Staying Home - Day 32 & 33

It was a gloriously sunny day but with an annoying brisk breeze so I resorted to plaits to keep my hair out of my eyes. It's a lockdown miracle as I can never get my plaits to look right usually. Once life returns to normal, no doubt, they'll go back to being wonky and raggedy again...

Stephen Squirrel had the right idea and stayed out of the wind, following sunspots around the house.

We don't use weedkiller at Stonecroft, I remove the weeds from between the cracks in the paving slabs with a table knife. With the sun on my shoulders, it's a job I love to do, mundane or not.

Meanwhile, in the greenhouse, Jon transplanted the French beans to a better pot, considered thinning out the turnips (but decided to wait till the wind had dropped),

 Planted out some Scillian purple cauliflower (in your honour, Willie!) 

 Sowed a second crop of beetroot -'cos we love it - and a row of watercress.

After our noodles, Jon tinkered with Ebbie whilst I sat in a sheltered spot and did some Kintsugi mending (HERE) on the kaftan I wore on Monday. Bloody bastard brambles!

After our daily walk, I gave the bathroom shelves a scrub before getting in the shower.


I've never really been into beauty products, as you can tell by the scant contents on my end of the shelf, in fact, Jon owns more of them than I do!

Tea was jacket potatoes with baked beans and cheese. Much to Jon's bemusement, I watched both of Kirsty Alsopp's lockdown craft programmes (I can't usually bear to watch her) and, to please Jon, a couple of episodes of BBC Four's The Beauty of Maps as he's an avid collector of all maps, ancient and modern. I watched Fleabag on Monday night but wasn't really feeling it and watched a brilliant documentary on Aubrey Beardsley (HERE) instead. I shall give the next episode a try and see if it grows on me. I feel awful 'cos everyone else I know absolutely loved it.

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Getting dressed for my Wii Fit session this morning (day 33) I noticed that my knicker drawer was looking somewhat sparse so I emptied the laundry basket and loaded the washing machine. When we're out buying stock, the washing machine is on almost every day but, at the moment, it's dwindled to once a week for bedlinen, dishcloths and towels. By the time I'd exercised it was ready to peg out on the line which, with another breezy and bright day forecast, it'll probably be dry by lunchtime.


When Jon went on the cat food run on Monday he'd planned to pop into The Food Warehouse (part of the Iceland chain) next to the pet food store to see if he could get a few supplies for us & his self-isolating friend. The queue was enormous but he noticed that Farmfoods opposite was virtually deserted. Neither of us has ever been in one before so he didn't hold out much hope of getting anything on the list but was surprised to find his favourite instant coffee, a massive bag of potatoes, vegetarian spring rolls & samosas plus some ready-made Indian curries & sausages for our friend. He also picked up these bags of frozen fruit mix and mango pieces as our fruit supplies have dwindled to just oranges and grapes.


I was sceptical but left a bowlful in the fridge to defrost overnight and having eaten them this morning with our yoghurt I was amazed, the mango was particularly tasty. It will keep us in breakfasts until we get down to Johal's next week.



As soon as he was dressed, Jon was outside working on Gilbert,



I caught up with blog comments and swept the stairs. Last year I treated myself to this long-handled dustpan and brush from Chas Olson after the plastic one I'd owned since 2005 snapped in half. It's made of sustainable beech and sheet metal with natural bristles and it's a joy to look at & use, I do love Scandi design.


In the garden, I moved the Summer Savoury from the greenhouse to the herb bed, sowed some mustard seeds and thinned out the turnips.


I transplanted the cress seedlings from the cola bottle planter to a larger pot.


And planted some lemon cucumber seeds which I'd remembered I had after Goody had mentioned she was growing some (these were part of that huge job lot Jon won on eBay), some Ruby Red Swiss chard and Black Beauty courgettes.


Frank tried in vain to keep the squirrel from robbing the bird food.


The postman delivered a parcel for Jon. Several of the customers in Farmfoods didn't understand the concept of social distancing so he wanted to look a bit scarier with this biker neck tube (HERE) if he visits again. I've suggested he rethink the slippers.


Lunch was a cheese salad and coleslaw sandwich on multigrain bread. Our favourite treat when we're in India is Kurkure (Hindi for crunch). We were delighted to see that Johal's stock them, these are Naughty Tomato flavour and eye-wateringly spicy.


 Yet again I was able to get my plaits right this morning. This real patchwork (as opposed to a print) maxi skirt has been on the Kinky rails for ages. It's a bit of a Cinderella garment as in three years I'm the only person who's ever managed to get it on, I've finally decided to keep it.


Halfway through the day, I'd noticed that the recycled Indian sari silk top I was wearing had ripped. Although it had only cost me £2 from a shop in Jodhpur that was no excuse to bin it so I stripped off, donned a bikini top and sat in the sunshine doing more Kintsugi mending.


I spent the rest of the afternoon reading with a cat slumped at my feet.


We've been on our daily walk and we've got salad and vegetable spring rolls for tea. It's Wednesday which means it's rum night and the new series of The Great British Sewing Bee, I don't know what I'm more excited about!

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Keep safe, stay sane and see you soon!