The Distancing Diaries - 7th & 8th November, 2020

 

Saturday morning started, like Saturdays generally do, with Jon getting up first, tending to the lads and bringing mugs of tea back to bed where we read till around 8.30am. Jon got up to make a start on the breakfast, I stripped and changed the bed, loaded the washing machine and demolished my veggie sausage and fried egg on toast whilst watching the news.

Jon needed to pick up Stephen's repeat prescription from the vets so with a day of rain forecast for Sunday I cracked on with the leaf sweeping, filling the garden waste bin, ready for the final collection of the year, and raking the remainder into the borders.

Saturday was another beautifully bright, but chilly, day so I wore my Afghan waistcoat over my gardening dress, I usually reach for the Phool jacket I'd hand washed on Friday but it was still drying. Jon, now back from the vet, gave the kitchen wall by the new shelves a tickle with the paint brush and brought mugs of coffee outside where we sat in the shelter and marvelled at how many sparrows were enjoying the topped up fat blocks. With tasks completed for the day, we took ourselves off for a walk around the block.

Whilst Jon and the lads lounged in front of the TV watching an ancient Carry On film I made a batch of cheese and olive scones. After we'd tested an oven-fresh scone, slathered in butter, I took myself off upstairs for a self-care afternoon, stripping off the nail paint, deep-conditioning & washing my hair and epilating my legs with 6Music for company.

Tea was a couple of savoury scones with salad and a glass of wine to celebrate the US Election result.

 We spent the evening watching Spooks although struggled to hear a lot of it due to the firework madness going on outside. Needless to say, rum was consumed. We've just been introduced to new spook, Lucas North and his William Blake tattoo....

I didn't wake up till almost 8am on Sunday and would probably have been in bed even later if hadn't been for Frank frantically sharpening his claws on the bedroom rug. I made mugs of tea, brought them back to bed where we read until 8.45am. We had toast for breakfast and watched The Andrew Marr Show. After wrapping the latest eBay sales I painted my nails in Barry M's Evergreen.

We went through our newly sorted box of tat collection of vintage kitchenalia and arranged it on the kitchen shelves. Jon's original plan was to use reclaimed floorboards or scaffolding planks but both were in short supply so he made do with what we already had lying around. In this case, the remainder of the pitch pine Victorian cupboard of which Jon had used the doors to create a storage space in the alcove on the other side of the fireplace.

The only purchase was the cast iron Singer brackets we'd bought online. 

We've tweaked the shelves again since we took this photo but this was how they looked at 11am this morning. If you're a regular reader you'll no doubt recognise everything. The only new addition is the newly framed collection of vintage Indian matchbox covers.

Did you spot the Moghul-inspired shelf my friend Sarah made for us? It matches the kitchen walls perfectly and is just the right size to accommodate this 1930s Kashmiri papier mache pot bought from a car boot sale for 50p.

I thought I'd posted a photo of this orange & smoked acrylic Herbert Terry & Sons 1970s Cyclops lamp when I found it for £5 in a charity shop eight years ago but a quick trawl of the archives proved me wrong. They were the company who first manufactured the anglepoise lamp in 1934 and were based down the road in Redditch in the West Midlands. 

 

After a lunch of noodles Jon set about cleaning the baffle plate on the wood burner, something we knew nothing about until reading Cherie's blog post earlier. I escaped the ash cloud by going into the garden &  harvesting some peas to go in our curry later.

 We planted our peas just before we went to Crete and there's loads of them, they're gorgeous, really crisp, peppery and delicious. 

WEARING: Vintage Anokhi block printed maxi waistcoat (online vintage shop), Heatgen thermal polo neck and Maguba clog boots (eBay), Devore bellbottoms (Suzanne Carillo)

We went for a walk around the block, getting halfway before the heavens opened. We'd been expecting torrential rain all day so had escaped quite lightly. Once back we had a posh coffee to warm up and, as soon as there was a let up in the rain, I tore myself away from the PC and dashed outside for a quick outfit photo forgetting that I was still wearing my reading glasses. 

Before you say it, it's not the first time I've been compared to my Dad's pin-up, Nana Mouskouri, who incidentally was born in Chania, our new favourite place! 

I bought this vintage Kuchi pendant from pals, Old's Cool Traders back in August. The sides are removable so you can stash away precious things but somehow I managed to lose one of them the second time I wore it. This morning I spotted something glinting in the underwear drawer and it was the missing bit. Hooray! I've now secured it with a bit of duct tape.

Tea was a hot and spicy veggie curry with rice. Tonight we'll be watching more Spooks once I've caught up with blogland.

Stay safe & see you soon!