Lockdown Diary - W/E 27th March 2021

I woke up on Sunday feeling so much better than I had the day before.  The side effects of the vaccine seemed to have abated, although I did still feel a little feverish. Anyway, I had no choice but to get up and get ready, as the dog needed a walk and OH had gone out cycling.

When I got back from the dog walk, it was lovely and sunny, so I decided to replace the connectors and cover on our little greenhouse.  Here's a couple of before pictures:

As you can see from the photographs the cover on the greenhouse was well and truly ripped in several places and some of the connectors split beyond repair. It didn't take long to empty the greenhouse and sweep it all out. I removed the most badly damaged connectors and replaced them with the new ones. They seemed much stronger and sturdier, I wished that I'd ordered more, as I noticed that several other connectors were also cracked. In the end I taped these up with duct tape to secure them for the time being.

The new cover went on pretty easily, although it didn't fit perfectly and seemed a little big for the frame. Better that than too small I guess.  Here's a picture of the new cover in situ:

A definite improvement.

Later, I sent off the Census, that I'd more or less completed the previous week (who wants a £1000 fine) and then did a bit of laundry and some housework that had built up due to my being ill on Saturday. It felt good to get back on top of things and more importantly, to feel well enough to do so. I dread to think what having the full on virus might feel like.

Once I'd caught up on tasks, I did a bit of sewing on my new quilt project. The great thing about it, is that I can do it as I'm watching YouTube, so catching up on vlogs I follow doesn't seem to be as unproductive any more. I continued with it later in the evening too, as we settled down to watch the new series of In the Line of Duty which was good.

Monday, I woke up to another lovely bright and sunny day. I eventually got out with the dog and we had a nice walk in the sunshine, followed by stopping in on the allotment on the way home to do a little bit more digging. Not a lot, as the ground is so heavy that it it quite hard going.  Getting there slowly though. One half of the plot has already been planted up by OH with potatoes and shallots. There's no particular hurry for the side that I'm digging, as we don't have any plants ready to put in yet. It will be mostly tomatoes, cucumbers, kohl rabi and beetroot. It felt good to get a bit more done though. Here's a picture of progress so far this season:

The plot never looks very exciting at this early stage in the season, it's always better when things have started growing, but it's nice to know that we're on top of it.

After lunch on Monday, I decided to do a weekly shop at ASDA as we needed milk and a few other things. This should be my last shop of the month. At least I hope so, as I've been way over budget on food this month, and I just don't know how, although it has been a longer month. We should have enough to see us up until I get paid next week now. I did buy a few bits of food for the Easter weekend too, which I didn't really need to get yet.

When I got back I decided to send some Easter eggs to my sister and her family in Yorkshire, as we won't be seeing them in person again for Easter this year, I thought I'd surprise them with a box of Easter goodies. Hopefully they'll enjoy them. They'll probably arrive a bit early, but better that than late.

Monday night we sat down to watch the latest episode of Unforgotten, the ending was a bit unexpected and will make the next episode unmissable. I was able to make progress on my sewing at the same time again. I only struggle if any programme has subtitles.

Tuesday and Wednesday were much the same. I called a couple of our volunteers on Tuesday to give them some warning with regard to returning to the shop. I haven't heard from my management colleagues yet, not sure if they're even in the country at the moment, so I wanted to make sure there was someone to go back into the shop with me and the volunteers seem happy to join me there thankfully.

I paid another visit to the allotment on Tuesday and dug over a few more rows. I also tidied one corner where a lot of tenacious weeds tend to grow i.e. bindweed, brambles, etc., which then encroach onto the plot if left unattended.

On Wednesday, I completed the decoration of my hoop.  Here's a picture:

It's gone from this....

....to this.

It looks a lot better and is a bit grippier and heavier which is good. I can't say I've been doing a lot of hooping lately. I need to get more into the habit of it. It was another job ticked off the to do list though.

My new quilt is coming along nicely. I've been working on it quite a lot this week. I will have to put it aside during the day next week and do other things on my list in order to get them done before Easter and going back to work.

On Thursday, I booked an appointment for next Tuesday to take some rubbish to the tip again. We don't have a great deal, just the old microwave, my old sewing machine, old garden chairs, kitchen bin, greenhouse cover and empty paint pots. It's just good to keep on top of the clutter as it builds up.

I also got back to doing a bit of painting of the linen cabinet on Thursday It's fully painted now and  just needs varnishing. I just can't wait to get the project completely finished and crossed off the list now, as it's dragged out a bit.

Friday, more sewing mainly, didn't really feel like doing anything else as it was a bit rainy here.

Saturday, I had a lie in, as I don't do the morning dog walk on Saturdays, so I stayed in bed and read my current book.  Number 9 this month.  Only 27 fiction books left on the book shelf now, but my pace of reading will definitely slow when I get back to work, as I won't have as much spare time.

I decided to get on with the linen cupboard again today, this time varnishing it. I was a bit apprehensive about how it would look with varnish on top of the chalk paint, so I started with the inside of the lid to test it out. In the end I carried on using the varnish although it didn't look so great once on. It will just have to do, at least it will be more hard wearing. I'll post a picture in a separate post.

It was a nice sunny day again on Saturday and we're supposed to be getting good weather for a week or so from hereon in. I'm really hoping we do, and on that thought, there ends yet another uneventful week in Lockdown.  I hope your's has been a bit more exciting.