Tuesday 20th June - average speed, around 17 or 20 mph

We went to London yesterday. We left at 6.15am, to be sure of getting to the hospital in time for my first appointment which was an echocardiogram (routine checkup), bearing in mind the journey time to the hospital can be anything up to 3 hours, and then one has to allow for parking, and the time it takes me to get from the entrance to the cardiology department towards the back.

This time we managed both the Hanger Lane roundabout AND the Hendon Flyover without any undue excitement. 

We finished the scan, appointment with the consultant, 6 min walk test (258m this time; not my best but not my worst) and emerged into the fresh air at about noon reassured that there's no change to how I am getting on.

Beautiful wildflower planting outside the hospital entrance

There's an M&S next to the hospital where we bought a picnic lunch and walked back towards where the car was stashed, in one of those 'rent-my-drive' spaces. 

We ate our lunch at the edge of Hampstead Heath, sitting on a large log in the shade of some trees, watching the people enjoying the space.

Then home... a couple of tricky moments at the Hendon Flyover, and even an more tense time at Hanger Lane, but all's well that ends well and we made it into the correct lane without being hooted at!

Comparing travelling to London by train and car; car is exhausting, and no quicker than train. Both ways involve an early start and a long day. 

However, car is considerably cheaper even taking petrol and parking into account. We usually have to buy full price day return train tickets because of the early start. This time there was a sting in the tail, however; the parking space was deceptively small

That's the back of our car, millimetres from the gatepost

 and as you can see, there's a hidden drop at one side. Errrk! In positioning the car so that one doesn't step out of the door and instantly fall down some steep steps, we ended up clipping the wing mirror. So this time round, the repair will more than cancel the saving!

Average miles per hour; 17 on the way up, and 20 on the way home. Journey times; about 2hrs 45 mins outward and approximately 2 hrs 15 mins home. Roughly what it takes by train and bus and tube.

So, why do we drive up now? Ah well. We are still taking every precaution to avoid catching covid, due to the state of my lungs and also the immunosuppressants I take. If we were travelling by public transport I'd need to wear a 'proper' FFP2 mask. Unfortunately wearing any mask makes it harder for me to walk, and as for bustling or running for a train.... no, not going to happen!

I'm pleased that most people feel happy to throw off the restrictions of previous years, but people like me (around 500,000 or so) are still, well, stuck in a kind of groundhog day existence. 

The driving is incredibly tiring at the moment, but all that, hopefully will be changing when we finally take delivery of our next car, ordered last September and due end of July or early August. It has a hybrid petrol/electric, and is an AUTOMATIC!!! 

Sunday 4th June

 Sometimes there just isn't much to say. Let me see...

We had morning coffee and pain au chocolat (not Real ones,  those 'jus-roll' ones which just reminded us how good a proper pain au chocolat can be!). A friend dropped by on her way back from the early service church at just the right moment, and we sat in the warmth and dappled shade under the apple tree for the first time this year. Lovely.

We had after lunch coffee and the rest of the ersatz chocolate rolls sitting in the sun on the patio.

My brother rang to discuss ideas for our father's impending birthday 'so, what are your socialising thoughts now?'. We've had this conversation before. 

Nothing has changed. I am still one of the 500,000 or so people strongly advised by their medical consultant to avoid meeting people indoors, wear a mask, stay away from crowded spaces... it's not just about taking immunosuppressants, but also only having such reduced lung function, such low oxygen levels, blah blah blah. I do get so tired of explaining all this. Partly because it brings it back home to me how much I am missing out on, and this is how it has it be at the moment.

This affects my husband too... he is having to live as I do, and does so willingly, bless him.

We make the most of small pleasures...

But we shall make plans to celebrate the birthday; they can go and have lunch together somewhere special, and maybe we can all meet for coffee and cake or whatever in a suitable spacious tea garden.

Then we took a little drive to find an 'in-post' drop off box to deposit the latest 2 parcels of books going off to ziffit. The books that ziffit don't want will all go to the Brithish Heart charity shop.

I've finished 'Ayala's Angels' by Anthony Trollope. I confess to skimming some chunks. It is just like every romantic fiction plot ever, better written and more amusing than many, by a Victorian author writing in Victorian Times. I've moved forward in time; I've started 'A Room With A View' by E M Forster; Queen Victoria is still alive, but Tennyson is dead, so that makes it after 1892. I saw some of the film a long, long time ago. I mainly remember Simon Callow as Mrs Emerson,  and Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, but I've never read the book. It is Delicious!

Perhaps I had more to say about today than I thought!

Sunday 30th April - And so to bed...

I forgot to post this post!!! 

Here endeth an eventful week... 

I have packaged up the cross stitch for April, but there was no rush to get it into a post box, as today is Sunday and tomorrow's a Bank Holiday.

We took my father for his covid booster this morning. They offered us the option of having it done in the car - what a brilliant idea! We sat in the car with doors and windows open to enjoy the sunshine and birdsong and in due course someone appeared with a tray of syringes going from one vehicle to the next. I asked if I could have one too (I hadn't booked, but am allowed a booster because I take immunosuppressant medicines) and she obligingly fetched the appropriate vaccine and did me as well. Unfortunately Himself is underage - irritating,  as it seems to me it would be a good idea for family members of people who are vulnerable to have boosters but hey, who can understand the machinations of The System? 

The whole process took less than an hour door to door.

Here endeth an eventful month; 

Tomorrow will be a new day, a new week and a new month. 

Thursday 22nd December - wrapped the last present!

Daybreak was late this morning, and dusk came early. Or so it seemed, probably because it was grey and drizzling all day. 

Himself was off to the dentist again. Our practice has changed hands, and flung itself from a more or less one man band to a team of specialists. It's a good thing we have both retired as this new system entails multiple visits, but He reported that this was the most skilful experience of having two crowns done ever. There will be a couple more visits, to the gum specialist and then the crown specialist, but not until next year. He came back in a considerably more cheerful frame of mind than I was expecting. 

Meanwhile I zoomed a friend who has come down with covid for the first time having dodged all through, even though she was working in schools all the time. She's feeling really rubbish on day two, and resigning herself to Christmas alone this year. 

I'm hoping that plans for my father to go to my brother's house actually happen this year; he's being collected tomorrow go and stay for a few days. Last year it was cancelled as there was covid in my brother's household at the time. Fingers crossed.

This covid business.... goes on and on.... I read that sternation is now one of the symptoms.  Sternation? I looked the word up. It means sneezing. Does that mean if you regard a scene with consternation you start sneezing at it?

My Advent candle, once so tall, is reduced to a stub... just two numbers left. I have it on the table and light it at lunchtime. One number is just long enough for lunch. I was finding that if I left it to the evening I would forget it and burn too many numbers in one go. 

As I announced in the heading of this post, I have wrapped the last present - hooray! It always grieves me to be wrapping presents at 2am on Christmas Day knowing that in a matter of hours they will all be unwrapped again. 

Saturday 23rd April - the best laid plans....

 gang aft agley....

We'd planned to meet up with son and daughter this morning, at the usual outdoor cafe midway between their town and hours.

But - a not entirely negative LFT result for one of them has meant that we've postponed it. Sensible, but still disappointing. Ah well. It would have been chilly this morning - this afternoon was much warmer although the wind was, shall we say, bracing? And Fresh?

I spent this afternoon, with quite a lot of assistance from Himself finishing off the next bit of mulching that has been ongoing for a couple of weeks. Vicky, a friend who is now our gardener, has been working her way along the borders in the back garden weeding, watering and then mulching with spent mushroom compost, and yesterday made a start on the front garden. She'd done the weeding and sorting out, and we watered it ready for her to finish off today. However, she wasn't well, and we were at home, so we got stuck in. With the pair of us it didn't take too long, and it was very pleasant being in the sun and out of the wind. It is the time of year when I wage my annual war on goose grass, and I was trying to explain to Himself  exactly which plant needed dragging out of the borders 'oh, you mean robin-run-the-hedge?' and the confusion was cleared up. I've also heard it called 'cleavers'. Anyway, we've removed nearly all of it. There's always a bit left, somewhere.

I've also earthed up the potatoes that are growing in containers. All four pots had shoots about 2 inches tall showing through the top of the earth, so, as instructed by The Book (Huw Richards, Veg in One Bed) I covered them up with another two inches of earth. There's just about enough room left in the pot to repeat this process one more time, before leaving them in peace.

I've been baking;

Hebridean Baker Custard Creams

I made 12 with this recipe, which means 24 little biscuits sandwiched in pairs.

Biscuits;

• 170g butter
• 55g icing sugar
• 170g SR flour
• 55g custard powder

Filling

• 50g butter
• 20g custard powder
• 80g icing sugar

I reduced the icing sugar in both recipes as my friend suggested - they are still very (deliciously!) sweet.

Preheat oven to 180C and lightly grease a baking tray

In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar, add flour and custard powder to form a dough.

Roll tablespoons of this into balls, place on the tray allowing room for them to spread a little, and press each one lightly with a fork.

Bake for 12-14 minutes and allow to cool.

Mix together the filling ingredients to make a buttercream and spread thickly on half the biscuits (which are very fragile at this stage) and sandwich with remaining biscuits.

I found that these are incredibly crumbly the first day, and much better the second day which the cream and the biscuits had firmed up. Next time around I shall make them a little smaller... they are very rich. 

These will ruin you for bought custard creams. You have been warned!

I've kept the drawings going - here is a selection; (I don't know if I have posted any before)   

I'm enjoying doing them, barely more than a doodle, but just enough for me to think 'Oh Yes, I remember that!'. 

What is really weird is that they remind me of the scribbly illustrations my grandmother used to add to her letters - in a very similar style. The one of her black poodle puppy when he managed to tie himself to the pedals of the piano with a ball of red wool that she was knitting with has stuck in my memory aftr over fifty years!

Friday 25th February - I'm on a roll

 Don't get toooooo used to daily blog posts from me.... 

Today I have made, or rather, started, a hot-cross-bun flavoured no-knead loaf. I have read various posts about taking no-knead-bread and turning it into bread rolls or iced cinnamon buns or whatever, but that's adding complexity to what is supposed to be a simple process.

I have not taken a picture, as at this stage it looks just like the olive bread - a bowl full of unlikely looking bread dough with bits in it. Once you've seen one, surely you've seen plenty? 

It will be more interesting tomorrow, when I have painted the cross on (a sort of slip made of clay flour and water, I believe; briefly got confused with the Pottery Throw Down Programme there) and baked it.

Don't ask for the recipe - it was the same as the olive bread, with salt this time, and 'some' brown sugar and 'some' mixed spice and 'some' mixed raisins - probably around 3/4 pint, on account of I have decided (I know this isn't quite right, but it is easier) that half a pint is roughly a cup.

I measure out the ingredients in a measuring jug - very easy, when butter isn't involved in the measuring.

The daffodil embroidery is finished; once again looking much better in the photograph, probably because the fuzzy focus does such a good job of hiding the irregularities. 

   Maybe I should sew a (protective) covering of fine gauze over all my efforts? To cover up the errors?

It's rather like when I am performing a piano piece, especially Chopin; the direction to vary the speed (rubato) ever so slightly to help make the melody more expressive can be used to delicately slow down on the approach to a tricky bit to make time to get your fingers around it, and then a careful almost imperceptible speeding up again afterwards. Ah, so poetic! Such expression!

A friend who is a gardener has started working in our garden on a regular basis from this morning. Wonderful! In an hour and a half she has given our border the 'spring chop', including the salvia Armistead plants which grew to an astonishing 7 feet tall last year. I have had to admit defeat as regards digging and weeding and all the 'bend-and-stretch' movements that gardening involves. I shall continue with my vegetable 'hobby plot'; because everything is growing in large tubs and I can sit down to work on them, or at least only bend half-way to the ground. 

We are mulling over a small extension at the front of the house to add a downstairs loo; I've had a conversation with a builder a few houses away who it currently engaged on doing just this. Unfortunately, it turns out that he is passionate about never wearing a mask, anywhere, ever; they are just for people who are ridiculously neurotic about germs and such like, and masks are totally unnecessary.

So he won't be getting the job, it we decide to go ahead. I'm still shielding, still taking precautions, still keeping my distance, still clinically vulnerable to any disease that would directly attack my respiratory system. For the past ten years I've known that catching 'flu would be worrying; catching covid would be a whole new level of concern and consequence. 

At the same time, I am glad for people who can feel more relaxed about the covid situation with the vaccinations and better treatments available; unfortunately the threat levels are not yet low enough for people of all ages in my situation - whether it's down to weakened immune systems, auto-immune disease or respiratory diseases.     

Hey ho. Whatever is going on here, it is nothing compared to what other people are enduring all over the world.

Tiny Joy of today; seeing both the the moon and the morning star through my bedroom window when I woke up!

Wednesday 23rd February - All fool's day is here for the long term

What? But yes, and this is all I have to say about removing all requirements to wear masks, discontinuing free testing for covid, and any other nonsense about 'the pandemic being over'. If you wish to disagree with me, don't. Just don't. Not here, not now - I'm too mithered about everything at the moment.

Moving on to other things....

I made no-knead olive bread the other day - the same recipe and method as before, except I added a load of olives chopped into quarters. About three-quarters of a pint. The recipe is all in American cups, which seemed dreadfully inconvenient, until you google and discover that it is 0.416337 of a pint. So that's easy. Half a pint will do.

I also left out the salt, as the olives were in a mixture of brine and oil, so plenty salty enough even after I drained them.

 I did wonder if the salt would inhibit the rise, but it all seemed fine. We had some with cold meat last night, I have given some away, we will eat some more with soup tonight and the rest tomorrow, or slice and freeze. The next experiment along these lines will be to make a giant hot cross bun. Soon; I'm not waiting for Good Friday.

Other baking news; I have dealt with some out-of-date suet by melting it up with bird seed and mealworms. Yum. Delish. I was pleased that I managed to prise it out of the dish once it had set 

(that was by no means a certainty) and have put it into the bird feeders, wait, did you think WE were going to have it for our lunch? Now I shall have to see if the birds want to have anything to do with it. 

Talking of Lent; I have restocked the chocolate box we were given for Christmas;

yup, mini-eggs and chocolate hearts from Devine, and underneath are various bars of dark chocolate. We are not giving up chocolate for Lent - I never do, because one of the New Year resolutions that I do manage to keep is to eat chocolate several times a week. 

I have calculated that I can also keep my promise to myself to buy no more than one Persephone book per month if I order it at the beginning of March and the end of April, while at the same time giving up buying or downloading any new books over Lent. (I still haven't decided if the Persephone book thing only applies to Lovely New Books, in which case I can look for second-hand books on-line as well. Watch this space.) Just recently I have been binge-reading Rom-Coms by Tricia Astley - recently? This started in the run up to Christmas, and now it is February. 'Download this book for 99p', it says, and so I click. It is still massively cheaper than going out for coffee and a cake a couple of times a week.

I have some activities lined up for the Observing of Lent, but we've still got a week to go. Let's not post everything on one day!

Finally; Ang has already blogged about the stitchery swap project that we have started - as she said, it is slightly scary! Embroidery is a new skill for this year for me. I have been making my eyes water stitching her address; I started with the last word so that by the tie I got to her name I might have improved slightly. At the rate of one word per day, I will have finished tomorrow. 

Oh me oh my, there's more to this backstitch than I ever thought possible! It is a bit of bravery and trust. Although we've been reading each other's blogs for several years, but have never spoken to each other or met up - yet!

As a respite from trying to be super-precise, I am doing an experimental free-hand sample, taking the needle for a walk. I did draw the outline a few times first with my vanishing purple pen, but the purple didn't really show and soon vanished so I just went ahead anyway. It is still a work-in-progress.

I'm feeling a bit chuffed though; it looks so much better in the picture than in real life! I have taken against satin stitch - too much like hard work - in a sort of ragged infilling looks much better. 'Rustic', as a friend said. It is an opportunity to try out things without minding about mistakes. I shall just leave the mistakes there as part of a 'how to (not) do it' reminder.

 

Friday 5th November - Living in 'Interesting' times

 Well, that was a bit of an....experience.... but most things will settle down with a cup of coffee and some cake.

I've been to the opticians today- about two years overdue - and am now slightly reeling from the cost of my glasses, even including the 'two-for-one offer. By the time I have chosen the not-basic frames, and the thinning level2 to make the lenses lighter, and the reactions lenses, and the super coating...

No, not that bad, if you reduce it to 'so much per day'. I put my glasses on first thing in the morning, and take them off last thing at night, so it is worth the cost of lightness and size of lens and add-on-extras. I have chosen a different colour, sort of speckley-blue and tortoise-shell, as a change from the metallic red of the past three of four years, with the second paid being very different (for me); pale greeney-blue.

The 'interesting experience' bit was how something that seemed relatively 'covid-safe' rapidly disintegrated as the time wore on. As part of the general chit chat (I had a very chatty optometrist) she let slip that her partner had tested positive for covid some days ago 'but I've been taking lateral tests every day and I haven't any symptoms so you needn't worry' - it's all in line with the guidance...

I shuffled my chair back and digested this unwelcome bit of information. The reality of how the rest of the world is 'returning back to normal' was landing at my feet, in my face, with a thud.

'I put on my booking form under 'additional information' that I am clinically extremely vulnerable', I said, once I had reduced my concern from a 'rolling boil' to a simmer. She did look stricken, and was at pains to reassure me that she hadn't seen her partner for ten days, that they had separate bathrooms, and she just thrust his food at him through a crack in the door.

We continued amicably enough through the rest of the consultation, while I silently rechecked my personal risk assessment - she was wearing her mask properly - I had a PP2 facemask on, tightly sealed around my nose - we were keeping a distance from each other.

Then, downstairs, I went through the three separate procedures of choosing my glasses, waiting for a technician to fit the new glasses, and then waiting to pay for them. Meanwhile the shop, which had been quiet, suddenly filled up with a dozen or more families and young children, released from school and ready to have eyes tests, have glasses fitted, collect their glasses.

I was not a happy bunny, and very close to just walking out and saying I'll come back and finish this another day.

'Do you find you are losing your confidence at going out and about if you have been shielding for so long?' I was asked at one stage.

'No, I haven't lost my confidence at all at going out. But I have completely lost confidence in the general public to behave appropriately when They are out and about.' Maybe that came out more sharply than was expected.

A little drawing and colouring-in of vases of flowers is called for, once I have finished my coffee and (small) piece of cake. (Lemon drizzle - make a two-egg Victoria sponge, adding the zest of the lemon to the mix. I use the 'all-in-one-method' with softened butter. Sometimes I use a little extra flour in the mix. Other times I don't. In a separate bowl mix the juice of the lemon with a tablespoon of granualated sugar. Bake the cake as usual. When you take it out of the oven, stab the top of the cake all over, and pour or spoon on the lemon juice mixture, leave to cool in the tin). 

Today's Johanna Basford is going to the 'shelves of vases' page in her book, adding flowers and colouring them in. These are 'snipped' from her video for today. I shall go and do mine now.

Monday 19th July - Hello, did you miss me?

 Today is the day Covid restrictions are lifted and we can all do as we please. Except where we should follow guidance. Or common sense. Or whatever is most expedient at the moment.

That's all I am going to say on the subject, as it makes absolutely no difference to me - well, us two, as if he goes out on the razzle and brings the virus home with him, then I'm up some creek or other without a paddle. I'm not sure if this situation was what we had in mind when we made out marriage vows, but then, life is full of surprises.

So, what have I been doing these past three weeks? Loads of stuff, none of it remarkable.

I'll save the little micro incidents of our daily life to pad out a whole series of blog posts...

Let's talk sour dough.

I have flushed my two jars of sour dough culture away. What a good job I didn't give them names. The problem is, that apart from the bread machine method I haven't been able to produce anything except ballistic missiles. It seems to go like this - feed the starter every day, weigh out and mix the ingredients, knead it until it looks plausible, prove overnight, bake, cool, slice, and throw away.

You also have sour dough 'discard' to use; I love sour dough crackers, but my home-made ones tasted of cardboard. The sour dough cinnamon spiced loaf tasted bland. The sour dough scones - I'll tell you what happened to the sour dough scones.

One of the cats, at the ripe old age of ancient, is not so creaky that she can't jump up onto the work surfaces if she thinks she won't get caught, and the smell of sour dough has proved to be an acceptable substitute for catmint, as far as I can tell. So she sampled the sour dough scones. We knew, because that resulted in them being rearranged from rows on the cooling rack to an untidy heap on the floor.

That was the last straw - why spend hours messing about with pale beige sludge when there is a new bakery opened up in town and friends will buy a beautiful loaf for us which we can slice and freeze.

As for That Cat, now that there is no sour dough to hunt down, she turned her attention to the empty butter dish, and was caught crouched in the sink, drinking buttery water...   

That Cat - looking as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

Bank Holiday Monday 3rd May - The predawn of the new era?

 I had my second covid vaccination last Tuesday - how pleasant it was, standing idly in the car park in the warm sunshine, waving to friends further down the queue... everyone keeping their distance, oh well, a bit of a hard stare at the couple behind me; they had a tendency to shuffle a little closer to the person in front but they sort of 'came to' and realized what they were doing...

'This is going to be fine, like the last one', I thought as later that evening I could barely feel the vaccination spot on my arm. Oh ho ho and no no. Nothing serious, but as the next day wore on I began to wear out - eventually rescheduling the last piano lesson of the evening to Friday. On Thursday morning I cancelled that evening's teaching, and spent another day sitting about, tottering around the garden for fresh air, knitting, listening to old episodes of 'The Kitchen Cabinet' on BBCSounds. On Friday I taught the one rescheduled lesson (she is an exam candidate and I didn't want to leave her for a fortnight) and found myself breaking into a sweat - what!? - and promptly cancelled the three lessons I usually teach on Saturday mornings. 

Now it's Monday, a week later, and I am feeling 'normal' again - what passes for 'normal' these days - for a day or so. Just as well, as I have a chatty social zoom and three challenging piano lessons to teach this afternoon. That's as good a test of the level of my recovery as any I can think of.

Challenging? One is a hard-working advanced student who is learning a Beethoven sonata which I used to be able to play, the other two are younger, and require a different set of skills to make the lesson go well...

Monday morning is the day for recycling the coffee pods.

 It seems like such a small task; but also creates a lot of dirty bowls and mess. Clockwise from left; emptied pods, coffee grounds, the contraption that does the work (plastic thing with green top) and last few pods waiting to be emptied. Back in the days of the cafetiere we just swilled out the dregs (making sure they were at least cool if not cold) into the nearest flowerbed. Pre-cafetiere we just chucked the whole paper filter into the compost. 

Now here's what I do;

I put the pod onto the green thing, press down with the dark grey lid which inverts the pod so the grounds go into the base of the green thing, put the emptied pod into a tray for rinsing, and every dozen pods empty the grounds into another tray. Got that? Then I rinse all the pods and put them in the general recycling, pour the rinse water through a sieve lined with a piece of kitchen paper to collect the grounds and prevent them from blocking our idiosyncratic plumbing arrangements. 

Nearly done now.

Take the grounds and the soggy piece of kitchen paper to the compost bin, and finally wash everything else up.

There. It now takes two paragraphs instead of two sentences to deal with the coffee grounds. 

Have I saved energy? It's hard to know. I can't wait until I can get back to John Lewis and just dump all the used pods into their collection point for Nespresso to deal with.

I have used up some of my energy, though - it is a little bit of a work out, pushing down on the pods to expel the grounds.

(I should add that this is over a week's worth for two people - we try and limit ourselves to three coffees per day, although some days do require a second 'second' cup of coffee late morning, or even a third 'third' cup of coffee after lunch).  

'Pre dawn of the new era' is the title of this post - and in a sense, the coffee palaver, and possible end of it, is part of that sense of expectation. I am being strict with myself about waiting for three weeks before I start going out and about, visiting shops, going to a cafe, walking around a National Trust garden. By my calculations, assuming the covid infection numbers continue to fall, this 'pre-dawn' has only two more weeks to run, and sometime after 18th May I can consider venturing out into the big wide world again.

   

Monday 21st September - Summer again

 Sort of Summer. 

I have a selection of 'not yet ready for the wash, but not laundry-fresh' garments lying around, as I start the day dressed for Autumn, remove layers in tne middle of the day for Summer, and then replace said layers in the evenings. 

Long or short sleeves? Or three-quarter? One layer or two? Socks - to wear, or not to wear, that is the question. I'm sitting in the garden to concoct this post, wearing a jersey top which wasn't warm enough earlier, and I'm now rolling up the sleeves and removing the scarf that was keeping my neck warm. And I have just removed my socks - they were clean on this morning so don't worry, they don't 'niff'.

I got out my Summer nightdress again last week, wore it once, and it has gone into the laundry basket. But I was too warm last night in my new winter nightdress...

My new nightdresses are very pleasing. I bought them from Land's End, as my old Land's end ones (at least 7 years 'hard wear') are overdue for retirement. I refuse to pay full price; £40 for a plain nightdress seems to be extravagant, and for a while I thought I was going to have to settle for candy-floss pink - but I DO NOT WEAR PINK, even when I am asleep. 

Then I found these; (that's not me - my hair is growing, but not that long and, sadly, not quite so brown)

and I no longer worry about having to get dressed in time for the first zoom piano lesson in the morning at 8am. Who would ever know - unless they also shop at Land's End... it's tempting to buy some more as they make pretty nifty dresses and fit well.

It looks as though another 'lockdown' and more 'shielding' is on the horizon. Well, so be it. I'm getting myself accustomed to the idea that it is going to be six months and more before we start getting clear of this virus. That means March - or shall we just say Easter? We, for one, are not panic-buying a Christmas turkey and filling up valuable freezer space which could be used to store loo rolls and bread flour, even if that means we will have to make do with a papier mache turkey (constructed from defrosted loo rolls and served with bread sauce) - even if The Turkey is what Christmas Is All About. At least we will be going in to lockdown with our on-line shopping all sorted out - last time we were sourcing food from here there and everywhere, and at times it was a little anxiety-making.

I shall also place an order for garden seeds in the next few days - not being able to get hold of seeds for the garden was a bit of a downer. I managed to find a couple of sunflower seeds at the bottom of the seed tin, but I would have loved to grow more.

Pictures - I am two days behind at the moment - three if I don't do one for today after finishing this post. 

I titled this post 'Summer Again'. Too true - I have just moved to sit in the shade (and unrolled my sleeves and put my socks back on... it's all very confusing... and we will have to carry on watering the garden for a bit longer. Sitting here, I can see the length of the sunny border still flowering in full technicolour. Very pleasing. 

   

Saturday 22nd August - probably

 I spent most of yesterday confused as to which day it was - Friday or Saturday? and the date - 20th, 21st, or 22nd?

I managed to get everything right until Thursday, which was lucky as I had a piano lesson to teach in the morning, and then I lost count.

It's ok today - definitely Saturday. I'm sorted out. Although it was a bit tricky this morning. I'm following a prayer book in the morning, with a psalm and another reading and a couple of prayers etc for each day and discovered that yesterday I had done half of today's pages and half of yesterday's pages. Easily rectified once I understood why some of the words looked familiar. This morning I just did the other half of yesterday and the other half of today - I guess, like eating your meal in the wrong order, ice-cream and then main course, it all comes to the same in the end.

I took my regular exercise today, starting with stretching, to read the coffee-pod-recycling-gizmo which for some time had been stored on top the the fridge (fairly easily within my reach) to on top of the cupboards (full stretch up on tiptoe and just catch it with my fingertips)

Then I moved on to working whichever muscles live in my upper arms and shoulders as I put the tub of used coffee pods through the gizmo - 

it really is the most satisfying of all the household chores at the moment;

look here is how it works;

You see that bright green thingy, you just place a used coffee pod over the hole 

like this;

put the cover on and push down. There's a sticky-outy bit inside the lid which inside-outs the coffee pod, emptying most of the grounds onto the base. You can see the startled remains of the first couple of pods alongside their fellows in the red bowl.

    

Then I add water to the bowl of disembowelled pods and give them a quick swirl. The cleaned pods are fished out and put into the recycling, the coffee-ground-water goes into the tub of flowers by the front door (I wonder if visitors will eventually find themselves greeted by a strong smell of coffee as they wait for the door to be opened?) and I finish my morning workout with a brisk walk to the compost bin with the contents of the base unit.

Excellent. 

Back in the dim and distant past (a few months ago) we took them back to the Nespresso booth at the supermarket and then dealt with it all. But neither of us have been near a supermarket since all the coronavirus stuff got started.

How times have changed this year...

And yet, apart from me having a desperate wish to go and have coffee and a cake (preferably a miniature Koign-Amann from Waterstones) I have been reasonably happy and content. 

Oh yeah. A Koign-Amann please, soon. (they are far too fiddly to make, and anyway, I wouldn't dare have a whole batch of them in the house to eat because I would so entirely eat them all)

So, instead, I made a batch of 3-ingredient scones. These are amazing - you can find the recipe here   and I strongly recommend that you acquire lemonade, double cream and self-raising flour immediately. Also clotted cream and strawberry jam.

I cooked them in our air-fryer, 185c for 15 mins seemed to do the trick. I can show you how they came out, no, wait, there were seven but unaccountably there are only two left.

They were indeed that good. Next time I will make half the amount (just use a smaller cup; a yoghurt pot sized cup made 7 scones) so that I can cook them in just one batch, and also restrict how many I consume in one go.

There is also a recipe for a savoury version. 

I wonder how they would come out if I used ginger ale? 

Thursday 6th August - The week so far

The heatwave has begun today ...

Tuesday was pretty uneventful.

I've started a new painting project - foliage and flowers and stuff;

Saturday 1st August

I followed a tutorial for painting an Autumnal tree. The new paints are going to take a bit of getting used to.

Sunday 2nd August

 and the new sketchbook is also a challenge to use with water colour as the paper is thirsty so the paint dries quickly, and thin, so the pages buckle if I use lots of water.

Monday 3rd August

The paint works better if I thin it out; I have to be really quick if I want to add different colours and let them mix on the page

Tuesday 4th August

I gave the watercolours a rest and tried using aquarelle pencils

Wednesday 5th August

at the moment my drawing is getting scritchy and lifeless, and the colouring is not enjoyable

Thursday 6th August

so I thought - let's stop trying so hard, just went for the shapes with watercolour pencils (left hand picture) and then (right hand page) recklessly slapped paint on the page in the rough shape and colour, and 'tidied it up' with a pen when it was dry.

  Now, that seems like a plan!

On Wednesday I attended my first Massed Social Gathering since March. I spent days dithering - shall I go, should I not go? and planning - how shall I get there? what's the best route?

Oh good grief! I'm talking about meeting up with colleagues in the park for a 'socially distanced' coffee morning, bringing our own seating and drinks in flasks if you don't want to queue for a takeaway from the cafe.  

In the end I did go for about twenty minutes. I arrived late, so that everyone was already sitting and I could pick a 2m distanced place to be, and I didn't sit, partly to remain above everyone else's 'exhalations', partly so that I could move if anyone came too close. I do feel a bit of a wuss for being so careful, but I am so apprehensive of catching the virus and compromising the lung function that I have left.

I was glad to have met the gang, and especially say hi and bye to the one who is moving away, and touch base with the friends that I haven't seen in ages. I can't say it was a relaxing time - I was always staying aware of who was where, staying upwind of everyone, feeling as though everyone else might think I was being too over-cautious. They've been going up to London or visiting vineyards and exhibitions and eating out and generally doing whatever it is teachers do in the school holidays. 

Google memories keeps showing me photographs from our French trip last year;

Honfleur

Caudebec

Giverny

That was a wonderful week...

 

 

31st July - end of the month and New Paints

Another painting post... scroll through to the end for 'news'

End of July, end of the month of mugs;

My new watercolours arrives a few days ago. They come in tubes, so I also bought an empty tin. You can load up the empty pans with squirts and dollops of paint and leave it out to dry to make everything more portable, so that it what I did. A messy business. The paint in some of the tubes appeared to be under pressure (expansion in the heat?) so it came hurrying out even before I had aimed the paint in the direction of the little pan. Everything was at risk of becoming Prussion Blue for a few hectic moments until order was restored.

The Prussian Blue has reluctantly consented to making its home in the top left pan, although you can see evidence of the struggle. 

There's something not quite right with the Green Azo, bottom left corner. The tube was a bit bunged with a sort of crust. However I managed to sort it out with the end of a hairgrip (all I had to hand) and it was been persuaded to join its fellows in the tin.

The lonely yellow in the middle is from an old tube of cadmium yellow; I added it after my first efforts at using the new paints below. I was worrying about the Indian Yellow being quite so orange, and thinking I would need a properly yellow shade of yellow. I've discovered later that if you add more water to the paints they calm down and make better shades. 

The paints are so much thicker! My first attempt at a colour chart was far too dark;

and so were these trees;

But it is so much easier to get that 'dry brush' effect for 'sunlight on the water'

I think I'll manage to get the hang of them in time. The colours, once diluted, are totally beautiful. They want masses of water - but this paper is no use for that, it just buckles and crinkles and goes a bit crazy. 

I promised you news;

I took another box of mussels round to my father the other day. I drove round - the first time I have driven since 16th March or thereabouts. I did wonder if I would still be able to drive; and the first minute, before I had even started the car added to my apprehension. We've been leaving the car in gear, with the handbrake off, as we use it so seldom at the moment. I did the usual thing of adjusting the seat, and then testing whether I could operate the clutch pedal properly, and the car promptly started rolling down the slope of the drive towards the house... I grabbed the handbrake and pulled it up enough to halt the car before we got too close... that could have been a bit embarrassing (and expensive!)

I took the mussels, and also a flask of coffee, and he appeared with a glass of orange juice so we had a gentle time reminiscing about family sailing holidays forty years ago...

The highlight of last year, our French Cruise, began early in the morning of 31st July. We were hoping to have booked another cruise for sometime this year - oh well, maybe next year?  

 

Saturday 18th July - And.... breathe.... relax

I finished teaching for the term (officially) yesterday.

The last two weeks have been a maelstrom of piano lessons scattered throughout the days, schedules changing almost hourly as students miss lessons, have other lessons, go on holiday, have extra lessons at school - oh, you name it... it happened...

The net result is that I would end the day reeling, and blogging just didn't happen.

Ah well. Summer has propery i-cummen in, at very long last. I've reired now, from one of my employers, or will have done after Monday. I had a splendid time this morning recycling loads of the blah blah blah paperwork that used to blight my life... when I've finished this post I can feel another happy half hour operating the shredding machine coming on.

(I have just had the typos pointed out. I'm leaving them in. Seems fitting)

I managed to keep up the painting...

no cup painted on Sunday the 12th, by the look of things; I did other stuff instead.

I'll keep this up until the end of July, then think of something else!

I've also been making facemasks; the shaped ones, not the pleated version, simply because that's the video I watched first.

I tried one on - it's not that annoying to wear. I've used the leftover fabric from making this top a couple of years ago to I was a bit matchy-matchy - I suppose I could make masks to match my other tops that I've made and got scraps; no, and there again maybe not.

Someone sitting quite close to where I am at the moment told me that this is the expression I had on my face when some of last week's zoom lesson's were more than usually wayward.