2020 activities

So what have I been doing since my last blog entry so long ago when the tories were elected with a depressingly large majority and an even bigger mandate for Johnson to deliver Brexit?  In six months (edited, make that eight months now) the world has been upended, tipped out and stuff that is even more frightening than Brexit has emerged. How I long to get back to fretting about just Brexit as I was feverishly knitting my Cowl against Brexit in protest

Those appear to be the good old days now.

On the plus side, my business has been doing well. Furloughed persons have still been buying beads to make into jewellery.

Or maybe the improvement in my photography skills has been making mine stand out a bit more.

Anyway, I've been able to continue working through the pandemic which has given me less time to worry than I might have done, turnover is very healthy compared to last year.

MTM has kept his job, mainly doing estimating and admin work from his regional office just a few miles up the road. He worked there all on his own so ran no risks. Other persons who sometimes hot desk there all worked from home or on NHS sites converting wards for Covid-19 patients. MTM did some backroom work on that, his age (over 60) meant he was forbidden by risk assessments not to physically be present on hospital sites but organising labour and sourcing materials, scheduling deliveries can all be done on the phone. He even managed some Zoom meetings, I've yet to have that dubious pleasure.

Our customary week's Spring break to Northumberland had to be put on hold and is postponed to September, fingers crossed we'll be allowed to go. As I type it's a yes, but the situation changes fast. I was looking back at last year's photographs in order to get some printed (photography course homework) and this one is a netaphor for how not being able to go made us feel but all the time people were dying, it was a very small sacrifice for the greater good.

These are bluebell bulbs, dug up and transplanted to my own garden shortly before my childhood home was sold, I sent a print to my mum, she loved it.

I've kept up with my photography course, in fact I've nearly finished the first year. 

Some other photographs of flowers in our garden

Hoverflies are beginning to be a thing in my photos. There's even one photo bombing the one below, can you spot him?

Of course, there's been no socialising in person. No going off to meet friends for meals out, family parties, concerts etc but as an introvert who likes being left alone, I've not actually missed it that much. I always enjoy such occasions but I feel with all my various hobbies, crafts, garden etc. I've been training for lockdown all my life.

I've been into town precisely twice since lockdown eased, once to get my hair cut and another time to show support to my local yarn shop. I'm really unhappy with the way other people interpret what social distancing means. In order to avoid confrontation, I just simply shan't be doing that again. Everything I buy is mail order now.

I've got lots of projects on the go, I even finished a few and I am never, ever bored.

This is a work in progress, a safe at home blanket. People were complaining they were stuck at home but this pattern was designed (not by me) to be positive and focus on the fact that you're NOT stuck at home, you're **safe** at home. And that's just how I feel too. If I don't go anywhere there are other people, I'm quite happy. It's fortunate I can work at home.

Here is one that got finished before it got too hot to have a blanket on my lap in the evenings. Here it is adorning the bed in the newly refurbished spare bedroom

We are still refurbishing other rooms in fits and starts depending on material and labour availability. As the full lockdown loomed, we got a load of materials dropped off in anticipation of MTM being furloughed so he could be productive doing things on the house whilst not working but of course, that didn't happen and so we've been working our way through it all at weekends.

There was a big shortage of plaster at the time we needed it. British Gypsom completely shut and furloughed everyone for months. I'll probably tell more about the refurbishments we got done in the future, in the meantime, here is the floor of the other spare bedroom sanded down and awaiting sealing.

In common with everyone else, I had a sudden urge to succeed this year in growing some food. I thought maybe by the time I started harvesting, this would probably all be over but after seeing empty shelves in the local Co-Op and being unable to book our usual weekly on-line delivery of groceries, I may have panicked a bit ...

Fortunately on-line grocery ordering came back after three fraught weeks but we've been eating home grown radishes, cucumbers, blackcurrants, tomatoes and courgettes for quite a while now. I grew lots of kale as well but I'm not quite sure why (I guess I just had some seeds), I don't have any recipes for it so need to look some up, it's doing really really well!

We wouldn't quite have starved but turnips have been a bit of a bust, like beetroots which I adore, my plot doesn't seem to grow root crops well. It's partially shaded so I have to stick with things that don't mind that. I didn't get round to covering the strawberries this year so the squirrel and blackbirds got those.

Dad's rhubarb is still going strong. I would've grown more vegetables but getting seeds was problematic after the lockdown started with seed companies quoting weeks for delivery and that's if their website wasn't crashing with the volume of users with the same idea. So I just made do with what was in my seed box from previous years.

I've been typing this blog posting for several weeks, I kept meaning to get round to finishing, just never quite managed to squeeze it in. Overall, I just wanted to say that we're lucky, very lucky. I hope all my readers are safe and well too.

PS I still haven't got a new mobile phone.