Adventures of a Laura: Week Eighteen of Furlough

HOT.

Mental Ill-Health

I am feeling a bit less brain foggy this week. I have managed to shower at least 4 times this week which might be a new record and I have done my eyebrows for the first time in 4 months so I feel a bit more put together this week.

Physical Health

I have started a new exercise regime this month to try and shift some weight and to increase my flexibility and general fitness levels before I go back to work proper next month, leading volunteer groups. It looks quite intense and it probably will be but it’s all or nothing at the moment. I have got to do SOMETHING as I currently hate myself. I haven’t been hula hooping every day as it has just been far too hot, and momma and I haven’t done our walks for the same reason.

I am thinking about asking the doctor to remove my new implant and have another one somewhere else as I keep catching this one when I rub cream up my arm. It’s been put in really shallow, so I catch it and I’m convinced it’s either going to fall out (massively unlikely) or that I’m going to snap it (also unlikely). I am still slightly bruised.

Homelife

We went out out again! Up to Cannock Chase this time for a walk. We found and picked and ate some wild bilberries, and we walked for about an hour but my phone only recorded three minutes. I also developed shin splints so I haven’t wanted to walk much more this week.

We bought a new hammock sling from B&Q to try on the base and it was too long, so we’ve doctored it with knots and cable ties and now it fits. This one is so much better as it wraps around so is way more supportive. I haven’t taken it to the plot yet to try as it’s been too hot for me to lie in the sun! I did think about rigging it up in the shade in the garden but when I’m at home I don’t want to read, I want to crochet and watch Netflix and eat.

Crochet

I have finished the lockdown anxiety blanket! Wooohoooooooooooooooooooo! 42 squares all crocheted together – perfect weather for sitting under a blanket (NOT). Anyway. It is done! I have washed it and now it is wonderfully soft and it has also stretched a bit so I’m not concerned about it being too short anymore. Now it needs wrapping and giving to the new owner.

So this means that I can now start my next project! David made up a new rule without consulting me first that I need to finish one blanket before I start another. He clearly doesn’t understand how crochet works. Anyhoo, the next project is all lined up…

SOPHIES UNIVERSE! Yup, finally going to attempt it. I have decided to use two colours, white and spearmint, and then pops of rose in places. I was given the pattern book a couple of years ago and it’s been sitting and waiting. I’ve gone through the book and worked out the colour pattern I want, row by row (all 113 of them) and I’m quite happy with it. This blanket will be a challenge for me as usually like to use lots of colours and pore over colour wheels and suchlike to get the perfect combination. I also wanted to make a blanket in colours I haven’t really used before.

Allotment

Is looking well good. I am very much looking forward to the tomatoes ripening! I haven’t been feeding them but I think I might give them a slosh next week as a bit of a boost. The sweetcorn are developing loads of cobs and I shake them every time I go past. This week I have dug up the first load of potatoes, picked the first two green courgettes and gave one away to an allotment neighbour, and I have also seen the nuthatch again!

I saw the nuthatch a couple of weeks ago but couldn’t get a photo, but I managed it this week. It was enjoying the new seed feeder that momma gave me.

I think my pumpkin is actually a butternut squash as it is smaller at one end then the other but it is getting quite long now. It will be my first ever butternut squash!

B&Q phoned me to cancel and refund the order on the day it was due as they couldn’t get the gravel boards which is what I really wanted so I still haven’t got any timber. Polytunnel is on hold. I don’t want to put it up until I’ve got everything to get it sorted as I don’t want it to be a half finished project. I need timber for raised beds and corner posts, paving slabs for the path, and then pebbles to edge the path as I can’t get any more free block paving bricks.

I am very much in love with the tagetes around the tomatoes even though I did originally say that I don’t like them.

Garden

We have had three whole tomatoes from the garden! I have picked a fourth but it is still in the fridge. This week I sowed more salad leaves, radish, chard, spinach and corn salad in the raised planter where the courgette was (it is now in the green bin).

I have also started next summers crops – cauliflower, leek, and calabrese broccoli. I have had the works winter seed order arrive too so I am going to pilfer some seed from them and do a couple of cabbage.

I spent some time sorting out the houseplants this week. We have been plagued by compost gnats, teeny tiny little flies that are SUPER ANNOYING. Turns out they live in damp compost so I have purposely not watered the house plants for the last three weeks. I bought a bag of 20mm pebbles and this week I have topped the pots with pebbles, and some plants were pot bound so I was going to put them in bigger pots, but discovered that actually I had 3 or 4 plants per pot! So instead I split them, potted them up separately, and then put pebbles around them. From two plants I now have ten! One pot has four baby plants in so I will leave them to get big and strong, and then split them again. Not bad for £3 a plant. Apparently putting pebbles or gravel at least 3cm deep at the top of the pot makes it harder for the gnats to find the compost, but they are so small I am sure they can fit in the pore space. We’ll see.