Monday 11 May 2020

Random Ramblings :: Chilling, Creating, Exploring & Simplifying


Hi there everyone 😀

It seems that we are over 'The Peak' of the Coronavirus pandemic and today is the first day of us following our new set of instructions. We have been asked to move from 'Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' to 'Stay alert, control the virus, save lives' ... which, currently feels a little unclear to me ... but hopefully more information will be forthcoming and we will all understand what we are allowed to do, where we can do it, who with and how often before too long.

I am very much hoping that what we are expected to do continues to keep us safe, but I think we may be following our own stricter set of rules for a little while yet. We certainly won't be packing up the car and heading out to a local beauty spot or beach until we are confident that the rest of the country hasn't had the same idea.

So ... I am imagining for us that nothing really will change, other than feeling that we can now perhaps pop to the Post Office, without looking over our shoulder for someone to ask us if it really is essential. 

I really do hope that everyone is sensible ... having seen some of the footage of the VE Day celebrations over on the weekend I am fearful of a second peak in a few weeks time ... but will be very happy to be proved wrong.

So ... what have we been up to then ... other than staying at home to protect our NHS and save lives? Well ... remember this?

This was the result of my having a word with myself in the middle of March, when we still couldn't seem to shake the January lethargy.

It was just before our formal lockdown began and I'd just decided that I would start shopping fortnightly, rather than weekly ... just in case. I really can't believe it's six weeks ago ... it only seems like five minutes.

Obviously life has been pretty different in a lot of ways to normal so I though it would be interesting to look at whether my 'mind map' has been of any use to me whatsoever ...

Chilling ...
There has been a lot of relaxing at home ... the weather has helped and we've spent lots of time in the garden ... not all of it relaxing, but some of it most definitely has been.

There has been no face to face socialising for us since 14 March. We've seen neighbours and we've chatted to mum and dad on the drive, when dropping off their shopping, but other than that there have been lots of phone and video calls and we've actually not felt lonely or isolated at all ...
Technology has actually been brilliant ... we've been partaking of a weekly on line quiz, with WhatsApp groups set up for keeping in touch with friends and family and my goddaughter has been singing live on Facebook, which has been great to tune into.

I've also enjoyed some of Gary Barlow's crooner sessions and I've even had a virtual tour of Edinburgh zoo ... people have been fabulous in trying to keep us all entertained on line.

We did spend a lovely Sunday afternoon supporting a neighbour whilst she ran the equivalent of the London marathon up and down the street and we've been out every Thursday for the NHS clap and we bobbed in and out on VE Day. The street has really come together and the sense of community has been really lovely, with lots of people looking out for each other ... long may it continue ... 
The one thing that has really surprised me is that there has been barely any reading at all since March. I did make a start on a book late in April, hoping to be able to publish a 'Reading Corner' post for the month, but I have hardly got anywhere with it at all.

Creating ...
There has been lots of creating going on, especially in the garden. Early on we did ourselves a bit of a plan so we knew what our priorities were and we could make the most of the good weather as it occurred ...
The green bubbles relate to the different parts of the garden and those that have been filled in with red are jobs that we've completed ... so we are doing really well with this list ... still got the front to tackle and a few odds and ends out the back, but our hard work is really paying dividends and the garden is looking pretty good ... it was not many weeks ago that we were both saying that we couldn't imagine the garden ever looking nice again ...
There has also been plenty of cooking ... from scratch as we normally would, but definitely more baking, a few new recipes and some al fresco too ...
There hasn't been lots of activity on the crafting front ... the weather has just been too nice to stay indoors for long. Following the success of our 'mind map' on the gardening front I did another to show what I had on the crafting agenda ...
There isn't as much on it as there is on the gardening one and I think I need to pretty it up a bit, but I have managed to complete a baby blanket for my eldest goddaughter, who's first baby is due in July ...
Today I've managed to finish off the first set of free motion embroidered gift cards that I've been working on and I just love how they've turned out ...

Exploring ...
Whilst there has been no travelling or days out at all we have needed to explore a few new ways of doing things. 

Things like the fortnightly shop, which is working well in some respects, though I'm starting to feel less and less comfortable in the supermarkets as they seem to be getting busier and busier and lots of people seem unaware of the need to maintain a social distance. We are now trying to make use of on line grocery shopping to try and ease this stress a little.

Shopping fortnightly requires pretty robust menu planning to ensure that we make best use of all of the fresh produce that we need to buy to last us for two weeks, but so far this is going well.

We have also made big changes to the way we manage our finances and again, so far so good.

On the volunteering front I've continued to work at our local foodbank two or three times a month and we are also shopping for our elderly neighbours and my mum and dad, all who are shielding ... this makes for a pretty big shop, when doing it fortnightly, I can tell you.

Simplifying ...
Being confined to barracks has definitely lead to us having to simplify ... since we received our stay at home instruction back in March we have literally left the house only for shopping or when I’ve been at the foodbank.

We've definitely been learning to make do with what we have, especially in the garden, where there has been lots of growing from seed and creating from what we already have.

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So here we are ... I've got the Prime Minister briefing the House of Commons on his latest update on in the background and have the 50 page document providing all the detail of his latest instruction to go and have a read of ... hopefully all will become clear and I will be confident in what our new rules are going forward.

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2 comments:

  1. your embroidery gift cards, your garden, your baking looks great

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Elena ... luckily we both love being at home 😃

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