Cheer us all up - what did you do today?

Made flatbreads for lunch which were so easy to do and now off to walk the dog over the fields in the sunshine and drinking in ever bit of nature, I really appreciate it now more than ever before I love watching the birds and insects getting on with life totally oblivious to what is going on in the human world, it’s very grounding.

easy that is exactly what was thinking yesterday on my walk. Their life is perilous at the best of times but they get on with living nevertheless.

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I walked round our communal gardens after they'd been tidied up by the gardeners. We are on The Thames, hence the moored boats. None of them mine alas!

Then we did our daily walk in Bushy, back home now with a sandwich.

Well yesterday was lovely weather so I tackled doing some weeding in the garden, talked to the cat a lot, had a lot of pleasure doing some mild physical work for a change.
Emailed daughter and had a lovely long reply.

Later made some soup with many of the oldish vegetables which were left in the larder, in former times I may have thrown them out, hope I am no longer so wasteful in future.

Sat in the garden at sunset watching a beautiful sky. So lucky to live in this calm peaceful place, despite the horrors that are happening.

Went out for a walk again and saw a baby robin, looked for mummy and daddy but I think he had flown the nest and he was doing quite well on his own. It made me thing of my 2 AC who have both flown the nest and live very far away from me and both doing very well. Came home and rather than get sad I made a delicious banana loaf - better to munch on banana bread than get sad (although maybe my waistline might regret it at a later date!)

Saw these guys

Did a bit of housework, Coffee in the garden. Went to do some food shopping. Got most of what we needed but no tins, flour or pasta. Salad lunch in the garden. After a phone call to his Mother , DH needed our allowed exercise walk to get his head together again. Very nice in the sunshine. FaceTimed DGS. Did some meal planning and prepared dinner. Watching TV and doing some crocheting.

DH moved some nesting boxes the other day, I felt they were too low and the birds didn’t use them.
This morning we saw Mr and Mrs Sparrow nipping in and out of one of them, so hope they will utilise their new spot.

You know that thing you do to catch unwary birds with a box supported by a stick?

I was out early and managed to snap up a couple of ducks and a pigeon. I've plucked them, sterilised the feathers for further use in a pillow or duvet and now I'm just going to gather a bit of wild garlic for the casserole.

I already had oranges, so can make orange sauce for the ex-quackers.
Not quite sure what herbs go with pigeon though.
Any ideas?

Spent the morning until lunch, planting new lupin and digitalis plants. Moved the bird feeder. Swept the top terrace.
Looooong phone call from ancient Aunt. Lunch. Browsed a garden site and ordered some oxygenating plants and some tuberoses to carry on my theme of a perfumed garden. I’ve ordered a Angel trumpet but can’t remember from where which is annoying, dozed for 10 mins. Phone call from son.
Prepared dinner. Watched a action packed film. Knitted Father Christmas trousers. Now going to bed to read.

I got the difficult half of the bedroom floor washed this morning. Difficult half= under the bed and along the wall where things have to be moved.

I'll do the other half of the floor tomorrow.

Lots of good things happened to me today.

Five different people rang to ask if there was anything I needed, one of them an old boyfriend whom I don't hear from often.

I moaned a bit about the so-called Elderly and Disabled Priority at the supermarkets being a total joke (no delivery or collection before 15th April) and within the hour he was shouting from my doorstep, 'Merry Christmas!'

He had bought up half the greengrocers; plus eggs, McVities Digestive (favourite) milk and right at the bottom of the bag a little chocolate Easter Egg. How kind.

He stood well back whilst I threw some rolled up noted across the road at him .

But best of all, after 5 years of utter hell due to litigation my son and his partner are finally having their longed-for baby.

You can see the wee foetus snuggled into the uterine wall on the left.

Up at the crack of dawn, 6.30 to go to our local (small) Sainsburys which open at 7. Good and bad. The good part was that there were only about 3 customers there apart from ourselves. Bad because they were still awaiting main deliveries, so didn't manage to get broccoli or bananas, skimmed milk, or some of their better bread. However, did get stork margarine for cake making semi skimmed milk, a seeded loaf, rocket, Greek yogurt, carrots and parsnips...……..so mustn't grumble. Home by about 7.15.

Congratulations to your son and partner Bradford Lass.

What good news for your son and his partner BradfordLass 73 , and how kind of your old boyfriend to bring you the groceries and little treat.

Kind of all the other people also who rang to check that you were alright for supplies.

We are lucky to have two daughters who have been doing our shopping plus that of elderly brother in law and his wife.

Remarked to OH this evening that I don't know how we found the time to go out before the lockdown as fortunately we seem to have plenty to do here at home.

OH moved a stone birdbath for me and placed it on some large pavers. Just as he tapped the last one into place I heard a lot of swearing - he had tapped too hard and broken it .

I moved a large grey concrete duck (tasteful not garish!) onto the broken one to cover the cracks. He just came in to ask me whether I thought the birds would use the birdbath now it has been moved. I hope they will! Lots more deep holes in the lawn this morning so looks as though we do have a new bandicoot

I just learned how to put all of my email accounts into 1 application. I have this great online teacher. Feel so on top of technology

What happened today is probably funny only to me but I'll share.

I have a dear friend of 80 who rings almost every day now.

I know, when I hear her voice that I am stuck for the next hour and often a lot more.

She starts to talk and I literally can't get in a single word, not even of agreement. Her monologue will ramble from one subject to the other, rarely actually finishing a sentence.

"Well I said to her...you know how she is don't you, that I wasn't going to let her do that and he said you're right so I went and got the beans from the pantry and do you know you can't get beans in the supermarket at the moment so I said to her you'll have to sew it but they went to Australia and they've been there ever since but I should have called the police, do you think I should have called the police my nephew's a policeman did I tell you but he works for the Council now has done for six years but you can't get beans for love nor money I'm told....'

And so on.

Yesterday, my portable phone simply ran out of battery life and it cut her off but today, when she rang and I apologised, in case she felt I'd hung up on her, she hadn't even noticed

BradfordLass73
That made me chuckle.

Congratulations on your son's news.

A new baby to look forward to!

I too got up early because I’m paranoid that someone will steal my delivery of milk, eggs, cheese, butter and bread off the doorstep!

Oh, and I put in an order at Boots for various bits and pieces. I had tried to do that earlier but was in an online ordering queue of 23,000! So they warned there was an hour wait.

23,000!!!

Anyway at 5.00am surprisingly there was no queue.

At 7.10 I was about 15th in the queue to get into Waitrose wen it opened at 7.30.

A bigger range of goods is now available but stocks for most things are still low. The store was re-arranged just before Christmas and I still haven't got the hang of the new arrangement so sometimes I think things are out of stock when actually I just do not know where to find them. I also shopped for a friend. Got home, unpacked the shopping had a coffee and read a paper. then rang the frielnd and went and rang her front door bell then put put the goods down and retreated.

15 minutes ago we had an email from DS, one of the guinea pigs has died and DGS is distraught. I tried to ring them , but the obsequies were being performed in the garden, so I will speak to him later.

BradfordLass Congratulations...New life, new hope. I just hope he/she is born into a world more certain than it is at moment.

I've had a lovely day too. Taken my dog for a long walk over sandunes, kept social distance for the few that were there but the sun was shining and it was a million miles from any of the troubles. Dogs do have a way of making you feel better, no matter what. Take care everyone and congrats again Bradford lass.

Thank you for the congratulations, much appreciated.

I decided to write The Lockdown Diaries which will no doubt amuse my family decades after I've gone.

I can still find humouor in the situation as well as concern for those who are suffering.