Over this weekend me and Spadger decided we would spend one evening a week using a little power as possible. So candles rather than lights, trying to have a meal of leftovers, no washing machine, no music player, no DVDs. Last night was our first attempt.
Given that we made this decision on the way home on Sunday we were less than prepared for it. However it didn't go badly. This is what we did.
We agreed that the kitchen was exempt from the rules as we had not prepared any food, bread needed making and I needed to make a cake for visiting friends tonight. The living room was lit by candles all night and we only lit as many as we needed. Spadger played banjo most of the night (no change there) which requires no power. Even his metronome is clockwork. I obviously spent most of the night in the kitchen but when I was free I tried reading for a bit. There wasn't quite enough light for that so I opted for knitting. The cardigan I'm making for Spadger is just garter stitch so I can do that in the dark! When we needed to go upstairs to the bathroom we took a candle in a jar. We got ready for bed by candle light.
All in all it was lovely. Definitely more planning needed for next week but I really feel that we can manage this every week. It was nice to not have any noise (apart from the banjo of course). I found that I was sleepy at a good time because there was no bright light to keep me up. At one point I did struggle to think of what to do but that is mostly because I need to figure out a candle arrangement that I can spin by :o) Now I know going without much power one evening a week isn't going to make much difference either to our bills or the world in general. Even less so in summer. But it felt good and I think that is the important thing.
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That's a really good idea - I'm tempted to copy :)
ReplyDeleteWe nearly had an evening involuntarily without power a couple of weeks ago - I think we'd have been fine for most things except for lighting, and that had a knock-on effect for entertainment. Like with you guys, my chap would happily have made music all evening but I don't know if it would have been light enough for me to read or craft by.
I like the idea of doing it regularly - and voluntarily - though. It's the type of thing we'd do on holiday to jolt ourselves out of our normal routines - might as well do that jolting at home too!
Spadger? You must divulge....
ReplyDeleteCandle-light is beautiful and this sounds like a lovely idea, even for people who are not doing it for similar reasons to youselves. We spend too much time with technology and not enough time with our significant other.
I'm a big culprit of having the TV always on (I like the noise of company during the day) and immersing myself online as a distraction to the nausea, BUT when baby Davy makes an appearance, I fully intend to spend much less time with these distractions.
There will be a home-cooked meal every evening, I'll finally put into practise my desire to learn to bake and will spend time taking him out in his pram every day. We'll have lots of fun feeding ducks and learning about flowers and trees when he's older.
When you've someone else to think about, its important to make sure, they have a full life and don't just sit vegetating in front of the TV.
Major kudos to the both of you for your choice of lifestyle. A lot of people could learn a lot even by adapting small parts and incorporating them into their lives.
We used to do this - how much life changes as your children grow up! You've inspired me, I'm going to try and get a day a week back to peace, quiet and radio silence!
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