The Distancing Diaries - 1st & 2nd December, 2020

December 1st was the date those of us who are self-employed were able to apply for a third Covid grant and by 7am I'd submitted my claim and already received notification of the amount I was due. Business out of the way I did my Wii Fit workout, put away Sunday's laundry (Jon's jeans had taken an age to dry) then stood outside marveling at the glorious sunrise.

After our breakfast Jon made sandwiches & filled the flask and we headed thirty minutes down the road to the glorious one hundred and thirty-four acre Packwood Estate set in the midst of rural Warwickshire. Bought by the wealthy Birmingham businessman and confirmed city dweller, Alfred Ashe in 1904, when asked about his somewhat impulsive purchase he replied I bought it because the boy wanted it.

The boy was his beloved 16-year-old only son, Graham Baron Ash. Baron, as he preferred to be called, was said to be both reserved & courageous with a party-loving generosity. His work with the family firm, which he never much cared for, came to a halt at the outbreak of the First World War when he volunteered for the medical corps. Before joining up he travelled to, amongst other places, Burma, India and Egypt, where he recorded his encounters with the people he met. In his diary he writes of bribing a priest in China to order to acquire an ancient roof tile. This, it is said, was when a lifetime of haggling over antiques begun. I think Baron & I would have got along well!

Determined never to go back into the family business after leaving the army, Baron dedicated the rest of his life to restoring Packwood House, stripping back the lavish Victorian interior, considered at that time to be hopelessly outdated, and restoring the house to reflect its original Tudor heritage. Due to current restrictions the house is closed to the public but if you want to see it in all its Xmas finery check out my post from December 2016 (HERE). We also visited Packwood in June this year, at the height of the summer (HERE)

Once again the weather gods were on our side. It was a freezing cold but gloriously sunny day with a sky so intensely blue that we could almost have been in the Mediterranean. As we stood and took photos a cyclist slowed down and exclaimed What a day to be alive! We couldn't have agreed more.

WEARING: Vintage Hindu Kush Afghan dress & Mexican tooled leather bag (eBay), Ilse Jacobsen boots and Anokhi riding coat (both retail buys), 1970s Tuscan sheepskin hat & Whistles velvet scarf (charity shopped), Alpaca wrist warmers (End of the Road Festival, 2015)

With more padding than the Michelin Man and grateful that I'd worn my wellies, we had the most fabulous time wandering around the forest, climbing tree stumps, swinging off low hanging branches and splashing in the mud like five year olds.

WEARING: Vintage Swedish army parka, 1960s Norwegian jumper (both charity shopped), Levi 510 jeans (eBay), Clarks walking boots (retail, 2015)

Jon was disappointed that we didn't bring stale bread for the birds like we had when we'd visited Baddesley Clinton, Packwood's near neighbour, a fortnight ago.

Packwood is a house I'd happily live in. I can't wait to see it again in the Spring.

After thawing out our hands on mugs of scalding hot tea, we devoured our sandwiches whilst listening to 6Music's festive party soundtrack, Sleigh Home, Rave Safe! 

 Back at home, after cleaning the mud off my wellies, Jon and I booked ourselves in for our flu jabs (currently free for the Over 50s) then I unraveled yesterday's rainbow beer mittens and remade them to my satisfaction. That's something I've learned about myself over the last eight months....I have patience! I used to race through life, anxious to get stuff done, now I'm happy to take my time.

After a salad we caught up with the final two installments of Grayson Perry's American Road Trip. Jon played in his music room and I went to bed early, keen to crack on with The Lacuna, a book I'm loving but seem to be taking an age to read!

Today (Wednesday 2nd December) marked the end of English lockdown and our first day of living under Tier 3 restrictions. We can't have visitors to our homes and gardens, there's no spectator sports or indoor entertainment allowed and pubs, cafes & restaurants have to remain closed unless they can offer takeaways but all non-essential retail shops, gyms and salons can open. We're also not allowed to visit areas in lower tiers than ours, fortunately we've got some fantastic National Trust properties on our doorstep so no problem there. I'm sure it's of no surprise that I didn't head to Birmingham to visit Primarni which was staying open for 24 hours! I might be tempted to visit the clearance chazza soon but I've scored some cracking bargains on eBay over the last couple of days so I'm in no real rush for a shopping fix.

 I did my Wii Fit workout and woke Jon with the news that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine had been approved by the regulators. Some good news at last! After breakfast, leaving Jon to paint above the picture rail in the spare bedroom (something he'd been meaning to do since he redecorated last year) I braved the cold to take some stock photos in the garden, just managing to get them done before the heavens opened and I had to scuttle back inside.

After our noodles I wrote descriptions and uploaded my listings to eBay, selling one of the dresses within minutes - I love it when that happens. The postman arrived with some posh wool, now I know what I'm doing I'm planning to crochet Jon a hat in some chunky flecked Aran, which looking at the weather forecast is possibly tomorrow's task.

We try not to put the heating on until the evening so I wore my pom pom hat and beer mittens on all day. I'm wearing my vintage block printed Chelsea Girl dress again (second time in 10 days) with a quilted Phool waistcoat (swapped with a trader friend at a fair last year), my roaring lion tooled leather belt (from out of the three for £1 bin in a charity shop) and my trusty clog boots.

After tidying up the spare room I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with blog reading, making an executive decision against taking a walk around the block due to the inclement weather opting for a beer and watching BoJo's latest update instead. 

Tea was a vegetable jalfrezi with rice and a couple of cocktail sized snacks on the side. It's Wednesday which means rum night at Stonecroft. We're going to start watching Steve McQueen's Small Axe series on catch-up tonight, I've heard great things about it.

Cheers, stay safe and see you very soon!