Day 123 - Your bed

 YOUR BED

Prompt - Your Bed : Describe where you sleep each night

Having a comfy welcoming bed has always been important, but perhaps even more so over the past year of lockdowns and restrictions and health worries.  There's a danger that sticking with established routines can lead to boredom, while not have any structure can feel chaotic, so hitting the middle ground is important.  Trying to find ways to break up the day, shuffle things around, has not always been easy in these times.  But having a bed routine feels important, a cocoon of safety and comfort in an uncertain environment

I am, buy most standards I guess, a late-to-bedder.  There was a time, many years ago, when I could make myself a morning person.  Partly from necessity, as I had to earn a living, partly from self motivation, specifically during the period when I could often be found in a gym at seven in the morning.  Now, firmly and happily retired, there is no pressure for either.  And the occasional early mornings I had before the first lockdown have vanished too.  For early Fringe shows, for appointments associated with my volunteering work, for getting in practice walks to prepare my body for Kiltwalk.  Only the latter came up in 2020, and never really caught on in my new life.  

So bedtime is generally around midnight, and I will read a book until my eyes are closing.  Meaning a good bedside light is essential.  

Sleep (hopefully).  Waken when my body is ready (hopefully).  The shock of an alarm has become another distant memory.  Get the hot drinks - lemon, honey and ginger - and return to bed.  Read, check social media, check overnight sports results (I am following NHL matches), drink the drink, have a hug, get up.  At nine.  Or ten.  Or whenever.  

That regime would only be possible in a place where I feel happy.  It's a bright room, plenty of spce to move around the bed, two decent sized windows, mirrored wardrobes along one wall adding to the feeling of space and light.  A few bits of furniture against the walls, the bed dominates, taking up most of the space between the windows.  A king size (we're both tall), wooden frame, slatted base, slanted backrest, well sprung mattress with different levels of support on either side (medium for her, firm for me), three pillows apiece, light duvet.  The walls are pale grey, ceiling white and carpet green, wooden doors to hallway and en suite.  White venetian blinds on the windows, looking out on to a tall tree and the greenery of the cemetery, a war memorial with white celtic cross down below.  Pictures on the walls (including one of us as a much younger couple, usually discretely hidden behind the door - who wants to be constantly reminded of how they used to look?), books on one shelf, a the usual bedroom clutter on each bedside cabinet.  Cosy, friendly.  And that door stays open.  The cat likes to sleep on me sometimes!

A happy place.

The haven at the end of days

A place that reaches out and says

Come on in and rest your head

There's nowhere betters your own bed

A room for peace and calm and sleep

To give no need for counting sheep

Read until you'll read no more

Until unwound you droop and snore

Wake up in your warming berth

There is no better spot on earth