Life in Lockdown - Day 52 & 53

Monday (day 52) and England is still in lockdown, although the government's decision to replace Stay Home for the more ambiguous, Stay Alert, has led to much confusion. It started, as all weekdays do, with a session on the Wii Fit and fruit & yoghurt for breakfast. As predicted, at 7am, it was unseasonably cold, at just 2°C, but I risked putting my windowsill seedlings outside to harden them off although I left Jacob fast asleep in his shoebox.

Jon grouted the tiles in the utility room, attached the Ifco cabinet to the wall and gave the inside a lick of paint while I washed down the paintwork in the hallway & scrubbed the floor tiles. 

Jon was thrilled when his torque wrench was delivered (he's explained what it does and I'm still none the wiser).

My order from &keep arrived;  a replacement for the eye make-up remover pads I bought 12 months ago (and I much prefer the black option, the white ones did the trick but looked rancid after a couple of days) and a pack of eco coconut scourers to which I'm a convert. I bought a single one a year ago and it is only just starting to wear out, they're a much greener alternative to those supermarket sponge scourers which rarely last a week and only serve to leach plastic into the water table.

After our lunchtime noodles, I potted up some of the spiderlings recently sprouted from the big spider plant in the kitchen. It was too cold to do it outside so I brought the compost in from the greenhouse and I worked at the kitchen table. My planting brought the total number of Stonecroft's houseplants to the grand total of thirty-two.

 Jon and I looked through our stash of vintage framed prints and selected a few to hang from the utility room walls. Jon dusted them down and put them up.

An eclectic mix of Hindu kitsch, antique maps and adverts for fags, booze and sports cars cut from a dog-eared 1929 edition of Tatler. Sums the pair of us up perfectly!

We layered up and braved the cold for a walk around the block, bumping into some of our festival friends along the way, we compared notes on our adventures in growing-our-own whilst maintaining a safe distance. We arrived back home just in time for another delivery to arrive, we put it to one side to deal with in the morning.

Underneath my coat, I wore a vintage Interlinks Indian cotton midi dress (eBay, 2019), a 1970s quilted waistcoat, made in Afghanistan by Janet Wood for Monsoon (snaffled from an online vintage shop last year), British-made Snag tights (a birthday present and very comfy) and a pair of Lotta from Stockholm clogs. If I look cold here, I was! My eyes were watering and my hands were so cold I was struggling to grip my mug.

Tea was halloumi with roasted vegetables which we demolished before taking a photo, it was that good. I crocheted while the 7pm daily update was on, then we watched the wonderfully uplifting Grayson Perry's Art Club followed by the final instalment of French thriller series, The Other Mother, which had a satisfactory ending but left us with a few unanswered questions. I read The Kashmir Shawl in bed, leaving the final chapter until tomorrow.

Tuesday (day 53) was another cold one. I did my Wii Fit session & I wandered around with a mug of tea, looking for things that needed doing that I fancied tackling. First on the list was tidying the terracotta plant pots as I'd ransacked the pile looking for four similarly sized ones to plant my spiderlings yesterday. Our lockdown life never involves a plan, we both do whatever we're in the mood for, forcing ourselves into doing jobs we have little enthusiasm for inevitably ends up in them being poorly done.

The view from the road

After breakfast, I caught up with my blog comments, got dressed and watered the patio plants. Over the last few weeks, my routine has coincided with an elderly gent who takes a break from his daily walk to sit on Ray & Florence's garden wall and watch what I'm up to for ten minutes. We wave and call our good mornings to one another. It's not unusual for passers-by to stop and take photos of the house or me at work in the garden - it's another good reason never to slob around in leisurewear.

Jon moved a some of the house plants into the utility room then set about unwrapping and assembling yesterday afternoon's delivery, a sturdy, German-made metal bistro table in a gorgeous shade of green.

We grabbed something warm to wear and sat outside with a posh coffee, pretending it was a gloriously sunny Spring day as opposed to an unseasonably cold one.

Lunch was a Roquefort, cucumber, cherry tomato and homegrown lettuce sandwich on Ray's homemade loaf with a side helping of crisps.

After lunch, Jon carried on sorting out the utility room. That's The Recedus, the old loo that gave Jon a few nightmares last week. The Belfast sink was a car boot find years ago as were the box of green Edwardian washstand tiles we snaffled for £1, even the brass taps came from a car boot sale. The bevelled edged mirror used to be over the sink in my Grandma's bedroom, the 1970s plastic one came from a charity shop and you already know the story of the bathroom cabinet and the tiles on the windowsill. Jon made the drying rack a few years ago using some broom handles from a flea market and a few bits of wood he had lying around.

Meanwhile, I scrubbed down the paintwork on the landing, dusted the picture frames, the craft cupboard and my vintage glass and swept the rug.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd go fifty-three days without visiting a charity shop or a car boot sale but, in all honesty, I haven't missed them. If lockdown has taught me anything it's how to appreciate all the amazing secondhand things I've found over the years. I love spending time at home appreciating my treasures instead of endlessly shopping in a quest to acquire more.

Talking of which I've bought no clothes since lockdown, while I still love trawling eBay for beautiful vintage garments I just don't feel the need to buy. Although I've always worn secondhand clothes, for most of my adult life it was all about finding a bargain, since I made the decision to radically cull my collection, only buy clothes I truly love - whatever the price - I've now got a wardrobe that fills me with joy whenever I open the doors.

Lockdown has made me realise that all the clothes I need are already mine.

Today's outfit is a vintage Jeff Banks WI gauzy cotton blouse bought from a car boot sale over a decade ago, an India Imports of Rhode Island wraparound maxi skirt from eBay and a 19th Century Indian tribal neckpiece from a flea market in Bristol.

Tonight we're eating the last of the potatoes & vegetables with vegetarian sausages, we need to go shopping tomorrow. Not sure what to watch later, hopefully, there'll be something interesting & arty on the BBC i-player.

Stay alert safe and keep smiling!