Sunday 30th August - Missions Accomplished This Week

 It's getting on for 5pm now. Today's mission was to persuade myself to take some exercise, and the accomplishment was to walk round the block. Ok - only 15 mins exercise, and only 870 metres travelled in that time, but there is quite a steep little gradient on the way which slows me down to what one person called 'grinder gear' - the lowest speed that a landrover can crawl in the very, very bottom gear..

So why all the measurements? I had a zoom appointment with the rheumatology clinic where they keep an eye on how my scleroderma is, or preferably isn't, progressing. It's hard to tell over a zoom conversation, especially when the video component wasn't working, and it is a new consultant. But as far as we all know, there is no change. So I'm happy about that. 

One of the tests I usually do at the clinic is the '6 minute walk' - if I had been at the hospital I would have walked up and down a measured length of corridor for 6 mins, dodging people walking or wheeling trolleys or hospitals beds as I go.  They compare the 'before' and 'after' blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels and make a note of how far I had managed to walk. I always manage to keep going for 6 minutes, unlike many other patients who can barely manage the length of the corridor before coming to a breathless halt. I do have a tendency to set off far too fast, so that I am gasping like a landed fish at the end. I have been able to replicate this test to some degree as I have a blood pressure machine and an oxygen level monitor of my own, and practice has shown that I can get from our house to number 13 in 6 minutes, and then, coming back, I start at number 7 which is a bit further along and keep going to just past our house. It is downhill on the way back, not so as YOU would notice, but even the slightest gradient makes a significant difference to me. Anyway, I'm currently managing about 370 metres in 6 minutes which is - okay. 

I've an appointment with the Interstitial Lung Disease clinic next week - they keep a watch over my lung function as that's where the scleroderma has done the most damage. Once again it will be a zoom appointment, and therefore without the 'breathing into a complicated machine in confusingly different ways' lung function tests and measurements. 'When you are ready, breathe out, then breathe in as fast as you can, hold your breath for fifteen seconds, breathe out for as long as you can, and then quickly breathe in all the way'..' it  is so easy to get yourself hopelessly confused and lose all coordination of your breathing muscles even though they talk you through it ...

Anyway, more regular exercise would definitely be a good plan. It's so easy to turn into a couch potato. 

Other missions? I've been deferring getting routine blood tests done for a couple of months, but last week I braced myself and went to the hospital all masked up and on the alert. I managed to get through the whole process without touching anything except the buttons on the car park machine - I was trying to use a tissue but the buttons needed proddling with a proper finger to make them work.

I found the experience ridiculously exhausting. I've been so careful for so long, that being indoors with strangers, and dealing with their unpredictable movements was quite a trial. Like the unmasked lady who wanted me to show her how to work the car park machine. 'If you stand back, over there, a bit further, I'll have a look and see if I can help' and then she comes and peers over my shoulder...

I also had to take a parcel to our sorting office - an on-line order return. I haven't been into a shop or an office or a bank since March...

I think I need to get out more!

Still, I think I will achieve that objective; I'm overdue for the dentist, the opticians and a hairdresser appointment, and the cats need to go to the vet for their checkups. What a lively time we shall be having...         

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? 

Friday 21st August - It's a bit breezy here...

There's some gale or storm coming through at the moment - part of me wants to be down on the coast to see what's going on, and another part of me stays home and puts the kettle on.

At least it is a warm, southern sort of wind, quite pleasant so long as one isn't trying to achieve anything. Like deadheading the roses, as the wind was swaying the bush from side to side which probably isn't that great for its roots. I won, just about, but accidentally snipped off some promising late buds;

 

never mind, that was today's picture sorted.

 I'm just peering out of the patio door, which we've closed now before it could make that choice of its own accord in an elemental and potentially destructive manner. Two of the three surviving sunflowers are standing upright, held fast in the clutches of the passion flower vine which has got delusions of world domination. The other... well, let me go out just now and take a picture...

There it is, at the bottom of the picture, making friends with the geranium. I've lifted it up and arranged some passion flower vines around it to give it some support. That's a climbing nasturtium lolling about nearby; they clearly didn't read their full description on their seed packet.

There is an enormous oak tree at the bottom of the garden, swaying and billowing and threatening to take flight. Our neighbour would like it gone; it interferes with his observatory at the bottom of his garden by obscuring a good chunk on the night sky. In particular it screens out the North Star from his garden, which his telescope uses to computerise itself in some way. I'm not sympathetic. An observatory in a place like here with so much light pollution was never going to be a great success.  

(Look at the leaves on our other neighbour's cherry tree all pushed over by the wind!)

For once, the patio table is quite sheltered; Leo's fur isn't being blown at all, unlike the border plants close by. It's a little 'dead spot' in the swirl of wind that is filling the rest of the garden.

 

Oh, were you expecting news in this blog post? In England, the weather is always a topic for news. Today it is about the only topic.

(I'm so glad that for once I read through a preview of this post - normally I don't, as you will know from the number of typos. Today I did, and was there fore able to add an essential 'r' to a word at the start of the paragraph before the sunflower photograph)

Wednesday 19th August - This is more like Summer

 As in it has been raining aaaaaaalllllllll day.

Eight days since my last post - what has been happening? Oh, well, this and that...

The Big Social Event was a friend's daughter's wedding. The 'rules' were changed just in time for her to have 'real musicians' at the wedding and for the reception to be a little less tightly constrained - so what was always (don't laugh, people who know exactly how many hitches and slips there nearly were along the day!) going to be a good day became a better one. We were able to join in via a livestream broadcast on youtube - wonderful. 

we have been on a few little outings - to the Henfield Prairie Gardens

It was rather a dull morning (we skipped zoooooom church) but I got to do sketching, sitting on a bench surrounded by flowers while Himself strolled around at a slightly faster pace than I do these days.

Our timing was superb - it started to rain just as I was more or less finished, was raining properly by the time we got home for a late lunch.

The next day was much brighter and we went to see the sea;

a brisk wind was blowing so painting has hampered by firstly forgetting to bring bulldog clips to hold the pages down, and secondly the paint drying within seconds of it hitting thenpaper (I'm still using the book with the 'thirsty paper - I will finish it, come what may, by the end of August and start a new book in September.

The tide was going out, so I managed to paddle in the sea, walking over brownish sand studded with little stones like currants. Going barefoot up the shingle bank wasn't so much fun - very prickly stuff, shingle.

I've been enjoying the 'painting-a-day' project;

Wesnesday 12th was Runner Beans 

And also this (copied from a book) as a wedding card  

Thursday 13th - flowers in the border, painted standing up, using a waterbrush

Friday 14th - Gerberas, a present from some children I teach

Satruday 15th - I was looking through the windows, didn't go out. 

Sunday was the Gardens

Monday 17th various tubs in the garden 

Tuesday18th more vegetable tubs, before I picked the tomatoes

Wednesday 19th August to day is a frabjous day - a new brush I ordered, having seen reviews and watched someone using it, arrived - actually, it cam a day or so ago, but we leave things 'in quarantine' for a couple of days.

It is amazing. It reminds me of the first time I played the concert Bosendorfer piano at school (the best thing at that school for sure) and I discovered that there are pianos that make everything you try and do 100 times easier, and 100 times better. It reminds me of the time I bought a new bow for my cello, after over 40 years, and discovered that a right bow transforms the sound you make, and how easy it is to play - if I had had that bow when I first got the cello everyhing might have been very different.

I've been playing with the brush off and on all day;

  

and also ordered a travel version to take when I am out and about.  

Tuesday 11th August - Hottest Day of the year - maybe

 Every day since before the weekend I seem to have headed up my diary entry with 'that was the hottest day this year'. Seems like it might be the same heading tonight. 

The other day, the room thermostat was showing  'temp 31 degrees C; target temp 21 degrees C'

So we are saving a lot on the heating bills at the moment...

Leo is just sleeping all day, mostly on a dining chair. Occasionally she switches places and lies just in front of my new standing desk (very inconvenient) or under the piano stool (no better).

McCavity is convinced that grooming cools her down, and comes miaowling around a couple of times a day. She might be right - we are brushing out a lot of fine hair from her thick coat.

I did try to help her by wiping her ears, face and paws with a damp cloth, but she didn't care for that.  

The other night I was awake at 1 am and went downstairs to see if I could see the meteor shower. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It was reasonably clear, and I saw what was like a sudden sparkle or flashy way up high. I couldn't find the energy last night (although I did wake at the right sort of time). 1 might try tonight/tomorrow morning - it was wonderfully cool sitting in the garden - but I think I will try and remember to take my glasses if I do; maybe that will help me in my meteor spotting. 

I'm still painting every day... 

ah, this is appears to be a retrospective;

today, 11th Aug 

Gerberas, a present from some delightful children I teach. They are struggling having been over-watered, under-watered, kept inside, given too much sun, but you have to admire their will to survive. 

Monday 10th August

This is a friend's garden - I went round for tea in the morning and we sat on the 'Upper Terrace'; her garden is a similar size to ours but terraced, and is delightful, especially this area. I am a great fan of having different places to sit at different times of the day. We have three; 'always in the shade', by the shed, 'dappled shade' under the apple tree which is a bit waspy now as most of the apples have dropped, and 'by the patio door' which must be like an oven now - it's shady in the morning, good for afternoon coffee in spring and autumn but now.... no way.

Anyway, here's the friend's garden; 

Sunday 9th August

I've been experimenting with painting larger pictures, using a bigger brush with very long hairs; these are roses, just in case you can't tell.

On Saturday 8th we went out early, once again to Ditchling beacon. It was ok when we got there but rapidly warmed up - hotted up? heated up?

I sat under the shade of a hawthorn with this view in front of me;

while He went off for a walk (don't worry, it was several hours before midday) to a point in the distance, uphill and downhill and so on;

You see those two clumps of hawthorns on the left? You might make out a bit of a zig zag path to the distant right of them; and then further on there's a sort of 'end of the hills' before you get to the far distance, oh, don't worry trying to work it out. It was a couple of miles anyway.

I filled in the time while I could see his hat (with him under it, of course) bobbing along towards me in the distance by doing some flowers and stuff. Some are real, some are picked and stuck in.

And here's Friday 7th August. I sat in the doorway of the patio doors, in the shade because it was still morning, and painted what was in front of me

Saturday 8th August - Seeing into the future

The readings in my prayer book this week have been from Paul's letter to the Romans, and often been about death and resurrection.

 I read somewhere that three days and three nights is the period of darkness at the time of the new moon, and so, in 'olden times' before artificial light, be it candles or electric, three days was a significant time, especially in winter, I suppose, when nights were long and cold.

So Jonah was three days in the fish's belly, which famously presages the days of Christ's death and resurrection.

Here, in this blog, the Vicar (Rector?) of Haworth Parish Church highlights other occasions when events in the Old Testament become significant when viewed through the other end of the telescope, as it were.

If you enjoy these threads weaving through time, you may enjoy this post.

I suspect the blog post title is influence by his wife's profession as a textile artist.

 

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...

 

 

Monday 3rd August - Abraham and Isaac

This is all a bit unexpected. That is, if you were expecting family news and chit-chat.

A couple of days ago I posted this on facebook - it's the last of the July series of daily watercolour sketches.

 The Bible passage from Genesis attracted some comments from a friend - 

'why had I chosen this passage?'

'because it was the set passage in my book for the day - I did try and wriggle out of posting it, but decided that would not be truthful'

To which he replied

'But the old man would not so, but slew his son,

And half the seed of Europe, one by one.' 

This turns out to be from a sonnet by Wilfrid Owen, which I find completely stunning

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

Wilfred Owen - 1893-1918

 

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

various words threw themselves at me as I read and re-read the lines;

fire and iron

belts and straps

parapets and trenches

transforming the scene from a story in long-ago biblical times to the very present reality of the Great War, the war to end all wars

a time when National Pride, the Empire, Sovereignty, was all-important...

As time has passed things have changed shape and size and form, and ideals  like nationalism, and empire building and world-beating - especially the phrase 'world-beating' which seems to be spouted forth at every opportunity -  become more distasteful compared to cooperation, sharing resources, compassion.

Serious stuff. Serious times. 

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?