Tuesday 11 March 2014

Creatures of Habit

Since I married the farmer almost twenty one years ago one thing has remained totally constant - the times at which we eat our meals.
This has remained constant as far as the farmer is concerned throughout his life and I suspect it is true of many farming families.
When the breadwinner works from home and is often several fields away, doing something like ploughing a field, harvesting a crop, managing livestock, then he needs to know more or less exactly when to break off what he is doing and come indoors for a meal.

Our meals, set in stone, follow a pattern:  breakfast is at seven (and I don't mean five minutes past), lunch (our main meal of the day) is at half past twelve, tea is a five o'clock and our supper drink is at ten o'clock. 

At first I found this an odd arrangement because over the years, in my first marriage, meals had always been moveable feasts.   But now, after all this time, I find there is a certain logic behind this and it does split the day up nicely into neat portions.

This morning's 'neat portion' was exercise for the over sixties with friend W.   One hour's concentrated exercise - I suppose that by a young person's standard the format is gentle, but believe me marching on the spot with knees raised and arms swung does get a bit tiring after five minutes or so.   We come home having exercised most of the muscles in our bodies - and we feel better for it.

After lunch there is always the dog walk.   The moment I put my empty coffee cup on the table (every dog owner will recognise this) Tess appears at my side and fixes me with a stare.   If I need to go to the bathroom before the walk, she waits on the bottom step and stares at me as I come down the last few steps.

It is now half past seven in the evening - my first opportunity today to actually switch on the computer.   Still, all this activity is far better than sitting about wondering what to do.  Wouldn't you agree?

 

 

14 comments:

Tom Stephenson said...

Knees raised and arms swung... too energetic for me.

Terry and Linda said...

We are very regular also...Breakfast at 6:00 in the morning. Lunch right at Noon, and supper at 5:30 in the evening.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://handcraftedbyus.wordpress.com
♬♬♬ Happy Saint Patrick’s Day ♬♬♬

Anonymous said...

The meal times certainly make sense, though my mother always had difficulty in getting my father to leave tasks to come inside at meal times.
Also their seating at the table never wavered. in over fifty years! My husband and I sat in their places years ago for a joke, refusing to budge, and after their initial slight amusement they became quite agitated and insisted on sitting in their usual place.

Rachel Phillips said...

Breakfast at 6, dinner at 12 and tea at 5.30 for me too. If I don't get my dinner at 12 the whole day is wrong. (We heathens in the east say dinner not lunch!)

Heather said...

Oh I do agree Pat. I would hate to have nothing to do and usually have a few things lined up to keep me occupied when the chores are done. We still eat our main meal at about 7pm - a habit formed before my husband retired - but lunch and breakfast are often not so fixed.

John Going Gently said...

I never loved routines until we moved to trelawnyd
Dogs in particular require and demand routine

Cloudia said...

I do indeed agree. Yours is a praiseworthy life.


ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral

=^..^=

Dartford Warbler said...

The animals set our routines here, since the demands of going to work are no longer setting the pace.

Reader Wil said...

I also have three meals a day. My main meal or dinner is in the evening. I have coffee between 10am and 11 am. Coffee time is very important for me. My Australian SIL has learnt one Dutch expression: koffie drinken( drink coffee).I know that you call it elevenses.At least we had it when we were in the UK.

Arija said...

One man's meat is another man's poison. While the children were at school, we had to have regular meals but after that we were very flexible. Peter never got home before half past seven so our dinner was always at a very 'fashionable' hour'.

jinxxxygirl said...

Hubby leaves for work at 4am... he is not hungry then so i pack him a breakfast to eat when he's ready... I also pack him a lunch to eat when he's ready and i have supper ready for him when he comes home by 4pm...

I am usually happy with just my coffee in the morning... get hungry between 11am and noon then eat supper with him at 4pm........ If i get hungry early i'll have some oatmeal in the morning with coffee and then usually won't eat until he comes home...... Hugs! deb

Cro Magnon said...

Lunch and dinner are at set times here, and are always taken at table (and always with candle light at dinner). Breakfast is a bit different because I rise at 5am-ish, and Lady M much later.

The only advice I've ever given to my children, about their own children, was to always eat together around a table, and to read them a good bedtime story every night.

The Weaver of Grass said...

And here was me thinking that we were the only folk who had regular meals.

I do agree with Cro about meals round the table - very important in developing the art of conversation in children. Also bedtime stories - I read one to my son every night until he was quite old - long after he could read for himself.
Thanks for popping in.

Crafty Green Poet said...

activity is certainly good! As is a certain degree of routine, we always eat supper at 6pm during the working week. More flexible at the weekend. We have breakfast separately as the kitchen is too small for two sleepy people to use together,...