I followed Beatrix Potter's routine (cosy day in English Countryside)

Hello, it's Ruby, and in today's video, I'm going to be living a day like Beatrix Potter, who of course is the author of the Peter Rabbit books, and she's one of my favorite historical figures. I just think her life is so interesting. She grew up in London, but was always fascinated by the natural world, and loved the Lake District, where her family would go on holiday. So later in her life, she moved to the Lake District, and she ended up buying loads of land and donating it to the National Trust so that it could be preserved. Now, the routine I'm following isn't precise. I couldn't find, like, a precise routine that she had, but I read through her letters, and this day is based loosely on those. Of course, it did start with breakfast. I had porridge, and I had jam on toast. And there is one letter from 1942 where she says that she has porridge for breakfast. Quote, "I am not coughing now, so I shall save your lemon juice till next winter and sprinkle the dextrose on my breakfast porridge." You're wanting to go, too, aren't you? Um, she did always start the day, though, by doing, um, odd, like, chores. Um, she lived on a working farm, and she kept chickens, and so she would go and feed the chickens every morning. Such a beautiful, fresh morning today. Like, this is the first morning, like, it really, really feels like spring. The chickens are so excited. Look at them. Hello. Hello. We've got two eggs today. Not lots, but two. Got two eggs. They're both very mucky, though. Like, they're very mucky. This is the notebook for the next book I'm working on, and that's... And this is what I'm gonna be writing today as part of this video. I'm about 3,000 words in, and I started it four days ago, and today I'm going to try and write maybe another 2,000 words. But first, I'm gonna do some planning, um, because I'm trying to do, like, a very rough first draft, just all handwritten. Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated her books, so she did, did these most incredible watercolor paintings, which were anatomically correct for the animal she was writing about. So she wrote 23 of these animal tales, which are the ones that so many of us remember fondly from childhood. Now, Beatrix Potter lived until 1943, but most of her books were written between 1902 and 1913, which was her most productive period of writing. So I've handwritten a whole load of that, and also done some plot planning. When I was reading Beatrix Potter's letters, um, she did speak about going on morning walks, and so I'm going to go on a very short walk now, and then I will come back, and I'm gonna do some more writing. So far, I've just had a perfect day. This is, like, my ideal day: walking, writing, feeding the chickens. Um, like, I don't know. It's, it's great. It's very simple. Aren't they lovely? Look how pretty. I'm back from my walk, and I'm now gonna type up a chapter. Um, I've been doing handwriting this morning, of course, but my book is typed. I also don't think I've ever been this excited about a writing project. Like, this just... I'm loving every single moment of this, and it feels very refreshing, 'cause I've, not fell out of love with writing when I was writing my last book, but I felt a lot of self-doubt. I'm feeling so much more positive about it, and it's really lovely to feel so positive. Anyway, let's write the next chapter. I'm gonna- I've got a call in 20 minutes, 25 minutes, so I'm gonna try and write maybe, like, 400 or 500 words. After my call, I made some lunch. I had scrambled tofu, because I don't eat eggs, but Beatrix Potter kept chickens and did eat eggs, so this felt like a perfect lunch. And it was so sunny, so I did eat this outside. The thinking is here, Beatrix Potter loved to be in nature, and she loved to be outdoors, and so I imagine that she would've enjoyed a meal outside.So again, her letters indicate that she did go on lots of walks. I didn't go on a really long walk this morning, so instead, I went on a long two-hour walk in the afternoon. I didn't listen to music. I didn't do anything during this walk apart from just observe the natural world around me, because Beatrix Potter was fascinated by nature, and she kept meticulous field note journals when she was young. She did research into mushrooms and mycology, and her drawings of animals are, of course, anatomically precise. And so it felt only appropriate to be very receptive to the natural world on this walk. And then later, after my walk, I sat outside, and I did some nature journaling. A couple of springs ago, I kept a very meticulous nature journal every day, and it's such a wonderful practice to do. I would highly recommend. So I basically documented some details from my walk, and I find that nature journaling encourages you to be more receptive to, uh, the natural world around you. Of course, Beatrix Potter also did do a lot of watercolor painting, and so this did feel very appropriate. This wasn't, however, the only thing that Beatrix Potter did. Even though she was a writer and she was a painter, she also, uh, was very involved in her local community in the Lake District. So she lived on a working farm, and even though she didn't do the more laborious farm work, she also, in her letters, always makes a point of how much there is to do and how busy she is and the way that she is very involved in the local community. I, however, did do a little bit more writing. And then again, according to her letters, we know that she wrote letters after supper, and this would be the time that she'd sit and reply to letters. This is the Victorian, the Edwardian period. Like, people are sending lots of letters. It's the way that people communicate remotely. Um, so there would be, like, normal correspondence here, but also, she famously wrote letter stories to children. Okay, this is going everywhere. I might have to forgo the fountain pen and use a different pen just because I don't want to get it all over my nightgown. And so I decided to write a story in a letter for the children of some family friends. I just wrote this as two pages, and it was honestly so much fun to do. Thankfully, I have an Edwardian ink blotter. I can never believe how well these work. Mine looks very rough around the edges as well from where I've slotted the blotting paper in. Okay, I've just written this letter. I'm gonna post it early tomorrow morning. Done. That was really, really fun. Um, and I really wanna do stuff like this more often. Funnily enough, I have actually been writing a serialized story for some family friends, and it's been so fun. I read it to them every week. And, um, I'd never written in that way before, like, actually writing for somebody specifically. But a lot of children's stories came out of, uh, like, stories that were written for one particular person. And actually, there is this one letter where she says, "I hope I shall write Winifred lots of letters. It is much more satisfactory to address a real live child. I often think that that was the secret of the success of Peter Rabbit. It was written to a child, not made toward her." But anyway, thank you for joining me on this day living like Beatrix Potter. It was actually genuinely so similar to my normal daily routine, but it was also basically my perfect day. I very much enjoyed this, and I hope you have a wonderful day.