The Distancing Diaries - 5th & 6th November, 2020

 

Thursday morning marked the start of England's month-long lockdown, not that it'll make much difference to us, other than our weekly trip to the charity shop, life should remain pretty much the same. I was up at 6.30am, threw a load of washing in the machine, did my Wii Fit workout, hung the laundry up in the utility room, wrapped my eBay sales and joined Jon for a breakfast of fruit & yogurt whilst watching BBC Breakfast where there was still no result in the US election.

The post office thankfully remains open so Jon popped round to drop off the parcels. Just before he left he had a phone call from the joiners, letting him know that they will be starting work on our upstairs windows next week (tradespeople are allowed in our houses providing they can socially distance and wear masks). How exciting, a winter without draughts!

Meanwhile I spent the morning uploading my allocated listings to eBay and, much to my excitement, sold three items within minutes of them going live.

Before lockdown Jon had tried in vain to find some reclaimed floorboards to make into kitchen shelves and decided to make do with what he could find on the woodpile, figuring that he could always replace everything at a later date (anything to stop me nagging him). He spent the morning sawing, scrubbing and waxing in the garden.

After noodles, I planted the wallflowers Liz had brought round yesterday and gave them a good watering. While Jon drilled holes in the kitchen wall, me and the lads pottered around the garden where there's still plenty of Autumnal colour, as my collages show. Despite spending almost four hours sweeping up the leaves on Tuesday, I managed to spend another hour doing the same. It feels so good to be on top of it, a bit of control in a world that gets madder by the day.

THURSDAY: Vintage Janet Wood for Monsoon Afghan blouse (eBay), 1970s Phool block printed midi skirt (part of a suit, IG sale), Mum's Biba boots, Rajasthani enamel & brass earrings (FabIndia in Goa, 2018)

Jon managed to get two of the three shelves up and decided to call it a day. There's no rush, we've got at least another twenty-seven days of lockdown ahead of us. I grabbed my jacket, hat and gloves and we went for a bracing walk around the block, it was 10°C.

Tea was an early one, a salad eaten whilst watching BoJo's latest announcement. The lads were anxious to go out but we told them to come back quickly as it was Bonfire Night and we didn't want them to get spooked by fireworks. 

On Friday I went online as soon as I got up and booked a National Trust garden visit for next week. I'd assumed that they would close during lockdown but Pam was kind enough to leave a comment on my last post to advise me otherwise. I did my final Wii Fit of the week, put away yesterday's washing and caught up with blog reading until Jon appeared for breakfast. 

Jon cracked on with the shelves whilst I wrapped the latest Ebay parcels then spent the rest of the morning raking up leaves and cutting back the geraniums which I'd moved from the window boxes into the shelter a few weeks ago. Shelves in place, Jon brought me out a mug of tea and we sat in the shelter, watching the lads.

Before our noodles I hand-washed one of my vintage Phool jackets, disgracefully it was the first time I'd washed it since I'd found it in a charity shop two years ago. I seemed a shame to wash the magic of Delhi, the Taj Mahal and Jaipur off it.

After lunch we went through the boxes of stuff we'd packed away when Jon painted the kitchen, filling a box ready for the charity shop when it (hopefully) reopens in December. 

 

We came across this photo whilst rummaging, it's from New Year's Eve, 1999 (taken in Flann O'Brien's pub in Walsall) and Jon and I are with our friends Catherine, Angela and Angela's partner Sean (Catherine's partner, Shaun was taking the photo). That fake fur cow print skirt was a TopShop second bought for a fiver off the market and I used to live in it. Sheila has something very similar in leopard print.  I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of that 1960s white leather jacket but I'm happy I ditched the serial killer fringe and natural hair colour!

 Friday is houseplant day. I'd given them a good soaking last week so this time I just went round the house giving them a through misting.

I rediscovered my slightly demonic 1950s celery pot whilst we were rummaging through the boxes, combined with one of my tiniest terracotta pots & some rooted Zebrina cuttings I repurposed him into a makeshift plant holder (we both hate celery with a passion!)

Ann & Jos bought us this wooden stand with two Belgian beer glasses when we met up last year, I thought it would make a far better looking propagation station than the old pesto jar I was using. 

The Devil's Ivy has grown so long that I've had to remove it from the used-to-be-a-coffee-table shelf in the kitchen and hang it above my PC in the middle room from a macrame plant holder I'd found in the clearance charity shop last year for £1, looped over itself several times as it was in danger of getting burnt by the radiator.

Liz made us the plant holder on the left hand side of the bathroom picture using an old leather jacket and some garden twine, I was so impressed I made myself a few more (although mine aren't as professional). Our friend Tina grew the Monstera from a cutting, it had one big leaf when she gave it us a couple of years ago, I've repotted it five times since then, it just can't stop growing!

FRIDAY: It's the Tarantella suede waistcoat and devore bellbottoms again, this time worn with a vintage Jeff Banks W1 blouse  and an Indian tribal pendant (both from car boot sales)

We went for our daily walk around the block, counting five discarded face masks and a pair of plastic gloves in the fifteen minutes we were out. What is it with people?

Once back I brought my jacket in from the line, as damp as when I put it out, and hung it up in the utility room. Jon ground beans and made us a posh coffee and I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with comments and writing a blog post.  I always drink my posh coffee from a posh vintage mug, it makes it taste better, this one is the Jupiter design by Portmerion. 

Tea was pizza with sweet potato chips accompanied by a glass of wine - aren't I good, drinking from the same bottle all week! We won't mention the rum. 

The skies are currently alive with the sound of exploding gunpowder and the lads aren't at all happy. I've drawn the curtains and we'll all adjourn to the lounge shortly, Spooks and rum are on the agenda for us, the cats have had Go Cat biscuits, cat milk, mackerel, chicken and prawns...spoilt, aren't they?

Stay safe & see you soon!