Happy Monday!

Schools are back this week and while parents of the country rejoice and people who hate summer rejoice because it’s nearly autumn, it’s time for me to knuckle down and and prepare for the darker days. Yes, this time of year I am a broken record about how much I dislike this time of year. The truth is that I do like autumn when the air is crisp and the days sunny, but I live in England, those crisp and sunny days are as rare as hen’s teeth. England generally, and my part of it in particular, does grey and damp really well not so much with the crisp and sunny! I could cope with the bad weather if the days were longer, I’m not good on eight hours of daylight. Right now is bad enough it gets dark at 8pm, by October, I’ll be a basket case.

Anyway, I’m going into this year with a better battle plan. Golden Hour and a bath before bedtime are requirements Sunday to Thursday, yoga every day and stricter meal planning are all happening this month. It’s boring but it works and it’ll get me through the winter with my mental health more or less in tact.

Practically, I’ve used my cost of living payment from work to buy a heated airer and a dehumidifier, if I’m limiting heating this year, I don’t want the flat to be damp and I want my clothes to dry in a day or two rather than a week.

In ‘tell me you’re middle aged without telling me’, last week, the lid of my magimix broke again. I’ve had it (a 4100) since I moved into the flat, in that time I’ve had four lids. It’s not me, it’s a design flaw, they crack in the same place, in the same pattern AND in the newer models, they’ve changed the design, but I’ve spent over £100 quid on replacement lids and when the fourth one finally bit the dust last week, I snapped and bought a new one. So this week I’ve bought a new food processor, a heated airer and a dehumidifier, other things I’ve bought this week include compost, a charger pack and an iron. If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room…

Plans for this week are mostly work. We have a new starter to the team and by the end of the week, everyone will be back in the office after the summer and then the final push towards year end starts.

Grace starts again this weekend, and we have a ton of work to do on the plot. So lots to do…

Have a good week.