This last weekend I’ve felt - and been - my most productive in a while, which on reflection isn’t saying much. But things were ticked off my not-quite-imaginary list, including putting the garden away, or as much as we could. The beans were pulled up, tomatoes composted. The handles fell off two of our trugs - seriously, and the pizza oven and the patio furniture were covered up. The barbecue and parasol were moved to one side, as we may not be needing them for a little while, and the fire pit was moved into prime spot, and two garden chairs and the fire lighters were put in a sensible, and easily reached storage space.
I even made some bread. And not sourdough for a change, there wasn’t time for that. We’ve started to buy some unusual (but unusually good) bread, by Jason’s Bakery. It comes in an old-fashioned wax-type wrapper and in our M&S they do three varieties, including one with craft beer, and it is rather tasty. Looking at their site they say the one we have more often is nicknamed the crumpet bread, and it does have a different texture, and to me is almost from a batter consistency, rather than a dough-y one. The plan was to have a cheese toasty with the loaf we had, only we didn’t have enough loaf - that’s the thing about good bread, it doesn’t hang around.
And without bread for breakfast, some hasty kneading was needed. It’s been a while since I’ve made yeasted bread, and while this is small, it is mighty. It also gave me a bit of an issue when refusing to come out of my vintage Hovis tin. Maybe the tin knew it wasn’t real Hovis bread - in the base of the tin it says, only to be used for Hovis bread! But it came out, and in one piece, and it’s good for breakfasts - a little goes a long way!
There was of course good reason why the fire pit was moved into prime position. We had plans to use it. In fact we had plans to use it on Bonfire Night, but it was a bit chilly to sit in the garden, even with a fire. Saturday was much milder, and was good for our first fire pit foray of the winter. Armed with snacks, a hot gin cocktail, and plenty of logs and wearing my coat we sat out watching the many, many fireworks which continued long after we came inside.
It had been another busy week - I know I say this every week, but I truly expect things to be much less busy at some point. Not sure when, but hopefully soon. Though the lockdown 2.0 as it’s being called, isn’t helping with that right now. But I shall remain an optimist, for now at least.
I’ve had a few calls to the doctors this week as well as my ankles, actually all of my feet, have been swelling up throughout the day. It turns out I’m sensitive to the tablets I’m on, so need some more tablets. I’m getting to the point where I think I’ll rattle at the moment if you ask me to jump up and down. After the weekend it’s clear I need to be more active during the day, which is one of the things I’ve missed since we started working at home, some 34 weeks ago. Thirty four weeks. I think that’s also why I’m struggling with it all again. I’m missing walking around campus, catching up with people spontaneously, virtual meetings just don’t cut it. I know that I need to make this happen, but I am very much a just one more thing kind of person, and picking up my crochet is a great way to switch my brain off, but not such a great way to stay active.
And the irony of posting about being more active and following that with a picture of a ginormous cake isn’t lost on me. We’d walked into the Farmer’s Market in the village on Sunday and left with a cake or two, some kimchi and some milk from an Essex farm. All quite random, and I’m sure all very tasty, but it was way busier than we expected. The trader’s too said it was busy, and today our area has been featured in the local news in a report saying that people aren’t really following the rules. Conversely I think they are, but I think people are pushing them to the limits. We weren’t totally comfortable with the amount of people out and about, and the numbers who weren’t socially distancing - despite it now being something that we should all be used to, and reminders clearly on the signs on each stall - and so we donned our face coverings.
The cake was good, let’s hope that’s all we picked up there. We’ll be heading for less densely populated areas where we can, which is tricky, but not impossible when you live in a densely populated area.
I’d hoped to make progress on my grey tiled throw, and in a way I did. Now at least all the outer squares are the same size, and they’re positioned where I’m happy. They’re also pinned together and it’s been put back in its bag to pick up again another day. The plan is for this to be a throw on our sofas, partly to protect the arms, partly to add more soft furnishings and a fair bit to give me something to do. It’s so close now that I don’t think it’ll be too long before I pick it up again.
I’ll leave you today with this shot of my fatsia starting to flower. And yes, I was pretty much in the bush taking this photo, worth it though for the result, and the look on MOH’s face when I emerged, though of course you’d think he’d be used to me by now!