The Distancing Diaries - 13th & 14th June, 2021

On Sunday morning I put as many of the houseplants I could fit into the bath and sink to soak, mopped the kitchen floor and took mugs of tea back to bed where we lay and read until just gone 8.30am. After a couple of slices of toast, I gave the plants a feed with Baby Bio and Jon & I took a walk around the garden to see what had sprung up overnight. 

It's such a thrilling time of year, new things are continually springing up. The first of my nasturtiums have flowered...here's to hundreds more. I can't believe how many plants my tiny £1.99 plant I bought last year has yielded.

It was the day to give the Anokhi jumpsuit its first outing. It's a tricky item to photograph as the legs are so wide that it looks like a dress from most angles. 

I wore it with my Lotta from Stockholm silver clogs, a vintage Moroccan necklace and my 1960s Christian Dior sunglasses (all via eBay)

We watched The Andrew Marr Show and then drove into Walsall to the clearance charity shop, donating a handful of books we'd read. With temperatures set to reach the high 20s and England playing later, there was a real air of excitement, tiny tots dressed in England strips and people carrying boxes of beer and freshly purchased paddling pools and water pistols. After a rummage, we popped down to Wilko for some cutting compost (sadly out of stock) and some flower seeds. We'd watched Gardeners' World the previous evening and Monty had sow pot marigolds on the to-do list - we went off-piste and bought everything but!

Books, Jasper Conran & Ben Sherman jackets, 1980s suede belt, Ben Sherman shirt and a mohair cardi

Back at home, I did a load of washing & pegged it out on the line, we tucked into a bowl of noodles and then lay in the sun until 2pm when Jon went into the house to watch the match and I stayed outside listening to the commentary on 5Live. I loved hearing the shouts of joy from neighbouring houses when Raheem Sterling scored.

After the match, Jon brought out a couple of beers and joined me on the lawn beer and we basked in the sunshine until 5pm before watering the garden.

Tea was Punjabi masala, paneer and mushroom for me and chicken for Jon. What better than chilli hot, spicy food on a baking hot day? Works for us in India! Later on, we watched Austria Vs North Macedonia and the Netherlands Vs Ukraine ( a real thriller of a game). 

On Monday morning disaster struck and my Wii Fit disc kept giving me an error message, it's been on the blink for a while but it appeared to have finally given up the ghost. I went online and found a replacement on eBay for £3.33 - hopefully, it shouldn't take too long to arrive. Instead, I caught up with Blogland, wrapped my eBay packages and washed my hair.

After breakfast, which included a few home-grown strawberries, I soaked this flower seed token Claire sent me a while ago in water for an hour and planted it in a pot. Jon left to do the post office and supermarket run before calling round at Tony's for a catch-up.  

When I was lying in the garden the previous day the sight of the plastic gro-bag with some of the tomato plants annoyed me so my mission for the morning was to make a raised bed. I selected five planks from the demolished shed and the leftovers from the joists Jon had used to make fence posts and set to work.

I was glad I did my woodwork halfway down the garden, as opposed to the front steps, as my bikini top pinged off with the effort of sawing the planks of wood to size. I'd just transferred the toms to their new home when Jon arrived back. Whilst he sorted out the shopping & got the noodles on I tied up the sweet peas.

After lunch, I took the radio outside and we listened to Scotland Vs Czech on 5Live. In what some folk might see as a role reversal, Jon sowed flower seeds while I knocked up a planter from some offcuts languishing in the woodpile.

Not to be outdone, leaving me painting my creation, Jon made a raised bed for our patty pans and ruby red chard using some Victorian skirting board and more of the leftover joists.

Is that a gun-wielding cat astride a unicorn on Jon's teeshirt? Of course, it is! I saw someone wearing one at Glasto in 2015 (check out my post HERE if you're missing festivals as much as I am) and just had to track one down for Jon's birthday a few months later.

Yes, the sun's out and the summer wardrobe is in full swing...shorts, Birkis and bright colours in Jon's case.

I've been in my bikini all day (Matthew Williamson, £4 in Debenhams sale, 2017). I adore clothes but given the choice, I'd be near-naked every day of the year. It's so unfair that I was born in Northern Europe.

After I'd watered the garden we had tea, quiche and salad accompanied by a beer and some of Bojo's press conference but we soon got bored and switched back to Poland Vs Slovakia. I was starting to wonder where Frank was as we'd not seen him for ages - turned out he'd been locked in the Kinky Shed for two hours. Jon's just apologised by way of some Bavarian smoked ham.

Tonight we'll be watching Spain Vs Sweden and looking forward to tomorrow, we're off to another National Trust property we've not visited before.

See you soon!

PS From July Blogger is discontinuing email notifications when your favourite blogs update and you'll need to re-register. I've added a box to the top of my sidebar which should help. Thanks to Sheila for explaining how to add the widget to our sidebars.