So: this will not be a very good blog. It’s a first. The first of a new regime, and will appear on Friday morning. It is the first  of the new Every Friday Morning blogs. There will be a picture, as always, and I will post it after yoga on Friday morning. Another new thing I will be doing is yoga on Friday morning when the class is not in session – in the school holidays. I’m expanding my good habits.

My brother told me not to write about writing. Nobody’s interested except other writers, which is limiting. Sorry Nick , I won’t do it again. But this week, as it’s a first of many, it is necessary. Also you may be wrong. I’m thinking I should delete this paragraph, but I’m not going to. Though I should.

I have chosen a picture of the house where we go every month to count birds. It’s a BTO water bird survey, and we were there on Sunday. It was misty, and the mist was like dust, and somehow the house rose out of the dust, glowed in the dust. We counted birds on the lake – fifty coots, among others – and the house floated there above us, ethereal, ephemeral.

I am vaguely researching my grandfather’s life, and he lived in a house in Ireland that was, and is, rather like this house. This research is a bit stop and start, but when I found a book that he won as a prize when he was twelve my interest was rekindled. He was at a school in Upper Walmer in Kent at the time, which is rather odd, as he lived in Ireland.

The reason for the new regime is a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. Like all these things, it is about to change my life! Well, why not? It advocates clever ideas like attaching a new habit to something you do already. So: I go to yoga every Friday morning, and now publishing this blog will be attached to that. And I promise it will get more interesting. I could even take requests. Another great idea is starting a new habit for two minutes only. It doesn’t quite work for this blog, as it takes longer than two minutes, but it might work for a daily yoga practice. I plan to practice yoga every weekday morning when I get up. For two minutes. I make Louise a cup of tea (a habit I already have) and before I shower I do two minutes of yoga. How can it not work?

I’ve now completed two days of two minute yoga, as well as my regular yoga class. I’ve also been into town in the rain and not had a cup of coffee. I’ve started a savings pot called coffee and cake and added £7 and I’m at home drinking coffee (free, sort of!) and writing this. Another atomic habit.

It’s probably time to stop going on about this new regime. It’s not this week that counts, this week is easy. It’s all the weeks that follow that really count. And it may well take some time before I can say I’ve cracked it. I recently paid for a yoga app and undertook a yoga challenge and carried it out completely – 30 days and I didn’t miss one. That was over a month ago and I haven’t looked at the app since. This new system promises to be different. We’ll see.

The main thing to remember is that it is November. November is my lowest month. Does that mean starting something now increases the chance of success or is it just something I’m doing to drag me through the darkest month of the year, and when the month is done, so are the new habits? I hope not.