Early bird?

Now, one would think that when a person runs a guest house, that said person would be a natural early bird, yes? ‘No!’ however is the resounding answer as far as I am concerned. Hubby is a natural early riser; but I am far from one. Of course I have now trained myself to wake up early whenever I am on morning duty, which is just about everyday. However, my natural inclination is to sleep in if I can.

Sunrise over Windermere. (Photo courtesy of www.cumbriaphoto.co.uk.)

With the longer summer days, it is the early morning light that wakes me up as well as my now well-honed skill of opening my eyes just before the alarm rings. Hubby gets up between 30-60 minutes before I do to take the dogs out and carry out some final chores that need to be completed before breakfast time. When it is time, I follow suit by jumping out of bed and heading to the kitchen to begin cooking for our guests. Thankfully I am not someone who wakes up slowly; rather, I am a get up and go kind of person, and can be dressed and ready for action in less than a couple of minutes.

I have always been a night owl. Mum, who worked hard and burned the candle at both ends, used to catch me staying up late and always chided me for not going to bed when I really should have done so. Even as a young child, I would pretend to observe the lights off rule before switching on the torch under my blanket and reading my novel for as long as I could before Mum came up to check on me. As a result, it was always a struggle to get up at 5:30 the next morning in order to get ready for school since the school bus came to pick me up around 6:15 am.

I am still a night owl and Hubby despairs of me. He seldom reads before going to sleep, but I like to read at bedtime. The problem is that I then get engrossed in the story and want to continue to read until sleep claims me. His problem is that the light sometimes wakes him up. I think I might have to see about investing in one of those lights that attach to a book so that I can read without disturbing his sleep.

Working in a guest house means that I get precious little time to myself, which in turn means that I do not have much opportunity to curl up with a book and lose myself in it. Thus the time I have to call my own only comes after I have finished all my duties, which is always well after 11 pm and often later. The last two nights, for instance, saw me finally shutting up shop at 1 am, even though I still had lots to do. However, I was so tired by then that I could feel my head going a little woozy, which is not exactly a great way to concentrate on accounting details for my VAT returns.

As the years pass, I have found myself no more a reformed early bird than I was as a child. I am beginning to believe that one is either an early bird or a night owl. It is not possible to be both naturally, although one can discipline oneself into changing one’s innate inclinations. As for me, I shall continue to be a night owl but will work to order as required. Then, when it is my holiday time, I shall snooze in bed for as long as I wish.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . . Aaaaahhhh . . . bliss!

An image of an original painting by Alfred Cooper: ‘Morning Mist, Windermere’. (Information and photo courtesy of www.heatoncooper.co.uk/section.php?xSec=212&xPage=1.)

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