The Distancing Diaries - Day 98 & 99

Unable to get comfortable, at 3am on Friday morning Jon decamped to the spare bedroom accompanied by Frank. I stayed in our bed with Stephen Squirrel who, at 5am, decided it was time for me to get up. I managed to ignore him until just after 6am. He and I went downstairs and, joined by next door's crazy tabby, sat in a row on the old railway sleeper on the lawn listening to the birdsong and basking in the 20°C heat.

After my Wii Fit workout, I took some painkillers, biscuits and a mug of tea up to Jon, still entwined with Frank on the bed. I caught up with blog comments, loaded the washing machine and, as we'd run out of yoghurt, made myself some instant porridge from our stash of festival food.

Jon emerged shortly after 9am. I filled a hot water bottle for his back and he also had a pot of instant porridge. Ignoring the spots of rain, I pegged the washing out to dry, swept the downstairs rugs and misted the kitchen plants before getting dressed and watering the garden.

WEARING: Organic cotton, vegetable-dyed, block printed maxi dress from Cotton Cottage (bought in Goa, January 2020)

The previous evening we'd watched Gardener's World on the i-Player and Monty Don had mentioned that now was the right time to cut back wild geraniums so I set to work with the secateurs.

As we were out of yoghurt and also running low on milk, I offered to walk to Johal's but Jon said that his back was finally beginning to ease up and decided to go shopping himself.

Despite the forecast being for rain and thunderstorms, it turned out to be another baking hot and sunny day. After I'd finished my cutting back I stripped down to a bikini and spent the rest of the morning reading on the lawn.

The previous evening we'd heard a strange noise coming from the louvred recess in the hallway (aka the cupboard of doom) and discovered that the wooden dowel we use to hang our coats had snapped in two. After our lunchtime noodles, I emptied the cupboard while Jon assembled a clothes rail I'd found lurking at the back.

I rehung the coats, had a general tidy up and put the completed paperbacks I'd tossed in there on a chair outside the gates for passers-by the help themselves to.

We spent the remainder of the day in the garden, me on the grass, Jon, upright on a chair, the lads slumped inside the house, keeping cool.

After tea (halloumi with roasted vegetables) the boys ventured outside and we joined them with mugs of tea. I gave the patio plants another watering, brought in the washing & the remainder of the free books pile and we watched Gardener's World and Bethany Hughes' A Greek Odyssey accompanied by a few rum & colas.

On Saturday (day 99) I awoke to discover both cats staring at me, it was 7.15am and breakfast was late. It was raining which only served to add to their disdain. I fed the lads, made mugs of tea and brought them upstairs where we read until 8.30am. I stripped the bed, removed the plants from the bath where they'd been soaking overnight, loaded the washing machine and joined Jon in the kitchen for fruit and yoghurt (unusual for a Saturday but we'd missed out yesterday).

On Thursday, the filter on our old kettle disintegrated. As it had been leaking for months we decided it was high time we treated ourselves to a new one so went online to search for something affordable that didn't look like a spaceship or come in battleship grey. Finding just the thing, I placed my order and along with the confirmation email I also had a message telling me that delivery would take around two weeks, so I resigned myself to having to use the stove-top camping kettle for the next fortnight. I was amazed when, shortly after 9am, our friendly My Hermes driver turned with a box containing the new kettle.

Once dressed I got to work mixing some more DIY chalk paint to makeover another of the kitchen cupboards. Halfway through I had to dash out and rescue the washing, I'd foolishly pegged it out earlier believing that the rain had stopped.

Once I'd applied the first coat of paint the sun had made a reappearance so I took the opportunity to dig up the turnips as they looked like they were ready to harvest. I stripped off the leaves and roots, popped them in the compost bin and took the turnips into the house ready for cooking later.

I'm wearing a dress I made from a 1970s Kenzo pattern using some vintage Heals' curtains printed with Grace Sullivan's Treetops design. It's self-care Saturday so there's lashings of coconut oil combed through my plaits.

Talking of food, Jon made sandwiches for lunch using the wholemeal spelt loaf he'd baked and frozen earlier in the week. His back was still experiencing the odd twinge but felt a lot better than it had been but wisely, he decided to take it easy today and stay off ladders and away from woodworking tasks, while I applied another coat of paint to the kitchen cupboard, he made another wholemeal spelt loaf.

Once I'd finished in the kitchen I went upstairs, swept the spare bedroom rug and dusted the surfaces.

I moved on to our bedroom, putting on the fresh bedlinen as Stephen had been wrapped up in the duvet after I'd stripped the bed earlier.

The fireplace had been annoying me for years. The chimney is bricked up and after the endless dust from opening up the fireplaces in the rest of the house when we moved in, we decided that, as it was only us who ever saw the bedroom (this was 2005, pre-blog days!), we'd leave it sealed off.

The solution? The remains of the roll of sticky-backed plastic which we'd used to cover the camping tables. I made a template using cardboard rescued from the recycling bin and Jon did the tricky bit, peeling off the backing and sticking it in place.

We ate our homegrown turnips for tea, accompanied by salad and a beer.

Turnips with a Parmesan Crust

• Peel and boil the turnips until you can pierce them with a sharp knife.
• Drain well.
• Gently crush with a potato masher (take care, they squirt out quite a bit of water!)
• Leave to drain until cool.
• Brush with seasoned olive oil - I used black pepper and garlic
• Cover with vegan Parmesan
• Oven bake until cheese is golden and bubbling.
• Sprinkle with chives and serve.

The plan for tonight won't include watching any of the BBC's coverage of past Glastonbury festivals, I can't even bear to watch the ones we were at, it makes me too sad. There will be rum and cola, though.

Stay safe, stay away from all-night raves and see you soon!