Delighted to discover that my 2024 #bedtimeroutine is trending on TikTok with the young folk, or so I read somewhere online this morning… Earlier and earlier to bed for me – sometimes I’m even off by a mind-boggling 10pm, and yes I’ve had a Drowsy sleep mask for over a year now! – with at least a 90 minute prep time which for me now includes half an hour stretching or even an actual yoga session (I bit the bullet and signed up to @inversioness and haven’t looked back!); foot massage with Botanicls Foot Rescue Balm (much better than either a cream or an oil) with some reflexology points worked in; lower back massage with this incredible deep tissue massage gun from Boots and then face and neck with a Gua Sha tool, I use the Green People one (sometimes while watching whatever it is we are watching (most recently it’s ShoGun which am feeling a bit 50-50 on, so might not finish.)

An aside: what I have watched recently and would highly recommend is the fantastical Poor Things (free on Disney Plus) and beautifully made Frida animation/documentary (2024) on Amazon Prime. All the bits and pieces I knew about her life properly covered and anchored into a bedazzling bittersweet whole. An incredible woman. And we re-watched Dune in preparation for Dune 2, re-reading too.

But back to sleep. I need a good 8-9 hours to feel rested and ready to go and on the whole I don’t have trouble sleeping but as a light sleeper a solid uninterrupted stretch is not always guaranteed. Coming out of this winter and its additional sheep related duties I have plunged into a few weeks of seasonal fatigue as we make the one step forward, two steps backward transition to Spring (it’s currently blowing a rainy gale with intermittent glorious sunshine and rainbows, see picture above taken just now!).

And so I fell prey to the super hype surrounding a smart ring that tracks your everything – sleep, steps, heart rate, stress levels, readiness, resilience – and tells you when to rest. Which, living where we are there is always something and more to do and I often find myself doing ‘just one more thing’ and winding up over exhausted. The ring I have to say is brilliant and works extremely well for my mental set-up. But it’s not cheap plus US import duty to pay. So I found a second-hand one on eBay – works great, but the battery drains more quickly now as has been used – and bit the bullet on the subscription.

Adding to the health & well-being things I now subscribe to … in case you are interested:

Oura Ring
Ness Baker Playbook Yoga App
Haskapa berry powder
Raw Beauty vegan collagen

Gosh, I haven’t even started on the sheep nor got to the nails. In short, our aim is to regeneratively graze the field area that came with the steading with the help of our small flock of Shetland mix sheep and work towards lessening the amount of hay we need to get in over winter while promoting bio-diversity. The main part of our field we will be slowly re-integrating so we can rotate with resting and grazing a smaller amount of livestock. Feeling our way and slowly learning as we go…

And finally nails… not big on their maintenance in all honesty. Occasionally I paint them but really just leave them short and nude. But then I got sucked into a beauty columnist’s recommendation for a strengthening polish you can paint on and gives a nice nude slightly pinky finish. So I got it and painted on. And painted on each week only to find zero perceptible improvement and only extra dryness. Definitely disappointed and now fixed on finding something that does do go things – so I am trying out the Botanicals Nail, Cuticle & Hand Serum – fingers/nails crossed.

So much more I want to share – like my first weaving commission, the beauty products & routine that got me through the winter better than ever before eliciting lots of nice compliments on my skin, my new daily outfit/uniform… and why this deluge you ask, well that will be because we finally made some moves to massively improve our internet connection… man, we move slow bleurgh. Til next time.

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