Sunday 16 August

Two seasons one week

Up until Thursday it was so hot!  Don't get me wrong I don't mind warm or hot weather but by Wednesday and Thursday it was far to hot for me!  I was indoors watching films.  I was unable to knit or stitch.  Woke up on Friday morning to rain.  Much cooler for me any rate!

On Friday morning I took my first foray back into Morrison's.  I did my own shopping.  My friend Jane has been doing it since she came back from Spain in March!  We went at 7am.  I don't mind shopping at that time I function better early morning!

 

The Crocosmia in my garden is as bright and hot looking as the sun.

Sunday 2nd August

And it goes on............

Coronavirus, Coronavirus go away

And stay away!

Its been another of those weeks.........  Another week of not doing quilting or knitting.  I've been filling a skip and sorting the rubbish in the garage and back garden.  I am preparing to have the outside of my house painted.  Skips scaffolding, paint, me clearing the garden.  I let you know how it all goes!

Remember back in may I purchased some David Austin Roses.  You can read the post here

This is my rose.  Its called "Fairy".  The head in full bloom is only one inch (2.5cm) in diameter

This one is Val's.  It's called "The Ancient Mariner"

This one is Jane's.  It's called "Ballerina"

Sunday 26th July

Another week gone by.....

How has your week been?  

My days and weeks just merge into one, anyone feel the same?   I am getting lots done slowly though

Sat down to the computer and saw this........ normally unless I'm at a friend Val's house who has a wonderful view I only normally see a quarter.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I have great friends!

They tried a cake I had never made before with the above ingredients.  

I have a  daughter-in-law trying to stave off stage 2 diabetes, a granddaughter on a doctors diet for gluten free and a granddaughter who is dairy free,

Val and Mark said the cake was lovely but then I was drinking tea and eating cake with them.  

Jane said the texture was quite close as if it was stale.  I actually felt the same........  I will try making again as sometimes if you over beat that's what happens.

I found the recipe here

I finished my granddaughter's birthday present, she will be eleven in three weeks time.
I don't know if it was me but I cut each pieces correctly and double checked measurements but there was a mistake which was easy to correct.
The pattern is called Lisa the Unicorn by Elizabeth Hartman

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A Tip:

I couldn't get a zip long enough. 

I needed 24" zip, so two 12" had to do, stitched end-to-end works very well.

Sunday 7th June

Week Eleven

What a week! 
Hot sunshine, had tea on the lawn with friends Monday and Tuesday.  then the weather changed!  Rain wind, had to find a jumper I put then away a few weeks back.  I haven't got much to show and I haven't done much only pulling up the the bindweed before it notices what I'm doing.....

Thank you for the lovely comments about my garden.  It is hard-work but we all know gardening is hard-work. 
Simone - I got fed-up with the hanging baskets dying on me.  I'd water them twice a-day and even bought special plant food but all to no avail the wind and sun got the better of me.  This year the idea struck I am growing seeds that hang and Val gave me the nasturtium so I though I would just put the pots in the hanging baskets and knew if they didn't like it in the hanging basket I could plant them in the garden without too much disturbance to the other plants.

Julie - my friend's garden is far nicer than mine.  Mind you she bought her house for the garden because the previous owners were gardeners and they also employed a gardener.  Val kept the gardener on if he wanted to stay but he only goes in once a week just the tidy round and and mow the grass.  Well that was up until earlier this year.  Val spent every all day in the garden since lockdown I can only manage an hour in mine!  BUT I do have a garden to aspire to and she kindly gives me plants from her garden.  I have a saying in my garden - the plants are only allowed in only if they can look after themselves!  In other words the plants have to be hardy.  But, yes, it may well turn into a new hobby!

Aril - thank you for the lovely comments.  As I previously said it is hard work and I can only manage an hour out there.

Here I mentioned about this

This is the rose I have for the memory of my husband who passed away last year.

Click to enlarge

This is my son's memory rose. 
Not too bad for living on neglect - don't ask......
Five children!  
He watered it with grey-water after he mopped the floor from the twin babies meals from around their high-chairs and a few prompts from me on exceptionally hot days
This one is called Remember Me.

I joined #30dayswild

My first weeks pictures

Sunday 31st May

Week Ten

Hello......  
What has everyone been up to?

The weeks and days pass........ to me they are normal except I have have more hours in each day, that's because I don't have to go anywhere.  No appointments, no meeting with friends for coffee in town.  I do meet with friends but they live five minutes away.  I've had picnics and just cuppas in the garden either at friends or they come to me.  Being on my own  if I don't see another human I will go crazy!

I'm sure Boris and friends have not really thought out what they say.  

We can visit in personal gardens but we cannot drink much because what goes in has to come out........ I'm desperate to see my grandchildren but cannot because I would have to spend the day without a drink and I do like a cuppa when I arrive after a long journey, but saying that I think we can use the bathroom as long as we wash our hand thoroughly and clean the facilities after use.

I live in a seaside town, we also have one of those large holiday camps too which isn't open but when it does I dread to think what may happen. Our public loos are not open and quite honestly you only use those in a dyer emergency!

I have been gardening but not much making indoors.  Yesterday I mowed the lawns.  I did it quite early, well early-ish before the the day got too hot.  I garden early too I don't do the heat very well.

I neglected my gardens for two years so a restoration is needed.  

I am amazed that things are flowering

I put this rose in the garden thirty years ago.  Every year it gets pruned to virtual ground level and every year it flowers!  I thought it was called Handel but not so so sure? 
If anyone can help please say.

I got fed up with the hanging basket.  Well I like hanging baskets but things never survive in mine despite of the twice a day watering.  So this year I decided to just put pots in and as the flowers die off I can just replace them.

This is my Christmas tree which seems to have growth.  
It came from here last year.

I will tell more about this rose another day........

Sunday 17th May

Week Eight

Who came up with this one?

I can go to the park and meet a friend but I cannot go into her garden.  Well my friend has a side gate and I for one and her are carrying on as we were. (I'm a bit of a rebel on the quiet!)  I also have friends in my garden but front only because you cannot access my back because you do have to go through the house or garage.

I had a phone call from NHSCoronavirus asking/checking up on me.... 

Had I had a letter? No!  

Is anyone doing my shopping? Yes! 

How is my mental health and before I had time to answer she said goodbye!  

Apparently I'm vulnerable...... it's a bit late now!  

Good job I've been self isolating!!!

Rant Over

I been gardening, my kind friend Val has given me loads of plants from her garden so I try and put them in straight away!

All the above I put in last summer

After last weeks sharp winds I found the yellow tulip had been sheared off.

The shorter tulips are now coming into bloom. 

Saw Gardeners World the other week, Monty Don re-planting tulips in the garden after they have gone over.

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I didn't write this, I found it on facebook last week

I think I’ve worked it out....  

* 4 year olds can go to school but university students who have paid for their tuition and the accommodation that they aren’t living in, can’t go back to university.

* I can go to school with many 4 year olds that I’m not related to but can’t see one 4 year old that I am related to.

* I can sit in a park, but not tomorrow or Tuesday but by Wednesday that’ll be fine.

* I can meet one person from another household for a chat or to sunbathe but not two people so if I know two people from another household I have to pick my favourite. Hopefully, I’m also their favourite person from my household or this could be awkward. But possibly I’m not. In fact, thinking about it, I definitely wouldn’t be. But as I can’t go closer than 2m to the one I choose anyway so you wouldn’t think having the other one sat next to them would matter - unless two people would restrict my eyeline too much and prevent me from being alert.

* I can work all day with my colleagues but I can’t sit in their garden for a chat after work.

* I can now do unlimited exercise when quite frankly just doing an hour a day felt like I was some kind of fitness guru. I can think of lots of things that I would like to be unlimited but exercise definitely isn’t one of them.

* I can drive to other destinations although which destinations is unclear. I was supposed to be in Brighton this weekend. Can I drive there? It’s hundreds of miles away but no one has said that’s wrong.

* The buses are still running past my house but I shouldn’t get on one. We should just let empty buses drive around so bus drivers aren’t doing nothing.

* It will soon be time to quarantine people coming into the country by air... but not yet. It’s too soon. And not ever if you’re coming from France because... well, I don’t know why, actually. Because the French version of coronavirus wouldn’t come to the UK maybe.

* Our youngest children go back to school first because... they are notoriously good at not touching things they shouldn’t, maintain personal space at all times and never randomly lick you.

* We are somewhere in between 3.5 and 4.5 on a five point scale where 5 is all of the virus and 1 is none of the virus but 2,3 and 4 can be anything you’d like it to be really. Some of the virus? A bit of the virus? Just enough virus to see off those over 70s who were told to self isolate but now we’ve realised that they’ve done that a bit too well?

* The slogan isn’t stay at home any more.So we don’t have to say at home. Except we do. Unless we can’t. In which case we should go out. But there will be fines if we break the rules. So don’t do that.

Don’t forget...

Stay alert... which Robert Jenrick has explained actually means Stay home as much as possible. Obviously.

Control the virus. Well, I can’t even control my dogs and I can actually see them. Plus I know a bit about dogs and very little about controlling viruses.

Save lives. Always preferable to not saving lives, I’d say, so I’ll try my best with that

one, although hopefully I don’t need telling to do that. I know I’m bragging now but not NOT saving lives is something I do every day.

So there you are. If you’re the weirdo wanting unlimited exercise then enjoy. But not until Wednesday. Obviously.

Sunday 10th May

Week Seven

Well how was your week?  

I have to be honest I lost the days, I thought yesterday was Sunday for a while.

I have done some gardening.  I put in a newly purchased rose from David Austin Roses in.  A bit of an extravagant purchase but there was a reason why.  I have two really lovely friends who help me by shopping or help me with my accounts.  I buy them flowers and bake cakes for them every so often and have made things like bags and quilts.  This time |I thought a rose might be nice.  Val had The Ancient Mariner.  Her and her husband Mark have a dinghy which they sail off Porlock but haven't been out in it since last year, it is also a  poem local to us as Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived on Exmoor.  Jane had Ballerina, I couldn't get belly dancer as that is her hobby!  I had Fairy because that's where faeries live don't they, at the bottom of the garden!

my pretty "posh" tulips still going strong

frog/toad in Val's pond

I went for a walk into town  with Jane last week.  

Note to self don't mow two lawns then walk into town the next day...........

Lat's just say I had a very restful day on Friday

I take photos of Weather Vanes.  

This one was seen on the walk to town.

Jane and I also spotted this Arum lily growing on the bank of the local stream

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All weekend this is the song everyone seems to be singing.  

Looking forward to seeing my family so much so I dedicate it to them also to the friends I had arranged to meet up with before the lockdown

We'll meet again

Don't know where

Don't know when

But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

Keep smiling through

Just like you always do

'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

So will you please say hello

To the folks that I know

Tell them I won't be long

They'll be happy to know

That as you saw me go

I was singing this song

We'll meet again

Don't know where

Don't know when

But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

We'll meet again

Don't know where

Don't know when

But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

Keep smiling through

Just like you always do

'Til the blue skies

Drive the dark clouds far away

So will you please say hello

To the folks that I know

Tell them it won't be long

They'll be happy to know

That as you saw me go

I was singin' this song

We'll meet again

Don't know where

Don't know when

But I know we'll meet again some sunny day