....Merry Christmas - everybody’s having fun

 The lyrics of Slade’s Christmas favourite don’t quite fit Christmas 2020 do they? Especially the line that goes ‘Are you waiting for the family to arrive?’.  Despite this I have quite enjoyed our quiet Christmas.  It was just the three of us and the dog.  On Christmas Day we had cinnamon buns for breakfast which I made myself with the help of the bread maker. We scheduled a Christmas family Zoom for 9am so we could catch the NZ branch of the family before bed. Also included in the call were nephews in Melbourne and Verbier in Switzerland.  Hard to actually converse with so many people on the call but good to see everyone and be introduced to the giant bear one of the younger nephews had got for Christmas.  After that we walked into the city centre and along the river, a route which is usually too busy for incident-free dog walking. Then we cooked Christmas dinner together. I was responsible for stuffing, though we couldn’t actually stuff our turkey ‘crown’, and also dessert. We abandoned tradition and had chocolate profiteroles. I may make a Christmas pudding before the holiday ends though as I do like it - just not after Christmas dinner.  The rest of the day was spent lazily in front of the fire. In fact this pretty much describes the rest of the week too. With Kate at home we have wrenched control of the remote from Paul and have been watching The Crown - we’re on Charles at Gordonstoun. And we’ve also been watching ‘The Queen’s Gambit’. I’ve never watched so much TV in my life. Not exactly ‘fun’ but relaxing and there’s not much else to do - especially now we have all been instructed to stay at home again. 

So here it is.......

I’m feeling more cheerful now with Christmas approaching. Kate has returned from university after her negative rapid test result so I now have company on my dog walks.  In the local country park where we walk her we discovered a tree with a kind of knothole in the trunk and the trust which looks after the park has fitted a door. If you open it there is a tiny Christmas tree and two little toy figures in there.  I love this - it reminds me of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' when Boo Radley hides things in knothole of a tree for the children to find. 

Other Christmas preparations are on the way now that Kate is back.  She liked the idea of a pink themed tree and persuaded me to buy this tinsel.  Personally I prefer the coloured lights and mishmash of random baubles like we had when she was little but I went along with her wishes.  I also made a wreath with bits of greenery mainly from the garden though I did sneakily snip a few berry branches from a heavily laden roadside hedge. I also purchased a rather twee light up house like my mum used to have which I always coveted. I bought a Village Post Office as I grew up living in one.

Last night we went also went out for the first time in ages to Storyhouse to see a production of 'A Christmas Carol' - Chester has returned to Tier 2 for now so theatres have reopened. It was a real privilege to see live theatre again.  I'm rather weary of this particular novel as I have taught it so many times but this production directed by Alex Clifton made it fresh again with some clever contemporary references and a lively musical score with lots of 70s classic punky tunes like London Calling and A Town Called Malice.  It wasn't quite normal as the audience were very spaced out and had to wear masks throughout but it was better than another evening in front of the telly. And this evening we are venturing out for a meal in a pub.  I’m torn between wanting to go and being extra careful as I don’t want coronavirus for Christmas. Paul is even more uncertain - he didn’t come to the theatre and avoids any unnecessary social contacts. Let’s hope for the best - it is quite a large space so we should be ok.

November...ing

 

It’s not been a great month for us. Inspired by Christina ’s post, I’ll give you a flavour of my November. I’ve been:

Looking after husband who has injured his ankle after being pulled over by over-excited dog lunging at crow while he was picking up her ball;

Persuading him to contact medical professionals for advice on his ‘torn ligament’  rather than trust Dr Google;

Trying not to say I told you so when he eventually gave in, three whole weeks after the original injury,  and discovered he had a fracture when it was x-rayed;

Walking the darned dog on my own and trying to avoid any further injury;

Watching in horror as the lawn, now the location for ball chasing, is transformed into a muddy field;

Planting half dead looking bare-rooted strawberries and a rose called ‘Silas Marner;

 Hoping the garden will recover in the spring. 

On a more positive note I had some success with the NaNoWrite project which I signed up for. So I have been:

Writing around 1000 words a day of my ‘family saga’;

Reimagining real events using research, memories and things older relatives have told me;

Exploring the British Newspaper Archive which has given me access to old copies of The Mid Ulster Mail;

Using the details from the newspaper stories as inspiration for my writing;

Feeling like a granny when I joined the local NaNo online forum and encountered rather geeky young men in hoodies;

Accepting that ‘word sprints’ where you race others to write as many words as you can in a set time with no concern about quality are not for me;

Discovering that most of the local participants in this project are writing fantasy and other worlds;

Failing to reach the NaNo target 50000 words;

Feeling happy, nevertheless, that I have written 25000 words and have enjoyed the experience. 

For the Record

 It strikes me that this is a very significant moment in history so I’m going to record my experience of it.

We are waiting for the result of the US election. It is extremely close. This is scary.

My daughter is self-isolating in her student flat in Sheffield because her flatmate has Covid.  She is missing two weeks of face  to face seminars because of this- her course isn’t online. The flatmate had a message on the NHS Covid app on Sunday to say she’d been in contact with someone who had tested positive. At the same time started to feel feverish. She went for a test. It came back positive on Monday. She’d watched Strictly on Saturday evening in the same room as her flatmates. Including my daughter.

I am trying not to worry. My daughter, usually a worrier, is fairly relaxed about this. No symptoms yet except a slight headache tonight. 

Her flatmate with Covid is fine. Yesterday she cleaned the house. She has now lost her sense of taste and to check this out she ate a whole chilli, drunk a shot of vodka and one of vinegar. She couldn’t taste any of these.  A young person’s response to the virus. 

As part of the ONS survey we signed up for Paul and I have had five Covid tests. We are getting paid for this in shopping vouchers though we’d have been happy to do it for free. We had weekly visits where we answer questions and complete the test ourselves. You swish a long cotton bud type thing around the back of your throat and then up each nostril. It makes you gag but isn’t a big deal. They’ve all been negative so far. 

This week I’m nervous that I’ve caught it too as I’ve been to a pub with friends (outside in a ‘beach hut’) and to the hairdresser before lockdown begins. There are many people with Covid in the local area. A friend who has a small business has nine staff off with the virus.  I’m torn between wanting to stay in all the time to avoid any chance of infection and wanting to make the most of the time left before lockdown.

Life is very different to this time last year. 

Lockdown is coming

 So it looks like we’re in for another period of lockdown if the BBC news this morning has got it right.  It’s going to be harder this time with winter weather and also just the two of us at home. In April and May much time was spent gardening but now there’s not so many things I can do outside especially in the unrelentingly wet weather we’ve had recently.  I picked the last sunflowers which looked unlikely to open and persuaded then to flower inside for a last splash of sunshine. There are tulips to be planted - Monty on Gardener’s World says wait until November - and possibly a bare-rooted rose but that’ll be it until it’s time to chit the seed potatoes again next January/February. I’m turning my attention to expanding my houseplant collection.  This can get expensive but I’ve discovered you can buy small versions in shops like Lidl, Morrison’s and my favourite venue for garden purchases, Home and Bargain. I bought a dahlia from there which has flowered all summer.  I also grew the coleus below from a cutting and then took a cutting from it for my sister which has also flourished. I love these plants with their pink leaves - my dad used to grow them and they lined the kitchen windowsill back home.

 

And of course as you can see above spider plants have babies.  I’ve already potted up two from this plant and there’s another ready to go here.  Thanks toGanching for inspiring this post with the tale of her spider plant.

To keep me busy in November I have signed up for NaNoWriMo, a challenge where you attempt to write a novel of 50000 words in a month.  The name makes me cringe and it’s all very American but I’m hoping that this little bit of accountability and a deadline will help me establish a writing habit.  I’ve got plenty of time now though I am back Zoom teaching a few hours a week. And I have plenty of ideas.  I envisage a kind of family saga loosely based on my own family a bit like The Cazelet Chronicles, my favourite books. Lofty ambition for someone who can’t even establish a weekly blogging habit. We’ll see! 

Looking back to 1999

 

This photograph of my parents taken outside our family home In Ballyronan during August 1999 was posted on Facebook this week by Ardboe Galleries.  A lovely surprise as neither my sisters nor I had ever seen it before.  I rarely bother with Facebook but this time I enjoyed reading all the comments and seeing the list of familiar names who ‘liked’ the photograph.  I’m pleased to see they have not been forgotten.  My mother was the village postmistress for over 35 years and when this was taken she had just retired. The photograph was taken by Pat Grimes who was in the village that day taking pictures for a magazine called Loughshore News. I contacted him and he has kindly sent me copies of the photographs and given me permission to use them here. His website features many other old photographs including some from the local newspaper. I found one of myself pictured with my Girl Guide group when I was about 12. 

Later that same year in October my daughter Kate was born so next week she’ll turn 21.  We’ve had to bring forward the celebrations as she’s at university in Sheffield which is in Tier 3 measures from today.  So on Thursday night we met her and her boyfriend in a pub/restaurant in Hathersage, a short drive from Sheffield in the Derbyshire Dales.  We had to sit at separate tables to keep within the rules but nevertheless had a lovely evening.  Here she is with her cake.  I think her grandparents would be very proud of her if they were here today. 

September Sunshine

September is here and for the first time in many years I am not returning to work after a summer break.  I now feel that my retirement has started for real even though I haven't done any real work since July.  Everyone else has gone back to school/ work now and, after a few days of missing the excitement of the new term, I am now pleased that I haven't gone back to work having heard how difficult it is to teach with all the new regulations in place. 

It's also been the first time I've ever been able to take a holiday in term time.  Kate and I had a mini-break - very mini as in one night -  in Conwy in North Wales last week before she returned to Sheffield this week ahead of the start of term.  It's not Palma where we planned to be but was very pleasant and only an hour away in the car.  We left the dog and Paul behind this time - I have another September holiday with them planned later in the month.

Conwy is dominated by an impressive castle which was unfortunately closed last Thursday when we were there.  We explored the town, walking along the estuary to Conwy Marina and stopping at a pub overlooking the Great Orme. The town itself has plenty of the kind of shops which I like and Kate doesn't, selling clothes from Sea Salt and White Stuff.  It has changed a lot from when we visited to explore the castle when Kate was little.  It seems to have gone upmarket - a bit like the Padstow of North Wales. There is even an independent bookshop.  I resisted the clothes but did buy a book (Nick Laird Modern Gods. More on my recent reading soon).  In the evening we sat on the quayside drinking overpriced G&Ts from plastic glasses in a pub called The Liverpool Arms which Paul recalls visiting as a teenager with his mates.  It was apparently the only pub in Conwy they hadn't been asked to leave.  Possibly why it's called The Liverpool Arms.  The sun was going down on the estuary and for a few minutes reflected off the windows of the buildings opposite making them look as if they were on fire.  Kate took this photograph.

We stayed at a B&B which was conveniently situated on the High Street.  After a not so great night's sleep( I snore, she objects, I try not to and remain awake as a result), we spent the next morning at Bodnant Gardens which I'd visited with Paul back in February.  It was good then and even better in full bloom, though I still haven't seen their Laburnum Arch as, of course, we couldn't visit in May. Then Kate drove home as I was too sleepy to be trusted behind the wheel and she's now a more confident driver than I am.  

That's it for now.  Have good intentions about blogging more frequently now I have time.  

Kate

For years I have been forbidden to make any more than a passing reference to my daughter Kate in the blog and so have got into the habit of not writing very much about her.  Now it seems she has changed her mind -she recently asked why I never write about her! So today’s post is all about Kate though I suspect what you get will not be what I am writing right now as I will give her a chance to edit for fear of reprisals - (that word will be out for a start).

I’ve seen a lot of Kate of recently, much more than last year, since she’s been living at home since lockdown began in March.   She’s 20 now, 21 in October and so properly grown up so it’s been hard for her to return to living at home after being independent for over a year. Hard for us too negotiating new boundaries and trying not to get irritated by the trivial stuff like the leaving open of kitchen cupboard doors - I’m better at this than her dad.  Even though we’ve had occasional grumpiness, having her here been one of the bonuses of lockdown. She arrived accompanied by her boyfriend, Calum, and he has fitted in very well, even when confronted by the worst excesses of family bad behaviour. (I’m including myself in this as I can be very snappy if I’ve had a bad night’s sleep, a rather too frequent occurrence recently.) 

Kate has now finished her second year at Sheffield University where she is studying History and Politics.  Having missed a great chunk of university life this year and also concerned about the unpromising jobs market, she’s considering doing a MA when she finishes next year. At least she is going to have some face to face teaching on her course and so will be going back to Sheffield in September. I’ll miss her as I’ve got used to having her around again. Clearing up the devastation her dad leaves behind after dinner is more fun when she’s there and we are kitchen dancing along to her Spotify playlist, fuelled by M&S mojitos from a can.  She offers opinions on my clothing choices,  plucks my eyebrows as I can’t see to do it, and this week helped me choose new glasses as apparently my old ones, as well as being bent and having puppy teeth marks on the frame, were  ‘too old lady’. We watch rubbishy TV together - something on Prime called The Amazing Mrs Maisel is a current favourite. I draw the line at The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills so she’s persuaded her boyfriend to watch that with her when she can drag him off his X-box. Now he’s a fan, it seems. 

We’ve also had a few outings recently, though both of us are still a bit Covid cautious. She’s become more tolerant of my garden visiting and accompanied me to Tattenhall Hall on a NGS opening. We’ve not bothered so much about shopping trips though there has been plenty of comfort clothes buying with Asos parcels arriving rather too frequently for someone supposedly living on a maintenance loan.  I have been spending unwisely too though my purchases are more often things to adorn the garden. This week we went blackberry picking and I recited the Seamus Heaney poem about this to her en route, misquoting wildly.  She says she misses studying English Lit and has had time to read for pleasure, choosing ‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo’ which she said reminded her a little of ‘The Kite Runner’ which she loved when studying it for A Level.  We’re planning a few more trips in the next few weeks before she goes back,  including an overnight stay in Conwy, North Wales to replace our planned trip to Palma which had to be cancelled. 

Kate loves dogs and really misses our lovely Irish Terrier, Ronan, who we lost last year.  He was very much her dog. Booshka, our White Swiss Shepherd is without question Paul’s dog.  She (the dog) likes having Kate and Calum here. Kate lies on the floor with her, cuddles her and scratches her belly.  Occasionally this leads to overexcitement, squealing and puppy biting and then Kate compares her unfavourably to Ronan who, she says, would never bite like this. Fortunately Calum also loves dogs, though is perhaps not so keen on the white hairs that he sometimes finds in his dinner.  Paul and I have no doubt consumed many of these as our eyesight is too poor to spot them.

Kate can be quite a demanding daughter and this isn’t about her asking for stuff. What she wants is my attention, lots of it.  It was the same when she was little. I don’t recall my mother ever playing with us, yet I’d spend hours playing with her in the Tweenies pop up tent, or dressing Polly Pockets in tiny rubbery outfits or playing games based on the Rainbow Fairies books.  But then my mother had four other daughters, whereas Kate is an only child. As my sister once remarked as she watched some fairly spectacular toddler bad behaviour, Kate knows I’d do anything for her.  She was right and it hasn’t really changed.  I have plenty of time to spend with her so this is fine with me.  And I’m conscious that she’ll be going again soon so am making the most of this unexpected time together.

Changing Times

Picture on card from Rosie made a Thing. According to my sister this a good likeness. Hope my nose doesn't look like this!

I finished work for the summer term on the 10th July and this year I won't be returning to school
in September.  This is quite a life changing event and I've been feeling a bit unsettled in the past couple of weeks. Even though I know it's the right decision, I sometimes find it hard to cope with change. It was sad too not to be able to have a proper leaving do to mark the occasion. I've been thinking back over my years in teaching and wrote quite a long goodbye email to colleagues with all my memories of the past 15 years at the school where I finished my career.  It was a bit self indulgent really and I am quite sure many of the younger staff didn't bother to open the attachment, but others did and responded positively.  

I was able to have a bit of a celebration here with my closest work friends in the English department coming round on that Friday for a few socially distanced drinks and lovely food cooked by Paul who was universally admired for his culinary skills and witty repartee.  Having frequently complained to these same colleagues about him and his irritating habits (foolish purchases, grumpiness,  etc), I was told to stop moaning and appreciate what I've got. They have a point.

Both Paul and I have July birthdays and we celebrated then fairly quietly this year.  On Saturday which was my birthday, it rained all day but we went ahead with our planned trip to Dunham Massey, a National Trust property near Manchester with an impressive garden even in the rain.  Back in February we took out membership of National Trust thinking that with my imminent retirement we'd be able to get our money's worth this time.  Then lockdown happened.  Now that the gardens are open again, we've been visiting the local ones. The best so far was the Japanese garden at Tatton Park which I visited on my own as dogs aren't allowed in there.  The rest of the family walked the dog in the deer park and spend a considerable amount of time chasing her as she chased a deer which unfortunately had strayed from the main herd. Paul hadn't spotted it so she was off the lead. Kate said it was like something out of David Attenborough.  It was apparently a very stressful experience which I am glad I did not witness.  I was in this peaceful garden. 

Gardening successes and failures

As I've been spending a great deal of time in the garden recently I thought I'd record it at its midsummer peak.  I'm learning to be a bit more relaxed about gardening, realising that there is never a time when everything is looking good at the same time and that some plants thrive unexpectedly while others inexplicably don't even when I do everything by the book.  

So here are my recent successes and failures.  First roses which I grow in pots on the patio.  I have a yellow one called Laura Ford (on the right above) which was brilliant last year but has been disappointing this year, having been attacked by greenfly.  I kept rubbing them off but to no avail and it now looks very sad. Contrast this with my beautiful pink Ballerina, bought for a couple of quid in Home and Bargain.

I've tried growing soft fruit and, for the first time, I have raspberries - not that many but progress on last year.  But my blackcurrant looks rather pathetic I think it needs better soil. I'm disappointed as I had a brilliant one in my last garden.  I have had more success with potatoes.  In fact I have what looks distinctly like a potato plant in a spot where I was expecting to see an echinacea emerge.  I tended it carefully in the spring only to realise it was an imposter which had planted itself in a spot where I'd probably thrown the spent compost from last year's potatoes. This amused me. I reckon, as the daughter of a farmer from Co Derry, potato growing is an innate skill.  We ate the first of my new potatoes from the plants I am growing in a dustbin on Saturday evening.  My book says you can harvest when they flower - only had a few as they are quite small so I'll leave them a bit longer.  They tasted good. 

I have a good crop of peas and beetroot.  I grow peas mainly so I can eat them raw straight from the pod as I did as a child.  Our summer holiday dinner was often new potatoes, peas and butter so we were sent off to gather the peas and then had to shell them. Many never reached the table.  

I am hoping my agapanthus, two of them in lovely terracotta pots which I got as a birthday present last year,  will flower, but though they look healthy there is no sign yet.  The B&Q hydrangea which looked like it was going to expire during the dry weather is now doing better though the flowers are a pale pink and not white as advertised.  Much nicer so I don't mind. 

A final picture of my usual garden companion who has totally destroyed the lawn. and my herb garden in pots.

A Life in Teaching

At the end of this term I am retiring from teaching.  I began my career in 1983, working full-time until I had Kate in 1999 and part-time since then, stopping for a couple of years when she was small.  So that's over 35 years, most of my lifetime.  In fact, because the school where I teach isn't planning to open before the summer holidays, I have already taught my last lesson in a real classroom. 

I have mixed feelings about this.  I'm pleased to be escaping the spreadsheets and target setting and data capture which take up so much of my time;  I will no longer have to face inspections or prepare for lesson observations.  I'll no longer have to wade through every single word of  'A Christmas Carol' with a reluctant GCSE group just in case an obscure passage is set in the exam.  But I'll miss the company of young people and how they make me look at the world in a different way and I'll miss the day to day contact with my friends in the English department and the staffroom. 

In the last week a couple of things have happened which have made me reflect on my career in teaching - I can't go into details here for reasons of confidentiality. One of these incidents upset me; the other delighted me.  That just about sums up how it has been over the years.  There have been difficult lessons, disrespectful pupils and challenging moments.  But I still get that feeling of elation when a lesson goes really well, or I succeed with a tricky pupil or read a piece of of really good work a student has produced.  Maybe elation is too strong a word for it but you know what I mean.  So overall no regrets about my career choice.  

Other than some Zoom teaching this week life has continued in the new routine we've established in the last few months: dog walks, online quiz evenings, gardening for me cycling for him, eating and drinking slightly more than is advisable.  I also made some Elderflower Cordial with some flowerheads collected on a walk.  It does not look very appealing - family members have unkindly said that one of the bottles looks like giant urine sample.  It tastes ok though a bit too sweet for my taste - will use less sugar next time.  Thought about trying Elderflower Champagne which my dad used to make but the recipe says I needed champagne yeast which I didn't have.  I'm sure he didn't bother with that.  The last time I made it one of the bottles exploded so that also made me a bit wary.

.  

Outings

Planted some manky looking old amaryllis bulbs and unexpectedly they both flowered.  Lasted about 3 days in the heat.

Not having been in the car or driven anywhere at all myself for ten weeks, I felt it was a kind of treat this week to go on a couple of outings. \None of these outings were 'essential travel' really.  But I made sure I 'stayed alert', as the illuminated roadside sign instruct me. En route to Sheffield via Snake Pass, we drove past huge numbers of parked cars and people presumably 'staying alert' while picnicking in the Pennines.  It is so beautiful there but we didn't stop to join them. We were going to Sheffield to pick up the remainder of Kate's belongings from her rented house.  This was not much fun; she has acquired huge amounts of stuff. And the terms of the contract require the room to be left perfectly clean and empty otherwise they might not get their deposit back. She was told to take a video of the room to prove this. The previous resident of the room before Kate hadn't paid much attention to this as, when we pulled the bed out to clean, we discovered discarded clothing and toenail clippings. Revolting. They've got a cheek these rental companies - when we arrived they'd been fitting a new bathroom and had turned the water off so we couldn't even go to the loo or have a cup of tea.  And yet she's been paying full rent and a fixed amount per month for bills.

Shady dog walk on Duke's Drive

Another more pleasant outing in the car this week was a short journey to the other side of town to walk the dog somewhere shady - like us she's not to keen on heat. Temperatures have soared here in the last few days after a weekend of high winds which nearly flattened my precious foxgloves and poppies. On Bank Holiday Monday we went to the Duke's Drive - a long straight shady path through mature woodlands which eventually, if you walk far enough, leads to Eccleston where the entrance to Eaton Hall, home of the Duke of Westminster can be found.  Anyway, having many entrances, the Duke allows us commoners to use this path and it is glorious.  Right now it is full of buttercups and cow parsley, honeysuckle and butterflies.

And I actually drove my own car one day this week on an trip to B&Q as I 'needed' some more compost, some tomato feed and various other garden essentials. Luckily, Mildred ( the name Kate has given the car) started first time and I hadn't forgotten how to drive. At B&Q, I was greeted by a young man in high-vis vest who informed me that I'd have to queue for at least 45 minutes to get in.   I turned around and left but noticed that the nearby 'Home and Bargain' was open for 'essential' purchases and there was no queue.  I spent an enjoyable half hour there purchasing bargain plants, seeds and bulbs as well as the compost I need to repot my tomato plant. It was fairly quiet and, except for a couple of strips of black tape by the check outs, no different from usual.  I was the only one in there wearing a mask and no one else seemed too bothered about social distancing.  I felt a bit of a prat really - probably wouldn't have bothered with the mask if Paul hadn't wanted me to.  He is still  very anxious about catching the virus.

Another highlight of the last week was a family photo quiz to celebrate my sister's birthday.  That was fun - I dug out old pictures and asked others to guess the date, place etc.  As we are now allowed to see up to six people, I'm looking forward to getting together for real.  We had planned a get-together in Liverpool in July for my sister's 60th but that's unlikely to go ahead now. At least there's hope on the horizon of some kind of meeting ‘

May.....ing

My blog revival has stalled a little.  I had visions of me writing daily posts in lockdown - a kind of online diary.  But that hasn't happened - I'm always too tired at the end of the day - blogging for me is a morning habit - something I do while others are still in bed and the house is quiet. So I'm using a format inspired by Christina to review my May.

More gardening.  There's been a lot of watering to do as, after the very wet winter, there's been hardly any rain in the north west in the last couple of months. My hard work is paying off as the foxgloves and alliums are now in bloom.  I've attempted new things like taking cuttings from dahlias.  And I'm having more success with growing plants from seed. Usually I can't be bothered with all the thinning, pricking out and potting on that's involved but with extra time on my hands I'm getting better at this.







Celebrating two anniversaries last week.  First of all we celebrated VE day with afternoon tea in the garden.  I made a Victoria Sponge with the last of our flour.  It's the only thing that still seems to be in short supply. I had to add a bit of pasta making flour and ground almonds - it turned out ok despite this. Another was the anniversary of the day I first met Paul -  5th May 1984. To be honest I often forget this one and it's him who remembers it; he forgets our official wedding anniversary. Family members have sometimes wondered how we have put up with each other for 36 years.  He is turning into a grumpy old man - everything makes him angry.  He's a lot like Victor Meldrew in the old sitcom 'One Foot in the Grave'.  Or to update the reference, the Ricky Gervaise character in 'After Life'. He really is quite happy to make his irritation with total strangers obvious.  His particular target recently are those who fail to observe the 2 metre distance advice.  On a dog walk last week he shouted at a cyclist riding on the pavement overtaking pedestrians within centimetres.  I cringed with embarrassment but I suspect the mother with the buggy on the pavement was grateful.  He makes me laugh, never lets me down and cooks dinner every night so I put up with the grumpiness. We celebrated by opening a bottle of wine to have with the meal he cooked. Not that the opening of the bottle of wine is an unusual event in this household.

 

Reading  'Wolf Hall' nearly finished. This month's bookclub choice is 'Merivel' by Rose Tremain so I need to get going on that.  I should probably read 'Restoration' first as it follows on from it.  It's not like me to read so much historical fiction but I'm quite enjoying it.  It's filling in some gaps in my knowledge too though I suppose I should check that the fictionalised version of events is actually accurate.

Sleeping surprising well. I'm almost scared to write this in case I jinx it.  Last night I went to sleep at 11, didn't wake until after 8 and can't remember being awake in the night.  I think it's the fact that I'm exercising more than usual, with a long dog walk every day as well as gardening.

Spending time with my daughter who is doing her university course online here rather than in Sheffield.  She's working hard as her exams have been replaced with additional coursework essays.  But there is still time to do other stuff.  We're doing a jigsaw I bought her years ago, making a collage rainbow and watching lots of rubbishy television.  And lots of quizzes. Her boyfriend is still here and he joins in with the quizzes.  He has several useful specialisms in addition to encyclopedic sports knowledge such as Flags of the World and Star Wars.

Watching television. In addition to the reality TV I've been watching with  Kate I am also enjoying 'Normal People'.  And we watched the film 'Hidden Figures' this week -  excellent film about the role of three really smart black women in NASA at the time of the moon landings.

That's it for May so far.  I've quite enjoyed writing this though it seems to have taken most of the day.  Apart from dog walk, watering and one load of washing this is all I've achieved. Oh well - I'm getting used to a slow pace of life.

Garden Helpers

Today (or yesterday now as I am finishing this on Sunday morning) was a gardening day.  Last year we made a few changes to the garden, removing one fence and adding another.  This was mainly because we needed to create a more secure boundary for the dog and a larger space for her to run around in/destroy.   We also removed overgrown leylandii and cut back the thicket of holly bushes.  I say we but in fact the work was done by a excellent local handyman and gardener we were lucky to find. The result is that we have a much larger space as the 'front' (really to the side) and back gardens are now joined up.

Our gardener created some new flower beds in the process and last autumn I read lots of advice in books and planted shrubs, perennials and bulbs.  I tried to co-ordinate a colour scheme and went for shades of pink, whites and purples.  This is how it looked a couple of weeks ago.  The tulips I planted, which were supposed to be in pastel shades and some were a lovely shade of lilacy pink.  But others are distinctly yellow.  Never mind they looked nice anyway,

Today I persuaded Paul, the most reluctant of gardeners, to use some of the left over fencing panels and create a support on the wall and we then planted a climbing hydrangea which promises lovely white lacy flowers.  It's supposed to grow in shady conditions so I hope it does as it's on a wall which faces north east and only gets a couple of hours sun late in the day.

I also tended to my seedlings in the raised bed which has now been placed a in a sunnier spot.  I am trying to grow beetroot and the little seedlings have just appeared.  I earthed up the potatoes I'm growing in a dustbin and watered the lettuces which are doing quite well now after a slow start.

Along with the yellow tulips another unwanted invader to my newly planted border is an armada of Spanish bluebells.  (I'm kind of pleased with that metaphor though I'm sure I'm not the first to use it.)  I love bluebells - the English variety- which I will not be seeing this year unless Boris lets us out very soon.  But these brutes grow like weeds in my garden and I've dug a lot of them out in the past few weeks.  I'm leaving this patch to flower and then will remove them too,  They are pretty for a while but smother everything else.  I'm sure they'll be back next year anyway as it's impossible to get them all.

An

This is the border now.  The tulips are dropping and the foxgloves and alliums are ready to flower.  The giant poppies and sedums are also doing well even though my other garden 'helper' insists on walking all over them.

I can't help thinking how privileged we are in having a reasonable sized outside space during this time.  It can't be much fun for those who are stuck inside all the time with only an hour of 'exercise' a day.