Back to work this morning. My "office" is mostly my bedroom, sitting on the bed with my laptop, as it is somewhere I can be quiet. As TG is on her school break, she and H are no longer settling down in the dining room to study, so I suppose I could go there, but I have kind of got used to my bedroom-office. We do have a study, but it is where M normally works. He doesn't have any freelance work so far this week (and I'm guessing there won't be until after Easter, maybe longer) so again, I could work in there now, but I don't have everything set up on the iMac in there the way I do on my laptop. Also the chair in there is comfortable for his back, but doesn't suit me at all.
H and M got an early start and he ran her down to Tesco, waiting in the car while she shopped. We needed flour and eggs, which still seem to be hard to find. She managed to get one of the last three bags of plain flour and some eggs, so mission accomplished. H and I used up the homemade wild garlic pesto for lunch; then TG made choc chip cookie dough, which she has left to chill and intends to bake tomorrow. I had ordered some meat - grass fed / free range as I am trying really hard to buy ethically sourced and environmentally friendly food wherever I can - which arrived today, so I unpacked and froze that. I sat in the garden for a while (or rather, lay in the hammock!), had a phone conversation with a colleague and read a bit, then made a beef stew and left it to cook slowly. We all went for walks, but I didn't do any yoga today. I'm not quite sure yet how to fit it into my working day routine.
Our lovely neighbour had been to Costco to stock up, and dropped a box of pastries off for us - pain aux raisins and chocolate twists - as a contribution to our afternoon tea. The wave through window, dump on doorstep and retreat to a safe distance for a brief chat routine works well! Sadly her elderly mother-in-law died last week. Not unexpected and not, so far as we know, of Covid, but because of the quarantine they had been unable to visit, and funeral arrangements will be difficult.
After our Disney movie - Up, one of my favourites - a small group of us tried to record a brass version of Mamma Mia using Zoom. We tried using phone audio in an attempt to avoid feedback and delays, but it didn't work, so we ended up having to record our parts separately. Our techie expert is now going to try to combine all the tracks - it will be interesting to hear the end result! This was only the third time I have played my trombone since before Christmas. Due to my viral thingy I only made two rehearsals this year before we had to stop. It is quite a heavy instrument and just takes more energy and puff than I have had available. I have now left it out on a stand, intending to pick it up and practice for a few minutes at a time.
Dinner was beef stew with dumplings, with blueberries H bought this morning and dairy-free yoghurt for dessert. I'm hoping my pacing has been OK today, as I didn't have as much energy as I did yesterday. A short walk, cooking dinner, half an hour with a trombone and a few small jobs shouldn't be overdoing it, but I have reached the point of being very wary of the effects of any exertion - if I do too much, I end up paying for it later, and "too much" is currently a pretty low bar.
I'm feeling shocked this evening by the news that the Prime Minister is now in intensive care with Covid. I'm not a fan politically, but desperately hope that he pulls through this. Ironically I had told M on our walk today that I was worried about him. I suspected that the information being given about his health was playing his illness down, as he was clearly not recovering on the expected timescale for someone with "mild" symptoms, but hoped that I was wrong. What an awful situation for his family, especially his pregnant partner.
CRAZY PAVING: "A form of paving, as for a path, made of slabs of stone of irregular shape fitted together."
Monday, 6 April 2020
Sunday, 5 April 2020
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.
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
Saturday, 4 April 2020
Staying Home: Day 19
A lazy weekend day. I woke up at 5, went to sleep again at 7.30 and didn't get up until 10.30. H and I did a very short yoga video together (Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube). She is spending too much time sitting and getting back and neck ache, so we did yoga for neck and shoulders. It was the first yoga I have done since December, and a short, easy session felt good. The plan is to do a 20 minute lower back video tomorrow.
This week's veg box had wild garlic in it. It smells very garlicky and I wasn't sure what to do with it, so decided to follow the instructions on the bag to make pesto (which I have also never made before). I smushed the wild garlic with hazelnuts, olive oil and some nutritional yeast - it should have been parmesan, but neither H nor I normally eat dairy and we didn't have any non-dairy cheese, so I substituted the yeast flakes. I added olive oil until the texture felt about right, and H and I then ate some of the pesto with pasta for lunch; it was very garlicky but good. There is still plenty left for two more portions, and I only used about half the wild garlic.
Today's Disney movie was Wall-E which just confused all three of us. We never really got to grips with the plot or lack of dialogue. H has finished her Genoa painting, which is now up on the living room wall. I'll ask her permission to put a photo of it on here tomorrow. M and I went for our walk after the movie and H went for a run; TG was being a bit lazy again and didn't exercise. She has a couple of school tasks to finish, then two free weeks as the school will not be setting any work over the Easter break. When school starts again, the plan is for her year group to drop the subjects they won't be doing for GCSE (national exams taken at age 16), and just concentrate on English, maths, science and their chosen GCSE subjects, which for TG will be geography and French, and probably catering, photography and extra science. One of the science teachers phoned soon after they shut down to say that the extra science option was oversubscribed and to warn us that as TG had put it 3rd on her list it was quite likely she would not get a place on the course. However, we were told we would get a follow up call if that was the case to confirm what reserve choice she wanted, and that no news would be good news. We haven't heard anything since, so it seems she may have squeaked into the course. Apparently the school will be sending out letters soon to confirm (or not?) which subjects they will be taking.
This evening after dinner (prawn tikka masala made by H) we had a family group chat with our eldest daughter, who has now been furloughed on full pay for the next month or so. She seems quite positive and has spent the last three days painting her garden fence. She has new garden furniture arriving tomorrow and has cleaned up the bbq, intending to make the most of what is forecast to be lovely spring weather over the next week or so. After that I started watching a video of the play One Man, Two Guv'nors, which has been made available on You Tube by the National Theatre for the weekend. It is very funny but also very long, so as I started a bit late I only watched Act I tonight and will watch Act II tomorrow.
This week's veg box had wild garlic in it. It smells very garlicky and I wasn't sure what to do with it, so decided to follow the instructions on the bag to make pesto (which I have also never made before). I smushed the wild garlic with hazelnuts, olive oil and some nutritional yeast - it should have been parmesan, but neither H nor I normally eat dairy and we didn't have any non-dairy cheese, so I substituted the yeast flakes. I added olive oil until the texture felt about right, and H and I then ate some of the pesto with pasta for lunch; it was very garlicky but good. There is still plenty left for two more portions, and I only used about half the wild garlic.
Today's Disney movie was Wall-E which just confused all three of us. We never really got to grips with the plot or lack of dialogue. H has finished her Genoa painting, which is now up on the living room wall. I'll ask her permission to put a photo of it on here tomorrow. M and I went for our walk after the movie and H went for a run; TG was being a bit lazy again and didn't exercise. She has a couple of school tasks to finish, then two free weeks as the school will not be setting any work over the Easter break. When school starts again, the plan is for her year group to drop the subjects they won't be doing for GCSE (national exams taken at age 16), and just concentrate on English, maths, science and their chosen GCSE subjects, which for TG will be geography and French, and probably catering, photography and extra science. One of the science teachers phoned soon after they shut down to say that the extra science option was oversubscribed and to warn us that as TG had put it 3rd on her list it was quite likely she would not get a place on the course. However, we were told we would get a follow up call if that was the case to confirm what reserve choice she wanted, and that no news would be good news. We haven't heard anything since, so it seems she may have squeaked into the course. Apparently the school will be sending out letters soon to confirm (or not?) which subjects they will be taking.
This evening after dinner (prawn tikka masala made by H) we had a family group chat with our eldest daughter, who has now been furloughed on full pay for the next month or so. She seems quite positive and has spent the last three days painting her garden fence. She has new garden furniture arriving tomorrow and has cleaned up the bbq, intending to make the most of what is forecast to be lovely spring weather over the next week or so. After that I started watching a video of the play One Man, Two Guv'nors, which has been made available on You Tube by the National Theatre for the weekend. It is very funny but also very long, so as I started a bit late I only watched Act I tonight and will watch Act II tomorrow.
Friday, 3 April 2020
Staying Home: Day 18
At the moment - and I realise this may well change as time goes on - I am finding quite a few positives in this quieter, stay-at-home life. I am normally terrible with routine, but since getting the balance of my day all wrong on Monday I have slipped into a daily pattern that is actually working well for me. I am getting up, showered and dressed soon after 8, getting started on my work at about 8.30 and working until lunch time or early afternoon, depending on how much I have to do. M & I go for a walk mid-afternoon, then come home and have tea and cake. Late afternoon is Disney movie time, and then we eat dinner about 7pm. The girls also mostly study in the mornings and exercise in the afternoons, and M either works or does jobs around the house or garden if he doesn't have any work to do. Before the shutdown my week was all over the place, with two full days at work out of the house, fitting freelance work in randomly during the rest of the week (sometimes including the weekend), and often spending far too much of the morning doing nothing much before I get into gear then chasing my tail later. I really hope I am learning the lesson that routine is a good thing for me.
Other positives? Spending time with my family and enjoying their company, instead of all of us whizzing around to different places at different times. More intentional menu planning, with more variety, and mostly all eating the same thing; also sharing the cooking in a more organised way. Not having to rush, and never being late for anything - something of a novelty for me!
H ordered a couple of canvases so she could do some more painting, and has started work on a picture of Genoa, the Italian city where she spent the 2018/19 academic year. I didn't do anything much on my weather scarf today as I got distracted playing Scrabble Go on my phone. I might have been procrastinating because I don't like sewing ends in. My creative effort for the day was to make a lemon cake. Eggs have become hard to find and we are down to just one egg, so I used a vegan recipe. The recipe was for an iced cake, but I decided to turn it into a lemon drizzle on the assumption that any lemon cake could be drizzled. I assumed wrong. It didn't work properly with the texture of the cake, which ended up cakey on the bottom and soggy on the top. At least it still tasted good.
As I didn't knit today, I'm including photos of my last woolly creation - a crocheted blanket using Attic 24's dahlia kit. I love how bright and happy and cosy it is.
Disney movie of the day: Dumbo (the recent one, new to all of us)
Dinner: salmon, roasted baby potatoes, leeks and peas, cooked by Teen Girl
Other positives? Spending time with my family and enjoying their company, instead of all of us whizzing around to different places at different times. More intentional menu planning, with more variety, and mostly all eating the same thing; also sharing the cooking in a more organised way. Not having to rush, and never being late for anything - something of a novelty for me!
H ordered a couple of canvases so she could do some more painting, and has started work on a picture of Genoa, the Italian city where she spent the 2018/19 academic year. I didn't do anything much on my weather scarf today as I got distracted playing Scrabble Go on my phone. I might have been procrastinating because I don't like sewing ends in. My creative effort for the day was to make a lemon cake. Eggs have become hard to find and we are down to just one egg, so I used a vegan recipe. The recipe was for an iced cake, but I decided to turn it into a lemon drizzle on the assumption that any lemon cake could be drizzled. I assumed wrong. It didn't work properly with the texture of the cake, which ended up cakey on the bottom and soggy on the top. At least it still tasted good.
As I didn't knit today, I'm including photos of my last woolly creation - a crocheted blanket using Attic 24's dahlia kit. I love how bright and happy and cosy it is.
Disney movie of the day: Dumbo (the recent one, new to all of us)
Dinner: salmon, roasted baby potatoes, leeks and peas, cooked by Teen Girl
Thursday, 2 April 2020
Staying Home: Day 17
Saying yesterday that I have been sleeping well tempted fate; I woke up at 2.30am and didn't get back to sleep for two hours, so started the day tired. I spent the morning on archive work, while H went to Tesco. She walked down (about a twenty minute walk), did the shopping and picked up prescriptions from the pharmacy, then called M to collect her in the car. As she is well ahead with her work decided to have a day off from studying. She got her marks back for the online presentation she did last week - first class, so she was very happy. Teen Girl had a slow start to the day but eventually got started on her school work mid-morning.
After H got back I helped her unpack the shopping and we gave everything a wipe down with antibacterial wipes - whether this is effective or not I don't know, but it can't do any harm. She had bought some peanut butter with dark chocolate, so I had that with a banana in a sandwich for lunch before going back to work and finishing off the latest freelance job.
We went for our usual mid-afternoon walk while H did some strength work in the garden with her kettlebell; Teen Girl was feeling lazy today and didn't get round to exercising. We have now got into the habit of all having afternoon tea, with tea made in a proper pot and some sort of treat - today hot cross buns and chocolate digestives. The girls and I watched our Disney movie - a live version of Lady and the Tramp, made for Disney Plus - then H cooked homemade gnocchi for dinner while I read and worked on my scarf. After dinner I had a phone conversation with a friend, then watched TV with M for a bit.
So far most of our days are settling into a comfortable routine. We are very lucky that the two girls are very close and happy spending lots of time together, and we genuinely all get on well. Also so far nobody is complaining that they are bored. Teen Girl's Easter break starts on Monday for two weeks, so I wonder if she will find it harder once she doesn't have the routine of daily school work. I think I have been the only person who has had a grumpy day this week. I'm sure there will be ups and downs before all this is over, but so far, mostly so good.
After H got back I helped her unpack the shopping and we gave everything a wipe down with antibacterial wipes - whether this is effective or not I don't know, but it can't do any harm. She had bought some peanut butter with dark chocolate, so I had that with a banana in a sandwich for lunch before going back to work and finishing off the latest freelance job.
We went for our usual mid-afternoon walk while H did some strength work in the garden with her kettlebell; Teen Girl was feeling lazy today and didn't get round to exercising. We have now got into the habit of all having afternoon tea, with tea made in a proper pot and some sort of treat - today hot cross buns and chocolate digestives. The girls and I watched our Disney movie - a live version of Lady and the Tramp, made for Disney Plus - then H cooked homemade gnocchi for dinner while I read and worked on my scarf. After dinner I had a phone conversation with a friend, then watched TV with M for a bit.
So far most of our days are settling into a comfortable routine. We are very lucky that the two girls are very close and happy spending lots of time together, and we genuinely all get on well. Also so far nobody is complaining that they are bored. Teen Girl's Easter break starts on Monday for two weeks, so I wonder if she will find it harder once she doesn't have the routine of daily school work. I think I have been the only person who has had a grumpy day this week. I'm sure there will be ups and downs before all this is over, but so far, mostly so good.
Wednesday, 1 April 2020
Staying Home: Day 16
After several disturbed and unsettled nights as the reality of what coronavirus was going to mean hit, I have settled into a good sleeping pattern, getting around eight hours and waking at about 7am. This morning I woke up, played scrabble on my phone for a while and read a bit of the Benjamin Britten biography I have just started on my Kindle (not sure whether I will persist with it as so far it is quite heavy going). I got up just before 8.30, showered and dressed and looked at the BBC News website. The news as ever is depressing, but there were some lovely, cheering spring pictures "painted" on an iPad released by the artist David Hockney. As he released the pictures publicly, I presume it is OK to put a credited copy of one here. My mother came from the same part of Bradford as David Hockney and knew him as a child - at one time she was his Sunday school teacher. He is now 83 so this was a very long time ago!
I started work on the latest batch of questions just before 9, took a breakfast break an hour later, and finished around 12.30. No archives work today. Teen Girl started clearing out her room yesterday and carried on with that this morning. She found various things we hadn't realised were in there, including her elder sisters' favourite childhood soft toys. After that she did some school work while H worked on revisions to an essay and M did some housework. H made cauliflower cheese for herself and her sister for lunch, I ate up some left over fish curry, and M (who doesn't like either cheese or curry) had beans on toast.
H and I did some more menu planning and sorted out a shopping list as she wants to go to Tesco tomorrow, hoping it will be quieter on a Thursday than a Friday. I use a shopping app called Bring, which I can add things to via Alexa. I was baffled by something called "gummihandschuhe" which had appeared on the list. After a bit of googling I discovered this is German for rubber gloves. We had indeed tried to add rubber gloves to the list for washing up - how Alexa managed to translate it into German is a mystery. I love that the German for gloves is "hand-shoes"!
In the afternoon we watched Disney Move number ten, which was Incredibles 2 - we agreed that we think it is better than the original. While watching I made it to the end of February on my weather scarf; two months down, ten to go. After that we all went for walks, in two pairs. M and I walked round the streets, while the two girls went to nearby Bluebell Woods (no bluebells yet, of course) and managed not to get lost. After our walks I did another half an hour's work, and Teen Girl finished off her final piece of schoolwork for the day. My turn to cook dinner, which was Spanish-style potatoes roasted with tomato puree and paprika, baked mackerel fillets with lemon and lime dressing, and spring greens. After dinner I played the piano for about 30 minutes before my energy ran out. Now I'm going to read for a while before going to bed.
The wonders of the internet never cease. Teen Girl has just shown me a video of a farting seal.
"Do Remember They Can't Cancel Spring"
(C) David Hockney
H and I did some more menu planning and sorted out a shopping list as she wants to go to Tesco tomorrow, hoping it will be quieter on a Thursday than a Friday. I use a shopping app called Bring, which I can add things to via Alexa. I was baffled by something called "gummihandschuhe" which had appeared on the list. After a bit of googling I discovered this is German for rubber gloves. We had indeed tried to add rubber gloves to the list for washing up - how Alexa managed to translate it into German is a mystery. I love that the German for gloves is "hand-shoes"!
The wonders of the internet never cease. Teen Girl has just shown me a video of a farting seal.
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
Staying Home: Day 15
Teen Girl did an exercise video this morning, then a dance class this afternoon. I presume she did some schoolwork, but forgot to ask. She is very self-motivated and often likes to work when her sister does, so we tend to just leave her to get on with it unless she asks for help with something. H had a feedback session with a tutor this afternoon, then went for a run and when she got back did things in the garden with an exercise band and the newly acquired kettle bell. M and I stuck to our walk - we did 20 minutes together, then I came home and left M to carry on a bit longer on his own. Lots of signs of spring now, like the weeping willow in the photo which has turned green since I last noticed it.
We ordered a hammock for the garden at Teen Girl's request. It arrived today and she managed to assemble it herself, though needed a bit of help from H to attach the hammock to the frame. This afternoon M and I watched a long You Tube review of the Nissan Leaf. Before the lockdown we had been discussing the possibility of trading in our car in the summer and going electric, so we are doing a bit of homework. From what we have seen it looks as though it will be a good option for us. The range should comfortably cover what we normally do in a day, then we can plug it in overnight to charge.
H cooked chilli and home made roti bread for dinner, which we ate while watching today's Disney move, The Incredibles.
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