Staying Home: Day 26

I was feeling in better spirits today, possibly because I felt less tired. Really, I have so much to be grateful for, including that I enjoy spending time at home and I am not finding the lockdown a hardship. I finished a book today, Bluestockings by Jane Robinson, which is a history of women and university education before 1939. This reminded me of an old family friend, who was a student at Oxford University during the first world war and died in 1992 in her mid-90s. I realised that I knew nothing about her background and how she came to be at Oxford, so this morning put my genealogy skills to use and did some research on Ancestry. I discovered that she spent her childhood in Birmingham, where her father was a chartered accountant. Her older brother studied at the University of London and spent time in the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War; he later became a professor of education at Nottingham University and then in Egypt. I knew she had travelled, spending time in Italy and elsewhere, and found her on passenger lists of ships going to and from Canada in the 1920s. In 1939 she was teaching in Shrewsbury, before settling down as lecturer at a teacher training college near Liverpool where she was one of my mother's tutors. I wonder whether her father was one of those enlightened men for his time who valued education for women, or whether she was like Vera Brittain and had to plead to be allowed to follow her brother to university. 

I chose a different route for our walk today, meaning to go through the ancient woodland rather than the newer part, but took a wrong turning. H said later that she got into the old wood by mistake and there were lots of bluebells out, so tomorrow we will go hunting bluebells in Bluebell Wood. I did spot this little robin and just managed to get close enough to take a photo of him with my phone. 

When we got back I made scones for afternoon tea. No clotted cream, or cream of any sort, but they were still good.

After tea we watched Finding Dory and I started to crochet flowers for my spring garland using the left over yarn from my blanket. Now I have got to grips with the pattern I think they will be very satisfying to make.

H cooked a keema curry for the two of us for dinner, while M and TG had chicken and chips. The girls wanted to play a board game, so we played Mega Monopoly. We have found that thanks to a third dice and extra properties, the Mega version is actually quicker to play than the standard version, and more interesting. TG has planned a virtual sleepover tonight with two friends. Apparently they are going to use Netflix Party, which allows them to watch the same thing at the same time and chat while they watch it. I can hear her chattering away to them upstairs.