Lockdown - week 2

Week 2 started cold, dull and lethargic. Partly the weather's fault, partly the clock going forward last weekend. I've no need to be anywhere at 9 or 10 in the morning so instead of adapting to the new setting I just amble along on the old one, getting up an hour late, going to sleep an hour later.


With the weather returning to 'normal' there was less temptation to be outside pottering round the greenhouse and garden. With cold overnight temperatures forecast, the conveyor belt system whereby seedlings start inside, go to the greenhouse, and eventually to the garden or allotment was stalled waiting for more warmth. Over the last weekend the sun returned, and since then I've been busy outside doing something or other every day - I've planted out some mizuna and cabbages, and the tulips have started to flower. Everything looks better when the sun shines.

After my walk to the wood last week, I've decided to stcik to the garden and not go out. It feels too risky. When the weather's nice I have plenty to occupy and exercise me here, or I can just sit in the sun. I'd rather do that than dodge the rest of the neighbourhood out for a walk.




I have managed to go out virtually though - a couple more Isolate Live shows, S T Manville and Frank Turner one evening, and Thom Worth and Tankus the Henge (the latter direct from beside a canal boat, which must be a quite fun place to be stuck for lockdown) - and for my birthday John Allen (left) livestreaming music from his home in Germany, followed by an evening trip to the (virtual) theatre.






I've noticed I'm becoming more lenient with myself over things I'd resolved to do, or not. Now does not seem to be the time to worry about eating too much - and when a neighbour brought chocolates for my birthday I ate them all in hardly any time at all. My birthday cake got eaten in one evening. Another (on another day) got eaten straight away too. It might, if you were being kind, be possible to blame sunshine and all the garden-digging for making me hungry, but I seem to have no willpower when it comes to eating 'treats'. I need to kick this habit before it becomes ingrained, and I put on a ton of weight during lockdown.
I've also broken my 'no new clothes' resolution. I saw some colourful trousers in a sale, and, yep, I bought them (arguing that they were a birthday present). They're bright and flowery, and were very cheap, but ... but ... but ... I feel like I'm acting too much on impulse, and not considering things enough. Is this some weird side-effect of lockdown and isolation?

Happy Lockdown Birthday

It was my birthday over the weekend, and, despite the lockdown and family not being able to visit, I was determined to make the best of it.




I actually started a couple of days early. A neighbour brought round some flowers and chocolates - leaving them on the doorstep and retreating to the end of the drive while they were picked up. Treating the chocolate box cautiously, I pulled off the plastic film-wrap, and then sat down and just ate them all (I don't normally eat much chocolate but seem to be craving it all the time at the moment)

For my birthday itself, I'd made plans ... but first I watched a video of grandson singing Happy Birthday (almost), chatted with my daughters, opened parcels (brought by delivery men) and a card, made by my eldest daughter and grandson, transferred electronically and printed down by my husband.




I'd already decided breakfast would be something other than the usual cereals - so, croissants (from the freezer) with jam, and coconut cream












I then took a long relaxing bath with some of the soap rose petals I'd received - aren't they beautiful? Almost too lovely to use.








But thought this present should wait till later in the day :)








It was already getting quite late for lunch even by our standards. Again, I decided it should be something a little different - a proper lunch-out sort-of meal with a mass of side salad - and accompanied by live music from German artist John Allen (via his Facebook page watched on the tv)

My evening plans included dinner (cooked by my husband, though he hadn't realised before) and a night at the theatre. Okay, more live streaming, but my youngest daughter suggested I put makeup and jewellery on make a proper night out of it. So, here I am looking a little greyer than usual because it hasn't seemed worth dying my hair when I'm seeing no one.

I made the effort to have a properly set table, and wine to accompany the food, a pasta dish similar to amatriciana, with bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms in a spicy sauce (it was only after serving it that OH realised he'd forgotten the mushrooms!)

Then we were off to the living room/theatre. The National Theatre regularly stream plays to cinemas, now they're streaming to our living rooms via their YouTube channel. Each play will be available for a week, and this first one is One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden. It's an almost-slapstick, farcical kind of comedy, and not really my kind of theatre, but pretending I'd gone out was fun.

Part of my daughter's cunning plan was to have a (very) small amount of ice cream in the interval, as you might at the theatre,  but I settled for a quick, queue-free, dash to the bar to sample my present from her - Isle of Skye gin :)


Doing something different made the day feel special and memorable, and all in all it was much more enjoyable than I'd expected.

Lockdown - Week 1 - busy, busy, busy

How did your first week of lockdown go? Mine, to be honest, felt rather like a normal week, but with less shape to it than normal.


We'd been staying home for a while already, but obviously not enough people were, so last Tuesday advice became orders, and everyone apart from essential workers was supposed to stay in. Strange then to wake up the first morning of lockdown and hear normal traffic on the nearby main road through our estate; if anything, throughout the day, it got heavier. And so many people were out walking, taking their allowed hour of exercise.

The first few days were warm, and I've thrown myself back into vegetable gardening (I'd somewhat let it slip at home over the past few years though my husband had kept the allotment going). I've sown quick growing salad leaves, pumpkins and cabbages in the greenhouse, turnips in one of the small garden beds, with more to follow. With the weather being fine and sunny, I also made time to just sit outside, listen to the birds, watch the buzzards high above, see if I could spot the grass growing and flowers opening.








A couple of evenings I went out to catch the sunset, generally it's quiet then

but there were still dog walkers around, and I don't feel confident that if a dog ran over to say Hi that its accompanying child wouldn't. One afternoon I went as far as the wood to find anemones, but although the walk there wasn't bad (beside playing fields so lots of space to pass people), everyone seemed to have the same destination in mind, and once in the wood the footpaths seemed too busy for my comfort. I don't think I'll be doing that again.

There are other ways of 'getting out' though.

I've attended an online book launch for Sarah Jasmon's You Never Told Me (if all had been well, I'd have visited my Manchester daughter and gone along to the actual launch, but that wasn't to be). Over on Facebook, Sarah's now set up a page, Books From the Boat, where she'll be reading a chapter from the book each evening.

And I can even 'go out' to gigs.
A lot of touring musicians have effectively lost their jobs due to music venues closing and tours being cancelled, so they've gone online instead; no tickets required, but drop them a few quid, the money you'd have spent on drinks maybe, by Paypal if you've enjoyed the show. So I've seen Grace Petrie, Fast Car To Florence, and a new single launch from Gecko. I caught part of a Frank Turner 'gig' - each Thursday evening he'll be streaming live through his Facebook page to raise money for a different music venue's employees as obviously they've been affected too. I've listened to various living-room sessions from folk singers on The Covid Musical Collective, and a variety of artists through Isolate Live. (both of these can be found on Facebook, if you're curious)

Oh, and I've seen all those photos of goats taking over Llandudno.





I've done less helpful things too - spent too much time checking social media for updates, and too long counting tins in the food cupboard, or checking what actually IS in the freezer (it's always full but I can never find anything for dinner) - it's like a never-ending stock take. Social media is hard to kick, but I'm trying to limit my time on it. And, to stop me counting tins and packets every day, I've made lists. I love lists, they give me a feeling of control. Now I know how much I have of whatever, and can tick items off as they're used.



Not that many days in, and I found I was losing all track of the days. This seems really odd as the only fixed events in our lives are dustbin day (Thursday), and Friday when we see elder daughter and grandson, and OH goes out running with a club in the evening. I'm beginning to see why some people like to shop the same day every week. To add some 'shape' to the days, I'm making an effort to pick fresh flowers from the garden on Fridays, ready for the weekend, and I've re-introduced Sunday roast which we don't normally bother with.(chicken this week thanks to home delivery groceries, to be followed by the pork and gammon that have been in the freezer since Christmas).


I definitely haven't had time to be bored this first week. In the last few days I've seen several arts organisations putting content online - from virtual tours of museums, to National Theatre and RSC putting shows online, and Hay Book Festival intending to go 'digital'. I could be busier than usual.

First gig of the year; Ira Wolf, Alex Hale and Ayres at Chameleon

January has been a rather lacklustre, lethargic month for me but it got rounded off in style with my first gig night of the year. Okay it wasn't quite the last night of the month but the night before is near enough.

It was special in a number of ways - first gig night of the year, my daughter back in town to play, and Ira Wolf all the way over from Nashville to head the line-up.















 It was a great night. The upstairs room at Chameleon busy from the start, with my daughter seeming quite surprised that she'd actually have an audience for her opening set. I haven't heard her play in such a long while, so I was obviously going to be biased and think she was great (she was!).














She was followed by local Alex Hale (performing without the other members of the Alexander Christopher Hale Band) with his mix of funny, witty songs



















And rounding off the evening, Ira Wolf. I was introduced to her music, as so many other artists, by my daughter streaming Spotify on long car journeys (appropriate as many of her songs reference life on the road in her VW van), but haven't heard Ira live, I've now moved from 'casual listener' to 'fan'.

I'm not quite sure how I'd describe her music - folk? americana? country? Anyway, check out her website here and have a listen

From The Jam - at Rock City, Nottingham

Another week, another gig night!

I'm starting, gradually, to get back into the normal swing of things, so the other Sunday we were off to Nottingham's Rock City  to see a band, or perhaps more accurately part of a band, from my youth. The Jam split in the early 80s, but Bruce Foxton (from the original Jam line up) and Russell Hastings keep their sound going.

looking through the sound booth

If you follow thus blog very closely (does anyone?) you'll know that, despite all the gigs I go out to, I've only been to Rock City once before and that was years ago (to see Frank Turner). On that occasion though I'd found myself a great place to stand - just behind the sound booth - and that's where I headed this time. It's not as close to the stage as some folks no doubt like to get but it's a little elevated so you can see over everyone in front.

The Vapors

Opening the night were another band from back in the good old days - The Vapors (Turning Japanese) - and the audience seemed mainly folks of my age who'd remember both groups from way back when. It made for a quieter evening than usual - less bouncing around in the mosh pit, more nodding along to the tunes :)

It was good night though. I never got to see The Jam live but this felt very close, and their sound hasn't grown old.

Skerryvore at the Bodega, Nottingham

I haven't been getting out to a gigs these past few moths; in fact, since July when I saw Deaf Havana at Derby's The Venue

I've been wanting to see Skerryvore properly for a while though, and missed them last time they were in Nottingham, so a couple of weeks ago I was off out to the Bodega.






I first saw them back in 2013 at a Free Fringe Music event at the National Museum of Scotland, and loved their mix of traditional Scottish bagpipe and fiddle music with modern rock and electric guitars. I'm just sorry it's taken me so long to go along to one of their proper gigs.










The music this time seemed louder and 'rockier' than I remember, with a lot more hand-clapping and foot-stomping from the audience, but I still loved it.
If you think you know what bagpipes sound like, think again :)

Deaf Havana - The Venue, Derby

 I seem to have been caught up in one of those periods of life when there's so much happening that there isn't time to blog about it - which is basically an excuse for not having posted pics of a Deaf Havana gig at Derby's The Venue from about a fortnight ago. Here they are ...

If you've not heard of Deaf Havana, they're a rock band from King's Lynn in Norfolk, which somehow doesn't seem like the obvious place to form a rock band but apparently there's little else to do in Norfolk. Anyway, I've been listening to them for a long time, originally due to my youngest daughter discovering them, and in a roundabout way it was because of them that we first visited King's Lynn and Hunstanton while holidaying in Norfolk.

It's taking some time for me to get back to 'normal' after this last year, and it's been ages since I went out to a gig (Skinny Lister back in April). We'd bought tickets in advance and to be honest if we hadn't I might have bailed on going out. Deaf Havana are loud and noisy, but with a lot of angst and anguish in their lyrics - maybe not the kind of songs I want to hear at the moment. But ... all sorts of people say going out, listening to music, hanging out in a crowd are good for lifting your mood, and after all the tickets were already paid for, so I went along - and, guess what? All those people are right. 

I've seen them play once before at Nottingham's Rough Trade, but this was their first appearance in Derby for (I think they said) seven years. I remember the Rough Trade gig as packed solid, and hot. The Venue's a bigger venue (sorry), and, although there was probably a bigger crowd, it didn't feel as full. Unlike Rough Trade where a lot of punters seemed there out of curiosity, this was definitely a room full of fans ready to sing along all night. As you'd possibly expect, these were mainly youngsters but I wasn't the only 'oldie' there. 

It was a good night, and in retrospect I'm glad I went. I need to get back into the habit of going back out to gigs but for now I'm off to Norfolk soon, and I'll no doubt be heading round by Hunstanton to visit Boston Square and the pier.

Timber 2019 - an introductory overview

We're just back from a wonderful weekend at Timber Festival, courtesy of WildRumpus.org.uk. It's an event which combines music and fun with serious discussions on nature and environmental issues. Music, discussion, comedy, circus-style entertainers - imagine Edinburgh Fringe condensed into three days, and held in a forest.









For the rest of the year the 70 acre site at Feanedock in the National Forest is quiet and peaceful, but over the last week or so volunteers have transformed it, installing stages, marquees, bunting, art installations, and the all-important 'facilities' - compost loos on the festival site, proper water-flushing ones and hot showers on the campsite (these amenities matter so much, so how wonderful is that?)









 I'm going to be following up with more detailed posts but for now here are photos which I hope capture the joyous feel of Timber, and the wild and delightful things to be encountered there.

























There were two main music stages, Field Notes and Eyrie, and a smaller pop-up style one, Elemental, for music, poetry and talks. The fun isn't limited to the stages though.

Walking round you might encounter a swoop of (puppet) swallows, giant woodland insects, poetry on trees, discover the Eyrie stage hidden in the trees, a willow 'Earth' hung with messages of hope, super-sized board games, a giant marble run, juggling and acrobatics, and a campsite in the woods with story-telling and music.

Music wasn't just confined to the stages as Rimski and Handkerchief toured around with their bicycle piano and double bass, and The Baghdaddies accompanied a procession of cardboard figures made over the weekend by volunteers and children.

The Shimmer Tree

My favourite art installations, to which I returned time and again, were the Shimmer Tree, designed by Dan Fox, and a simple circle of hollow bamboo poles, both of which responded to air currents to make music.

 If some of this seems a bit hectic, you could find your way through a newly-created living maze, relax in a hammock with a book, book a massage or hot-tub session, or do as we did and slip slightly aside from the festival activities to take in the quiet of the forest, listen to birdsong, and later watch the sun set through the trees and from the Hollow Way Lookout.

Everything takes on a different aspect after dark, and, as the sun set, the festival site transformed into a magical wonderland.

There were of course some mishaps - mainly involving our camping set-up and lack of  waterproof coats - though there were a couple of cancelled events (sad but inevitable) and a stall which had sold out of sausage sandwiches for Sunday breakfast; the world was saved when we found bacon elsewhere :)

The weekend left me feeling refreshed and inspired, though at the same time physically exhausted so despite our intentions to stay till Monday we took the comfy option of heading home late on Sunday night. I found a lot of interesting new bands, and heard new ideas, or old ones I'd neglected, which I'd like to incorporate into my life,  but more of these later ...

Timber - enlighten, educate, and inspire

            -  music and more

            - practicalities - camping, food, and festival toilets 

Dates have now been released for next year 3/4/5 July and earlybird tickets are available at TimberFestival.org.uk

Since writing this, I've seen other reviews of Timber Festival, mainly from the point of view of families, so here are some links. Let me know if you were there too

The Brick Castle

Hodge Podge Days

Marvellous Mrs P

Typical Mummy