Staying Home: Day 20

Today has been a beautiful, warm and sunny Spring day. I felt quite smug about my foresight in buying a couple of cheap sun beds before the lockdown happened, as I knew that if we were lucky enough to get some decent weather we would want to spend as much time outside as we could, and it would be nice to be able to relax with our feet up. These cheap, mesh type of sun beds are much more comfortable for M, who has severe scoliosis, than the more expensive rigid type. At TG's request we also added a hammock to our rather eclectic collection of garden furniture - we already had an old-fashioned deckchair, which tends to be H's favourite place to sit, and a table and chairs set bought ridiculously cheaply a couple of years ago as a temporary solution because we couldn't decide what type of garden furniture would work best.

We all spent most of the afternoon in the garden, reading or listening to the radio or music according to preference. It felt so good to feel the sun and start to top up our vitamin D levels - there is so little sun here in the winter that we are advised to take vitamin D supplements in the autumn and winter, which I'm afraid I only remember to do sporadically. M, who is the most social member of the family, caught up across the fence with neighbours on both sides - one has been ill with what sounds suspiciously like Covid, but is now feeling a lot better and is past the quarantine stage.

This morning I watched the second act of One Man, Two Guv'nors from National Theatre live, which was a thoroughly cheerful way to start the day - superbly acted and very funny. H and I did about 20 minutes of yoga, then H and TG went for a 3 mile walk. M baked a madeira cake for today's afternoon tea, then we went for our (much shorter) walk. My energy levels felt much better today, but I'm not going to risk overdoing it again until I feel more confident that the fatigue is clearing. There was a warning from the Health Secretary yesterday that if people abused the permission to exercise outdoors daily by congregating in groups, sunbathing in parks, going to beaches and so on, then the regulations might be tightened and outdoor exercise stopped. Fortunately I think it was just that, a warning, and it doesn't seem that the current regime is going to change imminently. We would certainly all miss the ability to go for a walk or run.

I have now finished March on the weather scarf, which is beginning to warm up. Partly that is because I decided to use the lowest daily temperature for winter, the average temperature for spring and autumn and the daily high for summer, thinking that would make the variation more interesting. I think the scarf is going to be ridiculously long, but it can't be helped. A single row a day would not have shown up very well, and would then have made the scarf too short. I think ideally I needed a 250 day year! 

Today's Disney movie: Wreck-It Ralph

Today's dinner: tagliatelle with tomato and chilli sauce, meatballs and spring greens