Summer routine depends on the weather. Today is gorgeous for working in the garden.
The windows are open and if you live in the South , you know what a gift that is!
Here is what writers do from a blog called
C.S. Lewis
We now settled into a routine
which has ever since served in my mind as an archetype, so that what I
still mean when I speak of a "normal" day (and lament that normal days
are so rare) is a day of the Bookham pattern. For if I could please
myself I would always live as I lived there. I would choose always to
breakfast at exactly eight and to be at my desk by nine, there to read
or write till one. If a cup of good tea or coffee could be brought me
about eleven, so much the better. A step or so out of doors for a pint
of beer would not do quite so well; for a man does not want to drink
alone and if you meet a friend in the taproom the break is likely to be
extended beyond its ten minutes. At one precisely lunch should be on the
table; and by two at the latest I would be on the road. Not, except at
rare intervals, with a friend. Walking and talking are two very great
pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out
the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost
inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our
senses is concerned. The only friend to walk with is one (such as I
found, during the holidays, in Arthur) who so exactly shares your taste
for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a
nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared. The return
from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and
not later than a quarter past four. Tea should be taken in solitude, as
I took it as Bookham on those (happily numerous) occasions when Mrs.
Kirkpatrick was out; the Knock himself disdained this meal. For eating
and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably. Of course not all
books are suitable for mealtime reading. It would be a kind of blasphemy
to read poetry at table. What one wants is a gossipy, formless book
which can be opened anywhere. The ones I learned so to use at Bookham
were Boswell, and a translation of Herodotus, and Lang's History of English Literature. Tristram Shandy, Elia and the Anatomy of Melancholy
are all good for the same purpose. At five a man should be at work
again, and at it till seven. Then, at the evening meal and after, comes
the time for talk, or, failing that, for lighter reading; and unless you
are making a night of it with your cronies (and at Bookham I had none)
there is no reason why you should ever be in bed later than eleven. But
when is a man to write his letters? You forget that I am describing the
happy life I led with Kirk or the ideal life I would live now if I
could. And it is essential of the happy life that a man would have
almost no mail and never dread the postman's knock.
Thanks Tonia, who is walking 5 miles like Lewis did.
2 comments:
Enjoyed this so very much, Bonnie.
With gratitude for the refreshing break I just enjoyed in this warm little spot of yours,
Lesley
Like someone said in my comment box, wouldn't it be lovely to have your food and housework all prepared for you so that you could just write and walk and talk at whim? Ah....lovely thoughts. :)
(Love the wedding pictures, Bonnie!)
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