Lockdown Blues

Hello there. I think it's been about a month since my last post. Things have been plodding along in roughly the same way. We're still going on our evening walks, although, now we're allowed to travel further afield in order to exercise, we've been driving out in Bridget.  It's a bit of a relief as we'd exhausted all the local public footpaths.  The weather has been helping as it's still glorious, although the garden could do with a jolly good downpour.
I had a few days last week when it all got a bit much. I was (still am) missing the girls terribly, that and worrying about R's job and the general fallout surrounding the Coronavirus sent me spinning into an whirl of anxiety. I know that compared to a lot of people we are very fortunate: everyone is safe and well; we are lucky enough to have enough food; a home with a garden and savings to tide us over if necessary. The problem is that logical thinking doesn't really help when everything seems overwhelming. Fortunately, this week seems a bit better; all the problems are still there but I'm coping okay.

Here then are the photos from the past month:

We have instituted a virtual 'Friday Night Family Quiz Night' on Zoom. We each take turns to host and it's the highlight of my week; it's so lovely to see everyone. More 'Wallaby hops' to anyone who can work out the Dingbat below (Incidentally, for those who didn't guess the quotation from my last post, it was the opening sentence from Jane Eyre). I hosted the first quiz and, being very low tech, did everything on paper. Everyone else, of course, has since done it all online; I'm going to have to up my game for this Friday!  

Finishing my 'Linus Shawl'. This was a really comforting knit - I do love a bit of garter stitch. You don't have to think until you get to the end of a row so it's perfect TV knitting. The yarn was bought at 'Unravel' in Farnham back in February. It seems weird to think about that now - all those people crowding together in an enclosed space.

 A local walk in the woods: 

Playing with clay again. I had fun making scoops and spoons. The tutor's instructions were to make something influenced by a piece of writing or poetry. I chose a line from T.S. Eliot's 'The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock' where he says 'I have measured out my life in coffee spoons'. A bit of a literal interpretation I know but I had fun!

Finishing my 'Quarantine Quilt' top:

 

It's not perfect by any means - my flying geese are a bit hit and miss - but doing a couple of squares a day helped to keep me sane. I ordered the wadding and backing fabric online and it is now all sandwiched together and waiting to be hand quilted.

 Low key celebrations for the 75th anniversary of VE Day. I made a VE day chocolate cake and dusted my Grandfather's medals. He fought in both world wars - lying about his age for the first one - and died when I was about 11. When my Dad was helping to clear out his flat, he asked me if  there was anything that I'd like to keep. I chose his medals as I knew how proud he was of them, and they've been on my wall ever since. Apologies for the photo being a little off kilter; the reflections made it difficult to see them from straight on. 

  Reading another of the books that E bought me for our 2nd hand Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It's a story, told over 7 nights, about a man who rose from the darkness of village life in rural India to become a rich entrepreneur. He also murdered his employer on the way! 

 Rhubarb and ginger jam:

 A walk and a picnic on the White Horse Trail in Pewsey. The views were stunning:

  Finishing my 'Rosemont Cardigan' by Hannah Fettig. It's currently blocking and will probably then have to be put away until the autumn as it's super cosy.

 Enjoying the scent of my Gertrude Jekyll rose:

 Making more kombucha. This is one of my scobys:

 Another walk and a picnic, this time starting at Jane Austen's house in Chawton:

 Although Jane is buried in Winchester cathedral, her mother and sister are buried in the graveyard of St. Nicholas' church in the village:

  A magnificent yew tree in the graveyard of another church on the walk:

Enjoying the wisteria - all the flowers have gone now.

 

  Tree bumblebees in the nest box. When I took the photo there were only 1 or 2 bees circling the box, there is now a dense drone cloud and they are quite intimidating. The box is near to our garden store where we keep the tools and rotary washing line. I have to access it at least once a day and I try not to make eye contact! :o)

 The first home grown salad of the season:

Well, that's all for the moment. I hope you are all keeping well and sane during this difficult time. R discovered a free newspaper in our larder this morning. It was dated from the end of February and, apparently, 2020 is going to be the 'Year of the Pretty Dress'! I'm not entirely sure that that is what we'll remember from this year but, just in case, I'm off to dust off my posh frock. :0) Stay well, my friends.

Toodle pip for now. x

'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.'

Hello there! It's been quite a while since my last post and things have changed considerably in the intervening period. A gold star, 2 Brownie points and 5 'Wallaby Hops' to anyone who can identify which novel the quotation in the post title is taken from. Clue: it's the opening sentence of the book. Another gold star etc. to the person who can tell me which TV programme the phrase 'Wallaby Hops' comes  from! 

The quotation seemed quite apt as we have recently been self-isolating for 14 days. R has been working from home for a few weeks now and has had cabin fever since day 2. I feel I have fared much better as my temperament and normal lifestyle are well suited to being at home.

After 2 weeks of isolation I found that I became quite 'institutionalised' (if that's the right word) and didn't feel like going out. The thought of a trip to the supermarket filled me with dread but it had to be done. After 2 weeks at home I was like Old Mother Hubbard. The low points were a blood orange rice pudding - the oranges were too far gone to eat normally and it seemed like a good idea at the time ....... it wasn't! - and swede laksa which, yes, is as disgusting as it sounds. The supermarket queue was ridiculously long, snaking all the way through the Shrek-like cordon, round the side of the building and across the car park. It took me the best part of an hour just to get to the entrance! We now have a fully stocked fridge and larder though, so we'll be fine for another couple of weeks. Evening walks have resumed and the silver lining of the great Coronavirus cloud has been our exploration of local public footpaths. We've lived here for 20 years and we're only just discovering a lot of them. I hope that our exploration and the sense of community spirit that has developed will continue when all this craziness is over.

Here then are a few photos of the last month or so. Some of them were taken before lockdown when life was more normal. It seems like such a long time ago now.

Photo to show how high the river was after all the storms in February. There is a bridge somewhere under that lot!

Sowing my seeds. The following day a wee beastie of the rodenty kind tunnelled in and ate a lot of them. I was forced to clear out the greenhouse, flags were laid on the base and then all the seeds resown. To be fair, it is a lot tidier now :0).

A trip to London to hear L play in a concert. Her orchestra were accompanying some opera singers and it was brilliant:

Whilst we were killing time before the performance we went for a walk and explored Portobello Road market. It was slightly disappointing in that there were no dancers and it wasn't a bit like in 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks'!

I bought a book from a second hand book shop - not the one made famous by Hugh Grant shown below which is, sadly, full of tat - and we sat outside a coffee shop and shared a vegan croissant.

About a week after our visit I developed a fever, headache, chills and a dry cough which lasted about a week. It was probably just some random bug but it would be quite nice to know!

Jaffa Bites from the Happy Pear recipe book:

A drive out in Bridget to the New Forest for the first picnic of the year. It doesn't actually look that foresty in these shots!

We walked around the village of Beaulieu which was beautiful and I'd like to visit again when we're back to normal. There was a lovely community garden that we really liked:

We had 4 (yes, count them!) 4 flowers on our small magnolia tree this year. That's 3 more than last year, so I'm thrilled!

R finishing off the fruit and brassica cage which was his present to me for our homemade Christmas. The birds stripped all the fruit off my bushes last year before we even got a look in and, after netting all my kale against the cabbage whites, I was horrified to find that a blue tit had got caught in the net. I'm  hoping that this will solve the problem.

Playing with clay. I was trying my hand at a coil pot which is harder than you'd think - my coils were oblongs! Now that it's dry I was tempted to draw a picture of a Coronavirus on the base to remind me of when I made it. E, however, informs me that that would be in poor taste!

Making a 'Quarantine Quilt' with my scraps. It's a Flying Geese type design and I made the decision to make 2 squares a day (I need 72) and not to use my unpicker at any point! Some of them are real shockers but it's keeping me sane:

 I'm reading a lot:

 My Mother's Day card from L finally arrived - she was self-isolating on the day and couldn't post it. It contained a beautiful cross stitch bookmark that she made from a kit she received one Christmas. I love it.

 My favourite blossom against a blue sky:

We went for a walk (part of our daily Government sanctioned exercise) in the bluebell wood. I forgot to take my camera, so here are some from the garden:

As I was the member of the household doing the food shopping, R hadn't been able to buy any Easter eggs. He made me a robin's nest box instead which is much nicer, I think. I also get to share his egg!

 Knitting by the river with the ducks:

 Duckling spotting:

 Taking a photo of the garden before the rising winds blow off all the cherry blossom!

 Finally, Hamish finding himself a patch of sunshine to snooze in:

Well, that's all for the moment. I hope you're all finding something to keep you sane in these strange times. Stay well, my friends and, as always ....

Toodle pip for now. x

Hand Washing Central

I think I was 18 when I first developed eczema. It coincided with leaving home to go to uni and was probably a combination of stress and having to do all the washing up for the first time - this was in the days before I discovered rubber gloves! Over the years it has come and gone . Hard water exacerbates it and I can always tell when our water softener needs more salt because my hands flare up. Much as I love the thought of scented soaps, any that are given as gifts end up in my sock drawer; my hands being averse to anything with the slightest hint of colour or scent. The current advice to hand wash for the duration of a verse of the National Anthem is doing them no favours. They're red and sore and the Hydrocortisone cream has made a reappearance. 

Coronavirus is all over the news. When I went into London last week, the woman sat opposite me on the train made herself very unpopular with her persistent cough. People kept shooting her dark looks and I was trying to hide behind my book.

I had an appointment at my bank this morning.The virus was mentioned and, as we were parting, the chap went to shake my hand. I jokingly asked if we were doing that and he told me that businessmen in Japan are now shaking feet instead - so we tried it just to be able to say that we had shaken feet with someone that day! :o)

Aside from worrying about viruses, the past few weeks have been very pleasant. There have been a couple of Knitting shows, 2 trips to the cinema - if you haven't seen the film 'Parasite' I would heartily recommend it - trips to see both daughters and a fair bit of crafting and cooking. I have battled with my sourdough starter (it's winning!), nurtured my kombucha and failed to sow my veggie seeds as I can't face sploshing down the garden to the greenhouse.  

Here then are this month's happy photos:

Enjoying my bird feeders:

 A trip to the cinema to see this. Andrew Scott (of Moriarty / priest in Fleabag fame) was brilliant:

 Valentine's Day roses:

My Valentine's Day 'frogilo' from R. I've positioned it in the hosta bed as that's where I most often see frogs and toads - probably lured there by all the hosta-munching slugs.

 

My granny square blanket made using the bag of scraps of Stylecraft DK that I discovered during a cupboard clear out. It now lives in the car. It's a 'well done' present for Lily for passing her MOT! 

 Enjoying my Camellia:

 

 A trip to Unravel at the Farnham Maltings with my friend, W.

 My purchases from Unravel - a book, 2 skeins of DK to make the Linus Shawl and a sweater quantity of worsted yarn to make the Weekender sweater.  

Starting the Linus Shawl. The yarn is called 'Space Jam'!:

 Rereading L's copy of 'Emma'. One of my New Year's resolutions was to read more classic books. I'm sticking to it apart from my monthly book from Audible. This month's was 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' which I bought after failing to find it at the library. I loved it.

 Finishing my Christmas Eve cast on socks. These have been my travel knitting which is why they have taken a while. The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in the 'Robin' colourway. I didn't have a red mini skein for the heels and cuffs, so it's more robin against a blue sky!

 A visit to the Stitch Festival at the Business Design Centre in London. It was much easier to access than the Ally Pally and didn't seem quite so crowded:

I met up with L afterwards and we popped to the British Museum to see the Troy exhibition and share a pot of tea and a cake in the members' cafe:

 We then met R and had dinner here. It was YUMMY!

 A trip to Bristol to see E. She had an orchestra rehearsal in the afternoon, so R and I had lunch at Wahaca and then trawled the charity shops and explored the Cathedral whilst we waited. Apparently, the first performance of Handel's 'Messiah' in a church was done here:

 Lastly, Hamish playing dens. He does love a nice cardboard box:

Well, that's all the happies for this month. Hopefully spring will be on the way soon; I think we could all do with a bit of sunshine. In the meantime, take care and remember to wash those hands! :o)

Toodle pip for now. x