World of Joy: a week

What week is it?

Friday, July 24, 2020

I think we're on Week 19? I don't know, I think I've given up counting. I haven't been up to much. I've been working a lot.

I finished watching The Great British Sewing Bee, and thought the right person won, she'd been consistently good throughout, whereas the other finalists had a few disasters.

Once I'd finished watching that I started, and soon finished, watching The Luminaries, which I really enjoyed. I kept wondering where I'd seen Emery Staines before, played by Himesh Patel, I knew he was in the film Yesterday recently but it took me ages to realise he used to play Tamwar in Eastenders!

Have you been watching any of the old re-runs of Eastenders on Tuesday evenings (is it Tuesdays?). They're hilarious.

Next on the list is Mrs America and I May Destroy You. Have you seen either of these?

The highlight of the passed few weeks was taking part in A Bloggers Art Gallery, writing the post and then exploring everyone else's art has been really enjoyable, and it's taken me on a journey into the world of online independent artists, purchases will be, of that I am sure.

There has been much garden and greenhouse pottering, I've harvested and eaten our first batch of potaotes, and the only other thing I've been doing is road testing some new recipes. Tonight I'm going to make a Tikka sauce from scratch to make a curry. Since lockdown began I've slipped back into using jars of ready made sauces, and it's a habit I'd like to get out of.

The elastic for my face mask has arrived today so if the prototype is successful I'll be making a few more this weekend.

Other than that life has been very quiet, I've seen my Dad, and my Mum and few times, and next week I'm going to see one of my best friends for the first time since early 2020. We're going to the beach and I think chips may very well be involved.

I've been continuing with Wearing It All 2020, although my hopes that I'd be wearing lots of my summer clothes have been dashed.

The weather has improved since WIA Week 1 but we're in for rain again this weekend, which means summer dresses are highly unlikely.

So that's my ramble for the passed few weeks. Not much to report really, I'm still staying inside as much as possible but I've been giving some thought to the places I can visit over the coming weeks. I've been inspired by how people have been choosing to spend the money they've saved during lockdown, buying art for example, or shopping with local businesses. I think I'd like to visit a few art galleries, a local zoo, and an even more local rare breeds farm. These places have really taken a hit recently and they're the places I always say I'd like to visit but never actually seem to get there. So now I will.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Take care xx

a week

Week 17, Wearing It All and Stuff

Friday, July 10, 2020

Well week 17 of lockdown, week 1 of Wearing It All 2020, didn’t look much like summer at all did it? I had envisioned lots of dresses and vest tops, sandals and sunglasses. Instead I got jumpers and jeans. The one day I did wear a short sleeved top it was soon covered with a sweatshirt. It's not that I dislike a jeans and jumper outfit, far from it, it's just not what I was expecting, it's July after all.

I hope the weather improves, I have far more summer clothes in my wardrobe than anything else, which seems daft for someone living in the UK, with our unpredictable and often disappointing weather, I’ve been hoodwinked by the hot summers we’ve had in recent years.

Why is it that my outfit posts so often end up being about the weather?

Not only has it been cooler it’s been windy too. And the wind makes taking outfit shots more difficult as you can see in the first and last photo of the week, I gave up trying to take a shot without hair covering my face on day 7. This was the best of them, in the worst my face was completely covered by my hair. Once again I forgot that windy days and lip gloss simply doesn’t mix and ended up with hair stuck to my mouth more than once. Irritating.

Wearing It All will help with my mend pile, I need to do some visible mending on a few pairs of jeans before I can wear them. But I need the sun to shine as I’m itching to get my summer dresses out. My favourite kind of outfit is one that doesn’t require layers.

I haven’t been far this week. Work is still busy enough to keep my occupied for most of the day. In the quieter moments I’m just pottering about, keeping the house clean and tidy, planning meals, and doing laundry. On Saturday Andy and I spent some time pulling wild oats out of a seed barley crop, it was warm but cloudy and not too hot. It's was a very satisfying way to spend time. We have our best conversations whilst outside together like this, or on long car journeys, probably because we have few other distractions.

We went for a walk on Sunday and came across a plot set aside for winter bird feed. It was full of wild flowers and butterflies. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many butterflies in one place before, apart from the butterfly house I visited on holiday in Wales as a teenager, but that doesn’t really count.

Almost all of the butterflies were Small Whites (which is a rather boring name for such pretty little things), I only saw one other but it was too fleeting for me to identify.

I tried to capture them in a photograph but it doesn’t do it justice. With all of them fluttering about I felt like a princess in a Disney movie, albeit one wearing skinny jeans and ankle boots.

a week

Week 14, 15 & 16

Friday, July 03, 2020

a week

Week 12 & 13

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

a week

Week Eleven

Friday, May 29, 2020

The week has flown by! Work is busy so a lot of time has been spent at my desk, but I have grabbed a few moments for myself too.

I thought I'd share my week in the form of a photo a day, a random shot picked from my camera roll.

On Saturday we started the day by deciding to just get on and cut Andy's hair. We'd been talking about it for ages, and early Saturday morning proved to be the moment that Andy had had enough of his longer hair with the bits that had started to curl.

It took me almost an hour of faffing but I think I did a pretty good job, Andy was pleased, and now I think I may have a job for life!

I did take before and after photos but I was made to promise that they would never find their way onto the internet.

The following day we embarked on a typical Sunday activity - gardening, which for us came in the form of trimming the conifer hedge. We try to trim it every other year but last year we didn't get time, so this year we had a bit of a challenge on our hands. Some branches were too big for the loppers, so out came the big guns. Andy is well versed in chainsaw work, I had the job of operating the loader.

On Bank Holiday Monday we continued with the conifers, we have to do this piecemeal around Andy loading wheat and irrigating. I was back in the driving seat. With the cage on the front of the loader I would lift Andy up high enough to trim the trees, then I'd lower him down, empty the bucket of trimmings, and we'd move onto the next section. We still need to tidy the sides of the conifers but the top is done, and it looks much neater.

Tuesday and after a busy day at my desk I spent the early evening reading a few chapters of this book. I don't often like short stories but this seems to fit well with my limited attention span at the moment. I'm rather enjoying it, and read it with the voice of Tom Hanks my head.

Wednesday was rather uneventful, just lots of work and making cups of tea. I took this photo at lunchtime, sitting on my patio. My coffee table is a pile of bricks that will soon become part of our patio transformation. Now that our builder is back at work the ugly block of concrete will have a brick wall built around the edge, and have paving slabs over the top. Then I'll get rid of the weeds in the border and finally plant something pretty!

Friday. This is one of many photos I've taken of water droplets on my sweet peas. The green is so lush and the droplets look like jewels! One of my favourite daily tasks is watering the greenhouse. I do it first thing every morning and I love seeing what's grown and shot up overnight. It's getting rather full in there as a lot of my seedlings have now been moved to larger troughs, and will only continue to take up space as they grow, it's going to get jungle like in there. I wonder if I'll attract any of the local monkeys*

*we don't have local monkeys

The only other thing I've done this week is go to a supermarket. I felt it was time for me to brave the world once again, I hadn't left the farm, other than to go on rural walks, since March 23rd. I didn't need many provisions so I wasn't out for long but it was nice to go out and see that the world is still there.

I wondered if woollen winter gloves would really be any use when I saw the woman in front of me wearing them, but whatever makes you comfortable I suppose.

I wondered if the two ladies having a chat in the aisles really needed to chat there and then. I was waiting in my denoted bay, trying to decide how long to wait before saying something, when the person behind me, who had no intention of waiting, used some choice words to move them along.

I wondered if the lady in the bread aisle needed to pick up, squeeze, and inspect five loaves of bread before choosing the one she was going to take home (aren't you supposed to only touch the things you intend to buy? My friend used this rule as her reason for buying two Easter eggs, she couldn't put the first one back because she'd touched it :) any excuse for extra cocoa!).

I wondered if it was really necessary for the lady on the checkout to comment on my every purchase - this, obviously, has nothing to do with social distancing, but it really irritates me. Yes I am lucky to get flour, yes I do like those (that's why I'm buying them), yes I'm going to mash them, yes they are delicious at this time of year... Would this annoy you or am I just being unsociable?

Anyway, I survived and felt a little better for having been out into the world once again. I need to go to a Post Office at some point but can't decide which one will have the easiest system based on it's location and layout... I'll ponder it and then plot my next foray into civilisation.

I hope you're all well. I'll be popping by your blogs and catching up soon, I haven't visited some of you in a while, work has been busy which means I like to get away from my screen of an evening.

Have a good weekend, enjoy the sunshine!

a week

Week Ten

Friday, May 22, 2020

We should've been traveling to France today for a week in Provence with Andy's family.

Andy is at work, I'm at my desk.

The holiday was to celebrate my Mother-in-laws birthday. Instead we'll all be getting together via FaceTime, having a picnic in our respective homes, probably following an unhealthy amount of brie with a few croissants. It's not what we planned, or hoped for, but it'll be fun nonetheless, we've planned a few surprises, and no matter what it'll be a birthday that's remembered.

It's the sixth family birthday we've had during lockdown, with three more coming up in June, and Father's Day too. I wonder what life will look like when it's my birthday in late August? Have you had a birthday in lockdown, how did you celebrate?

I didn't write a Week Nine post as lockdown life mirrored that of the week before. The first round of changes to lockdown didn't affect me much but I was able to see my Dad for the first time in weeks. He came over and we sat in the garden, which we figured was probably safer than a public park as we'd most certainly encounter fewer people. It's bending the rules but it makes sense to me. He brought his own flask of tea and didn't come into the house, and we kept our distance. It was so hard to see him and not give him a huge hug!

A few days later I repeated the exercise with my Mum, there were tears and giggling but, again, no hugging.

My local garden centre is now open in a fashion (you queue and order at the door and collect at a designated point) but I've resisted the urge to go for now. I would like to pick up some spinach and lettuce leaf seeds at some point soon but I'll wait until I need to plant them before going. I think that the longer I can stay at home the better.

Now that we're allowed to drive to a local beauty spot I've been thinking about going to the beach for a walk, I do worry that it'll be a draw for a lot of people, so haven't made any firm plan to go, but it will be one of the first places I visit, maybe sometime in June...?

How has your week been? What impact have the new rules had on life for you?