This week, has been a week of tasks to do, none exciting but all useful, including a car repair, redecorating the dining room and an eye test. It was simply one of those weeks focused on getting the to do list ticked off.

We unexpectedly redecorated our dining room, although dining room is a bit of a misnomer as we don’t eat in here, its the adult room, with sofa, tv, work desk etc.. Having finished the games room we were planning our next project and decided to focus on the dining room. However, we had a large sofa bed we wanted to replace as despite being great quality it did overwhelm the room. We put it on a local Facebook page, for collection only and within a few hours it had been sold and collected, which fast forwarded our plans, including buying a replacement sofa, which in these Covid times, we have done online, finding the right size, colour and shape with a quick delivery. It arrives late next week, so fingers crossed it is as we hope. I can’t believe we’ve bought such a key item without seeing or testing it. The paint colour was quickly chosen thanks to the Dulux app and despite being a bit worried that it was a darker colour than normal, it looks amazing and we are really pleased with it. I will collect some more accessories and a plant or two in the coming weeks, but I’m impressed how much we have managed to do in a week.

Away from the decorating these are some of the things I’ve enjoyed this week.

I’ve embraced autumn.

Whilst I’ve been mourning the end of summer for the past few weeks, I’m now trying to embrace autumn with delicious warming meals, warm cosy clothes and a little seasonal reading. I always return to Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance, a day book of comfort and joy for inspiration and her topics this week were perfect for life as it is at present. I’ve had this book for over 20 years now and it is as perfect now as it was then. I also popped into one of my favourite indie bookshops on Thursday when I was in a neighbouring town and picked up Ten Poems for Autumn, its a lovely mix and does make the season a little more pleasurable.

I’ve been on the seafront at dawn for the past 3 days, a mix of walking to work and my runs. The dawns have been quite spectacular, as the sea has been so calm and still, its been mild and the colours have just danced in the sky.

I helped Little Man do a Zoom Scouts meeting

Although Scouts was due to start IRL this week, a delayed risk assessment meant that it was done online in the guise of an escape room. I was impressed by the organisation and enjoyed participating with Little Man.

I’ve lunched al fresco

On Thursday, I met my cousin in a town mid way of our homes. We had planned lunch and we found a café with a sheltered courtyard, ideal for an al fresco lunch. Al fresco eating in the summer is enjoyable and preferable but its another thing we need to adapt to in the autumn and coming winter. I was well layered up and with a nice warming bowl of soup it was lovely to be outside in a pretty location. We were lucky it was a mild day, it’ll be interesting to see how long we can continue this style of eating out as the seasons continue.

I’ve had an eye test

I’m not very good at keeping up with eye tests but I’ve noticed my eyesight deteriorating over the past months, too much time in front of a screen, not being able to read the back of food packets, needing good light to read etc. As expected I need glasses and these have been ordered (as an aside, I can’t believe how expensive they are!) However, unexpectedly, I also have a referral to the eye hospital. I’ve not googled too much of what the optician explained in case it got a bit scary, but its to do with the eye pressure and may help explain the increased number of headaches I’ve been suffering with.

I did more Christmas shopping

It was just the one item this week, but I was so pleased to find the metal Emma Bridgewater Roses tin in Waitrose when I popped in on Thursday. My son’s new school is next to the shop, so its very handy to have a quick browse when I’m there. The tin is so pretty and tbh its all about the tin rather than the chocolates for me although I think my family will disagree!

Hope everyone has a great week.