Week Seventeen of Furlough

I am doing well at clocking off at 3pm on a Wednesday and putting work out of my mind – for the most part. I’ve never been one to switch off properly but having a four day weekend is helping. I am also writing the next work days to do list before I finish work so that it is out of my head and I don’t think about it.

 

Mental Ill-Health

This week has been better but I’m still residual brain foggy. No get up and go. It has got up and gone.

 

Physical Ill-Health

I am fat.

I have put on weight this summer (haven’t we all) and I am now the heaviest I have ever been. I went to the doctor to finally have my implant swapped as it was due in April, and I weighed myself when I was there. I was expecting around 84-85kg but I am actually around 87-88kg. I have put on about 8kg this year, which is around 1.2 stone, which is about 1.2 more than I would like. I needed to lose weight before the lockdown and now I need to lose even more.

I have set up a daily exercise routine for August to try and shift some flab, but also to increase my general flexibility. I realised a couple of weeks ago that I can no longer reach to scratch between my own shoulder blades. This means that cake baking has been put on hold and I am trying not to snack. It is SO HARD. I love snacking, it’s my favourite past time.

I am still very anxious about walking in the local area but I am going to put my big girl pants on and go for a brisk walk once a week.

 

Crochet

I have finished the big fat cushion cover! I sewed the zip in whilst David was watching rugby and then on payday I ordered a massive cushion pad from Wool Warehouse and it arrived two days later. The cushion is SO THICK it takes up half the depth of the sofa, it is so podgy. I ordered a 55cm pad to fit in a 52cm cover.

I discovered some balls of yarn in the stash that I can use for the remaining squares for the big square blanket which is quite annoying as it means I could’ve finished it ages ago, but nevermind. I now only have four squares left, and then need to crochet them together.

This week I have organised the colour scheme for my next blanket which required working through the pattern row by row and deciding which colour I wanted for each row, all 113 of them. I have ordered the yarn to get me started, so when I have finished the big square blanket I can get started on this one!

I had a passing fancy to make myself a new woollen winter hat this week, so I did. David liked it so much that he requested one, so we now have his n hers bobble hats. He looks like santa in his.

This week I have also finished the crochet goldfinch that I started at the beginning of lockdown. It only needed a wing, a beak, and eyes but it's taken me a good few months to build up the desire to do it.

Homelife

We have decided to make some investments and get a towbar fitted on one of the cars so that we can DO STUFF. I am going to get a trailer and fill it with compost. He doesn’t know yet.

I have stopped bringing sweet peas home as I was also bringing home greenfly, so I am leaving them to go to seed now so I can collect them.

There isn't really much else to say about homelife. We are still in the house, the new door lock works like a dream, I am still working from home and will be for the foreseeable - probably until new year. 

 

Allotment

I haven’t done much at the plot as there isn’t much digging etc to get done. I have measured up and starting planning for the polytunnel and managed to find some wood at B&Q as I couldn’t get a delivery slot from Wickes. I also ordered some MASSIVE pegs to hold the tunnel frame down. £2 each! Could shank a man with them.

The sweetcorn plants have put out more female tassels and most of the boy flowers are open. I have been giving them a wiggle and a shake when I walk past as they are wind pollinated, so shaking them helps.

David ordered me a hammock! Very exciting. I think I am going to swap the hammock bit for a different one that sort of wraps around you as you lie in it. This one isn’t very secure and as we discovered, it’s quite hard to stay on it! Could be good for doing core strengthening though, but it won't be very relaxing if I'm trying to read a book.

My first pumpkin is coming! I also harvested my first ever golden sunstripe courgette this week.

 

Garden

The first tomayto is nearly ready! I am VERY excited. This is my first time growing my own tomatoes – I did some last year at work but these ones are my very own in my own garden.

I had planned a post-work day of gardening to fill up the green bin but forgot I was getting my implant done so I haven’t been able to do much as my arm is twingey owwie. There’s lots of stuff that needs clearing out and chopping back. I think I might also remove a courgette plant and replant the planter with herbs.

Week Sixteen of Furlough

Edit: I have updated the blog theme and increased the default font size. Wahoooooo!

Part time furlough is quite nice. I have a four day weekend every week and will do until the end of August. I have time to do things; watch movies on Netflix in the daytime, go to the allotment for a few hours after work etc. I would include crocheting in this but I have run out of yarn so a few projects have come to a standstill.

 

Mental Ill-Health

I am a bit better this week but I still feel dumb, empty, brain foggy. Things are affecting me so David is having to choose his words very carefully lest he upsets me over something really bloody stupid (he stole a crisp; I cried).

I am jittery and jumpy and cannot settle. I want to bake all the things! But I don’t want to get fat(ter). I haven’t got the drive to crochet and I am resisting the urge to start another blanket, which is my go-to jittery mood project. It helps to keep my fingers and brain busy, which is why is started the new squares blanket. It’s probably the reason why I started all of my blankets.

I am feeling very useless and pathetic and low. I think I look ok on the outside but on the inside I just want to curl up and hide.

 

Work

Nah.

I had a huge work delivery this week as we can’t have things posted to the office. It’s very exciting – new first aid kits and hand washing stuff.

 

Homelife

I’m not sure what to write. We’re still here. We’ve been in the house for four and a bit months now. We had a locksmith out this week as the front door was fucked, so we’ve now got a new lock and new keys. Baking is happening at very regular intervals and I need to stop but I like cake too much.

I put solar fairy lights up the stairs and stuck the solar thing out the front door. It looked really pretty but then kept us awake all night as the top of the doors upstairs have windows, so the light came in. I took the lights down again.

We have a bunch of sweet peas on the table that are being replenished at regular intervals. Picked from the allotment, of course.

We are defo regulars at the local dominos.

I have attached the front to the back of my new cushion cover and now just need to sew in the zip, and then buy a chunky cushion pad

 

Garden

Is very green and full. One of the pumpkins is HUGE and taking over – but that was the point. I wanted it to grow and fill the shrub space, and it is. A couple of the other pumpkin plants don’t look very happy at all. I have picked the first lot of salad leaves from the hanging basket. I am leaving the huge courgette on the plant as I am paranoid that my 24hr tummy bug was courgette induced even though it is more likely to have been the lamb. The giant strawberry plants in the hanging basket have produced miniscule strawbs – I think next summer I need to actually try to remember to water stuff.

This week I have added two new wildlife records to my list – a large skipper butterfly, and a common wasp. I also had a white-tailed bumblebee fall onto the bedroom floor as I folded laundry that had been out on the line.

Beans!

 

Allotment

I am so grateful for this space. I am trying to go the plot after work twice a week to decompress after six hours in front of the laptop. Momma P has strimmed, I have sheared, and it is looking quite tidy – apart from the wild area down the front. I’m leaving that though, it’s fun to annoy the neighbours.

I haven’t been able to afford timber etc this month so no new building has taken place but I have budgeted for timber and assorted goodies on payday. This means I can build new raised beds and start the polytunnel project! I am going to put it up, build raised beds to go inside, and have a slab path down the middle. David doesn’t know yet.

I decided this week that I wanted a hammock for the plot so that I could go, do some allotmenting, and then lounge in a hammock in the sun reading a book. We’ve been thinking about where to install fence posts to rig one up but I wanted one that I could move about so I can have it in different places and follow the shade. David has ordered me one off ebay! I am excited.

The sweetcorn are starting to develop their female flowers; most of the boy tassels are out now but it is nice to see cobs. I haven’t grown sweetcorn on the allotment for years and years so it’ll be nice to get a harvest.

The tomatoes have been pruned and pruned and pruned to within an inch of their life and they look like weird trees – a single straight stem with a few leaves and flowers at the top. I have been brutal in the pruning to allow air and light to circulate to reduce blight and it seems to be working. The tagetes that I planted around them at the bottom are glorious and colourful. I don’t really like them but I thought they’d be nice around the tomatoes, and they are.

The French beans I transplanted from home are mostly ok – a couple have disappeared. They are growing well and should start flowering soon.

This week I have been and sowed more salad crops in one of the beds. I did: radish, mizuna, carrot, parsnip, lettuce, chard, leek, spring onion, and spinach. Toward the end of August I’ll put more in – more leek and spring onions as these will over winter, and chard will too.

I have also chucked a load of flower seed into the bulb bed under the plum tree. This bed was overhauled earlier this year – oops, I checked, it was actually September last year! – and I planted over 200 bulbs in it. This year I have decided I need to sort it out as it is not square to the bed next to it which makes grass cutting quite difficult, and is not at all feng shui. So I am going to remove the wood, dig out the bulbs, square the wood up, and replant the bulbs. What fun. In the meantime I have put flower seed in it – I put calendula, foxglove, clary, clover, sunflower, nasturtium, and other stuff. Bit late to the summer flower party but with climate change it shouldn’t matter too much.

I made a new wildflower patch under the plum tree too. I have wanted this to become a wildflower patch for a while as it isn’t usable for growing veg but the soil is very rich. Wildflowers like poor or low nutrient soils, so I dug some grass out, turned the ground over, added half a bag of sharp sand and dug it in, then put down a load of seed. I put red & white clover, red & white campion, red & white deadnettle, heartsease, meadow vetchling (which I already have on my plot), cowslip, field scabious, and something else I can’t remember. I rigged up a cover using bits of wood, bits of plastic and bits of brick. This is just to keep the birds/rats off so they don’t eat the seeds.

I broke my car and David had to come and fix it for me. What a nice boy.

It’s been a very allotmenty week as it still the only place I feel I can go and not mask up, potter about and do nothing much, and generally be outside but not around people (perfect). I am getting lots of small jobs done but I really want to sink my teeth into something big so I am going to buy timber and screws and maybe a new tin of paint when I get paid. I have been in crochet limbo as I am trying to get things finished before I start new stuff, but I really want to start new stuff. I am trying to distract myself all the time so that I am not alone with my thoughts for too long, but I think I need to find new coping mechanisms that doesn’t involve eton mess or cake.

Poppa H has goldfish in one of the water butts in the garden. There used to be six but now there's only two.

David has tried his new camping gas stove on the plot and made a MASSIVE vat of coffee which was undrinkable as he didn't have a cup to decant it into. So it went onto the compost heap.

My one true love. Came rushing down the garden 'cuz she thought I was Momma P, then realised who I was and gave me THE LOOK. You can even see her furrowing her brows. >:(

An ichneumon wasp with her ovipositor (egg laying tube), ready to lay eggs in a solitary bee hole. Except she was at the wrong end of the shed and investigating screw holes in the door.