Hi, I’m Annika. I’m a Brit abroad and a French and Italian to English translator and occasional interpreter.

I was born in England but I’ve lived in either Belgium or France for the last 15 years.

I also juggle a translation and interpreting business with running a smallholding. There’s never a dull moment on the farm!

It’s the middle of autumn here right now and while most of the harvesting is thankfully finished, there’s still a lot of preserving left to be done. Barely a day goes by that I’m not juicing, jamming, fermenting or dehydrating. My days are generally a mixture of translating and farm work. I occasionally go into local companies as an on-site interpreter, but it’s normally no more than three days a month.

6:30 am

I’m not really a morning person so it takes me a good half hour to feel even vaguely human. It’s also suddenly become very dark and cold in the mornings and it can be tempting to head straight back to bed!

I keep my yoga mat in a visible spot in the hope I’ll feel inspired while I’m waiting for my giant vat of coffee to be ready (probably a 50/50 chance of it happening). Once I’m feeling a bit more alive, I’ll make myself a bowl of porridge using whatever’s come in from the garden the day before – right now it’s raspberries and walnuts – and sit down at my desk. I usually have to share my space with at least one cat, currently it’s a kitten who’s obsessed with trying to pull my glasses off.

I try and do a couple of brain-training exercises every morning to work on my memory. As I only do occasional interpreting jobs, it’s one of the areas I feel I need the most help with. I also check for any emails that have come in overnight and have a quick scroll on LinkedIn to catch up on any language industry goss.

8 am

With a few essential tasks dealt with, I can pull on my wellies and head out to feed the animals. The sheep are still out in the fields, so I only have the chickens and rabbits to take care of. The chickens are especially appreciative of my work-from-home lifestyle as it means they get to roam freely on most days. They just get a bit of grain and some kitchen scraps to keep them entertained.

The rabbits are still outside in their house-on-wheels and we move them to new grass every morning and evening. We’re enjoying the last few weeks of low-maintenance animal rearing before everyone starts coming inside for the winter.

9 am

After a bit of pottering (washing up, tidying up, putting a wash on, etc.), I finally manage to sit down at my desk and start my workday. I do mostly legal and technical translation and I have a couple of certificates that are waiting to be translated.

11 am

We’ve very much adopted the French way of life and have our main meal for lunch (without the red wine, sadly). I don’t have any pressing deadlines today, so I pop a rack of lamb in the oven and peel a few potatoes to go with it. There’s also a giant courgette (or maybe it’s more of a marrow?) that’s been in the cellar for about 2 months and it really needs my attention. It’s a meal that costs practically nothing and one of the benefits of this way of life.

11:30 am

While I’m waiting for everything to cook, I revise my morning’s work.

12 – 2 pm

Lunch! And possibly a cheeky powernap.

2 pm

I get started on a new project for a regular client that should take about a week to finish. It’s another legal document but doesn’t need to be certified. I enjoy these calm periods in my day when I can just shut my office door, stick in my headphones and power through a document.

5:30 pm

I switch off my computer and head back into the kitchen to make a quick batch of quince jelly before it gets too dark. It’s been a bumper year for fruit and I need to make at least one recipe a day or the quantity of rotting fruit quickly gets out of hand!

7:30 pm

I’m back outside at last to put the chickens to bed, collect the eggs and move the rabbits onto new grass for their evening meal. We’re also bringing the sheep inside tonight as they’re moving to fresh pasture in the morning. They’re surprisingly well-behaved and come straight inside with only a passing nibble on some windfall apples we’ve forgotten to clear. They would do literally anything for a rotten apple but they do go a bit loopy from the sugar, so we limit their intake. With everyone tucked up for the night, we head back inside to get a few more jobs done before bed.

8:30 pm

I schedule a few email responses for the morning (I never reply after 7pm), then label my jelly and set it aside to cool while I make a quick apple cake to use up my glut of eggs.

9 pm

Dinner is some leftover soup from the night before with some bread and cheese. We discuss our plans for the next day and make a list of jobs we want to get done. There are fruit trees to be pruned and a batch of homemade beer that needs to be bottled (only the hops are homegrown). The weekend is set to be busy with social activities, so we need to plan ahead. We’re also heading into the last few sunny days before a week of fairly consistent rain, so any last gardening jobs need doing before the ground gets too muddy.

9:30 pm

After a nice hot shower, I sit down to read a couple of chapters of the book I’ve been itching to open all day. We never got round to installing a TV in this house so reading is our favourite evening activity. Of course, we’re not adverse to a bit of Netflix on the laptop occasionally, nobody’s perfect!

10:30 pm

Having promised myself I would definitely be in bed by 10 pm, I finally fall into bed at 11. Oh well.

Winter is just around the corner. Hopefully there are lots of early nights to come. It’s been a busy year and the to-do list never seems to get any shorter!

Two of the more challenging aspects of this lifestyle are having to manage and motivate myself. Having my translation business running in the background helps to give me structure and routine. I have to organise my time to deliver projects and factor in the unpredictability of farm work into my deadlines. It’s not always easy but we make it work (more or less!).

www.linkedin.com/in/annika-tisserant-traduction