasing him if he runs away which he tends to do. He is far more interested in other people and their dogs than he is in me. As it happens we didn't see anyone else out.
• 7.00 am - Back home and Stewart has made a pot of tea so I pour a mug before heading up to the shower. I don't take the tea in the shower with me!
• 7.20 am - I drive Stewart to the station, come home and have a second mug of tea whilst looking through a contract for a new teaching job in September.

• 8.00 am - I make my breakfast. The oats have been soaked the night before with some mixed seeds, raisins and cinnamon. I just have to stir in some fruit (grated apple, grapes and banana) and yogurt. I savour it whilst reading through some favourite blogs. I then spend half an hour trying to learn lines for a play I'm going to be in this October... I've got a lot to learn. But because I'm reading out loud it gets the dog over excited and he starts acting stupid, jumping all over the place and barking so I give up!

• 9.15 am - I head out to deliver cheese scones and apple cake to the local coffee shop. I made them on Monday and have frozen them so they can use them as required. They still have a lot left from last week, so didn't neeed as much as usual. From there I go on to the funeral of one of our Embroiderers' Guild branch members. As far as these things go it was a lovely service with beautiful singing from the choir she used to sing with but sad too. And as always there were interesting things about her we never knew. Half way through the service I regreted the second mug of tea though! I stopped off at the bank and the supermarket on the way home.

• 12.30 pm - Back home, I decide that it feels like soup weather, so raid the fridge and find an onion, a chilli, a sweet potato, a butternut squash and a handful of carrots with which I make an orange soup (as opposed to green soup) It took longer than I thought so ended up eating lunch quite late but it made several portions so there is plenty for the rest of the week. I added a splash of creme fraiche and some chives so it would make a pretty photo for Intagram. I also had my eye on a lone cheese scone that was left but youngest son snaffled it whilst I was on the phone to my Mum so I had toast instead.

• 2.30 pm - I finish off a birthday cake order that came in at the last minute on Sunday. I made the cake on Monday but it needed icing and decorating. I always think these things will take about half hour when in fact it was more like an hour and a half. I'll never get rich making cakes at the hourly rate I'm working for but the customer was pleased.
• 4.00 pm - I make a cup of tea and spend an hour answering emails and doing some planning for various classes I've got starting in the autumn, ignoring the fact I'm feeling a bit sick... I may have eaten a few too many chocolate buttons and licked too many spoons... possibly.
• 5.00 pm - it  is time to walk Hector again. We both get very wet... the joys of owning a dog!

• 6.00 pm - Back home I change into dry clothes and get the dinner prepared ready to cook later and then spend more time on sorting out the admin etc for my classes. I'm determined by the time September arrives I'm going to be organised and on top of the work... you heard it here first!.
• 7.30 pm - I collect Stewart from the station and drive home and cook the dinner. We have smoked haddock fishcakes on a bed of sauted greens with a curried mayonnaise sauce. It was met with approval all round but then I don't think they would dare complain!

• 8.15 pm - Dinner is finished and the men have washed up so I retire to the sofa with another cup of tea. I consider knitting as I have just started a new sweater called "Hut 8" from Eden Cottage Yarns. The yarn is a lovely mixture of wool with silk but it is only four ply so it may take me a while. I blame Celia who was wearing a beautiful golden version of this cardigan the last time we met. At least it is knitted in the round so there will be no sewing up. But instead I work on my rag rug which has been put aside for several weeks. I hope to be teaching a rag rugging class later this year so it will be good to have something finished. It's also on my 60 x 60 list as something I have never done before.

• 10.45 pm - after watching the latest drama on TV followed by the news it is time to head to bed and choose a new book to start reading. I pick up The Light Between Oceans which I think I'm going to enjoy but I only manage one chapter before falling asleep!