The Distancing Diaries - Day 120 & 121

On Saturday (day 120) I opened my eyes to find both the cats staring at me intently and took it as my cue to get up, feed them and let them out. I made mugs of tea and took them back to bed where I read and Jon snoozed until just gone 8am. While Jon went downstairs to make a start on breakfast I stripped and remade the bed and put the plants that had been soaking overnight in the bath back in their usual positions.

Downstairs, I loaded the washing machine and we ate veggie sausage & mushroom sandwiches. I  pegged out the washing while Jon washed up.

Jon's main mission for the day was to replace Gilbert's fuel line. Before he'd started, he dragged out the garden shredder as I wanted to turn the branches and leaves brought down by Thursday morning's high winds into mulch. I raked up the debris and got stuck in.

Once I'd finished I added the shreddings to Jacob's enclosure and he had a whale of a time burrowing into them.

Next up was smashing the tiles Jon had removed from the kitchen corner the previous, ready to pop into pots for added drainage when I planted them up.

I could say that smashing things up with a lump hammer was a massive stress reliever but since lockdown I can't think of a single moment when I have been stressed.

This houseplant (not sure what it is) has been in my possession since I bought it for 25p from B&Q in 2010. A couple of months ago it went a really strange shape so I trimmed it and tied it to a couple of stakes and it now seems to have righted itself. I removed the stakes and re-potted it. 

I harvested our first crop of dwarf French beans ready for popping into a curry later. 

The postman delivered a parcel, a lovely surprise from my friend, Annie. It's a gorgeous handmade soy wax candle by Reiki Soul Star (link HERE) called "Greek Summer" and is described as An ode to the entire fig tree:the green freshness of the leaves, the density of the white wood, the milky flavour of the figs. The flavour of the fruit takes a back seat to the white cedar wood. It celebrates the strength of the tree's bark, warmed by the midday sun. Needless to say, it smells absolutely amazing.

On Gardener's World the previous evening the jobs for this weekend included cutting down the dried up poppies and putting their seed heads in a brown paper bag ready for sowing in the Autumn, which I did. I also followed their advice and planted some kale in seed trays. The contents are three years out of date, I'll let you know if anything happens.

I'd wondered why Frank had taken himself indoors when Jon, the love of his life, was still outside, he must have known that there was a shower on the way. We joined him and had tea and a slice of vegan flapjack in lieu of lunch. Luckily, the rain didn't amount to much and my washing was already dry.

A mouse had got to this 1970s tartan blanket it had been stashed away in the festival shed over the winter. Reluctant to chuck it away I patched it up with some of the granny squares I'd crocheted at the beginning of lockdown.

The rest of the afternoon stayed dry so I snuggled up on the bench with the patched blanket and my Phillip Kerr paperback.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Jon baked a buckwheat loaf.

Saturday's outfit consisted of my 1970s Ayesha Davar block printed midi skirt (eBay, 2018) and a 1970s Indian gauze cotton blouse by Oasis Trading (which I won for a ridiculous £2.16 from eBay last year). The tooled leather belt was 75p from a charity shop. I'm still persevering with the Clarks' sandals!  

Tea was a curry with our home grown beans and the remains of a bag of mixed vegetables lurking in the depths of the freezer. 

SOURCE

Did I mention Jon having Amazon Prime on a month's free trial? Searching through the programmes available we stumbled across My Greek Odyssey, a series hosted by Peter Maneas, an Australian born to Greek migrants, cruising around the Greek Islands in his superyacht, the Mia Zoi (One Life). A working class lad made good, Maneas is a real pleasure to travel with, fluent in Greek and his passion and enthusiasm for the country is a joy. We consumed four episodes on Wednesday night and watched another three last night. Highly recommended! To add to the Greek experience we burnt Annie's candle.

Barry M nail paint of the week - All The Things She Red

On Sunday (day 121) Jon was up first, seeing to the lads before bringing mugs of tea back to bed. We read until 8am and, after I'd painted my nails, we had cheese on toast for breakfast. We took our coffee outside and drank it in the sunshine, accompanied by Frank who was off his tits after eating some leaves from the cat mint plant in the border.

We needed some fresh fruit so Jon did a quick supermarket run popping round to Tony's on the way as his extractor fan needed mending. I did some deadheading, swept the patio and moved the tomato plants from the greenhouse into the sunshine.

I'm insanely enviously of my virtual friends eating home grown tomatoes whilst ours have either got a few flowers or nothing at all. Now I know how annoying it is when I mention my blossoming agapanthus and crocosmia when others are still waiting for theirs! Sorry!

 I was wearing the vintage cheesecloth top that I'd bought from eBay and had arrived last week along with Monica's (aka Senora Allnut) Mum's shorts from the 1970s and my trusty festival hat but changed into a bikini and the factor 30 after half-an-hour.

When Jon got back we had our lunchtime noodles and he joined me in the garden. As we'd got some room on the veg plot he decided to transplant some of the many tomato plants over there as well as fashioning a shelf in the greenhouse using wood from the wood pile.

I finished my Philip Kerr book and started on A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry which I thought I'd read years ago but to my joy I realised that I hadn't, I was confusing it with Family Matters.

In the veg patch there's flowers on the courgette plant, the lemon & normal cucumber and the beginnings of one on the squash Liz gave us last week,  the Sicilian purple cauliflower is shooting up as is the purple sprouting broccoli. There's leeks and onions. The kohl rabi and both carrot plants are still hanging on, there's a second sowing of beetroot, French beans, the potatoes are imminent, there's sproutings of snowball turnips, the aubergines are looking good and there's a fresh crop of Oriental leaves. Our second sowing of rocket & lettuce failed miserably!

After the sun had disappeared behind the trees Jon gave everything a thorough watering,

Leaving the frivolous patio plants for me to sort out.

Tea was half a posh sour dough pizza (Jon can't resist them when they're on offer) with salad and grilled haloumi on the side.

The plan for tonight is a couple more hours exploring the Greek islands with Peter followed by the last episode of The Luminaries (sob!)

Stay safe and see you soon!

The Distancing Diaries - Day 92 & 93

On Saturday I was awake first (well, technically it was Stephen who'd been running up and down the bed since before 5am). Miraculously, it was a sunny start to the day so I loaded the washing machine, let the lads out and brought tea back to bed where Jon & I read until just after 8am.

Jon made a start on breakfast whilst I stripped the bed, hung the washing I'd done earlier on the line and put another load in to wash. After we'd eaten veggie sausage sandwiches, I gave the houseplants their fortnightly feed and pegged out the rest of the washing. 

Researching clocks the previous day I'd stumbled across a website selling Indian vintage and reconditioned furniture where a piece of industrial salvage had caught my eye. After thinking about it for most of last night, I had a look on eBay and found someone selling the same thing for a fraction of the price and, as it was a Buy-it-Now listing, soon snapped it up. I'd also been looking at tiles as, although we'd got enough in the shed to tile the area behind the painted Welsh dresser base, we wanted something different elsewhere in the kitchen. I made a note of the measurements, cut a piece of cardboard to size, and Jon worked out how many we needed. As delivery costs were expensive (almost half the price of the tiles) Jon called the shop and arranged to collect them later in the week.

Although the earlier sunshine had vanished & the sky was looking somewhat ominous, Jon decided that he was going to go for it with the circular saw outside. Meanwhile, once I'd filled the garden waste bin and fed Jacob, I had a cupboard that needed dealing with. It's a cute little thing and cost me 50p from a car boot sale a few years ago. 

As I was waiting for the paint to dry the heavens opened and I had to dash up the garden to rescue the washing and Jon threw a tarp over his woodwork. Once the rain had passed over we resumed our outdoor activities although I decided not to risk putting the washing back out.

The postman arrived with a parcel from Spain from my fabulous friend, Senora Allñutt (find her blog HERE) who I met in London just over a year ago. Her Mum recently had a clearout and Monica thought that our festival-goers would appreciate her 1990s stripy Mango top, the old-school waterproof jacket and two pairs of white shorts her parents wore in the 70s along with a book that looks really interesting and a gorgeous handmade card.

I liked the look of her Mum's high-waisted Joper white denim shorts and, as the sun had suddenly reappeared, thought I'd give them a try. I've never owned a pair of white shorts in my life and I love them!

I finished The Greek for Love and lazed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. Once Jon had given the tomato plants their fortnightly seaweed feed, he and the lads joined me.

Once my second coat of homemade chalk paint was dry, I sanded the cupboard down and waxed it. I'm not sure where it's going to go or what I'll keep in it but I like it a lot more now.

Tea was pizza with salad and a glass of beer. We watched an amazing documentary, Tutankhamun in Colour, where the photos and film footage of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's discovery of the boy king's tomb were colourised making them so much more real than the black & white originals. We also watched an excellent film,  99 Homes, on the BBC i-player. Needless to say, as it was Saturday, rum was consumed.

Sunday, day 93 of lockdown, and yet again, I woke first. I fed and let the lads out and brought mugs of tea back to bed where we read until 8.15am. I started a new book, I haven't read a crime thriller for ages.

I put away the laundry that had been hanging up in the utility room since yesterday and Jon toasted crumpets for breakfast which we ate whilst watching Gardener's World in the kitchen. Inspired, I went through the seed box and selected some seeds to sow later. Jon popped round to Tony's as they had a few groceries to swap (beer for us, coffee pods for him) while, a day later than usual, I painted my nails, deep-conditioned my hair and epilated my legs.

This week's colour is Barry M's All The Things She Red.

We'd been promised a warm day and, despite it being cloudy and rather chilly, I thought I'd give the patio plants a thorough watering just in case, like yesterday, the weather improved later.

I'd just planted some watercress, spinach and French beans before the rain started and I had to dash back indoors. These two weren't as fast as me, seeking shelter beneath Gilbert.

Jon returned with the beer and some fresh fruit he'd picked up from the Co-op on the way back from Tony's. We had a vegan pasty for lunch and afterwards Jon continued with his woodworking while I washed the ornaments I wanted to put back on the old railway sleeper above the cooker.

As you can see, I came up with an idea for yesterday's painted cupboard. Jon hung some of our collection of antique glass bottles inside it.

If you live in an old industrial area like we do, all you need is a spade and you're almost guaranteed to find Victorian bottles in your garden. These were all discovered in our last house, a Victorian terrace that backed on to a railway line. Prior to moving in with Jon, the first house I bought stood on the site of an old buckle factory and I was forever digging up rusty belt buckles. As Stonecroft started life as three Eighteenth-century farm labourers' cottages all we ever seem to dig up is old animal bones (at least I hope that's what they are).

A trio of mid-century Polish enamel coffee pots. The green one was my parents, it came from Habitat in the 1960s, the other two were car boot finds.

These Dartmouth Pottery glug jugs were my Grandma's.

This 1930s Indian elephant was 50p from one of the house clearance stalls at the Thursday morning car boot sale. His faceted glass eyes make him a cut above the mass-produced tourist tat you'll often find in India these days.

These Staffordshire Greek Revival vases (circa 1850) were my Grandma's, she bought them from a jumble sale in the 1950s. Obsessed with Greek mythology as a child, I'd always loved them.

The Victorian painted metal lion came from the parental home and used to live in my brother's bedroom who, like Jon is a Leo.

This Victorian chalkware bust was 25p from the town centre flea market.

This 1930s Kashmiri papier-mâché vase was another 50p find from the Thursday morning car boot sale. It came from the same stall as the elephant.

These Irene Series horses head vases were £1.99 from a charity shop a couple of years ago. They are marked "Foreign" as goods produced after WWII and made in Germany or Japan often were, as it was considered unpatriotic to buy anything made by our wartime enemies.

WEARING: Lightweight kaftan (Mumbai, 2018), silver hoop & chain earrings (our sorely-missed festival neighbours, Shilpa Silver), silver & malachite pendant (Flea market, Goa 2002) 

The rain let up long enough for me to nip outside and pose for a photo. There's nothing new to see, this kaftan has been worn on repeat during lockdown, but I'm trying to post everything I've worn over the last 93 days for posterity.

Tea will be bread, cheese, salad and pickles once I've had a shower and washed my hair. I'm wildly excited about The Luminaries on BBC1 at 9pm tonight. I read Eleanor Catton's book, upon which the series is based, on the beach in Kos a couple of years ago and it was utterly spellbinding.

Stay safe & see you soon!

PS I've fallen behind yet again, I promise to catch up with blogs and comments very soon.