Monday

Even though I no longer have to get up and struggle through rush hour traffic and public transport to work on a Monday morning, here is still something so depressing about Mondays.

There is something about Monday that just seems to glue your head to the pillow and a desperate denial sets in - noooo it can't be 8 o'clock already.

But Monday has rolled around yet again, and I admit quite freely that it was a real effort to get up and get going this morning. The only redeeming feature about it was the snow of yesterday had finally knocked off, but in place was a harsh biting wind that kept today's temperatures down at -5C all day.

Even though the weather was not particularly spring like, today was a day for spring cleaning.

Brendan hates sunny days because I get quite obssessive about clearing away the cobwebs and the dust of winter, he is just relieved that it is still too cold for me to get the paintbrushes out - repainting is my favourite sort of spring cleaning!

After a winter of wood fires next to our leather sofas they were looking very dry and undernourished, so they got a good clean, the debris in the seams and creases was cleared out, and they got a good quality leather food smeared all over them.

And they were not the only thing that got a bit of TLC today.

We bought some lovely old junk shop furniture to furnish our farmhouse, all lovely old oak, but that too needs a bit of feeding after the dry air of the wood fires all winter, so the bureau and the buffet had everything taken off them and a good clean then a bit of polishing with beeswax to nourish the wood.

Very satisfying, and that lovely beeswax scent throughout the house.