The Distancing Diaries - Day 34 & 35

Wii Fit, fruit and yoghurt, catching up on blog comments...we're 34 days into lockdown, I think you know the score. I did ring the changes on Thursday morning, with more lovely weather predicted, I went online and ordered some suncream for delivery from Superdrug (who are paying their staff their full wage throughout lockdown regardless if they are working). I also spritzed the seedlings & houseplants on the kitchen windowsill and noticed with much excitement that the kohl rabi had sprung into life.

Jon's first task was to plant out the lettuce.

Mine was to water the pot plants and to prune the curry plant.

When we got back from our walk on Wednesday, Jon noticed that the wood on the Stonecroft sign had rotted and that the writing was looking a tad shabby so he took it off the gatepost, found a suitable alternative in the wood store, cut it to size, reattached it and repainted the lettering. Much better!

Shall I show you our dirty little secret? 

Look at the state of the outside of our house! 

When we went into lockdown and realised that we wouldn't be needing it for a while, Jon parked the work van on this patch of land, moving it today to turn the engine over. It was tatty before but now it's an absolute disgrace. 

Originally this patch was laid to lawn but numerous dog owners in the neighbourhood seemed to think it was perfectly acceptable to let their pets use the grass as a toilet. In desperation, we dug it up and gravelled it over but that was 15 years ago, it's time for a rethink.

Whilst Jon went inside to research possibilities I did a bit of tidying. When I posted a photo of our fern bed the other day a few people commented about them being North American fiddle ferns and that they were edible. As far as I can make out these are Dryopeteris Filix-mas (the male shield fern), beloved by the Victorians who introduced them to British gardens. I can't find any reference to being able to eat them and to be honest, I can't say the idea is very appealing!

After our usual spicy noodle lunch, I read my weekly members' email from the National Trust. This week it had lots of advice for lockdown gardening. To create more plants, it suggested digging out a hardy plant with new leaves, keeping as much as the original root ball attached and using two garden forks back-to-back prise the roots apart.

As our wild geranium was threatening to take over our border we followed the NT's splitting instructions and replanted it, moving the rest to the area by the pond and to another border opposite.

Plants for free - it's a bit like shopping from your wardrobe.

And talking of which here's an old favourite, the beach kaftan I bought from Colaba Causeway in Mumbai a couple of years ago. I could have kicked myself when I got to Goa in January and realised I'd forgotten to pack it. Ah well, I'm sure it'll have plenty of use as a gardening dress in the coming months.

 A Frank photo bomb!

The rest of the day was spent pottering around the garden, moving a couple more plants, a pot-bound sea thrift and a hydrangea in danger of being engulfed with Oriental poppies, then our new lockdown favourite thing, sitting outside with a mug of tea, admiring the nature that surrounds us.

I also found time to read a couple of chapters of my current book and to join Jon for a leisurely walk around the block.

Tea was vegetarian sausage, eggs, chips & peas. The evening's entertainment consisted of Kirsty Allsopp's lockdown craft show, the rest of the Beauty of Maps, An Art Lover's Guide to Amsterdam interrupted by the 8pm weekly Clap for Our Carers.

This morning (day 35) after my last Wii Fit session of the week, a blog catch-up and breakfast, I got dressed.

I'm living out of a suitcase at the moment. The UK is currently enjoying unseasonably high temperatures but it's far too soon to get my flimsy gear out properly just yet. Last year I was wearing sheepskin trimmed jackets and boots in mid-June! I expect all this will be folded up and put away by Monday.

It's lovely to remind myself of the Summer clothes I'd forgotten, like this 1960s hand-embroidered Mexican tomato dress.

No sooner was I dressed and decent than the garden centre delivery arrived, the poor driver was stressed enough without having to see me in my work out gear!

I ordered Eryngium Blur Hobbit, Jasione Blaulicht, Pulsatilla Purple, Penstemon heterophyllus Electric Blue, Empress of India Nasturtium, Delpininum and two trays of pansies.

My dream is for one day to have a garden as fabulous as this Corfiot house in an olive grove in Paleokastritsa that I fell in love with in 2017.

After I'd watered the new arrivals and the rest of the patio pot plants, I took the window boxes down, scrubbed the windowsills and set about digging up last year's plants that had gone to seed, trimming back the Dusty Miller (the ice white plants) and adding the pansies. In hindsight, I should have ordered more pansies but I was under pressure to get my order in before the website sold out of everything.

It's such a gorgeous day a couple of pansies have flowered already. I do love them, they've got such kind faces.

After a break for noodles, I went back outside and planted the rest of my order.

When I saw that the garden centre had an Empress of India nasturtium, I had to have one. Not only was I named after Queen Victoria but we'd only watched Victoria and Abdul last week.

Jon had been busy in the veg patch, moving some of the cucumber plants to the cloche, planting out a row of rocket seedlings and repotting a few courgette seeds.

He's also come up with a cunning plan for the front of the house, involving these posts he's had stashed away under a tarp up the garden for years. They're currently drying out in the sunshine.

These two have been making the most of this incredibly lovely weather.

Whilst this fella has been very noisy today.

After an hour or so of lying around in the grass annoying the cats, we went for our daily walk around the block and on our return, Jon took a few more photos to show you today's take on my lockdown plaits, the Frida inspired up-do.

WEARING: 1960s Mexican hand-embroidered maxi dress (eBay, 2019), Lotta from Stockholm highwood clogs, silver & malachite pendant (bought in India back in 2000), Mexican silver chain earrings (Shilpa Silver), vintage Polaroid sunglasses (car boot sale), 1950s Tyrolean souvenir belt (gift from Helga, 2010)

 I can't believe my hair's stayed like this since 9am this morning, dirty hair definitely helps!

I gave the pots another darn good watering,

 Then, after Jon had shaved his head and knocked up a salad to go with tonight's pizza we cracked open a can from last year's festival stash and drank it in the sunshine.....cheers!

Tonight we'll be watching the 2017 film, The Sense of an Ending on the BBC i-player and, with it being a Friday, there's a bottle of rum waiting for us in the lounge.

Stay safe & see you soon!