Jottings - 24th January - busier, happier week

 As you may have gathered from the title, this week has been busier and happier. Perhaps happier because busier. Actually, make that definitely rather than perhaps. 

  After the bustle of organising, and re-organising, and re-arranging everything again of Christmas (thanks a lot, Boris), January has been too quiet and I've slipped back into that empty nest feeling that comes when children leave home. Try as I might I couldn't find a focus for my days, and was in danger of slipping back into last Spring's lazy habits. 

Then I found a purpose in life - starting a sourdough culture - and my days since have revolved around it. When I wasn't actually tending it (to be honest that takes about 15 minutes max, but it does set something in stone which must be done) I was reading up and watching on line videos on best ways to keep one going. A lot seem to make things needlessly complicated - from fancy flour to specialist equipment - rather than help, but I found Irish Examiner food columnist Colm O'Gorman's Instagram tutorials helpful and inspiring, and posts I'd seen over summer from author Sarah Jasmon encouraged me to experiment and use each day's 'discard'. 

I'm a thrifty, waste-not-want-not style, housekeeper at best, and I hated the thought of throwing perfectly good 'dough' away, so loosely following Sarah's ideas I've tried to make something every day - pancakes, dough balls, dumplings, a pie/cake now named Rhubarb Caramel Sourdough, cinnamon rolls - and I'll continue to do that.

This has certainly kept me busy, plus my Veganuary challenge keeps me busy as meals seem to take more planning than usual to avoid repeating the same dinner too often. We've had a week of chillis, curries, pasta (with doughballs), winter roots stew with dumplings, but occasionally I've fallen back on lazy ready-prepared mock-chicken pies and burgers.

I've completed a skirt I started before Christmas (being home-made, it has pockets!), and knitted a pair of gloves. It's all kept me busy, and left less time for scrolling through worrying news reports.

To finish the week off in style, Sunday brought a heavy fall of snow. Normally my delight in snow is tempered by knowing it will be impossible to drive anywhere. But this year I've nowhere to go, so I can enjoy it.

Projects to see me through winter lockdown

 Today is Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. And this year surely has to be one of the most depressing on the record. Coronavirus is frightening. Lockdown is boring. The weather is generally dull and dismal - apart from a few rare days, we haven't had beautiful sunny frosty mornings, or even snow which would be exciting, and no problem as we're stuck at home - and spring seems a long way off. But even stuck at home I can decide to live a little differently.

I usually start the year with a list of resolutions, what I would like to achieve in the coming months but they often tend to be vague concepts rather than concrete plans. This year I feel I need something a little more specific than 'do art' or 'get fit', and I need something to do now, not when summer comes round. 

So I've replaced 'eat healthier' with 'join in Veganuary'. The rules are simple - avoid meat and dairy - and there's a finite length to it. Meals take more planning, to avoid pumpkin chili everyday, and longer to cook, which is good as it fills the day. 

It's probably not much healthier though, despite the soups for lunch, because there's no limit on sugar, and experimenting with vegan cake recipes is a good way to spend a damp afternoon.

As a sort of follow on to this I've decided, later than everyone else of course, to set up a sour dough culture. Two days in it isn't looking great, but there's time yet, and importantly it adds another thing which must be done each day*.

'Get fitter' has been replaced by 'up the step count'. There was a dreadful point towards the end of the first lockdown when I realised I was hardly taking more than a thousand steps a day! I don't want to fall into this laziness again. The weather isn't appealing for getting out and about right now, though I have some nice new 'sale' boots to wear, and my average step count has been dropping, but I can always add in a few minutes of zumba-style antics during the day, or just walk up and down the hallway for 250 steps every hour when prompted. 

Christmas marked a point where a lot of my knitting and sewing projects were finished, so after a week or so of laziness I've settled on what next. First a pair of gloves from Christmas present yarn, then a hat or scarf to match. 

Alongside, as knitting is an evening occupation, a skirt renovation, turning long and full, into shorter and somewhat tighter to wear with leggings. Another of my Christmas presents was a scarf-dying kit, but that's going to wait for milder weather as I think I'll do the messiest bits outside. And for later on in Spring, I've a grow-your-own-snowman-pumpkin' kit to start growing. 

I knit mostly while watching TV so, looking for a lengthy challenge, I've started rewatching Better Call Saul. That's a lot of episodes so should last for a few weeks. And then I'll follow it with Breaking Bad. The two don't quite join up yet, but they almost do. And for something more cheerful, I'm going to watch Frasier re-runs, if I can find it streaming somewhere.

For dark afternoons, I've taken up an old winter pastime - playing on the Wii, specifically Lego Lord of the Rings. Again, it takes a while, especially if the known bug (collecting things in the wrong order in the Weathertop section) kicks in and I have to start back at the beginning. When the days start to get longer, I'll probably abandon the little hobbits on their way to Mount Doom and sit out in the garden but fro now it fills a dead space in the day.

Hopefully by the end of lockdown I'll be able to put a 'completed' tick against most of the items on my list, but till then they'll keep me occupied.

Above all I want to be positive in my outlook on life.

*the sourdough DID get going and has turned out brilliantly. 

Looking forward to winter?

Today is a bright sunny day. Blue sky is appearing from behind the clouds, and it looks like an excellent day for getting outside walking or gardening.

But winter is on the way. With its short days and bad weather, it's never the best time of year, and with the renewed threat of coronavirus, and possible disruptions to whatever we might have planned for Christmas holiday season it's looking more depressing than usual. 

By now I would normally have a number of evenings out planned at gigs or the theatre (summer is off-season as bands do the rounds of festivals, and theatres take a break) but even the limited socially-distanced events I've seen advertised don't seem all that appealing, and I don't want to risk booking anything for spring as who knows what the situation may be then. 

It's time to face it - this winter is going to be one spent at home.

Time I think for a cunning plan, or at least to find ways to make the time pass in a not-too-dismal fashion. The thought of curling up under a blanket with a box-set running on TV is tempting, but having something to focus on and achieve - from creativity indoors to exercise outside - is essential for me; it stops me worrying constantly about the pandemic and its effect on all our lives.

Outdoors, I'll be spending time in the garden whenever possible; at the moment there are apples to pick and trees to trim, so I'm occupied out there while it's fine. There won't be so much to do as we head into winter, but shortly into New Year seed-sowing for flowers and veg starts again, and as soon as we reach February I'll be searching the flowerbeds each day for the first signs of snowdrops.

Having got back a reasonable level of fitness (after the laziness of early lockdown), I want to maintain, and even improve, it. I'm trying to get my step count higher each week, so I'll be trying to keep up one day out walking each week, weather permitting. For the past couple of years Zoe at Splodzblogz has been challenging herself and her followers to get outside for an hour each day throughout November. I joined in last year, even though I didn't manage to do it every day, and again it's one of those things to give focus to the days. I'm not sure if she's intending to do the same this year, but I'm going to try anyway. 

Obviously at this time of year indoors can frequently seem more appealing than out, and I'm planning to take time out for 'me time'. Not the soaking in a candle-lit bath vibe, but things which absorb my attention and make a little semi-creative bubble in which I can lose myself.

I've rediscovered my clothes making mojo during lockdown. I was trying anyway to do a combination of buy no new clothes and use up the stash, so it fitted well. I've finished a couple of skirts, am in the middle of another, and, as I still wear trousers more than skirts, I'm thinking of taking some old, relegated to the back of the wardrobe, long floaty skirts in brushed cottons and turning them into tops. For evenings in front of the TV, I'm starting to plan ahead what I might use from from wool stash to make cardigans/jumpers for winter. I'm still making a summer one in cotton (!) but need to move onto warmer things soon.

Over the past few months, I've also revived my interest in cooking - prompted by the intermittent gluts of produce that come from the allotment. Earlier in the year we had an unprecedented surplus of cauliflower (a lot ended up in the freezer). More recently there's been an abundance of kale, and I've enjoyed finding new ways to use it - from stir fries to soups to chilli. Looking through recipe books and sorting out the numerous recipes cut from magazines keeps me occupied in itself, even without the end result of dinner. I've found myself starting to plan meals several days ahead (something I hardly ever do) and trying something new at home seems like a better idea at the moment than eating out. Over winter there'll be less allotment produce, but the stored apples, pumpkins, and beetroot will be looking for innovative ways to be eaten. And, way behind the trend as always, I could even start a sourdough culture.

One of my resolutions this year had been to find time for something creative, and at last I've organised myself enough to do it. I'd hoped to be able to join a 'real' art group or take a short course or two but neither is possible with coronavirus. Instead I've joined an on-line art group which is giving me the necessary 'push' I needed to take up pencils and scrawl, and also to allow myself time to do it.

In many ways this feels like setting out New Years resolutions. I'm hoping all these plans will give me something to focus on over the coming months, instead of feeling cooped up, waiting impatiently for spring.

Lockdown - week 6: 28th April - 4th May

Rain! Argh. After so many dry weeks, this week started wet. The garden was getting dry, I was having to water the huge garden pots every day (as well as the seedlings in the greenhouse), and the water butts were empty, so we needed rain.








But it's dull - and of course, after a morning of it, I was looking for things to do, so I made rhubarb muffins and, yes, tackled the ironing pile (it's my default go to when I have too much energy)






It's been another week of exceptional streamed theatre and music ...

Wednesday - Gecko Theatre's dance/mime production Institute. I saw this at Nottingham Playhouse a couple of months ago, back in the days when we could go out to theatres, and think it had more impact on stage.

Thursday -  KT Tunstall performing live from Los Angeles as part of the Albert Hall Home series of shows which should have being taking place right now but cannot.

Over Thursday and Friday, I caught two performances of Frankenstein from National Theatre Live. In the first, Benedict Cumberbatch played the monster, and Jonny Lee Miller played Frankenstein; for Friday night's performance they swapped roles. Both versions were absolutely brilliant. Cumberbatch's portrayal of a 'new born' trying to find out how to work hands and feet, and move about was stunning - and more so, I think, because I wouldn't have imagined him as a very physical actor. Overall though, I preferred Miller's monster - more sympathetic and humane - and Cumberbatch's scientist - arrogant and proud.


Saturday - A Midsummer Night's Dream from The Globe Theatre. I'm not sure if this was part of the current 'lockdown' screening of shows or just something that was already on Youtube. A fun, riotous romp.



As hope is growing that the end of lockdown is in sight, I've heard people talking about their plans for when the virus has passed. I'm not entering down that route. Over the past years, unable to take holidays due to my parents' health, I learned patience, and found it didn't help to plan ahead - in part because the only way out of the situation was their death which obviously I didn't want to hurry - but thinking of where I would like to go made me fidgety, wanting to take the holiday right then, not in however many years time. Hunkering down, finding small pleasures at and around home, made things more bearable. And that's how I'm dealing with the situation now.

I have the garden to potter in, a wide variety of entertainment streamed to my TV (in between the special performances listed I'm catching up on several seasons' worth of Elementary and New Girl), social media where I can chat to anyone and everyone, and, although it's not the same as seeing them, I video chat with my family several times a week. My husband is spending most days trying to get the allotment back into order after the past few years of neglect, so I have a lot of time free from interruptions when I can pick up habits and hobbies I've dropped. Yes, a lot of time is spent in the garden, sometimes doing as little as watching the breeze blow through my bonsai trees, but I have several unfinished sewing projects lying around, and in these peaceful afternoons I've started working on them again. I feel I might even find the headspace to settle to something more artistically creative.

I can survive as I am for a while yet, but thinking about what I might do 'after' is likely to unsettle me. I'll keep my focus on the small everyday things, and not think too far ahead.

Resolutions so far ... four months in

Usually at strategic points throughout the year I have a look at how my resolutions are going, and either reassess them or give up hope entirely. So, after four months, how are things going?

With corona virus forcing me to stay indoors, I thought this year's resolutions would have been completely written off, but looking at my post from January I see things aren't totally adrift.

Get Outside More - well, I'm definitely doing this. I started with expanding slightly on my normal walking activities, but oddly since lockdown I've spent more time outside than ever. For one thing the weather's been good, in fact glorious for April, and also pottering around, sowing seeds, planting out small plants makes me feel I'm doing something productive, especially if there are really problems with fresh vegetables in a few months time. having veggies to pick from garden and allotment will take away an enormous worry. And when there aren't things that need doing in the
garden, I spend a lot of time sitting and relaxing there.

De-clutter - this is something that appears every year in my resolutions list but this time I'm actually moving on it. Early in the year, I made a start on sorting through the huge pile of photographs accumulated by my parents, removing many from their cardboard mounts which reduced the amount of space they took up. Since lockdown though I seem too busy for this (but, no, I couldn't really say what I've been doing)

Pursuing my intention of getting creative is helping with de-cluttering. Actual 'art' seems to require some mindset that I don't have at the moment but it's possible to be both useful and creative (and clear some of the clutter). I made a cardigan from some wool bought in January '19 (!), and knitted a scarf and hat with some gorgeous yarn given to me by my youngest daughter at Christmas. In the last couple of weeks I've picked up a couple of unfinished sewing projects that have been lying around for a long while. This helps with de-cluttering, my added intention to buy no new clothes, and being creative, so it's a win, win, win situation - and when actually finished I'll have some brighter clothes to wear, which was another intention of mine.


I'm not making a total success of things though ...

I've broken my resolve to buy no new clothes, but I feel a little bit of cheering up is necessary through lockdown, and, importantly, these new trousers fitted my intention to wear brighter clothes instead of old reliable navy and black.

Lose Weight - ha! this is always the difficult resolution, and so far it seems to be going in reverse; lockdown definitely takes away self-control over food.

Taking holidays anywhere is off the timetable at the moment, so I'm glad I went away at the end of February to North Norfolk's coast and ticked 'stay somewhere odd' off the list by spending the weekend in a converted chapel. We'd got tickets for a folk festival in Somerset but that's been postponed till autumn, and I'm not even sure if we'll go then.

Moving house is another 'on hold' project, with no idea when that can even be thought about.

For most of us plans are going to abandoned this year, but I'm hoping I can at least carry on with some of my resolutions. Who knows? Maybe I'll even eventually lose some weight!

Resolutions 2018

I don't like to be quick with my new year's resolutions. I prefer the whole festive season to be truly over, and the first week or so of 'normal' got through, before I commit myself. But time is passing, the snowdrops are starting to peek through, and before I realise Spring will be here.

Perhaps it's getting time to think about plans and New Year resolutions...

Last year's didn't go too well, in fact I never really committed myself to them.

Gardening was the only one I really put any effort into; though that and my short-lived enthusiasm for  running did get me a little fitter.

So ... time for another go at the same old things, but with a bit of planning about them.

Probably too ambitious!

In fact, scheduling is my big resolution for this year. With no fixed timetable for my days, they just drift - hour by hour, then week by week, and suddenly it's December again! At the same time, I always feel rushed off my feet, yet it's often difficult to see what it is I'm actually doing. Things will probably be even more difficult now with a baby grandson to coo over.
So I'm going to get organised (a lot of my family will be laughing right now), make proper timetables, and assign various activities to different days. Everything from running (once the weather improves) to taking up crafts and dabbling in art, learning foreign languages and even 'down time' is going to have proper scheduled time in my new cunning plan. It isn't quite formulated yet, so maybe that should be the first resolution to work on.

Resolutions always seem a bit dull and worthy; the whole feeling about them being of giving up something fun (alcohol, food) and/or doing something hard (getting fit, rising early with the alarm clock, running x miles). I'm sure I'm not the only person who'd rather do something a little fun! Fortunately through out the year, I'll be trying Sixty Things to celebrate my big birthday. From trying new food to watching new bands, I hope it will be an interesting way to mark the year.

Chatsworth House Style Exhibition

The second of our days out last weekend (it's a loose sort of term, as we went on Monday) was to see the Chatsworth House Style exhibition, featuring clothes belonging to current and previous generations of the Devonshire family.




















There are gowns worn by duchesses to coronations, a variety of wedding gowns and costumes from fancy dress balls, and frankly they are a lot more gorgeous than anything you're going to find in your own old clothes boxes!

I'm always amazed by the hours of work that must have gone in to creating these dresses, the massive number of sequins sown on by hand or the use of embroidery to create pattern on plain textiles.

Vivian Westwood re-imagining the dress
 worn by Elizabeth I in the portrait behind

Not everything on display was 'ancient'. There was a mix of recent and contemporary clothing in there as well, from fashion houses such as Gucci, Anna Sui, Prada Vivian Westwood, and Christopher Kane.













And this huge finale in the dining room displayed clothes from a variety of periods

another Vivian Westwood

Although it was my idea to go, I hadn't expected to find it as fascinating as I did, and stopping to examine almost every item very closely took far longer than I expected.

I haven't included HALF the photos I took (even discarding those with strange reflections from perspex display cases, or the multitude of sequins sparkling over a dress), and I think I might need to go back and see the exhibition again before it closes in October. 

Who's it for? Anyone with an interest in textiles, embroidery, the history of clothing, fashion design, social history; even my husband wasn't bored but poured over household ledgers of expenditure on clothes, and was very impressed by the Dr Who style mannequins!

Resolutions 2017

Following the success of last year, I'm becoming more convinced of the power of making resolutions. Somehow because I've written them down, and declared to the world what I intend to (at least) try and achieve, I feel more committed to actually doing something.
Another thing which helped last year was going back to the original post, checking my intentions, and seeing how far I'd succeeded, or not. Also if there was something I hadn't started before, say, March, I didn't abandon all hope but tried again.


Anyway, on to this year ...

I can't claim they ALL shrank
in the wash!

First up this year has got to be get fitter and thinner. After last December's Frank Turner gig my legs ached for days due to all the jigging about. Walking round Shipley Park recently, I felt decidedly unfit, puffing and panting up the hills, and even on the flat couldn't keep pace with the teen. So I need to do something positive about it. Also, as a financial incentive, I have a wardrobe full of too tight clothes waiting to be worn once I shift some pounds, so although my main aim is to be fitter, thinner will be an added bonus. This is a resolution I've already started on - at first I said I'd join in with a couple of zumba sessions a week with my teen, but despite how exhausting I found the first 5 minute one, I'm now doing some every day. I haven't lost weight yet but do feel lighter on my feet. So far, so good ...

Re-discovering myself - Over the past few years I've let a lot of things drift. I used to spend a lot of time gardening, knitting, making clothes, pottering (not very seriously) at painting and textile arts, or trying other crafts from lace-making to tie-dying, but somehow I've let all of them slip. This year I intend to get my old habits back. So ...
                 

- Gardening and growing - I've always been a keen gardener, growing both flowers and vegetables at home, but since we've had an allotment I think I've come to see it as more of a chore than a pleasure. This year I want to make more effort with the garden - grow some new flowers from seed, make the veg patch productive again, and, as a side effect, spend more time outside.

                     - Knitting and sewing - again, hobbies that I want to take up again. I have lots of wool stashed away in cupboards and drawers, so ought to be able to find some to knit up! Before Christmas I went out and bought some cord material ready to make a new winter skirt in a style I liked - so it's actually time I got on with it.

                     - I also want to find time to explore more 'arty' things. Early last year I spotted Sarah Salway's A Year of Artists Dates - in which she was taking an hour out each week to do something art related - and this is more or less what I want to do. I'm not quite sure how or when though.

Moving in a different direction - just before Christmas I started an on-line language course, well, two actually - Welsh and Swedish. This was about the time that Swedish thriller Modus was on TV, and I was so impressed with being able to recognise some of words that my aspirations have grown. I've now added Danish to my list, with the hope of being able to partly follow both sides of conversations when The Bridge returns.

I intend keeping up last year's resolutions - de-cluttering the spare room went so well that I want to tackle the whole house, but more importantly I want to carry on exploring new things and building a social life of my own - yes, that probably means more nights out at gigs!

In between all this, I'd like some down-time for me. There's no set timetable to my days, and so late breakfasts run into long lunches and straight into early evenings. I seem to always be doing something, but at the end of the day it's hard to see what it was. I want to be organised, get household chores done, spend time on more creative projects, and then have time to sit and think or relax in the sun (when it arrives).