IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE A PROJECT ON THE GO!

You probably realise that Mr. HCB and I like to keep ourselves busy.  Yesterday, while I went for my walk, Mr. HCB spent a couple of hours pottering in the garden and greenhouse and was pleased with what he accomplished - he still needs to order his seeds although when he has to do something like that, he tends to procrastinate - a lovely word that just means putting something off, but I like the word much better - and he does it so well, bless him!

I tend to be the opposite, but that often means that I start something, and then I start something else, and then something else - you get my drift - and then I have about six projects on the go all at once, which makes for a very messy lounge.  However, as no-one is visiting us at the moment, I can be as messy as I like.  At the moment, I have about six books near my chair, at different stages of reading - the weekend newspapers, knitting, balls of wool, bits and pieces torn out of newspapers and again, without taking a photograph, I’m sure you can imagine all that mess.  Well, it is a sort of organised mess.

Today is another wet, windy and wild day, so there will be no gardening for Mr. HCB - so is he ordering his seeds?  No, he is doing a jigsaw puzzle, one of his Wentworth Christmas ones and it’s called “The Puzzle that will Drive You Round the Bend”  - it’s a very difficult one although it only has 253 pieces!  I wonder if you can guess what my project is?

I can honestly say we are never bored - in between doing all those things, or half-doing them, we play the occasional game of Cribbage or Upwords - and Mr. HCB does lots of Sudoku puzzles, so we try and keep our brains active.  Oh, I nearly forgot, I also feed us both and cook all our meals from scratch and then Mr. HCB does the washing up afterwards - we do have a dishwasher, but he prefers to wash up, so I let him do it and I get on with one of my projects.

These can be tedious times for everyone, but we refuse to let them get us down - we only listen to the news once a day and then discuss it - but it’s not the prime subject of our conversations - thankfully.  We are happy, contented and most of all, we are well, and as we always tell our son when he rings to ask how we are, “We haven’t murdered one another yet” so we must be doing something right.  Thank goodness, after almost 53 years, we still love each other and get on well together but we also allow each other the space needed for creativity and leisure, which we believe is so important.  I remember my Grandma used to say, "The devil makes work for idle hands to do" - not much chance in this house!

“A great marriage is not when
     ‘the perfect couple’ comes together.
It’s when an ‘imperfect’ couple learns
     to enjoy their differences.”
Dave Meurer