Staying Home: Day 76

Not much to report today. The Fiit app gives me options for various workout plans, so I have started a two week yoga plan - four sessions a week at an intermediate level. Normally intermediate would be very comfortable for me, but I am so out of practice that the 25 minute lower body class I did this morning felt tough. It is frustrating, but I am determined to get back the strength and flexibility I have lost. I made a slight mistake in that after doing the yoga we then went for a morning walk, and my legs complained. M was tired too, so we only did one and a half miles round the woods, our shortest walk for a while.

The warm, sunny weather is a mixed blessing. Everything is getting very dry. The muddy patch in the photo below is a small fenced off pond in the newer part of the woods which has dried up completely.  Grass is starting to turn brown, and the dirt paths are cracking. We need some rain, but there isn't anything more than the occasional shower forecast over the next couple of weeks, although it is supposed to get cooler after tomorrow.

I did a bit more work on my research and writing this afternoon, spent some time in the garden, read a bit, and made a Victoria sponge cake which I sandwiched together with some of the Pimms jam. Dinner was pasta, nice and easy.

Staying Home: Day 75

We switched things round today as it is the weekend and went for our daily walk in the morning, before it got too hot. I took a short detour down to the canal bank to take a photograph of the now-deserted swan's nest (bottom right), which has been colonised by ducks. Today's circuit was a bit longer, nearly four miles, and took us down through the woods, along a section of road and then through fields and a woodland path to the water meadows and the River Ouzel. The photo below is another view from the canal bank, and the bottom one is the River and water meadows.

I spent much of the afternoon in the garden again, reading and knitting a sock - I wanted a small project that I could work on outside, and I can knit and read simultaneously. I also spend an hour on a writing project I started last year. I have been researching the lives of three women - two sisters and a friend (or, far more likely, partner of one of the sisters) - who all served as ambulance drivers and medical orderlies in the First World War. I'm hoping that if I keep at it, some day it will turn into a book, but this was the first time I had written anything since last December. The horrible recurring non-Covid (I presume!) virus that dragged me down for the first four months of the year meant that I spent most of my time slumped on the sofa in a brain fog. Since I started feeling better I have been full of good intentions about getting back to this and another project I have on the go, but I have been procrastinating. Now I have managed to actually open the file and write something, I'm hoping that will give me some momentum.

The girls both spent some of the day out in the garden. H went for a run this morning, and although her calf muscles ache she seems to have got past the problem she was having with shin splints. TG did a dance workshop while we were out on our walk. I decided to try to start getting back to doing regular yoga again. H persuaded me to download a fitness app she and R are both using (FiiT) and try a class from that. I did a 25 minute stretching class as I know my muscles are much tighter than they should be due to the almost complete lack of yoga for the past five months. I did manage a few short yoga sessions early in the lockdown, but had an energy slump and never got back to it. M asked me while we were walking today if I thought I was back to 100% - my answer was that I thought so, but the last time I thought so the viral / post-viral thing made a minor come back and I ended up having a Covid test. I'm hoping that this time I really am back to normal and can start pushing myself to exercise a bit more without draining my energy levels. 

We split for dinner tonight. M and TG had fish in breadcrumbs and oven chips, which H and I had bombay potato curry with chickpeas and spinach. Three of us then watched a Louis Theroux episode on Netflix, while TG carried on with a series binge of her own. 

Staying Home: Day 74

This has not been a good week for early starts. I overslept again this morning, worked indoors for a while, then took my laptop out into the garden and worked in the hammock, moving it around periodically to find shade. Waking up late meant that by the time I switched on my laptop to try to book a slot to visit Stowe Gardens I was too late - only a tiny handful of single ticket slots were left - but I managed to book to visit the grounds of Waddesdon Manor next Wednesday instead.

I worked in to the early afternoon, then made scones. We had bought Pimm's flavoured jam and clotted cream from the pub food stall and the cream needed eating. I usually avoid dairy, but couldn't say no to clotted cream! 

We went for a late afternoon walk round one of our favourite routes, down to the oldest part of town and up through the fields back to our housing estate. Even at 5.30 it was hot enough to need sun cream and sunglasses.

While we were out H made chilli and rice for dinner. TG ate rather more than her share, then regretted it afterwards when she had to do pirouettes during a late Zoom dance class!

M and I watched the last episode of The Real Marigold Hotel, then H remembered she meant to make sponge cakes. It is her boyfriend's birthday at the weekend and she has a cake plan. Our evenings have evolved so that around 9 o'clock we all drift off to our bedrooms, apart from M who stays downstairs watching TV, but this evening while I am blogging I can hear the girls still in the kitchen.

I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend, then next week is going to be busy by lockdown standards. We have the trip to Waddesdon, and a couple of visits from friends planned for what TG describes as "socially distanced hanging out" in the garden. 

Staying Home: Day 73

I decided that I would sit outside and work in the fresh air this morning, but at 9.00 the air was a bit too fresh and after ten minutes I gave up and came indoors. I am still working on researching new pages for our website. I have other things to do but I am on a roll so sticking with that for the time being. I am fortunate in that I can plan my own time, and apart from a few "matters arising" and a monthly writing deadline I can choose what order I want to tackle things in. It was another beautiful day so I took my lunch out into the garden and stayed there sewing and listening to an audio book for a couple of hours, until I got too hot.

At 4pm I attended a Zoom webinar presented by a historical cartographer who had worked on mapping medieval and Tudor London for the Layers of London project. I found it really interesting, and although it is significantly more complicated than anything I would be likely to tackle it is definitely helpful to understand a bit more about how these maps are put together.

After the webinar M and I went for a two mile walk round the woods and discussed Covid contact tracing (supposedly starting in England today), historical cartography and webinars in general. I really like the availability of a webinar, and found the format of listening live to a speaker followed by an opportunity for questions worked just as well online as in person. The downside is the lack of opportunity to chat with other attendees and to go for a coffee or to the pub afterwards to continue the conversation. Realistically, though, paying for train fares or driving any distance to attend a seminar or workshop means I would only ever go if the topic is something I am extremely interested in, and even then in practice rarely make the effort. Being able to attend at the click of a button is a huge advantage. I wonder if the new normal after all this is over will be much more of a mix of real life and virtual events, so that people can benefit from both ease of access and the opportunity for face-to-face discussion.

Tonight was take-away night, so H and TG went down to the fish-and-chip shop which reopened last week. H said it was busy, but only allowing one person in at a time so there were quite a few people waiting outside. As the pavement is narrow social distancing was a bit tricky. We thought maybe the parking space outside the front of the shop should be blocked off to make more waiting space. The fish and chips were good though!

It definitely feels as though restrictions are easing all round. It seems a number of things are reopening with booked time slots to ensure numbers are kept in check. Tonight M booked a slot to take some rubbish we have accumulated during lockdown to the council tip next week - partly stuff we have cleared out (H blitzed her room earlier in the week), partly packaging from online deliveries, and a broken ironing board we replaced. Some National Trust gardens are reopening next week, with slots going online tomorrow. I am hoping to book a visit to Stowe Gardens, which has always been one of our favourite places for a walk, though we will miss not being able to have lunch or cake in the cafe which is still closed. The government announced tonight that from Monday people will be allowed to meet outdoors in public places or private gardens in groups of six, so long as they socially distance from anyone not in their own household. That means we will be able to visit R and vice versa.

I have almost finished my oversized William Morris bookmark. All the cross stitch is done, and I am now working on the backstitch detail. You may just about be able to see some on the blue wing of the left hand bird. I'm hoping it will be done this weekend. 

Staying Home: Day 72

I woke up at 4.30 this morning with a headache and took a while to get back to sleep again. I then  overslept and started work later than I intended, which put me behind for the rest of the day. By lunchtime my eyes needed a rest, so I ended up putting in an extra hour after we got back from today's walk. H went to Homebase (DIY and homeware store), mainly to get paint for the bathroom. While she was there I remembered we had decided to buy a BBQ they had in stock, so texted her to ask if she could get that while she was there. That meant she had to leave the store to pick up a trolley, which she said was slightly complicated as they now have a one-way system to make social distancing easier. Anyway, we now have a BBQ, which I am hoping she will manage to assemble later in the week.

We went for a walk after lunch as I needed a break. Although it was warm it was slightly overcast so unlike yesterday we didn't overheat. We did a nice three mile circuit through the woods, along the canal towpath and back up through the woods again - a much nicer route than yesterday, when most of our walk was through built up areas. A daily dose of countryside is such a good mood lifter. The swans we saw nesting on Day 52 have hatched their cygnets, and the whole family - two adults and six babies - were paddling along the canal.

We have noticed over the last week or so that more boats are moving up and down the canal. Usually it would be busy at this time of year with rented holiday boats, but now it is only privately owned narrowboats. The number of permanent canal residents must be pretty high, and most do not have permanent moorings, but move up and down the canal. At least some movement is necessary to pick up water, empty waste and so on.

H went for a run this morning but only did part of her usual circuit - it was too hot and she tried to run on an empty stomach which didn't work well. She had been struggling with shin splints, but after resting and adding in extra stretches she has managed her last couple of runs without any problem. This afternoon she and TG did a power abs yoga class.

As we had just finished watching all the Harry Potter movies we moved on today to Fantastic Beasts, with a break in the middle to cook and eat dinner (prawn stir fry and noodles). After the movie M and I watched the first episode of a new series of A House Through Time, looking at the history of a house in Bristol and its occupants. 

Staying Home: Day 71

Back to work this morning, uploading a batch of questions and then archives work. M did some housework, and H and TG spent a large chunk of the day clearing out and reorganising the kitchen cupboards. We'll gloss over the jar of cloves which expired in 1998 and was still in the spices box! They did an excellent job and the kitchen feels so much less cluttered. All the storage boxes are neatly labelled, thanks to H's new label maker.

M and I went for our walk after lunch, and found it a bit too hot! We did three miles around town, walking down through the park and past the church, and then in a circular loop back home. A footpath runs parallel to the road for part of the route, so we used that as it was shady. 

I'm afraid I am a complete non-gardener - I have rarely met a plant I cannot kill - but I enjoyed looking at other people's flowers. Due to our black thumbs our garden is now simply hedge, grass and patio, with no flowers at all apart from some daffodils at the top of the drive which come up every year despite us. H is now talking about trying to grow things over the summer, starting with herbs. 

After we got back I spent some time in the garden writing emails and playing around on Ancestry. TG did a dance class and H exercised. Dinner was pasta with a roasted vegetable sauce made by H. 

This evening we joined in a Zoom quiz with members of Michael's synagogue, and managed a creditable score although some way off the leaders. The days seem to be flying by, and there never seems enough time to do everything I want to do. Today I didn't do any crafts - my William Morris bookmark is almost done and I hoped I might finish the cross stitch today - and didn't read at all. I'm sure I spend more time that I should procrastinating, but even so, my days feel busy.

Staying Home: Day 70

Whitsun Bank Holiday today and another lovely sunny day. One of the saving graces of the past couple of months has been the weather. Lockdown would have been so much worse if it had been wet and miserable, but this has been a beautiful spring. I woke up with an irritating headache, which has bothered me off and on all day but now seems to be clearing properly. 

H and R have both subscribed to a fitness app which offers almost endless exercise classes. H did one this morning that was live and participants compete against each other to see who works hardest - it uses exercise data from Apple Watch (and presumably Fitbits and other exercise devices) to calculate effort. R messaged this morning with photos of a foster dog she is expecting to arrive soon. She has signed up as a foster carer for a dog rescue charity, and will take care of him until he is found a forever home. She and her partner already have a dog of their own who likes other dogs, and she will be working from home so is in a good position to look after another dog and help him get settled. 

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen today. I used up the remains of last week's veg box and made potato salad and coleslaw for lunch; for dinner I used some leftover chicken to make a chicken and mushroom pie with roasted sweet potato and courgette. I wandered in and out of the garden - more in than out today as the heat wasn't agreeing with my headache - and read bits of my book. I also spent quite a bit of time doing some family history digging. I had been contacted by a distant relative about an elusive joint ancestor, and think I may have identified him. It doesn't really help a lot as I think I can only take the tree back one more generation, and can't be certain I have the right person. 

M and I were very late going for our walk as we wanted to watch Dominic Cummings statement explaining his actions, which ran late and was (we thought) very unconvincing. At least today I am not feeling quite as angry and frustrated as I was yesterday. I forgot to say when I wrote yesterday's blog that I was so cross I emailed our MP. I still think he completely broke the spirit of the law, even if he is able to find loopholes in the regulations, and that he should be sacked as he clearly won't resign. I'm hoping that public opinion will force him to go, though even if it does I'm afraid the damage to the credibility of anything the government now says about how people should behave during this crisis is irreparable. 

We ended up with just a short half hour walk round the woods before making dinner. Being among the shady trees is lovely when the weather is hot. After dinner we watched the second half of Blinded by the Light, the film about a Pakistani Luton boy who wanted to be a writer that we started a couple of nights ago. 

Back to work again tomorrow after a lovely relaxing weekend. Or, at least, relaxing when I wasn't getting into a stew about politics!
 

Staying Home: Day 69

Political shenanigans have upset my equilibrium today (along with many other people). The Prime Minister's chief advisor Dominic Cummings was exposed in the press as having travelled 250 miles from London to Durham while both he and his wife had Covid, supposedly so that his family could take care of their four year old if necessary, flagrantly breaching the spirit of the lockdown rules and in most reasonable interpretations the letter of the rules too. The government spin machine is trying to make out that what he did was only what any decent father should have done, making a mockery of all those people who cared for their own children while sick to protect others, who stayed home and missed relative's funerals, who kept their distance from sick friends and relatives, and obeyed the government's instructions to stay home. The Prime Minister has doubled down behind Cummings. I am furious! There are other accusations which the government isn't even bothering to address. Apparently we should be acting according to instinct rather than being socially responsible and obeying the lockdown regulations. The whole thing is just beyond ridiculous. I usually avoid watching the news and the government's rather hollow daily briefings, but today M and I watched a morning politics show and the Prime Minister's briefing this evening. Given how angry and discombobulated I now am, perhaps I shouldn't have done. 

After watching TV this morning I had a long, lazy bath and read my book. After lunch I went outside to lie in the hammock and read, but fell asleep instead. We went for a slightly shorter walk today, mostly through built up areas but with a short stretch along the canal. One of the boats we saw had lots of painted canal art items on its roof.

I have always rather liked this house, with its arched entrance and windows It was originally the signalman's cottage for a railway branch line that ran alongside. The line closed in the 1960s and parts have been built over, although there is still a section that is now a footpath. On the way home we stopped at the pub to buy fruit. They threw in some extras and a loaf of bread for free as they were about to close and they would otherwise have gone to waste.

H cooked dinner - herb crusted lamb steaks, roast potatoes, carrots and broccoli - and we then watched the second half of Coco (one of Disney's best in our view). Then we had a long family FaceTime call with R, who seems to be enjoying her new job role in marketing though is finding getting up earlier in the mornings a challenge! It is only a temporary secondment, but she is hoping it will eventually lead to a permanent move.

I now need to spend some time distracting myself from thinking about the Cummings debacle, so that I don't go to bed feeling stressed and angry!

Staying Home: Day 68

This morning M and I went out for our longest trip since the lockdown began two months ago - all of about 10 miles, to collect a "Click and Collect" order from Dunelm. They had everything very nicely organised with no need to enter the store, and only one person in front of me in the queue. We then drove up to Dunstable Downs, to see if we could park up there and go for a walk. It belongs to the National Trust, who run the car park, and I had seen from their website that it reopened earlier this week. I had also seen pictures on Twitter of lines of cars parked up there on double yellow lines, presumably unable to get into the car park. As it turned out, we arrived only a few minutes after the car park opened and there was plenty of space. We decided to chance the weather, which was alternating between showers and sun, and just about got away with it. There was a short, light shower while we walked, but it only started raining properly when we were almost back at the car. 

The chalk downs are crossed by ancient roads and hollow ways, like the one in the picture above taken just before it led out onto the open downland in the picture below.

From here we turned right and walked along a path which forms part of the Icknield Way, a road which was already old before the Romans came. The downs are very exposed and it was a windy day, so the walk certainly blew the cobwebs away. For some reason I have always loved being outdoor in the wind, and the freshness combined with the views thoroughly lifted my spirits.

H spent the day working on her last-but-one uni "exam", which has been converted into a 48 hour assignment. TG staying in bed for much of the morning, did a lunch time dance workshop, then wanted to start learning / relearning guitar chords on my guitar. It really is awkwardly large for her to use, and I have bitten the bullet and ordered a 3/4 size one.

As I picked up lots of plastic storage boxes this morning I cleared out and reorganised the cupboard in our bathroom this afternoon. As you can see, it needed it.

Much better! I got rid of a whole box full of ancient, half used toiletries and general rubbish, and what is left is neatly sorted. H has bought a label maker, so I am going to get her to label the boxes for me.

Our Saturday evening treat was pizza, delivered by a local Italian pizzeria. Mine was garlic mushroom and delicious. So delicious that I scoffed the lot, washed down with Peroni - Italian pizza needs Italian beer. TG and H wanted to rewatch Coco on Disney Plus. We ended up watching half of it, then M joined us and TG disappeared, and we watched the first half of Blinded by the Light, a movie about a young Pakistani man with a Bruce Springfield obsession growing up in Luton (based on a memoir).  All in all, a good day.

Staying Home: Day 67

Today's happy surprise was a phone call late this afternoon from the garage to say the little car was fixed. M went and collected it, so H is now mobile. She can now take herself shopping, and will be able to go and collect her remaining stuff from her uni house next month. 

I spent a lot of time working as I wanted to get the current freelance job finished today so that I would have the long weekend, including Monday's bank holiday, free. There also seemed to be more archives emails today than usual, so that felt busy. While looking for something else yesterday I stumbled across a webinar about historic maps and a workshop on online engagement which both look useful, and have now booked to attend those over the next couple of weeks, both via Zoom. 

I don't normally like taking a long break and then going back to work, but decided today that would be better than working right through as both my eyes and my brain needed a rest. That meant we went for our walk after lunch. We did another three miles, this time through the woods down to the canal, along the towpath, and back up through the town. There is a lock on this stretch of the canal, and we passed it just as a boat was going through. The photos show it sinking lower and lower as the water ran out of the lock. We admired a pirate flag flying from one of the moored boats and ended up in a conversation with the boat owner. She took early retirement 18 months ago and has been living on a boat ever since, earning money by selling hand-made craft items at canal events. I love hearing about unusual lifestyles, and she certainly seemed to be enjoying hers. 

When we got home I went back to work until six o'clock. Then it was my turn to make dinner - oven baked sea trout with a asparagus, leek and a coconut sauce, served with rice. The recipe came with the fish box, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. After dinner M and I went through the latest batch of questions and agreed our final version, then the girls and I watched the second half of the final Harry Potter movie. I'm not sure what we will be moving on to next. Maybe the Marvel movies on Disney Plus. 

Next week is TG's half term break, and she is keen to work on learning a musical instrument. She initially wanted me to teach her piano, but I think has now settled on guitar. Mine is really a bit too large for her hands, though I was startled the other day to realise they are now almost as big as mine - she has always had tiny hands. Even so, I think it would be hard for her to learn on, so I'm leaning towards buying her a 3/4 size to start on. She has played a bit in music lessons at school and enjoyed it. One of her regrets about starting her GCSE subjects is that she no longer gets music and drama at school. Once it starts up again she will still get drama through the her youth theatre group, but she is sad to miss out on music so really wants to do some at home. 

H is also in creative mode and has started work on a painting for TG, based on her favourite Disney film, Ratatouille. Meanwhile, I have nearly finished my Strawberry Thief cross stitch bookmark. For some reason I am in the mood for cross stitch but not so much knitting and crochet (this may be because I am procrastinating over sewing up TG's jumper - not my favourite task!). 

Staying Home: Day 66

This morning was shopping day. I was chauffeur today as our little car is still in self-isolation. The garage are back working, but the dealer they normally get parts from isn't. They are hoping they may be able to source the part they need from somewhere else, but they are playing catch up and (quite reasonably) are prioritising customers who are essential workers. (Cheerful aside: H now has a car of her own on order, courtesy of her boyfriend's work scheme, as she will need one when she starts work in September. She won't get it until August though.)

The shopping expedition didn't quite go to plan. H queued for Aldi, only to find they are now back to coin deposit trolleys and we didn't have any cash with us. They also no longer have anyone wiping trolleys down (though she later discovered there is a DIY hygiene station) and we had forgotten both wipes and hand sanitiser. She joined the queue for M & S Food (same retail park) while I went home and collected £1, wipes, sanitiser and a jumper (she was cold!). She got what she needed in M & S, then queued a second time for Aldi and shopped there. Final stop was B & M (discount store that sells both home items and some food), but after she put a few things in her trolley she saw the queues for the checkout, decided the store was uncomfortably crowded, and abandoned ship. Most of what she was going to buy there we can get online or somewhere that feels safer. 

While H shopped I sat in the car with my laptop and made a start on the current freelance job, which has a tight deadline. By the time we got home it was lunchtime. After lunch I sat in the garden for a while and worked, then retired to the hammock with my Kindle. The photo above of my view from the hammock makes it look very green and rural. In fact we are on the edge of a large 1970s housing estate, but it is quite green with some well grown trees; we also have a hedge round the garden which was there when we moved in nearly thirty years ago, and is badly in need of cutting. 

We were a bit later going for our walk today, and took what has become one of our favourite routes. It is almost exactly three miles, takes us just over an hour, and is a nice mix of town and country. We walk down through our estate to the pub which now sells groceries (no need to shop there today!), and then turn up through what was once a small hamlet with some nice old houses. The building below was originally a watermill, but has now been converted into either two or three houses. H used to have a friend who lived in one of them, but I can't remember the layout.

This little stream must once have been the millstream. From there we walk along a track and across fields - good for blackberrying in the autumn - until we eventually come out at the top end of our estate, from where it is a ten minute or so walk back home.

H made lamb koftas in pitta bread for dinner, though I opted for some veggie falafel kebabs instead as I prefer not to eat too much meat. We were a bit late eating as TG had decided to do her latest catering task (making a fruit / veg presentation that would appeal to a child) and was hogging the kitchen. We then watched the first half of the final Harry Potter film. There was a major girl panic at the beginning when a large spider (the fat chunky kind, not the long legged sort) ran out from under the jigsaw board and had to be caught and evicted.

Staying Home: Day 65

Another industrious morning with everyone working, at least to start with. H had an online Italian conversation exam mid-morning, then breathed a huge sigh of relief (she said it went ok) and went out into the garden to soak up the sun.  

Today was the hottest of the year so far so we went for our walk straight after lunch, before the temperature hit is maximum We kept it short and went back to the nice cool woods. We stopped and chatted for a bit to a neighbour - he and his wife have two young children and are both juggling working from home with childcare, which is challenging. Again I appreciated how lucky we are that TG is old enough to be quite self-sufficient, in many ways functioning more like a fourth adult in the house. I spotted another jay, and this time managed to get a slightly better photo. After we got home I sat in the garden and finished off a bit of work from this morning and did an online grocery order with Waitrose for the beginning of June.

The bread bin, biscuit tin and tea / coffee / sugar canisters I had ordered arrived yesterday, so later on in the afternoon H had a clear out in the kitchen, got rid of all the junk that had accumulated on the windowsills and generally tidied up. This is how neat it looked after she finished - a big improvement! I have ordered some storage baskets for the cupboards and she is going to reorganise them next week.

H had a craving for macaroni cheese so we made that for dinner, then watched the end of the first part of HP and the Deathly Hallows. Seven films down, one to go! We watched a bit more TV, then played a game of scattergories.

Staying Home: Day 64

I often have to give talks on behalf of the archives, which I have no problem with - I can talk to a room of 150 people without any real nerves. Anything that involves recording, though, freaks me out. There is no logic to this. It just is as it is. This morning I had to do a recorded video interview about using certain types of records for genealogy, which was way outside my comfort zone. Fortunately I was one of three people being interviewed, and didn't have to speak for too long. I decided that putting myself through mild personal trauma in the name of promoting the archive service entitled me to finish a bit early this morning. Some more freelance work came in today with a short deadline, so the rest of the week will be busy. 

I have done quite a bit in the kitchen today. I made soda bread to go with the stock left from yesterday's chicken pot roast, which I turned into soup with mushrooms and noodles. Tesco's own brand plain chocolate digestives are the only dairy free ones we have found, and they keep being out of stock, so I decided to have a go at making my own. They are a lot more substantial than the shop bought ones and everyone seems to be enjoying them. H and TG had chicken katsu curry for dinner, but as our fish box arrived today and M doesn't like curry I made a fish pie for the two of us instead.

It was hot today, so we went for a walk in the woods where it is nice and cool. On the side of the path which leads from the road into the woods I spotted these mallow flowers. I didn't notice until I looked back at the photo just how delicately coloured the petals are. They look like fairy wings. I took the picture below looking up into the canopy of a horse chestnut tree. It was like being inside a green tent.

Poor M, who is oblivious to nature except in a general "this is nice" sense, had to put up with me shushing him repeatedly when I spotted a jay and tried to photograph it. Unfortunately bird photography really doesn't work on an iPhone. I can never get close enough. He was then reduced to eye-rolling exasperation when I stopped to stroke the moss on this branch.

Before dinner M went out for a socially distanced walk with a local friend, taking advantage of the slight relaxation in the rules brought in last week. I do hope they relax a bit more soon, as poor H has not seen her boyfriend since March and it is his birthday next week. They are used to being apart, with her being away at uni or (last year) in Italy, but until now have always been able to plan visits. 

One side effect of lockdown is that I watch a lot more TV than I normally do, mainly because it is a social thing to share with the rest of the family. The girls and I watched most of HP and the Deathly Hallows part one, and M and I watched an episode of Grand Designs. Neither of us has any desire to ever build or design our own house, but it is fascinating watching other people do it. Before writing this blog post there was a minor drama when H decided she was being attacked by a crane fly and I had to rescue her.  

Staying Home: Day 63

Not much to say today and I didn't even take any photographs on our walk, so a very dull diary entry. I did my archives work this morning, while both the girls worked and M did some housework. No freelance work on the go at the moment so that is giving us both a lot of free time. After lunch we went for a walk across the fields and back, about three miles in total. H spent quite a bit of the afternoon soaking up the sun in the garden, then did some exercise. TG was also out in the garden for a while before her dance class.

I used the chicken which didn't defrost properly yesterday to make a pot roast, with Spanish-style potatoes and peas. While it cooked we watched the rest of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. By dinner time H was virtually asleep so ended up eating after the rest of us. She seemed very tired and limp this evening, and went up to bed early.

It has been another warm day and is forecast to get hotter by the middle of the week, so we swapped our winter duvet for a lightweight summer one. That probably guarantees we will have a run of cold nights! Our eldest daughter messaged us tonight to say that she is starting back at work tomorrow after being furloughed. She will be working entirely from home, and working in marketing rather than recruitment - a planned change that was supposed to happen at the beginning of April. She has enjoyed having a few lazy weeks, but is looking forward to starting something new.

Staying Home: Day 62

We stayed up later than normal last night watching the first two episodes of Unorthodox on Netflix, a drama about an ultra-orthodox young Jewish woman who leaves her husband and New York community for a new life in Berlin, based (extremely loosely) on a true story. I then couldn't get to sleep, so ended up sleeping late this morning. Once up, we all moved on from last night's slightly acrimonious attempt to do online kitchen shopping, and ended up planning a general reorganisation of the kitchen and a revamp of the bathroom - H has decided that once she finishes her uni course at the beginning of June she needs a project, so is going to tackle the reorganising and redecorating.

I read a bit more of the William Morris biography, then spent an hour or so outside in the hammock sewing and listening to podcasts. While I was doing that, an ice cream van came round and M bought himself an ice cream. H and I don't eat dairy, and TG decided she didn't fancy one. Lots of the neighbours also went out, but being outdoors social distancing was easy enough. For today's walk we took a circular route through our end of town, walking down to the park next to the parish church which replaced the old medieval church in the 19th century - it was needed to sever the new town which was growing up around the station, while the old church was over a mile away in the middle of nowhere. The park was fairly busy, with one family playing on some of the exercise equipment which had "lost" the tape blocking it off from public use.

From there we walked round to the pub-cum-makeshift grocery stall to stock up on  a few bits and pieces, mainly bread flour, fruit and salad vegetables. They still had their VE Day bunting up, with "Keep Calm and Carry On" signs in the windows.

When we got back I ordered the slightly eclectic selection of kitchen and bathroom items we had decided we needed, spread over three orders from two shops. I ordered lots of plastic storage baskets and a couple of other items from Dunelm (a large homeware chain) which were only available through "click and collect" at a nearby town. The store itself isn't open, but they seem to have worked out a good system for collecting an order while socially distancing - we will go over later in the week to pick them up, which at 10 miles or so will be the longest drive we have done since March. I then ordered various other items from Dunelm which were only available for delivery, including wallpaper for the bathroom, and also put in an order with Argos. Once everything arrives H should have plenty of scope for her organising blitz!

The enthusiasm for decluttering and organising also got to TG, who cleared out her bookcase, weeding out a lot of outgrown children's books and others she inherited from the other girls but isn't likely to read (TG is not an enthusiastic reader, I'm afraid). She didn't do any exercise today, but H did strength training. She has been running 5K two or three times a week, and has decided it has given her shin splints, apparently quite a common problem for inexperienced runners. 

We watched the first part of HP and the Half Blood Prince, and H and I (mostly H) made a roast chicken dinner. There was a minor disaster when I went to put the chicken in and discovered that it hadn't defrosted properly. In the end rather than risk undercooked poultry I drove H down to the convenience store to buy another one. I try only to buy free range, ethically sourced chicken, but today it was a case of settling for what we could get. The semi-defrosted chicken will now be tomorrow's dinner. After dinner M and I watched the last two episodes of Unorthodox, while the girls did their own thing. I finished the second sleeve of the jumper I have been knitting for TG and started sewing it together. I should get it finished next week, though now the weather is getting warmer it won't be much use until the autumn. 

Staying Home: Day 61

I enjoyed the luxury of a work and commitment free Saturday again today. I definitely need to work out how to have more free days once life gets back to something approaching normal and business kicks in again. This morning I read and knitted for a while. I'm still reading a giant biography of William Morris. It will take me some time to get through it, but I'm finding it worth the effort. Then I spent some time photographing documents and genealogy notes relating to my grandfather to share with a newly discovered cousin.

After lunch we went for one of our longer walks, back past the old church. This time we cut through the churchyard so I was able to get a photograph from up close. I also took some photos in the graveyard. I have always liked this stone carving of an anchor. I wonder why it was added to this memorial? Was there a connection with the sea? It would be surprising if there was as we live about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in the UK.

We then walked down through some different woodland, before turning across through the water meadows to get back to the canal, and then through our usual woods back home. I think we did just under 4 miles altogether. Although we can now drive places to walk, I don't want to lose the habit of walking locally most of the time.

M baked a madeira cake this morning and H baked brownies this afternoon, so when we got back from our walk we had cake and brownie. Then we finished watching HP and the Order of the Phoenix and watched an old episode of Grand Designs. H cooked prawn curry for dinner for the two of us, while M and TG had chicken in breadcrumbs and oven chips.

I am not the only one enjoying lazy Saturdays. TG settled herself on the sofa this afternoon and announced that she loves Saturdays, because she doesn't have to do anything. We pointed out she had just done an online dance class, but that apparently didn't count because it was fun! This evening we tried to do a bit of online shopping to replace various battered and tatty bits and pieces in the kitchen, but ended up at cross-purposes so haven't yet ordered anything.