Life in Lockdown - Day 11 & 12

On Monday we combined our allowed exercise and food shopping outing by walking to our nearest shop for a few essentials. Luckily for us, Johal's is a supermarket as opposed to your average corner shop with an impressive variety of fresh veg, exotic spices, catering sacks of basmati rice, all manner of interesting dried pulses and huge trays of canned tomatoes and chickpeas. We shopped in solitude, there was plenty on the shelves and, unlike the major supermarket chains, no shortage of loo roll or bleach (not that we needed either).

The company we'd bought our seeds from last week had been in touch to say that all orders had been suspended due to high demand so Jon hunted for alternatives on eBay, winning a huge mixed lot of vegetable, herb and fruit seeds in the dying seconds of the auction. I found some packets of wild rocket and radish seeds listed as Buy-It-Now & snapped them up. When I'd mentioned having no luck tracking down compost and grow-bags a Facebook friend recommended a Staffordshire-based garden centre offering local deliveries (HERE) so I placed an order with them. Thanks, Gill!

As we've run out of noodles, our lunchtime staple, I made some dhal in the slow cooker ready for tomorrow and we ate cheese & tomato paninis, using bread Jon had found lurking in the back of the freezer.

WEARING: Vintage Crimplene maxi dress and Doc Martens (both charity shopped)

We planted aubergine, sweet pepper and serrano chilli seeds from Tina's stash in lidded trays and popped them on the windowsills upstairs to get them started.

I'd noticed that the door curtain in the lounge and the curtains in our bedroom were damaged in places so I took them down and stitched them back together.

Back in February, before lockdown, I'd reupholstered this Edwardian bench and noticed that one of the side panels was beginning to come away so Jon nailed it back in place. The reason it's taken so long to get around to doing it is that there's nearly always a cat lounging on it or under it!

I caught up with blog reading and commenting and, for tea, we ate roasted broccoli with a couple of Greek-style spinach parcels that Jon had discovered in the freezer, along with some baked mozzarella. The rest of the evening was spent watching Stockholm Requiem and reading a couple of chapters of my current book.

Tuesday, day 12, started in the usual way with Wii Fit, fruit and yoghurt and a blog catch up. I'm loving that a lot of my favourite people are blogging more frequently, it stops me feeling so cut off when I can read about how my virtual friends are spending their lockdown time.

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning our chandeliers with soapy water, a cloth and an old toothbrush. They were filthy, I should be ashamed of my slatternly ways, but I'm not! The joy of cleaning so infrequently is seeing an immediate difference when years of dust and grime are removed.

I was chatting to my friend Liz on the phone earlier about how, as maximalists, we won't be bored during distancing as our houses are crammed with stuff we can clean, refashion or repair. I pity minimalists with their empty cupboards, bare shelves and lack of ornamentation - what on earth are they doing with their lock-down time?

Sparklingly clean! This lot should be okay for the next ten years or so!

After Jon had taken the rugs outside and gave them a thorough beating it was time for lunch, half the dhal I made yesterday, which we ate with a couple of wholemeal rotis bought from Johal's yesterday (six for £1 and delicious).

Here's the recipe (serves four) :

• 300g yellow split peas
• I onion, chopped
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2cm grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ginger paste)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds finely crushed
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 10 curry leaves
• 700ml veg stock
• 1 green chilli, finely sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper and Himalayan salt to taste

Place onion, tomato, split peas, ginger, chilli, cumin, turmeric, garlic and curry leaves in the slow cooker.

Add stock and stir.

Cook on high for 4 hours or until split peas are tender.
Season with salt and pepper and serve with roti or basmati rice.

WEARING: Vintage Miss Polly for Polly Peck maxi dress (£3, Charity shop)

Much to our surprise, the garden centre delivered our compost - just 24 hours after we'd placed the order.  To add to the excitement the postman brought my seeds which Jon sewed as soon as he'd finished cleaning a kitchen cupboard.

Tonight's tea is homemade spicy jacket wedges, vegetarian sausages, sweetcorn, peppers, carrots and peas and we'll be watching more of Stockholm Requiem.

Still staying in, staying sane and keeping yourself occupied? Let me - and my lovely readers - know.

See you soon!