This week, I was glad to get back to my normal routine. On Monday, LB decided to come with me to do the grocery shopping out of town, so it was nice to have company. I managed to buy most of our Easter eggs whilst out, as the supermarkets all had offers on small/medium sized eggs this week, which saved me some money.
I did visit the charity shop and I bought one item of clothing for £5 and a couple of word search books for 50p each. The 'Clever kids' version is not by any means full of easy puzzles and I've been timing myself as I do them, just for fun. They are good to keep my brain ticking over.
The item of clothing I bought, was a knitted black dress. I know we are now coming into spring, but this dress is a lovely loose fitting one from Kit and Caboodal, which is a UK company that imports Lagenlook clothing made in Italy. The website isn't currently active, so I'm not sure if they are still in business, but this dress isn't too lagenlook and loose, it just fits nicely without being too tight and will look nice worn with knee high boots. (Except I do need to get mine re-heeled, so I may not wear it this year) I think it probably will have been quite expensive new, so I was very happy to buy it for £5. I'll post a photo in a monthly clothing purchase post at the end of the month, as I have bought a few bits of clothing this month after a couple of months not buying anything.
We got some bad news on Monday, that OH's brother had been admitted to hospital, which was a bit of a surprise, as we'd seen him only a few days before. He had a bit of a health crisis after we'd come home and is now receiving treatment and undergoing some investigations, which will hopefully help him going forward.
On Tuesday, I was due at the gym for my Zumba class as usual. Fortunately, the music for this class was okay, which was good. When I got home I ended up going to bed in the afternoon for a 3 hour nap. I had slept very badly the night before and just felt so tired. I felt much better for it and then spent a while reading in bed once I'd woken up. As a consequence, Tuesday was a bit of a write-off, but such is life sometimes.
Wednesday, I didn't need to go anywhere or do anything, so I decided to have a day at home sewing. I managed to finish the ironing board cover project, which I was very happy with and I will post about this next month in my Monthly Makes post. I then deconstructed a pair of my old jeans to use for some future projects. They weren't really in good enough condition to donate, so I'll use them to make something else instead. It was nice to stay home and get at least one project finished.
On Thursday, my usual class at the gym was cancelled, as the teacher was unavailable. As a consequence, I decided to take myself off to a free Women's History Month event in the Docklands. It was a talk at a local library about the Women Gardeners of East London, who created parks and garden spaces for all to enjoy. I was really looking forward to it. I had to take two buses to get to the library, but when I got there, it was closed due to staff shortages. I was very disappointed and left a message on the library answer phone asking if the talk had been rearranged.
In order not to waste the day, I decided to stop off at another event on the way home, namely a photography exhibition by a lady called Joyce Edwards. It was in a small gallery and it consisted of a series of photos of a community of squatters in the 1970's, who occupied a small area of houses that had been compulsorily purchased by the GLC (Greater London Council - now disbanded) and were due to be demolished in order to build a motorway through the East End of London. Thankfully, the motorway never got built, and the squatters, who were a varied bunch of artists, actors, musicians and other young people, eventually formed a housing co-op, which bought the houses and refurbished them, with the help of the local council. I believe many of them still live there today.
It was a very uplifting story about how group action and protest can have positive results. There were a few films showing as part of the exhibition, where members of the group talked about their experiences. It was super interesting and on the way home, I walked down a couple of the streets and saw the results of their efforts. I was glad that I didn't just go home defeated and went on to learn something about this period of London history instead.
On the way home, I dropped into a nearby Buddhist Centre Charity shop. It's not a shop I've ever been in, but it was a lovely little shop, with lots of really good items in there. I have to say that I did buy a few things. Firstly, I bought a 100% wool sweater, which cost £18. This is a lot more than I would normally pay for anything in a charity shop, but it was very colourful and it is rare to find 100% wool sweaters anywhere nowadays. I'll post a picture of it in another post. I just hope that no moths get to it.
I also bought two large pieces of denim fabric. They are not heavy denim, but the kind of weight that will be easy to make into clothing. One piece was 4 metres long and I paid £7 for it and the second piece was 2m long and cost £4. I really don't need more fabric, but if it's natural fibre and can be made into clothing, then it is worth picking up, as denim usually costs at least £8-£10 per meter. I'm looking forward to making some items of clothing with them. I'll keep you posted. Here's a picture:
Finally, I also bought another non-fiction book, which is right up my street. This cost £3.50.
As a consequence, I have very much overspent on my thrifting budget this month, but as I'm so happy with what I bought, I do not care. Sometimes, you just have to buy certain things when the price and quality is right.
Anyway, I walked all the way home with my bag of charity shopping, which was no mean feat, as it was heavy and the distance was almost 3 miles. I did get 10,000 of steps in though, which was all good.
This week, we've started watching the new adaptation of A Woman of Substance. It's many years since I watched the original and I can't really remember it in detail, so it's quite like watching it from scratch.
On Friday, I was going to try out a new class at the gym, but decided not to in the end and had a lie in reading instead. I felt a bit lazy this week. After lunch, I took a walk to the allotment to bring the bins in after they'd been emptied and stayed for a while to start clearing weeds from the path. Here's a picture of the plot at the beginning of the growing season:
The fruit bushes are starting to sprout, OH has planted the potato tubers, but there's very little else happening at the moment. You'll just be able to see the very small bit of the path that I cleared towards the top left of the photo. It's quite time consuming trying to dig out dandelion roots between the pavers. I've got six weeks to clear the paths around the plot, so I should have time to do it all, even if I only clear a few rows each visit.
I've decided that this year I'm going to try to weigh all the produce we grow, which I've never done before and just see how many kg of food we produce on this small plot. It should be interesting, providing I remember to weigh it all each time we harvest.
On Saturday afternoon, I finally felt motivated to do some work in the garden at home. I just haven't felt like getting out there, even though we have had some good weather days. Anyway, I began by tidying up around the decking, pruning a few plants around the edges, then moving and sweeping under all the pots on the decking. Most are on rollers and easy to move around.
By the time I'd done that, OH came out and helped me, by removing all the cat excrement from the borders in the paved part of the garden. Sadly, it's a cat toilet every year, despite various efforts to put them off. He managed to fill 3 dog bags this year. TMI I know, but a fact of life in a small London garden, where it seems like the majority of people in the neighbourhood own at least one cat and some more than one. It's been worse since we lost our dog, as she kept most of them out. It felt so much better once that job had been done.
Whilst OH was doing that, I focused my attention on the narrow border on the other side of the paved part of the garden. We created this border last year and it's not really very mature. I weeded, cut back some plants, planted a few bulbs and also transplanted some self-sown foxgloves underneath the cherry tree. It's a bit adhoc and the planting has not really been designed, but I like to garden this way. It doesn't currently look like much, but should improve as things grow bigger. I could do with buying a few plants for this border, but my budget doesn't really stretch to it at the moment, and besides, it's not a very sunny spot, so we're limited in what we can grow here.
It felt lovely to get out in the garden again and progress with making it a space we can enjoy. We still need to move some wood in the middle of the paving, which OH is going to do once he's managed to do the damp proof course around the outside of the kitchen, then it can all go back down the side return and I will then be able to properly clear the paving of moss and weeds. I'll post again with photos once this has been done.
Later, on Saturday evening, I made some sultana scones. I'm trying to use up items in my baking drawer and I had an abundance of plain flour that needed using. They turned out okay and it was nice to have something sweet to eat for a change, as I don't tend to buy or make sweet baked goods very often.
Sunday was Mother's Day. OH was out cycling and I headed off to the gym mid morning. I hadn't been for a couple of weeks and I could feel it. I felt very tired when I came home. I stopped off on the way home to watch a heron on the canal. It had a small fish in it's beak, wiggling around. It took a while for it to actually swallow it whole. (Poor little thing)
When I got home, LB presented me with this lovely handmade card and a very lovely smelling soy wax candle for Mother's Day. I was very impressed by her creativity. It is such a beautiful card. It made my day. OH offered to take me out, but I wasn't too bothered. I find places too busy on days such as these. I'm quite happy to stay home. He did treat me to some wine, chocolates and a bottle of gin later, which made me very happy.
The week came to an end watching a disturbing Louis Theraux documentary on Netflix about the 'Manosphere'. I do sometimes wonder what the world is coming to and feel sorry that LB has to navigate some of the atrocious attitudes out there right now. Luckily, she's on it and is well aware of the misogyny and other horrible prejudices spouted by certain individuals online. It shows a very dangerous side to the internet that I am happier knowing little about, but we all should probably be aware of it for our childrens' sake, in order to try to protect them from it.
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