Sunday: Day 68

Just saying, I am isolating still as per that letter, so hope this blog isn’t too boring for the readers.  I’m pleased to say that DH is going out for a walk locally, avoiding close contact and shops. We are learning how to navigate Sainsbury’s online shopping list, I thought I’d purchased packs of 1 litre fruit juice, turned out to be 200ml cartons, substitutes are another problem, a block of mature cheddar cheese was requested, instead we were sent a small pack of grated cheese was substituted, we asked for sardines in olive oil, instead sardines in sunflower oil was listed so DH asked the very pleasant delivery man if the cheese and sardines could be taken back, they were. The other item that was substituted was chocolate but the alternative was so similar it was acceptable.

From time to time I am annoyed with myself for not achieving much, however I have been decluttering old knitting and crochet magazines, found a 10 year old pattern in Yarn Forward for January 2011,

for a girl’s beret, I had the Rowan wool to make two, this is my effort at Lief beret, blue is Big Wool, cream colour, called China Clay, is Rowan Drift. Not easy knitting with 10mm circular needles and such thick wool it worth the effort. Whether Alice likes them will be another matter, at 3 years old she has very definite ideas about what she will wear, or not, she has a habit of taking all her clothes off.

The lockdown has led to small changes in our lifestyle, shopping by post, as I said above using grocery delivery service, learning to use Zoom, following church services on Facebook and using Chromecast to view on larger TV screen. The streamed church services, 9.30 on Sunday to Thursday mornings and Saturday evening prayer has given us a structure to our day, although pleased it isn’t Zoom when we are in pyjamas.

A few years ago we extended the downstairs cloakroom into a shower room, the shower is an electric one, our upstairs bathroom has shower over the bath, takes the hot water from the tank, we had a different system for each bathroom. The downstairs shower was mostly used when the family stayed, DH realised he preferred the spaciousness of freestanding shower so effectively we have our own bathrooms now.

Our dining room is at the front of our house, in normal times we just have meals in there and spend rest of time in lounge/sitting room/drawing room/parlour/back room (what is the correct name?) or in kitchen, now we use the dining  room more, we can look out in the street, feel less cut off, see people, some of whom even admire DH’s front garden. Another change after clearing the larder to use up food lurking at the back we found a packet of ground coffee so we retrieved a cafetière from the depths of a cupboard,  read the rules and I will have proper coffee now on instead of instant. So flavoursome, the feeling of power and style pushing down the plunger is silly and fun.

Oh,  in case you were wondering about present project, just making more cotton face cloths using up yarn, these will be for face washing grandchildren, preferable to using disposable wipes. Picture of one made earlier, just garter stitch, cast on one stitch, increase in front and back of second stitch, knit to end of row, knit enough rows to diagonal of square and then decrease by knitting second and third stitches together.

Sunday : Day 54.

It has felt a strange few days, Thursday morning I felt so sad and upset, a school friend’s death was announced on Facebook, not from Covid 19, but from a stroke, Medwin had been suffering from terminal cancer, had undergone a leg amputation but battled on. An enduring school memory was her black hair, bouffant, never moving, like a helmet, she was one of those capable organised people who knew what to do, helpful, a mainstay of the South West Pony Association. Medwin’s death is the first of our class of which I was aware.

This was the second death of the week, Pam was a friend through our previous church and children’s primary school, again cancer took her. Another lady who was a ‘character’, boarding school, Swiss finishing school, not really a suburban person but adapted well to changed circumstances, handicapped by inherited deafness, rightly annoyed with me when I became more introvert and stopped entertaining even afternoon tea became too much, let alone dinner parties.

  This will have to change once we are no longer isolated, it is not fair on Ian for he is much more of a people person than me, I was surprised how I enjoyed a Zoom coffee morning yesterday, organised by our church, no raffle, no bacon butties, At the usual coffee morning one tends to just sit at one table so unless an effort is made to walk around one speaks only to the punters on that table whereas with a digital coffee morning everyone in theory can chat to everyone. As has been commented elsewhere it is interesting to see a small corner of other parishioners’ homes, often when watching journalists and others from their own homes the design and decorations are more interesting than their reports.

With that last thought in mind I’m delighted to tell you the sweet pea Attic24 blanket is complete, on the sofa/settee brightening up the dreary furniture. Even after many years I still feel the two settees were too heavy and bulky for the room, but are practical and tough when the grandchildren visit, no risk of fabric stains. They weren’t chosen for that, we thought the higher backs were supportive for our old spines, anyway this is now:-

Once this blanket was finished I started crocheting again as I wish to complete Moorland blanket for Daughter-in-law, however I have realised that crocheting aggravated my right shoulder where I have a rotator cuff tear, have had it on and off since September 2016. In theory it shouldn’t matter, I am left handed but in reality I’m not very left handed, it is mainly writing, sewing and using a spoon, probably because I grew up in a right handed household and learnt to adapt.  Even irons were designed to be used just by a right hander where the flex was in the way, nowadays the flex comes out of the centre of the heel.  I shall turn to completing Ian’s second pair of toe up socks.