Reflecting on my week #148

Well the weather’s been odd hasn’t it? The other weekend there was the best sort of snow, the best sort because it was here and gone within a day! I’m not a huge fan of snow, though admit it does look pretty. It didn’t really settle here, and there was a little more than this photo shows, and for London it was enough. Enough for those that wanted to to play, but not enough to cause the usual disruption. Seeing the pictures of Greenwich Park was good, but with our Covid view of the world, I wonder if like me you also viewed these pictures with a social distancing lens.

snowfall in our garden

In reality though, we’ve done very little - which is the purpose of lockdown I guess. We’ve only been out to the shops once or twice in the past fortnight so it is quite dull. The weather seems to time it just so when we could escape we don’t as it’s too wet, too cold or even too snowy. On the plus side it’s meant I can really get on with my half and half squares made from the mini-skeins from the yarn advent calendar.

days 1-14 from the yarn advent made into crochet squares

These are from days 1 through to 14, so I’m over half-way. The colours are random, some are quite bold others more delicate. I’ve four of each colour, two with the pink/grey neutral and two with the blue/grey neutral. I’m yet to decide how to layout the squares for the blanket, or whether or not to make one or two throws. When I’m a bit further through I’ll lay them out and see what I think works, and probably ponder a bit more.

MOH has come up with a great idea, which involves drinking gin - so who am I to disagree? With gin arriving every month, and each coming with mixers and often syrups we’re gathering a growing collection of all sorts. His plan is for us to make some headway with the mixers and syrups, and obviously gin. I told you it was a good plan.

We’ve started with a gin star martini - a gin take on the porn star martini I’m sure - gin, mango & passionfruit juice, syrup and lime. I could only muster a dried lime, but a lime’s a lime I reckon.

gin star martini

I’ve got back into making bread, and while I’ve revived my sourdough starter (actually must go check on that soon) it’s the wholemeal loaf that’s currently our favourite. Most recently I’ve shaped into more of an loaf shape, rather than a cob. It’s the same mixture, so must work…

another wholemeal loaf

And so far, so good.

Now that our Christmas cake is long gone, MOH has got back into the baking habit again - we’re currently on a lemon and poppy seed traybake, but there’s also been a chai banana loaf. You see we are both lockdown cliches. And somewhere in the middle of this, it’s February already, though on some days I already think it’s been a long year.

A bathroom refresh

It’s been a fair while since we’ve done much work on our house, but we’ve been pondering a bit of a bathroom refresh for a little while. The last time we went to Grand Designs Live - that must have been May 2019, quite a while back! - we saw the most beautiful wall hung vanity unit. I’ve kept the photo, looked at the catalogue and now we’re at the point of actually making it happen, realised I don’t like the price anywhere near as much. Thankfully it was also too big for our space, and a pale blue which isn’t really our colour, though it would kind of work with the wallpaper that we’ve used as a continuing feature.

But the idea of a wall hung vanity unit was sown. And one that hasn’t gone away. So another one was sought, and found. And has since been delivered. Along with a new toilet and a new shower - just the shower bit, not the surround. The shower is no longer as hot as it once was, or should be and therefore is being replaced. We’ve a suspicion that the toilet is slowly leaking at the base, and our current basin, well it still works as a basin should (though sometimes it drains very slowly), the porcelain is starting to crack and it looks as if it has many veins appearing. Some porcelain just goes like that, but as all of this was put in in 2007 we’ve had good use out of all of this and so replacing the bits that are starting to ‘go’ isn’t exactly extravagant.

The other day it all arrived, on a pallet. We got our delivery slot - one of those all day slots, though being home based that’s less of an issue than it would have been if we were office based - and they were knocking on the door a good five minutes before the slot started. So that was a very good start, and before breakfast - we’ve got very bad at getting up since it’s been darker in the mornings and especially as we don’t need to get anywhere other than the dining room table - MOH was out in the drive unpacking the pallet. I was called for a bit of ‘to me, to you’ to bring the heavier items in, and then later up the spiral staircase. Since then our plumber has visited to check we have all the right bits, and so he can get what else is needed - we passed, phew - and now we’re booked in for a week or so’s time to have it all fitted.

Now it’s here, I can’t wait - though as luck would have it, the day it’s happening is one that I have booked off work. Not that it really makes much difference at the moment as it’s unlikely that I’ll have grand plans to go anywhere much. So by the middle of February our purchases should be installed, and I’ll be setting MOH some tasks mostly around painting - refreshing the woodwork and giving the ceiling a lick of paint, which to be fair he’s identified too. The final job will be to paint a cupboard we have in there - it’s currently a very darkly stained MDF custom-built affair. It works with what is in there now, but with our new unit being matt navy blue, I’ve a feeling it won’t work quite so well, so my plan is to have MOH repaint this a similar colour. I know it won’t take much to persuade him as he recently let on that he’s never been much of a fan of how it looks, it’s been there almost 14 years - he’s a very patient man (though I knew that already).

AREZZO WALL HUNG VANITY UNIT, VICTORIAN PLUMBING

AREZZO WALL HUNG VANITY UNIT, VICTORIAN PLUMBING

Post Comment Love 29-31 January

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

Like many people we had some snow last weekend, not very much but it doesn’t need much to get Londoners excited by snow, though it also doesn’t take much to disrupt things either. But last weekend I think the snow got it just about right. It arrived as predicted, settled a bit and then disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. Snow like that I could put up with, though I didn’t venture out - small steps and all that.

My niece shared a picture which really made me laugh. The first of a snowman, and I’m sure in our minds eye each of us think about a substantially sized snowman. Her first photo was quickly followed by this one, for scale, a good reminder that not everything is what it seems.

a foot high snowman

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