Reflecting on my week #130

I’m having a slow and relaxing to the start of the week, with a bank holiday weekend and additional leave thrown in too, and it’s been great. MOH also took the day off yesterday, but he’s back to work today at the dining room table while I have another day off. It’s been nice to spend some time away from the screen, and while I planned to catch up with myself, sometimes I think you just have to go with the flow and not feel guilty about it at all (well hardly at all)

For me, screen time, has been the most challenging part about working from home and it’s taken a while to fathom out why. I mean, in usual times I spend a lot of time online at both home and work, but I’ve realised recently that these are punctuated by commuting breaks, which of course isn’t happening now. Instead the two screen activities - work and blogging - have merged into one, with work hours tipping over into time I used to blog in. And that’s where the pressure has built up, there’s not enough time to do both, and it’s been here that’s happened less. I’m ok with that for short periods of time, but it’s not something I want to perpetuate for longer than it needs to. The break helps, but also doesn’t, as that doesn’t get blog posts written, or read, either. But recognising where the pinch is, helps I think.

And so does our monthly delivery of gin. With a longer weekend than usual, some lovely weather then gin - this one is Gin Aux Agrumes and garnished with juniper berries and orange, is the latest offering from the gin box, and is from the only distillery in Monte Carlo. I’ve a feeling this one won’t hang around for long - and that’s potentially a good thing as our drinks trolley is looking a little full right now.

We’ve been spending more time in the garden and slowly the flowers have turned from their spring yellows and blues to pinks. There’s still lots to do, but part of that is always to enjoy the peonies - which this year seem to be growing horizontally - and the self-seeded aquilegias. Another pink to add to the list is the Gertrude Jeckyll rose, which is adding pink pops to the trellis on the patio.

Our cherries are coming along, and the pigeons have left us some. Hopefully we’ll win the race against them for at least the cherries we can reach - wish us luck!

In more celebratory news, I finally managed to thread the needle on the sewing machine. I’d tried and tried, and the tried to make the automatic needle threader work, but with no joy. Inspiration struck though, and with my contact lenses out, I had success. So with the needle threaded I was able to make great headway (no pun intended) with the masks I cut out a week or so before.

The diddy iron also helped - it’s an early birthday present (thanks mum and dad) and will, I think, encourage me to sew more. I know that’s an odd sentence, but as a reluctant sewer and and even more reluctant ironer, anything that makes this harder - like having to move between floors, or moving the iron to another floor - means very little sewing. Now the diddy iron can live in the same room as the sewing machine, and I’ll have removed one of the excuses I have for sewing.

I’m pleased with the masks - well as pleased as you can be about masks - they fit us, haven’t fallen apart and the actual sewing part looks good. They’re made from old shirts which I’d kept for many years, nominally for patchwork, but they work for this too. They are on the dark side, and therefore warm when the weather is as warm as it has been, so I will make some in lighter colours too.

Mum had sent a lighter coloured shaped version which is great, and I’m planning to make some of those too. Without much evidence, or actual use yet, I think my preference will be for those that tie rather than the elastic version, as I’m already struggling with having too much hair growing around my ears, and while I’m hacking that back as best I can, I think I’ll fiddle less with the tie behind my head.

It’s also hard to know how many masks we’ll need. I mean, they should only be worn once before washing, and if they need to be worn to and from work, that’s at least two a day (not that we know when office-based work will resume) and let’s face it my washing isn’t always that prompt either, so I’ve a feeling we’ll need more than we think. I think though that I’ll keep making a few every now and then, just so we have some.

The hardest lockdown thing for MOH is knowing his mum is on her own, especially following a recent health scare. We all know that video calls and phone calls don’t make up for seeing people in real life, even when that’s socially distanced. So after much debate he cycled down to check on his mum in person, and had planned to get the train back (it’s forty miles away) The train thing didn’t really sit well with either of us, so I got in my car for the first time since the lockdown started and drove to pick him up. While he finished cutting the grass and mending some trellis, I amused myself and took some photos of her garden, and it was so nice to have something different to photograph. And it was weird to be driving again.

Our garden is making the most of the nice weather and continues to grow. We aim to bring it back into control bit by bit, and often our intended jobs get thrown off track a bit, and that was the case this past week. The plan was to tidy up the forsythia and trim the lilac, now that both have finished flowering. The forsythia is done and is looking as we wanted, but what we didn’t realise was that it was also supporting a hefty chunk of one of next door’s tree, or bush. Either way, our plan changed and so that’s now tackled too, instead of the lilac. It’s one of those plants that have a lot of branches, and while the law says we can cut what overhangs and return the cuttings, like many neighbours our unwritten agreement is more practical than that, making use of each other’s green bins as appropriate.

The lilac will need to wait for another day, along with finishing cutting the euonymus and another hedge-like bush, which I always call the slopey bush (because of its shape), which we are waiting to flower. There’s plenty of other jobs to do too, and hopefully we’ll be able to tackle most of these - green bin space permitting - in our week off next week.

I know I’ll have a busy couple of days at work making sure everything’s done - or as done as it can be - before that week, but in the meantime I also know that you have to enjoy yourself (and your garden) too.

A mojito made with rum from our trip to Barbados and home grown mint, seems just the thing.

Lockdown learnings #1

I mentioned earlier in the week that there’s plenty of time right now for reflecting, and I’m no different. I’m a bit of a list lover (ok a lot) and so I’ve been doing what I do best, and making a list. They are my observations and our experiences, yours may of course be completely different, and that’s ok. I’ve pondered about sharing these, how to categorise, should they be funny or serious and whether to share at all. I don’t have the answers to many of those and have decided it’s important to me to record these, and that simple is often best, so that’s what I’m doing.

A natural grouping happened as I reread the list, and so, I’m starting with food, and food related things. Which, is never a bad place to start is it?

As this crisis started, things started to be in short supply - including, bizarrely toilet roll (why?), something I never thought could cause so much angst for so many, though obviously if you haven’t got any it’s easy to see why.

1 Sourdough breakthrough

Yes, let’s get the lockdown cliches out of the way first. Everyone seems to be making sourdough, and while I’ve been making it on and off for years, often teasing my starter out of semi-retirement in the process, I’ve upped my sourdough game.

The trouble is, as I’ve said before, homemade bread doesn’t hang around for long, it’s too bloomin’ tasty! And in the past few weeks I’ve made some of my best loaves in a while. I’ve discovered, quite by chance, that if I leave my starter wetter, it makes a better loaf.

It also seems to make for a more active starter, as it’s burst out of its ice cream container home a couple of times too. Which in a full fridge isn’t always welcome…

2 A baking cliche too, banana bread

Yes, I’ve made banana bread too, probably in week 1 of lockdown (it’s the end of week 9 as I write this post). It seems to be the cake of choice, and it’s a very good choice too. I am one of those people that’s quite fussy about my bananas, there’s an optimum ripeness for eating, and anything before or after that isn’t enjoyable.

So once they’re past this stage, bananas are either destined to be eaten by MOH, banana bread, breakfast muffins or the freezer (I peel and store in takeaway containers) ready for use another day.

And so far, we’ve done all of these. Some of the frozen bananas have even made it out of the freezer too.

3 In short supply

It’s probably all the baking going on, but here we’ve struggled to buy flour and sugar. Bread flour arrived with our supermarket shop, which was good news and recently we were able to buy some self-raising flour on a local shopping trip too, so it’s ok. I’m not much of a ‘fine and precise’ baker, but my cakes are edible and some flour is better than none.

At one point though I was quite concerned about eggs, or being able to get some, though that was thankfully just a bit of a blip. Butcher’s bacon was more of a disappointment for MOH, but that too is now back to normal, and still much tastier than anything a supermarket sells.

4 We drink a lot of tea

That’s mostly because during the working day MOH makes a lot of tea! I’m not really complaining of course, but I’ve never drunk so much. I think partly because my working day used to involve me running between meetings for most of the day, so cups of tea didn’t happen. Sometimes I’d remember to take a water bottle along, and even sometimes remember to drink it.

MOH was also clearly perplexed by my work day drinking habits, or lack of them, and quite seriously asked if I had a Butler at work to make tea for me. I don’t, but have asked him if he’d consider the position when office life resumes. He wasn’t keen.

We now have a new tea regime, which involves drinking ‘funny tea’ as MOH calls it in the afternoons. ‘Funny tea’ is anything that doesn’t come out of the usual tea bag container, and includes rooiboos, chai, green, mint etc.

We’ve even threatened to break open the tea pot and loose leaf tea, but haven’t reached that stage quite just yet. Or not least, during the working day.

5 A pretty plate helps

We used to take lunch to work two or three days a week, and grab something on the other days. Now lunches are a bit more planned, as grabbing something is no longer an option. I’ll admit though, planning lunches and dinner is dull, and I’m the person who likes a plan. But it helps avoid those ‘we’re hungry, what shall we eat’ conversations, when quite frankly no one is at their best.

Some days/weeks I’m more resourceful than others, cooking some extra pasta the night before for pasta salad for lunch; some leftover potatoes for a Niçoise salad, or finally opening some tinned fish which had been labelled as ‘too smelly’ for the office, but actually wasn’t and was rather tasty.

And yes, a pretty plate helps. So does being able to eat lunch in the garden.

6 Husbands and pulses don’t mix

However, a word of caution. It may just be our household, but overloading one of us with too many pulses isn’t a recipe for success.

Just saying. Lesson learnt.

7 The dishwasher is having a fantastic workout

With all this eating at home, our dishwasher is having a better workout than me! Seriously.

There’s another upside to this lockdown that I don’t want to overlook, and that’s we seem to be making a breakthrough in where things go in the dishwasher. I still occasionally have a slight rearrange, for old times sake, but goodness, it’s only taken almost twenty years.

Apparently I’m exaggerating, it’s only 17 1/2 years, and anyway, sometimes the plates, dishes, mugs fancy a change….!

8 More Margot than Barbara

My vegetable growing is off to a slow start this year, only two (late planted) broad beans have shown up, and to repeat what I think I’ve said here before, this year might be the year for broad beans with Christmas lunch at this rate.

My tomatoes are also slow starters, and way behind where I’d hoped they would be, so they will be receiving some attention this weekend. My spinach is just starting to get going, and some turnips which I’d sown after remembering how well they grew on the allotment, and how pretty they were, have been a little munched.

Munching, or selective munching has also happened in the greenhouse with basil, marigolds and one half of the lettuce seed tray left as stalks. I’ve still to work out if it’s the spicy lettuce mix, or the softer farmer’s market mix that’s gone. I bet it’s the latter, as that’s the one I was most looking forward to. I’ve sown more of each, and taking better precautions, so hope to find out relatively soon.

So I’m definitely not feeling very Barbara, I’ll share why I’m feeling more Margot in a future list. And if that sentence made no sense, it’s a Good Life reference.

9 No weekday chocolate ‘fix’

Often while grabbing lunch, I’d pick up some chocolate too, most likely a Twix or Maltesers, or sometimes the very best cherry flapjacks baked in the cafe on site. The sort that are so sweet that you can feel the sugary-ness coat your teeth. And obviously I’d try and choose the largest one, with the most glacé cherries in - quite a skill, and a big decision.

Well, that’s stopped too. And despite having sweet treats each day, and doing less exercise - I am no longer walking an hour each day to and from work, and don’t make use of my permitted hour of exercise, I’ve needed to ask MOH to add a hole to my belt, as my clothes were too loose.

Certainly food for thought there.

10 Fridge Jenga

Eating more, well all, our meals at home, combined with trying to keep shopping trips to a minimum means more food in the house, and the fridge. Our fridge is currently operating at a Fridge Jenga level usually reserved for Christmas. I have found, and expect to continue to find, MOH peering in wondering i) where things are and ii) what’s safe to move to avoid an avalanche. As that’s entirely possible, I usually rescue him, it’s easier all round, and better than retrieving blueberries from all over the kitchen - they’re pesky little wotsits for escaping.

I also have been know to marvel out loud about how everything fitted in. Of course I have a list of what’s in there, just so I know. And yes, I really do.

Well, that turned into a longer post than I expected, but quite a cathartic one too. There’s plenty more on my list so I’m sure there’ll be further posts, in the meantime what’s on your lockdown learnings list?

My garden in April

This post contains an item that was previously gifted.

I’m not sure if it’s because we’ve been home more, or because the weather has improved but I’ve definitely got many more photos from my garden from April. The ruby stems of the rhubarb were promising at the start of the month, but I’m leaving the plant to rest this year again as I’m not sure it’s totally happy in this pot. I’ll use that time, to admire and plan where I can put it, which may be to move the pot and to try and remove the Lords and Ladies which seem more than happy there.

It’s probably not best positioned under the cherry tree, which is where it had sheltered for the winter. That said it would have had a pretty view of all the cherry blossom, which is now long gone. The pigeons have been keeping a better eye on things than me, and hopefully we’ll stick to our usual agreement of top for them, reachable branches for me.

The dandelions and mint though have no qualms about where they grow, nor where they enjoy the sun.

In the early days of lockdown we hoped for nicer weather, and evenings outside, but also more realistically we bought a new barbecue. When it arrived it was in the hugest box ever, which only just went through the front door. It was soon assembled though, and has been quite a savvy purchase. Especially right now. The evenings weren’t so warm, but we were craving fresh air, and while the skies were clear it was a great opportunity to sit around the firepit, previously gifted by Von Haus.

We also got around to replacing the willow screening, which has been up for many years and which disintegrated on touch. That at least meant it was easy to fit into the green bins, removing the rusty wire as we went. The new screening is up, and fits nicely along the two panels, neatly matching the green wired trellis which we’re encouraging plants to grow and cover.

There’s been some great light during the month, and I do love a good reflection photo and the one below doesn’t disappoint. The agapanthus are enjoying their temporary spot, and I feel bad about having to shunt them into a slightly less sunnier spot. They’re clearly enjoying their stay of execution, perhaps an attempt to persuade me, who knows?

There’s been a couple of real highlights - the laburnum, with it’s yellow flowers and our slow-flowering camellia.

And then there’s been the ferns. I could sit and watch them unfurl, well perhaps not literally, I don’t have the patience.

We also tackled the dead ivy and knackered fence, or what could be known as the prickly boundary. The fence was quite delicate, the ivy very dead and so more of the green wire trellis fencing was put into good use. It’s a really sunny spot, and I think the pyracantha, and the holly I found growing close by, will really enjoy it. The elderflower has grown quite tall and that was freed of jasmine, once it’s flowered and fruited, I’ll cut some of those tall stems back so we stand a chance of benefitting from both.

In the greenhouse my beans were racing ahead, they’ve since been planted out and as per usual, I can’t remember which are runners, which are french beans and which are borlotti. I’ve also sown seeds for basil (eaten), spring onions (no sign) and two types of lettuce mix (half eaten). I’ll be trying again and taking better precautions.

But mostly in April, it’s been the blue skies, yellow flowers and sunbeds that have been most welcome. And yes, sunbeds in April, that has been a treat.