Our Life In Lockdown - Day 56 & 57

Day 56 started, as my weekdays always do, with a Wii Fit session. When I got up the sun was shining and so I emptied the laundry basket and did a wash only for the sky to cloud over in an ominous shade of grey. Regardless I pegged the washing outside and hoped for the best.

After our fruit & yoghurt breakfast, I mentioned to Jon an idea I'd had for the kitchen chairs. Originally part of a dining set, we'd inherited them from Jon's Mum after she died in 2006, who, in turn, had inherited them from her mother. Not keen on the original wood we'd sanded them down, painted them white and recovered the seat pads with vintage souvenir tea towels, which had served us well but they were now looking distinctly shabby. To my surprise, Jon didn't think my plan was ridiculous, removed the old tea towels from the seat pads, measured up the amount of fabric we'd need and ordered the covering I'd suggested from a car upholstery business on eBay that he'd used previously.

Once I was dressed and armed with my trusty coconut scrubber and the baking soda, set about removing 15 years of grime from the chair frames, finishing them off with a blast from the hose. As the hosepipe was out I watering the patio plants before scuttling back into the house to warm up. So much for the glorious weather we'd been promised.

 Jon popped over to our friend's house for the regular grocery swap, he'd managed to source some coffee pods for Tony who couldn't find them anywhere and in return he'd found us some French's mustard (something we've been after for weeks and a veggie sausage sandwich isn't the same without) plus a few bottles of beer and had treated us to a film he'd recently seen and loved. 

Jon applied undercoat to a couple of the chairs, we sat at the other two for lunch which, by way of a change was a Ginster's vegan pasty served on, what else, but a vintage 70s Beefeater plate. 

After lunch, Jon painted the pipes in the utility room and the postman delivered a package from my friend, Claire who you met in THIS Peaky Blinders post. She's a photographer, not a sewer (see her skills HERE), so when she mentioned that she couldn't wear her two favourite vintage Indian cotton pieces as they were damaged, I'd offered to repair them if she posted them to me. It's not like I'm short of time.

Using some vintage silk thread I did some visible mending to the damage to Claire's 1970s cotton gauze midi skirt and to repair the cotton lining which had shredded with age I cut the silk lining from a vintage tie and attached it with iron-on tape.

As a surprise, she'd also included a couple of vintage crochet patterns in the parcel. One of these days I'll push myself to do more than granny squares.

Ray popped over and invited us to another socially distanced gathering in his front garden so we grabbed our chairs and a few beers and made our way over the road to meet up with the VE Party gang where we caught up with everything that had happened during the past week and, as none of us had been anywhere other than Johal's, it mostly consisted of Boris's announcement last Sunday & the ensuing confusion ever since. Since lockdown, we've discovered that not only are our neighbours great company but none of them voted Tory either, we really do live in a wonderful place!

By 7pm we were dithering with cold, so said our goodbyes and headed back across the road. I bought the washing in and, just to prove how chilly it had been, it was still damp after 11 hours on the washing line.

It was the first time I'd used the drying rack in the utility room in over two months. During the lockdown, not being under any pressure to get our stock laundered and immediately put away in the Kinky Shed, I've only done the washing when it's been sunny & dry so I could hang it outside.

While we sat on Ray & Florence's front lawn, Stephen sat on the steps opposite watching us in abject disgust, wondering why he gets told off when he dares to nip over to the garden across the road whereas we can sit go and in it for hours.

Tea was the rest of Wednesday night's pizza with salad. We watched another episode of Fenix and found a Salvage Hunters we hadn't seen before accompanied, of course, with a few rum & colas.

Before I went to bed I put the houseplants in the bath and the utility room sink, filled them with water and left them soaking overnight.

Another Saturday (day 57) rolled around and I was awake first, so went downstairs, fed & watered the cats and made tea, taking it back to bed. We read in bed until 9am then Jon went downstairs to start breakfast while I stripped the bed, including the mattress cover, which was well overdue a wash. I put the plants back, cleaned out the bath & sink and put yesterday's washing away. We ate veggie sausage sandwiches with mugs of coffee and caught up with the TV news.

Talking of reading, here are our current books. Mine's A Good Place To Die, set in 1974, John Pitt, a Brit on the overland trail stops off in Isfahan and takes a job teaching English, where he falls in love with a veiled young woman and suffers the consequences of breaking the rules in the Shah's Iran. James Buchan's writing is beautiful.

As it's Self-Care Saturday, I combed coconut oil through the length of my hair, plaited it and pinned it to the top of my head. A friend on Instagram recently asked how many hairgrips I use when I do my Frida-inspired up-do, a couple of weeks ago I used six, I've since got it down to three.

My beautiful neighbourhood! Wearing a 1970s block printed Indian gauze blouse by Oasis Trading, a vintage skirt by Ayesha Davar (both eBay, 2019), vintage '70s deadstock sunglasses (Moseley Vintage Fair, 2015), tooled leather lion head belt (charity shop, 2016), Lotta from Stockholm clogs (2019)

My task for the day was sorting out Claire's gorgeous Anokhi harem pants. She'd bought them from eBay last year and had issues with the fastening, which was a series of press-studs at the back which kept popping open whenever she moved. The neighbour's cat had also managed to shred one of the legs.

I removed the clumsy press-studs, replacing them with a zip, which I think the pants originally had but the original owner had removed to make them bigger (vintage Anokhi is notoriously tiny). Luckily I had the perfect sized zip in my stash of secondhand sewing paraphernalia. The cat-damaged leg got visible mending treatment with some vintage royal blue thread & a scrap of fabric leftover from my patchwork curtains.

A bit too nippy to sew outside, I dragged my work stool to the window and sat in the sunlight with the Huey Morgan show blasting out - Grace Jones, the Stones, Fontaines DC, Pigs x 7 -  6Music is always a joy to listen to. If you're wondering, my Roberts DAB radio and vintage sewing box (complete with contents) both came from charity shops, but I expect you'd guessed that already.

Meanwhile, Jon had given the kitchen chairs another coat of paint,

And had moved on to the greenhouse, planting out the leeks and beetroot, under the watchful eye of his loyal assistant.

While Jon did the watering I brought in the washing and had a wander around. The garden is blooming, with things I can't take any credit for planting. Ferns, Welsh Poppies, dandelions...

Forget-me-Nots and bluebells,

Wild geranium, comfrey and buttercups.

Having foregone yesterday's stroll for a socially distanced get together, we made up for by walking around the block, veering off to the post box (to return Claire's clothing) and back a different way.

 We passed the dog we always say hello to and sing NeverEnding Story at, as he reminds us of the dog in the film. I'm not sure he's flattered by the comparison, he always barks at us.

I left Jon to tussle with putting the mattress cover and bedding back on the bed while I went online and treated myself to a new mop bucket...I know, I do like to live on the edge...in fact, I went totally mad and bought myself a bucket whilst I was at it.

Talking of going wild, we cracked open a beer before tea, which will be jacket potatoes with cheese, once I've finished this post and had a shower. Tonight's entertainment, aside from rum & cola will be the BBC4's State of Happiness at 9pm and whatever else we can squeeze in beforehand.

Stay safe, be happy and do let me know what you've been up to!