When I lived at the farm being woken up by noises in the night was compounded by being woken up by the early morning sun. I remember one morning having been up a lot during the night sorting out the dogs and assorted wildlife that they had fun interacting with in the dead of night. After such a disrupted sleep I was feeling rather groggy the next morning.
‘Oh no’ I thought ‘not another day’ and groaned as I groped for the snooze button.
I tried to keep my eyes tightly shut and at the same time check that it was in fact daylight. The resulting squint twisted my face grotesquely but with good reason – I was staring straight into the early morning sun as, unobstructed by curtain or blind, it poured into my bedroom.
This had gone on for 5 years now and I marveled at my acquired ability to stay asleep in the full glare of the morning sun as it rose above the hills and shone obliquely onto my bed at an angle that ensured total whiteout at 6 a.m. if I so much as thought about opening my eyes. There was a time, many moons ago, when I couldn’t sleep without heavy curtains across the window – I would check before going to bed that not the slightest chink of light would enter the room come sunup. Otherwise I’d be up at the crack of dawn leaning chairs against the curtains to make sure they stayed exactly where I wanted them to keep out every particle of light.
Well, things sure were different after my son was born. I learnt to sleep sitting upright rocking the bassinet – although I’d never have believed anyone who told me they had done it. It’s one of those things that seem impossible till it happens to you. I can sleep lying across 3 moulded plastic chairs – those with a seat that’s shaped like a shallow bowl – despite the fact that there were sharp upright bits of plastic digging into my side at regular intervals. Yes, you probably guessed it, at an airport.
I thought I’d mastered the art of staring straight into someone’s face and appearing to be listening to their conversation while dropping off to sleep but ……. more practice is obviously needed with that one as a number of times lately I’ve heard the phrase ‘Am I boring you?’ (duh…YES!!) ‘You were asleep for a minute just then’. At least I had remained upright and could claim to have been ‘thinking about something else’ as a somewhat lame excuse for my apparent rudeness.
ANYWAYS……gosh that was a diversion and a half. Back to the ‘budget sheets’.
I did buy the cheap sheets and fashioned curtains out of them for the doors to the back garden in London.
Roses, Chelsea Flower Show Foxglove
brissiemaz 