What!!!! What do you do?

This is the response we heard when we told a fellow Rotarian that we do not have a television ...we then proceeded to explain our little year long experiment and he became almost appoplectic...was amusing to say the least.
We thought we should clarify what we do do without tv or radio or electric lights especially in the evening. Wait for it ..........we light candles. fairly simple folks. Candles placed properly will give you plenty of light. Not as strong as electric light (you won't see dirt in corners until the daytime) but good light to do whatever by. We play board games especially scrabble.We talk.(novel idea I know). I write handwritten letters with real ink and exchange letters with a lady in Arkansas who also enjoys Victorian letter writing. She is much better at beautiful letter writing than I am .And I look forward to hearing from her.In fact she puts my letter in a larger envelope , my letter is in actual Victorian wrapping and she even draws the post mark in according to what it would have looked like in 1865. She is very cool to do this. So that is what we do in our spare time
Actually the only appliance I miss is the radio.
But we really don't have time to watch tv. We keep ourselves busy puttering around. Our meals are enjoyed at a table with much conversation and generally(but not always) in the formal dining room. We are trying as best as we can, to while we are home here live as close to Victorian as we can. So regardless of the meal we do it as full service as we can. We linger over our meals when we have time to. And try to enjoy all the pleasures involved with good food and quiet conversation. People seem so rushed today and we are enjoying the calm. It is lovely when our Grandchildren come to visit how they also enjoy what we are doing and they insist that we eat in the formal dining room. They set the table and take great care to include knife rests and bread plates. It is very cool indeed. But I think they love the candle light the most in the dining room. It gives a peaceful glow and ambiance to the meal.Our Grandchildren have also learned they need a "traveller " to go into dark rooms with. A "traveller" being a candle holder with a handle. And it is funny to hear Zoe say" where is the traveller I need to go to ....." so she has learned to art of the "traveller" So in a nutshell that is some of the things we do without television, radio, lights...and it is lovely and quiet in our home ...see you soon.