Life In Lockdown - Day 74 & 75

I awoke on Tuesday (day 74) to yet another glorious day. At just after 6am, I was giving the revamped chests of drawers another coat of varnish in the garden before my daily Wii Fit session and a blog catch-up. As we were expecting a visit from friends later, Jon went out straight after breakfast as he needed some work done at the tyre fitters on the other side of town.

Even though the weather was set to change, I decided it was finally safe to pack away my velvet maxis, polo necks and the last of my synthetic dresses (blame me if it snows at the weekend) so I got the suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe in the spare room and did just that before throwing on yesterday's dress and watering the garden.

When Jon returned from his mission we sat in the garden with a coffee contemplating the tasks for the day, Jon's plans were to continue working on Gilbert while mine was to turn some unwanted bits and pieces into garden planters.

Jon got out his cordless drill and added a few drainage holes to a dented Victorian copper kettle, the old galvanised mop bucket, a rusting 1950s Tala cook's measure, an empty can of paprika and an enamel teapot and I got started.

I didn't have any new plants so used what I'd already got, ivy, houseleeks and some of last year's annuals I'd refused to throw away. 

Just as I was finishing up the delivery driver appeared with my new watering can. Talk about fortuitous timing! I know you've already seen the dress I thought made me look like a sack of spuds but didn't but check out those Mother-of-Pearl buttons down the back and the superb pattern matching. 

Our productivity was interrupted by Kitty, next-door's crazed tabby, who'd managed to catch and kill one of the mice living in our rockery, just as she vanished over the garden wall with her prey clamped firmly between her jaws, Frank, despite half his teeth missing, appeared minutes later with another dead mouse, which he tossed in the air and played with for over an hour in the blazing heat until collapsing exhausted on a deckchair.

Just as we'd disposed of the corpse, Stephen appeared from his mid-morning nap and decided that he too needed to kill a mouse. That's after we'd caught him trying to use Jacob's new enclosure as a litter tray and, after being shooed off, having a wee in the gravel. Cats! They might look elegant and classy but they don't act it.

After noodles, our visitors Liz and Al cycled over and we sat in the garden chatting and drinking at a safe distance for a couple of hours. It was the first time we'd seen each other in months. Lockdown was announced just before Liz's birthday and, as her presents were too big to pop in the postbox, she had a belated unwrapping session in the sunshine. They'd been wrapped up for so long that I'd forgotten what was in there myself.

Izzy arrived with the post while we were sitting together in the sunshine. It was the 5m length of Anokhi fabric I'd bought on eBay on Friday night. It's just as gorgeous as the photos, if not more so.

Liz & Al left at just after 3pm, time to crack on with a few more jobs. The groovy vintage deckchair Frank had laid claim to was a car boot sale find a couple of years ago. It wasn't actually for sale, the elderly couple with the stall had brought it with them to sit on, but I think they found my unbridled enthusiasm for the amazing print hilarious and insisted that we took it with us.

The fabric had started to fray in places so I cut up some tiny pieces from a square leftover from my last patchwork project and handstitched them into place.

I'd forgotten all about this deckchair. I'd spotted it back in November, dumped in the street after an all-dayer in Wetherspoons and had insisted on bringing it home with us despite the torrential rain and being a bit unsteady on my feet. Someone had replaced one of the plastic armrests with a wooden one and it was a bit on the rusty side but the seat was sound and it seemed a crime to let it go to landfill.

I had a rummage through my collection of tester pots and disguised the miss-matched arms with a couple of coats of orange paint and a layer of yacht varnish to keep it water-resistant.

Jon headed back across town to pick up his wheels and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading in the sunshine. Once the sun had disappeared behind the trees I harvested some of our crops; lettuce, rocket, oriental mixed leaves, radishes, Summer savoury, parsley, mustard and curled cress and gave the garden a final watering.

Tea was half a sourdough pizza from Jon's trip to the Co-op, salad and the rest of yesterday's potato salad.

After we'd eaten we thought we'd make the most of what was possibly the last warm and dry evening for a while and adjourned to the garden for a beer. We call this The Cat Chariot, both lads wait for Jon and then walk a foot or so in front of him side by side. Last night they led him to the top of the garden to explore the wilderness. Later we watched Jay Blades' DIY Fix and the second episode of the excellent House Through Time before retiring to bed with our books.

Jay Blades (Source)

Wednesday morning (day 75) rolled around and there was no early morning sunshine streaming through the curtains waking me up, it was dark and gloomy and had just started to rain when I got up at 6.30am and, when I opened the door to let two disgruntled cats out, the temperature had plummeted by about 10°C. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. After scurrying outside to rescue the deckchairs, I did my Wii Fit session and caught up with Blogland.

Last week one of the feet on my Wii Fit board disintegrated and was too far gone to glue back together. I was horrified to discover that a new board costs in excess of £100 but, after a search on eBay, found a secondhand replacement (including postage) for £20. Within minutes of finishing our fruit and yoghurt breakfast, the lovely MyHermes driver arrived with my new-to-me board. I can't really complain, the last one lasted over 12 years!

Since I'd painted the tiny chest of drawers that I keep on the dressing table, the top was looking terribly shabby in comparison so, while Jon was outside tinkering with Gilbert, I removed all my paraphernalia, dusted and sanded it down. The dressing table is aged creamy-white but the only pale paint we had was dazzling white but, you know me, I refuse to buy anything new if I can make do with something we've already got, so I gave the top a coat of white paint, left it to dry then applied a layer of beeswax from a tin I found underneath the sink. I scuffed it up with an old rag until the paint took on a more aged looking shade of white. 

Jon called me down for lunch which, by way of a change was a delicious Gorgonzola & salad sandwich on sourdough bread studded with Kalamata olives and a fistful of Kukure.

The postman arrived and handed over a couple of packages, both for me (doing well today, aren't I?) One was a lovely surprise from our dear friends, Lynn (follow her blog HERE) and Philip, a book celebrating the Swinging Sixties along with 6 groovy prints and a selection of Vogue postcards featuring iconic covers. Wow!

The other package wasn't quite so exciting, a pack of eco-friendly dye to filter out ultra-violet light and control algae in ponds. I'd seen it featured recently on a garden makeover show and managed to get some on eBay for a third of the normal price.

It might be peeing it down outside but, you know us, we had to try it out straight away. I love the drama of the deep blue dye, hopefully, it'll sort out all the slime without harming the frogs that live in it.

Time to get back into the warmth and put everything back on the dressing table.

Meanwhile, Jon was taking everything down from the walls and shelves in the kitchen. With days of wet & unseasonally weather ahead of us (I knew it was tempting fate when I packed those dresses away yesterday), it's finally the time to decorate the kitchen and I'm beyond excited.

WEARING: Vintage Mayur Indian gauze midi dress (local selling page), Lotta from Stockholm clogs

It's far too wet to contemplate outdoor photos today and despite only being seen by Jon, the postman and the MyHermes driver, I still wore a decent dress and lipstick. I'm not me unless I do.

The central heating's just clicked on (I've turned it back off), the curtains are drawn and there are vegetables & halloumi roasting in the oven - what a difference a day makes, it feels like March rather than June. Still, we've got rum & cola ready and waiting and The Great British Sewing Bee on the TV at 9pm, so it's not all bad.

Stay safe, happy and healthy!