Evolve

I thought that sharing my word of the year in April last year was a one off. It seems not. But even more than that it seems that 28 April is becoming my day for it - exactly one year ago I wrote a post about Irony and priorities, and here I am one year later still living by that.

Partly the delay this year was planned and circumstance, and you’ll understand why as you read on. Another part is focus elsewhere - work, house and more - but anyway, here we are again. The plan for this year was to evolve, and explore where next. Things have potentially changed somewhat since the start of the year, but it will still be a year to evolve and grow.

And before I explain more, how calming is that picture? It’s part of a mindful colouring book and is a trailing vine, which of course would always be completed using pinks, oranges and yellows…

Anyway, evolve.

Yes - my plan for this year was to slowly evolve and learn what I wanted to do. Towards the end of last year we took a major life decision and decided that it was time that we would - and were fortunate enough to be able to - stop working, taking the (very) early break from work (aka retirement) that we’d planned and hoped for, but weren’t really sure would happen quite as planned. So with a three month notice period, much earlier in the year I handed in my notice (electronically) at work. I finish working full time in a week or so, and that’s both scary and exciting.

Our plan was always to spend some time living and enjoying life in London. But like many people the pandemic has brought a rethink, and you’ll already know that our house is on the market, following our offer on a property in Leicestershire being accepted. There is still a very long way to go, especially as I firmly believe the house purchasing system in the UK is broken, so I’m trying not to mentally move in, just yet. It’s hard though!

MOH is also planning to finish work this year, though he’s contracting so there is more flexibility there - I needed to plan it more, and I wanted to give my organisation notice, as that seemed fair. It’s a decision that as I said before has taken a while to get to, and is often met with incredulity - we’re not old enough surely? (we are) and then admiration. We know we’re fortunate - I’m clear it’s not luck that has got us here, it’s good fortune - and we know not everyone will be able to do the same.

My short term plan is to take some time to relax and refocus, and evolve how I spend my time. Though our May will be busy with my brother’s Covid-affected wedding finally planned to take place (third time lucky and all that), a holiday in Northumberland added on to the end of that, so I think it won’t be until June that I’ll really have time to start working it all out.

I know that I do want to spend more time on all those crafts I should have been doing during the pandemic. I’ve plenty of half-started projects, and plenty more that I want to start. I’ve some gardening plans which include finishing the area in front of our pizza oven, and definitely plans to eat more home made pizzas! And of course if we do manage to move then that will take up some time - let alone clearing out what we no longer need, some of which has already been earmarked for those auction sites, and I’m sure there will be much more besides.

So, exciting but also scary times, but bring it on.

My garden in March

I am so pleased that last year organised me bought and planted up some pots of bulbs. As this month we’re starting to see them emerge and I’m hopeful that we will soon have tulips to enjoy. I was hoping the local squirrel population wouldn’t disturb my good intentions and had inserted some sticks into each pot to deter them - whether it did or not, I’ve no idea, but the bulbs are growing and it’s good to see.

As well as plenty of signs of new life throughout the garden, March is also one of those months where there’s also reminders of the jobs to tackle. Alongside our patio the jasmine and the trellis have ‘captured’ several falling leaves and so, we’ll remove those and other leaves which over the winter have provided our plants with some protection. The spots of pink you can see are fallen petals from next door’s camellia and bring a welcome burst of colour, albeit faded in the early part of the month.

And not all new growth, is the growth we want - we’ve also plenty of weeds making themselves known. Thankfully though these are easy to remove and are disposed of in our council green bin rather than our own compost bins. But even so, they are making the most of the early spring sun.

One sure sign that spring is on its way is when our ornamental quince starts to flower, it’s often the first colour in the garden - here you can see its orange flowers, with a few of the yellow carreira flowers, which originally popped over from next door but have stayed.

From our kitchen table we’d been able to spot the palest of daffodils as they bobbed about in the sun and the wind. They’re pretty resilient and have lasted a fair while, and I don’t know about you but daffodils are one of the most cheeriest plants I know, whatever the variety. Many years ago we planted hundreds of bulbs and years later they are still rewarding us - at the time I questioned the number of bulbs we bought, but today’s me is ever grateful!

The other thing about spring is spring cleaning, and our shed was long overdue a sort out. So with the forecast of a dry and sunny spring day, that became our task for the weekend. As it turned out, we’re getting so much better at sorting and tidying that it took us just a few hours and while we still managed to dispose of some of our accumulated junk (technical term there!) most of it went back in, and in a much more ordered and hopefully findable way.

Though I live under no illusion that this will need doing again in a few months time! But at least for now, it’s tidy and MOH can find the things he wants, and there’s somewhere to store our bikes which also makes our conservatory a much nicer space.

So, what’s happening in your garden this month?

40 years and two loos

Last weekend felt the most ‘normal’ in a long while. We ate dinner out on Friday evening in one of our favourite local restaurants, which somehow we hadn’t managed to get along to since last autumn. The food was as glorious as ever, and it was great to see it so busy and to be warmly welcomed back. Then after an impromptu booking after seeing something on Facebook of all places, we found ourselves at the Barbican on Saturday night.

I hadn’t realised that the Barbican is celebrating 40 years, which doesn’t seem possible. Nor did I know that MOH hadn’t been to a concert in the hall there. We’ve been to away days with work, visited the conservatory and exhibitions and even been to the cinema there - and well, it seemed a good opportunity to set that straight. Checking out the seating plan we could book end of aisle seats in the circle and so we booked.

The event - Songs in the Key of London - was curated by Chris Difford (of Squeeze) and DJ and presenter Nihal Arthanayake, with guests who were familiar to us and a good few that weren’t. However, it didn’t matter that we didn’t know their names, every single performer was brilliant.

Marc Almond topped the names of those I was keen to see - I was, and still am, a huge fan of Tainted Love from back in the early eighties. Other names we recognised were Harry Enfield, Ruby Turner and Brett Anderson (from Suede). Harry Enfield’s name stood out among the list, and so did his performance as an ‘audience member’ recalling a ditty or two about London, with a predictable but still amusing rude ending.

With a run time of 150 minutes, it was no mean feat for the band who were also excellent. The other thing we noticed, that even for London, people were talking to each other much more than we remembered from pre-Covid days. And that was a really nice thing too. The hall wasn’t as full as the seating plan had made out, and the people sitting next to us apologised for moving into some of the empty seats, hoping we weren’t offended. We really weren’t offended at all.

Unsure when the interval would be, and knowing that any interval means a long queue for the loo, I decided to make an early move while the performance continued - though when I got back MOH said I’d missed a great song. But when you’ve got to go, you know…

What I wasn’t expecting was the multi-coloured doors in the loos, the concrete yes - but not the colour. And it was great. As was mostly having the very large ladies to myself (it being large still didn’t avoid a queue later on though - there are never enough loos are there?)

I’ve no idea what these are, or if they have a purpose other than for people to wonder about them:

It was a wet and blowy night and I’d pulled on a hat, but that hadn’t really saved the ends of my hair - so I ended up looking more windswept than I would have liked. I’m sharing this picture though as the night was also memorable for losing an earring - and not the one you can see. The pair to the half moon you can see is a full moon, which I lost somewhere along the way.

I noticed in the restaurant we went to before the show - Cote just outside the Barbican - and that prompted searching through hats, scarves, bags and all sorts to no avail. And even though the replacement pair I’ve ordered have arrived, I still just went to check my hat again. That’s the thing about losing things isn’t it, you just don’t know where - and yes, I know if I knew where then it wouldn’t be lost!

While we were in our second restaurant of the weekend, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of checking out the loos. So here you go, some quite plain but elegantly understated snaps of the loos at Cote - the colour of the wall tiles was gorgeous. For this visit to Cote I ventured off my normal safe, tried and tested menu choices, and wished I hadn’t! We’ll have to go back to our local restaurant or get another ‘at home’ delivery to check that this was just a one-off.

Losing things is never great, and it unsettles our minds doesn’t it?

The strange thing though was that I had felt something cold against my cheek as we were walking, which now I suspect was my earring making its way free, as those hook through type earrings do. But which I’d forgotten. MOH suggested retracing our steps, but we’d walked a fair way and even if we did walk exactly the way we’d come then it was no guarantee, and there was a show to see, and despite the earring loss it was so good to be out and experiencing more normal things along with everyone else.

It was much needed, and as we know, a long time coming.