The Distancing Diaries - Lockdown Days 50 & 51

After we'd got home from our impromptu street party on Friday night, Jon sandwiched oven-baked sweet potato fries* in between slices of buttered wholemeal bread, I poured us a rum & cola and we ate off our laps in the lounge, watching a documentary about Lee Miller, the model who became a war photographer. When we called the cats in at bedtime we could still hear people singing & chattering, it felt rather strange after seven weeks of near-silence.

*He claims to hate sweet potato but makes an exception for anything chip-related!

I filled the bath with lukewarm water and left the bathroom plants to soak overnight. When I got up I sprayed them with plant food, fed the cats and brought mugs of tea back to bed, where we lay and read until 8.30am. Jon went downstairs to make breakfast while I stripped the bed, loaded the washing machine and put the plants back, bringing the downstairs plants upstairs for a feed and a soaking (we've got 28, I counted!)

Breakfast was a mug of coffee with vegetarian sausages, poached eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes. Last time I shared a photo of my poached eggs several of you commented about how perfect they looked, here's our secret, a 1970s egg poacher. Fill the poacher with water, bring it to the boil, reduce to a simmer, crack your eggs into the black plastic compartments (which we lightly oil first), pop on the lid and leave until the eggs are set. We often find these pans at car boot sales (remember them?), in fact, we've got two, one for the house and the other for our festival camp kitchen.

I pegged the washing on the line and gave the outdoor plants a liquid seaweed feed. I'd suggested to Jon that he take a break from the decorating and spend the day outside as the forecast had predicted a return to winter tomorrow but he decided to crack on regardless.

My outfit for day 50 of lockdown was a block-printed organic cotton maxi skirt bought from the Cotton Cottage January sale five years ago and a hand-crocheted halterneck I'd bought from a lady making them at the roadside in Goa in 2017.

Dill, more curled cress and parsley

Outside, a passer-by stopped and thanked me for saving her sanity by offering that pile of free books last week (she'd taken two), I potted on some basil seedlings, thinned out and replanted the Oriental salad leaves, noting that the contents of all three of my cola bottle planters had sprung into life.

How exciting, my experiment with that new potato appears to be working!

 Jon had finished painting & we discussed which one from our collection of vintage mirrors should go above the sink and where to hang the freshly painted cabinet. Talking of which, I'd scrubbed at the maker's label inside the cabinet and was finally able to make out who'd made it.

 Ifco was a Liverpool-based manufacturer that only existed during the 1930s - my guestimation of its age was spot on. Somebody needs to sign me up with the Antiques Roadshow!

The post arrived and Jon was thrilled to receive some beautiful handmade socks, knitted by Andrea, a lovely friend we'd met at the Cornbury Festival five years ago. After the week he's had they couldn't have arrived at a better time, he absolutely loves them.

As usual, when we've eaten a big breakfast we don't bother with lunch, instead, Jon made a posh coffee and we sat outside on the lawn with the cats. As we were next to the greenhouse Jon potted up a few peppers.

By mid-afternoon, the sky had clouded over and the air felt heavy and oppressive, was there a storm on the way? I gathered up the washing, Jon closed the greenhouse, we locked the sheds and went indoors deciding to forego our walk. In the end, it turned out to be no more than a shower.

As usual, it was self-care Saturday. When I'd dressed earlier I'd combed conditioner through my plaits and left it on all day, rinsing it off in the shower later. I'd also stripped off my nail paint & epilated my legs so I was ready for the week ahead.

 For tea, we had a salad of cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, curled cress & mustard (from the garden) Feta cheese, onion, olives and grated carrot drizzled with balsamic vinegar & served with Jon's defrosted spelt loaf which we dunked in posh extra virgin olive oil.

We watched An Art Lover's Guide to St Petersburg on the i-player & the wonderful Norwegian drama, State of Happiness (Lykkeland), on BBC 4, accompanied by rum & cola and Jon's new socks.

The uber-stylish male cast of State of Happiness (Source)

Sunday started with a mug of tea in bed, made by Jon, who'd got up first as the cats kept tapping his face. We read until 8.15am, listening to the gale-force wind whipping through the trees. Jon toasted the rest of the spelt loaf, we watched The Andrew Marr Show but got bored with the endless speculation over Boris Johnson's forthcoming announcement. I fired up the PC and searched for a track we'd heard on last night's State of Happiness as we'd both loved it.

I know absolutely nothing about Roger Whittaker but apparently, it was the biggest hit of his career.



Meanwhile, Jon got dressed and went into the coal house in search of something he could use on the utility room windowsill to replace the reclaimed piece of wood that had warped over the years.

The parental home, 2013

Half-an-hour of rummaging and Jon had found the solution to the windowsill dilemma, the Edwardian tiles that once lined the fireplace in the lounge of my parental home which we'd removed before putting the house up for sale because I couldn't bear to leave them behind. They'd need a good scrub to get them back to their original shade of turquoise-blue but the size was perfect and there was just the right amount to do the job. The moral is to save everything you love, you'll always find a use for it in the end.

After I'd dressed I watered the patio plants, replenished the fat blocks, topped up the birdbath and retrieved some plastic plant pots that the high winds had blown across the garden but the cold soon had me scurrying back indoors and pondering upon the wisdom of choosing to wear a short-sleeved Indian cotton midi dress and so I swapped it for a long-sleeved kaftan.

Mr Blackbird appreciated my efforts.

Ray, one of the neighbours we'd spent VE Day with, popped over with a loaf of freshly baked bread, a passion he'd told us about during Friday's party. Jon had already put the noodles on so we saved it for later.

After lunch, Jon tiled the windowsill, they need to dry before he grouts them but don't they look gorgeous?

This afternoon's been a funny one, I've done a bit of cleaning, stitched the hem of the kaftan I wear ain the evenings and caught up with blog reading & comments but haven't really settled into anything, I'm not sure if it's because the weather has gone downhill or because I'm on tenterhooks about BoJo's announcement later. Not that I'm expecting any huge changes, it feels far too be soon to be putting an end to lock down when the number of people dying from coronavirus is still tragically high. I'm happy to stay put.

Today's outfit is the vintage Alpnani kaftan I repaired last week, a '70s tooled leather belt and my Lotta From Stockholm clogs.

This week's lockdown nail colour is Barry M's Scuba.

Somebody let me in, it's freezing out here!

For pity's sake, how am I supposed to eat that?

No walking today, it's blowing a gale and it's so cold that I've had to bring Jacob inside, something Frank's not overly thrilled with.

Tonight's tea was Ray's loaf with cheese, pickles and olives. Once the announcement's out of the way we'll be watching Becoming Matisse on the BBC i-player before the latest instalment of Killing Eve.

Keep safe, stay sane and thanks for commenting, I love hearing from you!