The Distancing Diairies - 25th & 26th April, 2021

On Sunday morning I stripped off my nail paint while I was waiting for the tea to brew then took our mugs back to bed where we lay and read until 8am. We had toast for breakfast and I painted my nails with Barry M's Blood Orange whilst watching The Andrew Marr Show. It's barefoot gardening time so after a six-month break, I'm painting my toenails again.

Once dressed we drove into town and had a rummage in the charity clearance shop. I'd found a few things but on reflection, they weren't setting my world alight so I put most of them back. I settled on another pile of paperbacks, a 1970s Indian embroidered leather bag (£1) and this Diesel vest dress, also £1, which will be perfect workout wear. Initially, I thought it was one of those fakes you always used to see for sale in Turkey in the 80s & 90s but no, it's legit & retailed a couple of years ago for £80 (utter madness!) The care label is so crisp I doubt it's been worn more than once. Jon wanted something comfy for lounging around in after his evening shower and managed to find some Zara navy cotton drawstring trousers for £2.

We walked down to Wilko to get fat blocks for the birds and some screws and ended up buying a couple of terracotta plant saucers, some garlic bulbs & two gorgeous varieties of Rhipsalis, as you do!

The tomato dress got the first outing of 2021. Vintage cotton dresses, clogs and ridiculously over-the-top 1970s sunglasses, my summer uniform! This dress was listed on eBay as a "fruit print kaftan", no wonder I won it for a song. I'd love to know what mind-bending drugs the person who embroidered this was on. 

Back at home I watered the new plants and hung them up in the bathroom while Jon repotted the cucumbers & pepper seedlings.

After a break for noodles, I spent an hour watering the garden then retired to the lawn where I lay in the sun and finished my Peter James thriller. As paneer & veg curry was on the menu for later I harvested the last of the purple sprouting broccoli before digging up the plants and sticking them in the compost bin.

I went through the bookshelves looking for my next book. My first choice was Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, which I'd bought from the charity shop last week but read the sleeve notes and realised I'd already read it. I absolutely loved it but didn't feel like I needed to re-read it again just yet.

This spy thriller set in Tudor England has rave reviews, I wonder if any of Lord Jon's lot will get a mention?

Talking of which, here's Jon's 16 x great aunt, The Blessed Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. 

Warblington Castle in Hampshire, the family home

Margaret Plantagenet (like any history lover, I nearly died with excitement when I spotted that surname on Jon's family tree) was the daughter of George, the Duke of Clarence, who was executed for treason by allegedly being drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine (an interesting way to go) and Isabel Neville.  She was the niece of Richard III and Edward IV. She was born at Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset on 14th August 1473 and married Richard Pole, in a match arranged by Henry VII, her guardian since childhood and a close relative of Richard.

Margaret's execution

 Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband and managed her lands so well that she was the fifth richest peer in the realm. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed on 27th May 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on 29 December 1886.

Reginald Pole in a portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo

Margaret had five children, four sons and one daughter. Reginald (1500 - 1558) became an English cardinal and was the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, holding office from 1556 - 1558 during the Counter-Reformation. 

Wolf Hall - I've read the book but have yet to watch the TV adaptation. 

Cardinal Pole is a major character in The Time Before You Die by Lucy Beckett and The Trusted Servant by Alison Macleod and also features in Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror and the Light. He and his brothers, sister and mother are the central characters in Phillipa Gregory's, The King's Curse. Margaret appears in Shakespeare's Richard III as the young daughter of the murdered Duke of Clarence. She also appears in Hilary Mantell's Wolf Hall and Bringing Up The Bodies. 

After a splendid curry, we spent the evening watching Waking the Dead and Line of Duty. I can't believe it's the series finale next week, there are so many questions that need answering!

On Monday I wrapped my eBay sales, put the seedlings outside and did my Wii Fit workout, dressed in my new-to-me vest. The old one (50p from a charity shop four years ago has been chopped up & relegated to the duster drawer.) After breakfast, I had an epic blogland catch-up and claimed for the government's self-employed Covid grant. There was much excitement when the exotic bulbs Jon had ordered from the Netherlands arrived, beautifully presented in 100% recyclable packaging. 

Jon left for his Monday morning routine of the Post Office run, a supermarket shop and coffee with Tony. It was yet another bright, sunny day and despite the forecast being for temperatures of around 12°C, with our west-facing walled garden, it was warm enough for bare feet and a floaty frock.  

My trusty beach dress bought from a little boutique on Colaba Causeway in Mumbai in 2018. My heart breaks watching India being overwhelmed by Covid. 

The seeds we'd collected from last year's Empress of India nasturtiums were coming along a treat so I potted them on, which I'll transplant into chimney pots in a few weeks' time. The Black Velvet seeds we'd bought from Wilkos were a little slow to get going but they're starting to shoot up now.

I was expecting a call so, as I don't have a mobile phone, had to stay within earshot of the house phone which meant reading my book in the sunshine on the patio. No hardship, really.  

I was looking at some microgreen kits in Wilko the other day, the in-thing apparently. I thought I'd have a go at growing something similar, filling an old enamel lampshade with potting compost and sprinkling a mixture of lettuce seeds over the top. They're delicious!

Once Jon was back we had noodles and drove up to the garden centre for some compost. We spotted some strawberry plants going cheap so bought them, too. Back at home, we planted the strawberries in the rustic planter we'd made from an old pallet a couple of weeks ago which we lined with the empty sack the compost had come in.

Jacob was stomping around his enclosure like a thing possessed and soon demolished the Reine de Glace lettuce & Mizuna leaves I threw at him. Growing our own leaves saves us a fortune - both the tortoise and us get through loads of them and they're much tastier than the boring stuff they sell in the supermarket. 

Jon planted his exotic bulbs while I potted up my marigolds. They did me proud last year and bloomed until the end of November, I hope this lot do the same.

We chopped down a laurel bush, planted some garlic and moved the Euphorbia and after giving everything a good watering. we sat down and enjoyed a mug of tea in the late afternoon sunshine. 

Tea was a salad with red onion, Cheddar and mozzarella focaccia accompanied with a glass of wine. We'll be watching more of Waking the Dead later and looking forward to tomorrow's National Trust adventure.

See you soon!