The Distancing Diaries - 10th - 13th December, 2020

Thank you so much for all the fabulous comments on my last two posts. A billion apologies for not replying or visiting any blogs this weekend, I'm not sure where the time has gone but normal service will be resumed shortly, I promise!

 So how have we been filling our time? On Thursday morning I did a load of washing and hung it up to dry in the utility room then did my daily Wii Fit workout.We'd just finished breakfast when Jon's phone pinged to let him know that he had a new message, he laughed when he opened it....

Rob, who lives behind us, sent Jon this photo of Frank, playing with his favourite toy in their house. He often disappears for an hour for so after breakfast, he's such a cheeky monkey! They adore him.

THURSDAY: Anokhi tea dress (Bought new from their Chowpatti branch in Mumbai, 2020), Anokhi fabric waistcoat and wine crochet pom pom hat (both made by me), 1960s-does-Edwardian leather & suede boots (£1, car boot sale 2013), green arm warmers (TopShop sale, 1990s)

Leaving Jon with his DIY, as it was a dry day I got cracking with photographing more stock. Taking advantage of the light I took my coat off to show off the true colour of my me-made waistcoat. 

After a break for noodles I listed my stock on eBay (selling a couple of items within minutes) before wrapping up the latest sales ready for dropping off at the post office in the morning. A quick browse on eBay led to a cheeky purchase. 

After a catch-up with blogland, I got my fabric scissors out and cut out some more material ready for another project. 

Tea was corn on the cob served with salad. Later we watched Mangrove, another film in Steve McQueen's Small Axe series. Aside from the incredible acting and compelling story line I was thrilled to see several items I had in my wardrobe being worn by the female cast. There were some seriously cool dressers back in 1968! There's a fascinating interview with Lisa Duncan, the costumier behind the series HERE.

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On Friday, after booking next week's National Trust adventure,  I put the previous day's laundry away and popped a couple of houseplants in the utility room sink to soak before doing my final Wii Fit workout of the week. There had been another flurry of eBay sales overnight so I wrapped those before joining Jon in the kitchen for our fruit & yogurt breakfast.

Leaving me sweeping the downstairs rugs, Jon headed off to the post office, popping into the supermarket on the way home. By the time he was back - caught up with the Xmas shopping madness - I'd tackled the mending pile and made Jon a mask with the Anokhi fabric leftover from my waistcoat.

As the Swedish DIY project was complete we took photos ready to share on the blog and then had a vegan sausage roll each for lunch. After we'd eaten we masked up and headed for the clearance charity shop, our reward for working hard all week.

WEARING: Scotch & Soda coat, Rockport desert boots, 1970s cycling top (all charity shopped), Levi 510 jeans (eBay), Hand woven wool scarf (FabIndia, Jodhpur)

We might only be popping down to the charity shop for an hour but in these strange times it's a special occasion and decent clothing has to be worn!

WEARING: Vintage Adini Indian block printed maxi (Charity shop), Silk kantha scarf (Jodhpur, India), 1970s Anokhi quilted jacket & Reiss wool fedora (eBay)

There's a Japanese made cotton kimono with obi and a couple of framed Moghul paintings which were no doubt brought back from someone's travels in Rajasthan. Jon treated himself to a spotty cotton shirt and some skinny fit checked trousers (originally Topman) and I snaffled these brand new Nike running leggings and matching vest. The last time I'd ventured into a sports shop was with my mum to buy a hockey stick in 1977 so had no idea until I checked online that these leggings retail at around £50. Do you like how my indoor watering can matches the ensemble? As I always say, wait long enough and what you want always turns up in a charity shop. In this case it was an item from H&M's 2018 William Morris collection, a tie neck blouse in his iconic Pimpernel design and, as luck would have it, not only in the colourway I liked the best but also in an XS, hooray! 

After photographing and washing our spoils I spent the rest of the afternoon writing a blog post. We had pizza and sweet potato wedges for tea, cracked open the rum and settled down to The Twelve, a Belgian thriller currently on Channel 4's European drama channel, Walter.

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On Saturday Jon was up first. He made tea and brought it back to bed where we lay and read until 8am. After he went downstairs to make a start of breakfast I stripped and changed the bed, removed my nail paint and epilated my legs. After loading the washing machine I joined Jon in the kitchen for sausage sandwiches and coffee. 

I browsed the internet and found a suitable replacement for the orange-y pine toilet seat, it can be our joint present to one another, who says we don't do Xmas in style? I ironed and put away yesterday's laundry and got dressed. Needless to say, I road tested yesterday's William Morris blouse. Initially I wasn't keen on the fabric of the blouse but once on, it felt fine.

WEARING: William Morris Pimpernel blouse and vintage felted wool hat (charity shopped), 1970s India Imports of Rhode Island pinafore(eBay), Tarantella of Walsall (bought from our friends G&T back in their vintage trading days)

Leaving Jon to work through a to-do list which involved bleeding the radiators, touching up the paint on the bathroom skirting board & backing up my PC (which meant I was offline all day), I had a tidy up of the borders, cutting down the last of the crocosmia and agapanthus leaves.... 

....and then put away my birthday presents.

Inspired by our recent trip to the De Morgan gallery at Wightwick Manor (HERE), Liz painted me of his amazing designs as a birthday card. She & Al also gave me a ceramic plant marker, a newspaper plant pot mould, some homemade fingerless mittens, a machine embroidered (by her) bag, some fruit leather, date, walnut & Parmesan biscotti and a plant in the most incredible shade of purple.

Jon bought me some extremely posh teas and two fancy tempered glass mugs to enjoy them from, a tooth cleaning gadget and loads of goodies from Lush. Lynn & Philip sent me the Sarah Jane Adams book (I love her), Marcus is a bit of a foodie and gave me the artisan bread making kits, the truffles & rum were from Tony & the rum from Liz's mum, Hazel who celebrates her 80th tomorrow. 

After trying out one of the fancy teas from my birthday selection pack we drove to the local garden centre, which was dreadfully desolate so we left empty handed and headed to B&Q as we needed a few DIY bits. Expecting the worst, we were pleasantly surprised by how quiet it was and whizzed in and out in minutes. Back at home we settled down in front of the TV and watched The Grand Budapest Hotel, I can watch Wes Anderson films over and over again, and frequently do!

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Tea was a vegan Moroccan spiced pasty with roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots. We drank rum and cola, watched another splendid Small Axe film and the season finale of The Valhalla Murders, which in my humble opinion, wasn't one of BBC4's better Nordic noirs.

On Sunday morning I was up just after 7am, making tea and bringing it back to bed. I read and Jon and the lads snoozed. We got up an hour and a half later, had toast and watched The Andrew Marr Show. I put 300g split peas, a sliced onion, three cloves of garlic, 450ml vegetable stock, a tin of tomatoes, a generous splash of Henderson's Relish, black pepper & dried parsley into the slow cooker to turn into a shepherdess pie for tea. While I painted my nails, Jon descaled the washing machine (I know, we really do live an exciting life!)

WEARING: Miss Peck by Polly Peck 1960s maxi dress (charity shop), Doc Martens (Facebook selling page)

Tony had a broken shower so Jon went round to fix it (allowed as he's doing essential domestic repairs) and I spent the morning sewing, repurposing the dupatta shawl in which Liz had wrapped my birthday plant, something you can't do with a sheet of glittery wrapping paper.

With a substantial tea planned for later, we had a Belgian waffle with a mug of tea for lunch. 

Liz and Adrian popped round for a socially distanced exchange of birthday & Xmas presents. It seems a shame to use this gorgeous cat tea towel!

Topped with cheesy mustard mash and accompanied by a tin of sweetcorn, our shepherdess pie was delicious.

My friend Shaz asked me about Xmas decorations - so especially for her here's my concession to the silly season....our cheeseplant festooned with some fairy lights nicked from the doll's house. I will stick a bit of greenery from the garden up on 24th. It ain't Xmas till Xmas Eve in this house (and it's all over by Boxing Day) Bah Humbug!

Stay safe & see you soon!