Reflecting on my week #124

I’m not sure how a week has passed since my last blog post, though actually it’s quite plausible as right now I’m in that space where I have no idea which day it is anyway. They are all sort of merging and there is little separating each day, each morning I wake up and mentally have to check which day it is, but I don’t think I’m alone. It’s been another week with few outings, in line with government guidance.

MOH has been out for a cycle most days, but my trips have been restricted to the garden (which I’m not counting as properly outside), the local supermarket (which is walkable), the greengrocers and the butchers. I may even branch out next week and go to the bakers as well. It’s interesting though as I thought he was more introverted than me, but it’s him that’s struggling the most.

I’m fine being home. Even work aside (and he has plenty of that too), I’ve plenty to keep me occupied. There’s the garden - though I save that for when he’s around to empty my trugs, and crafting, whether that’s crochet, lettering, or there’s cooking and of course the washing. He has household tasks too, in fact trying to stop him clean is a challenge, but yet he’s still ‘bored.’

He worked Saturday - and it wasn’t a short one, and so I was happy to amuse myself. We were both tired though by the time he finished close to midnight and so, what makes our ‘weekends’ are slow starts to our days. A lounging breakfast, which is almost brunch and plenty of tea and/or coffee.

Our new barbecue is up and running, with its inaugural burgers being cooked Friday evening. Our timing was off though, and the days not quite as long as suits us, so they were also mostly cooked by torchlight. And very nice they were too, I’m hoping it’ll get plenty more use over the next few months.

We’ve been gardening, and filling our green bins - but not over-filling them, as requested by the council. We’re composting what we can, which at this time of our gardening year, isn’t much. And finally, our camellia is flowering - it’s worth waiting for, and this year it looks as if it has plenty of blooms to come.

The other thing about this lockdown period is the amount of times our dishwasher is going on. Clearly we don’t eat three meals a day at home very often and we’re getting through our crockery! Actually I think I might have a post brewing about the lockdown and our experiences, but not quite what you think - look out for that.

Lunches are my nemesis though, much the same as non-lockdown days. Though I’m calling tinned fish a win. Up until now MOH has turned his nose up whenever this is suggested, but we’ve had tinned fish twice now, and both times his plate was clean.

Yesterday it was the turn of our ‘1967’ (a good year btw) sardines, which we brought back from Lisbon last summer. They were tasty, and gave the perfect opportunity to use my picnic plates for the first time. I do like a nice plate, MOH was less sure about the plates - maybe that’s why the fish got a smoother ride, who knows? But also, MOH didn’t even know we had these plates…

On Good Friday I was due to join an online class to learn rag rugging - and yes, I know I said I didn’t need to learn a new skill, seems rag rugging is the exception! - but the materials for the class hadn’t arrived. Of course, they arrived on Saturday, a day late, and so I’ll join the class this morning instead.

I’m looking forward to it, and have already realised there’s much more to it - and much more that you can do with it - than you’d think. I’ll let you know how I get on, but in the meantime, please do feel every sympathy for Elspeth, who has the tricky task of teaching me, and remotely at that.

Reflecting on my week #123

Right now I feel that I could start every post exclaiming what a week, and each is more of a week than previous. I’m now sat here in front of the tv typing this post and learning that Boris has been moved into intensive care. Everything right now seems on its head; the coronavirus situation, social distancing, lockdown, our new normal, our political landscape (though to be fair, that’s been incredibly bonkers since the middle of 2016, hasn’t it?) Whatever your political views, let’s hope for a speedy recovery.

My week has involved lost photos, working until almost midnight, finally venturing out, picking my crochet up again, some gardening and getting my sourdough back on. I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the posts on social media about learning a new skill, or a new language while we’re in lockdown, and to be quite frank this is absolute tosh. My working days are actually far harder, and longer, than if I was in the office. What our team has noticed, apart from the increased workload that all comms teams are experiencing right now, is just how much we share just by being co-located, and so building that into our remote working days takes effort.

And when a process hiccup materialises as a technical oversight and out of office hours, it makes for a long night, for a lot of people. It was fixed, but not without a fair bit of angst all round. Ironically that day I’d had the morning off in recognition of the hours I’d worked. What’s more, I missed the virtual bar with friends and our online shopping delivery happened the same evening too. Overall it was quite a busy evening in this household.

I have though been making good progress with my Vintage Hearts crocheted blanket too. Above are most of the Granny Marion squares, which give a hint of just how colourful this blanket will be. I think there’s something about the rhythm and repetitiveness that’s calming, the concentration and the constant colour changes also help - though I’m currently ignoring just how many ends there will be to sew in.

We’ve been trying to make a real effort for our weekends to be different to our working week days, which isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially when MOH worked on Saturday too (it was planned, he didn’t forget what day it was). The weather helped and we spent most of Sunday in the garden, though there too the current situation is tempering just how much we do. Usually we’d be cutting back as many of our bushes as we can, and while we’d still like to do that, it doesn’t make sense to overload the council services. We’re composting what we can, though much of the woody stems and weeds which we’re currently disposing of aren’t suitable for that.

It’s good to see the garden coming back to life. The potted rhubarb’s bright pink stems were a very pleasing sight, as was the blossom on the cherry tree. The pear tree which we pruned quite heavily last year has also sprung back into life and is looking a much better shape for its haircut.

The insects too are out and about and keeping busy. I managed to snap the bee above as it made the best use of our flowering berberis; I tried, and failed, to capture an orange butterfly which kept threatening to land on our new barbecue which MOH was building. Our garden furniture is now uncovered and the barbecue is built, with just one piece left over.

Sunday night saw us lighting the fire pit and trying some star gazing. The skies above London are noticeably clearer - this photo was taken just before 8.30pm - and while not many stars are showing, it was great to be able to sit outside instead of in front of the TV, even though if it was a little more smoke-filled than usual. Let’s hope there’s more warmer weather to come, but also that people manage to stick within the social distancing rules - if you’ve been following my Instagram stories you’ll know my feelings on this.

This post is a day later than usual, that’s partly because of a self-imposed break from looking at my screen, but also because we took the day off. We didn’t achieve much, and didn’t really go anywhere - other than finally timing it right to pick up my prescription from the local chemist, but we sat with a different view, ate well and generally pottered around. Him cleaning his bike and me getting my sourdough back on. It’s been a while, but bread is the least of my grocery worries, which in case you’re wondering are fresh vegetables and dairy.

We’re doing ok getting both, the green grocers in our local parade of shops is well stocked and we’ve had a delivery from the Very Green Grocer too, and we’re using our local M&S to top up our usual monthly Ocado shop. I am a bit peeved with Ocado though, I know they’re busy and their delivery people are great, in fact our delivery on Thursday came almost two hours early, but I disagree with their latest position. On their website they’ve prioritised some customers, including the most vulnerable and those shielding (which is fair enough), but also some of “our longest-standing, most loyal customers”.

Now I’ve no idea of the criteria they’ve used here, but having been a customer for easily fifteen years, maybe more, I’m a bit peeved. People have been asked not to over-shop, and I haven’t, but now that I can’t even login to the website I’m wondering and reassessing where we do our regular. monthly shop. I’m also pretty sure, we won’t go hungry, so while I’m peeved I can’t really get too aerated about it, or where I choose to shop in future.

Though one other observation about this lockdown, is the amount of times the dishwasher is going on! Clearly it’s not that often that we eat three meals a day at home. What are you noticing most about being ‘locked down’?

Oh, and those lost photos? They’re now found and have prompted me to reevaluate how I’m using iCloud for my photo storage. I’ve no idea what happened to my photos from our holiday to Portugal last June, but I was very glad to find them on my old iPhone.

Let's talk getting our gardens ready for spring

This is a collaborative post with The Big Yellow Self Storage Company.

We’re all spending more time at home at the moment whether we want to or not. And while there’s no doubt it’s an unsettling and strange time, I’m sure that like me, you’re determined to make the most of it. I’ve seen the posts about learning a new skill, or a new language, but quite honestly, I’d be happy to ‘catch-up’ with everything I put on my to do list, take time to enjoy my home and garden and that would see me quite happy enough, bar seeing family and friends of course.

I feel fortunate to have a garden and it’s a great way to get some exercise in, while staying home at the same time. And while I miss my daily visits to Greenwich Park, for the time being I can forgo those, and just wished that more people would take the social distancing situation we find ourselves in, more seriously.

The start of spring always brings fresh impetus and spring cleaning indoors and it’s no different in the garden. Below I’m sharing some tips on how you can get your garden ready for spring, some of which will come in handy whatever size your garden, or even if you only have a balcony or a windowsill.

Photo by Tom Byrom on Unsplash

1. Make space

Whatever you’re doing, you’ll do it better and more efficiently if you have space to work. Tidy ups around the garden include sorting out the beds ready for planting, and taking care of garden tools and equipment.

Make room for the tools - power tools or otherwise - you’ll use over the summer by placing all your winter kit into self storage. All that winter sports gear such as sledges or skis, your snow shovels, and autumn leaf blowers and winter tyres for the car are now just taking up space you can put to better use.

Having plenty of space in your garage or shed for the tools and equipment in regular use makes it easier to get to them more quickly to complete the job. It also means you don’t have things on top of each other, causing potential danger if heavy things drop, or you trip over them. Which is always good news if you’re as clumsy as me!

If you use a self storage unit, you will become part of the seasonal storage movement. There’s a growing army of people who now use self storage for seasonal rotation of items they’re not using at home. They have more space in the house, but get to keep all the household items needed for a comfortable lifestyle whatever the season. If you’re in a flat with a balcony and tend to keep winter stuff out there, clear it out into a self storage unit and make room for a few extra pots and seating.

2 . Tidy up

Tackle flower beds and borders so they’re ready for planting. Cut back dead growth on herbaceous perennials, and remove dead leaves and general rubbish that may have collected over winter. You can put organic matter in your compost bin, but if you’re weeding, place those in your green bin for the council to collect otherwise you’ll end up with a compost bin full of healthy weeds. And there’s nothing that weeds like more than a nice warm compost bin.

3. Prepare your greenhouse, if you have one

Give greenhouses a good clean and clear out before starting the new season with fresh growth. This is something that I’ll be adding to my list, I also want to rearrange my staging so I have as much growing space as possible. When cleaning you may need to:

• Remove algae or moss from the glass.

• Disinfect surfaces to kill off any residual pests or disease.

• Wash out pots and seed trays, also to prevent transferring old pests and diseases to new plants.

• Sweep the floor and sluice down with garden disinfectant.

• Repair any structural damage you may have noticed during cleaning.

• Open the windows to let in plenty of ventilation and dry off all the surfaces.

 It’s amazing how dirty greenhouses can get - I posted how much I was surprised by the difference a good clean makes a couple of years ago, and I still stand by that. Doing it, well that’s another matter!

4. Sow early seeds

Some plants like a long growing season, so it’s good to get them started as soon as possible. You’ll know your garden best but remember you can use a heated propagator to give them the best growing conditions, and you can use these anywhere indoors.

Plants to think about growing from seed include begonias and geraniums, antirrhinums (snap dragons or bunny rabbits) or if you’re into your edibles like me, then consider peppers, chillies, tomatoes and some herbs, the latter for more instant results. Check the backs of seed packets if you’re not sure what to sow, or when, they contain a wealth of information.

If you get all of these jobs done, you’ll be well on the way to a lush summer garden or balcony. And you’ll be able to sit back and reap the rewards, with perhaps making time to deadhead your plants to prolong their flowering, and eat sun-ripened tomatoes straight from the plant.

Let’s hope that this summer delivers, I think some warm sunny days are just what we can all do with (as long as we keep within whatever the rules are by then!)

* This is a collaborative post with The Big Yellow Storage Company, who remain open during our current lockdown, but like many companies have changed how they operate. They remain open as one of the listed businesses by the government, for further details please check on the Big Yellow website.