Things I have been making:

Aced it with the sourdough today!

Revamping my ledges

Bits of ceramics

And a touchwood...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 67

Today I walked the dog...

And so The Lock-Down Diaries draw to a close - lock-down is slowly unlocking, with all its uncertainties, anomalies and fears, summer is in full-swing, I have finished my book and I am still deaf...

So...time for a revamp - no more Lock-Down Diaries.

But I shall continue to post SOMETHING here every day - a picture, a poem, a quotation, a funny Kitty-tale...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 66

Today I walked the dog...but it was already getting hot and my fuzzy ears were randomly coming to life - so not the most relaxed stroll.

And then we worked hard at the garden gym, aided by Kitty:

...who was convinced the parasol was providing shade just for her benefit.

The afternoon was quiet...I made a pot/candleholder thingy.

We ate dinner outside in the still warm sunshine...and I could STILL hear - people speaking along the road, children shrieking, birds. 

WHAT a noisy world!

And I had an over the gate conversation with a neighbour!

And then tonight my hearing shut down again...

I am about to wax the hall floor - and go to bed.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 65

Today I walked the dog...up in glorious sunshine and silence - yep I am still deaf - and around the top of Kitty's Field, the golf-course, the edge of the woods...all our usual haunts.

They are clearing out the overgrown ponds on the golf-course - and Kitty was briefly a swamp-monkey...and then sulked and ignored all instructions (haha, requests I mean!)

The sunny day continued and I did a little desultory cleaning, a little potting-on of cuttings, a little sourdough pizza-making and made some headway with a new book:

(I didn't like the last one...)

And tonight was skype-chat night, out on the sunset wall.

And my ears keep popping, and sometimes I can hear for a bit. 

Isn't the world LOUD?!

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 64 (will you still need me...)

This morning I walked the dog...and it was mizzling as we left the house, so donned my cagoule and an old favourite hat , which has come around again...as they do. This one is nearly 25 years old, so probably counts as vintage by now:

I plugged in my ears too and, having only recently discovered the 'genre' button on my music collection, chose 'folk' for some easy listening...

Random!

A 'tape' of Peruvian pipe music was playing as we left the house - one of only two or three we had when in Argentina, forty years ago. 

This was followed by Paper Aeroplanes singing 'Aberystwyth', which has been on my mind since I last picked it up randomly a week or so ago.

But I was thinking about Martyn Joseph, whose songs were the soundtrack of our lives for about 25 years, and who liked the hat...he was also headlining at the concert we saw Paper Aeroplanes. So I wasn't surprised when one of his older songs came up next (twice, two different versions)...

And a pretty random selection of artists followed - Beirut, Dory Previn (no, thank you, not on a rainy morning under lock-down!), Joni Mitchell, more Martyn Joseph:

"It's taken all this time...to turn around and see, the sum of all these parts are we..."

Feist, Joan Baez, Ben Howard,:

"maybe you were the ocean when I was just a stone" and then Judy Collins as we arrived home:

"I've seen you stumble, you've watched me fall...you know I've got nothing , you know we've got it all...and I hope from what you wanted you get what you need...what can I tell you? You were born to the breed..."

For all our sons...

Alistair is funny as always, and turns around my introspection...he was food shopping yesterday and caught Cream and The Beach Boys on the supermarket 'musak'

"I thought I'd stumbled by mistake into the over seventies' shopping hour..."!

A tough gym session this afternoon, when the sun came out...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 63

Today I walked the dog ...it is, apparently, a bank holiday, but there were few people about.

Here we are still locked-down and pretty much sticking to the letter and the spirit...

This afternoon I fettled a dish, impressed with honeysuckle, which is going to be lovely.

And read my book:

And drank tea in the sun.

And watched, with horror, DC squirming, wriggling and slithering his way out of a sacking...

Integrity used to be a favourite word of mine.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 62

Today I walked the dog...over towards Coed Y Cwm for some wild garlic.

We decided to retrace our steps through the further sheep fields to enter the top of the woods through the little gate we found last week..

The fields were looking lovely, edged with old hawthorn hedges and the sheep were happily munching the lush grass. Matching twin lambkins scampered off in step to mum, when they saw Kitty:

But we COULDN'T find that gate into the wood! 

We did walk along a really interesting field-edge, with a lovely array of bones...skulls, femurs, spinal columns - I didn't take any pics for you, knowing not everyone likes skelingtons as much as I do. I can always go back tomorrow, if you like?

So we retraced our steps and came home across the golf-course...not many days now till the club reopens and all these ways will be off-limits to us again...

I sat in the attic on my, now ritual, Skype-call with my buddy and then enjoyed some porridgy brunch before some tough gym.

Fettling my ceramics followed and moving the furniture back onto our newly-shiny sitting-room floor. We are trying to work out how to get the hallway done, with or without Kitty's help (Alistair has just come up with a 'cunning plan' - watch this space...)

You know that joke, beloved of motivational speakers, the one about the past and future not concerning us and the present being a gift - that's why it's called the 'present'...

Ha ha...

But apart from that corny play on words, it struck me that the word 'present' really does have two distinct meanings -

the 'here', like on a roll-call, and the 'now', this moment.

Are they connected though? 

I'll leave that one with you...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 61

Today I walked the dog...and we found yet another way to go up and around the golf-course...

It was windy again though, and COLD, so I didn't spend any more time outside, but did admin sort of stuff, put clean cushion covers back on, and generally pottered.

I did manage to open a new bag of clay, though, which was lovely and fresh - and impressed a dish with some lovely honeysuckle we had picked from the hedge on our way home

The trick will be to re-member the scent and texture of the morning, when it is translated into stone in a month or so.

I having been musing on walking meditations today, and on the differences and similarities between belief-systems. And on the meanings of the word 'present' - but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Oh and I am deaf. Again. The relief didn't last long...but at least it means the faculty of hearing isn't impaired - just shut-down temporarily.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 60

Day 60! How can this even be so?

Today I walked the dog...but had already attempted to add a little extra wax to a well-worn patch of floor - only to nearly ruin last night's efforts as the wax was still tacky! A 'Man Friday' style footprint emerged as I tried desperately, wax in hand, both to rebalance and retreat!

Haha...

Another beautiful day, sunny, but WINDY, which meant two things:

1) I didn't enjoy my walk so much, as I don't really like wind, I had forgotten my hat, and my fuzzy ears meant the sound resembled an express train in a tunnel...

2) Alistair was, dare I say it, almost grumpy...a very rare occurrence. Because of course it was a perfect windsurfing day and he still can't go...driving the ten or so miles north or south to the good beaches doesn't sit well with him.

So the day meandered on in a meandering sort of way - we tested my latest sourdough iteration (yum), sat in the garden drinking tea, did various emaily sorts of things...

Alistair tinkered with the gym rack; I washed some settee covers and rescued them when they threatened to blow away, finished my book:

(SO good!)

And waxed the bluebell dishes:

And my hearing suddenly improved!

This evening I can hear the wind roaring (and not just in my head) and Alistair speaking from more than two or three feet away...sssh.

And we are becoming, what do they call it? 'Preppers..'

Only joking!

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 59

Today I walked the dog...but had already been up for a LONG TIME - Kitty had an iffy tum yesterday and just played with her dinner, so was ready to go out and munch grass early this morning!

Every cloud has a silver lining - I found my missing earphones in my dressing-gown pocket.

It was a beautiful start to the day, but then the land and sea did its Mull of Kintyre thing - and we walked up the cliff paths in increasing fog. 

So it was an utterly strange walk - my silent world, and visibility down to a few yards made for some strange imaginings - I half expected Brigadoon to appear out of the fog, or a troop of marching Roman soldiers. Or even a medieval plague funeral cortege!

Kitty and I took another route around the lower edge of the golf-course and she was bemused when we came around the 'scoop' to the road home...

'ooh look, the Big House!'

On the way down the road, we saw a coal tit! (Score15...) I'm ALMOST 100% sure it wasn't a fledgling great tit...

After a sort of porridgy brunch, we had a gym session, and then I did admin and 'housekeeping' things this afternoon.

Tonight we have been rewaxing the sitting-room floor - well, half of it...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 58

Today I walked the dog...

But first, as every day now, it was ear-drop time - Kitty was ready in her chair:

And then turned over for the other side:

Only joking...

Beautiful day today and we had a lovely walk - the copper beech up the road is in glorious leaf now:

I have been working on an 'absolutely no knead sourdough' and have devised one that I can stir up late in the evening and eat for lunch...it's damn easy and pretty good - only not QUITE as good as the real deal, which takes 48 hours. 

Back to the drawing-board!

This afternoon I sat in the sun inking and waxing some more ceramics:

...and having a minor rant about a certain author, who, it is reported, was 'having some difficult days' with his marriage. Unlike the rest of us, he couldn't just slam the door (optional) and sit in the garden for a bit...he flew from NZ to London, drove to Skye then made his way to his house, where he self-isolated. Now he is apologising -and  saying people shouldn't follow his example.

Seriously disappointed N.G...

Tonight I sat by an outside fire, chatting to my buddy on Skype and playing with smoking pots.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 57

Today the dog walked me...

Tired of being in charge (who am I kidding?!), I let Kitty's whims determine the course of our walk today.

So we started from the front gate (probably because Alistair was was leaving that way for a bike ride, so there was the Possibility of going somewhere IN THE CAR!) and up towards the golf-course.

But at each junction, Kitty chose the way and we meandered in a fairly leisurely fashion around some of our usual paths.

To be honest, I did have to be firm once or twice...I really didn't want to enter a total stranger's back garden on one of the estates. Even though, as Kitty explained, there was a distinct possibility of A CAT in the shrubbery...

A gentle, wandery stroll then, and we returned in time for a gym session before lunch (still in de-load mode, yay!).

This afternoon I worked on rescuing some of the vessels I had deemed 'hopeless disasters' last night:

And took a pic of my foot, as reflected in the newly polished coal-scuttle:

You're welcome...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 56

Today I walked the dog...but not until later! 

First-off it was time for the social event of the fortnight - a trip to the supermarket! So it was on with the glad-rags, blow the dust off bags, debit card and the like, and remember how to drive a car!

Ho hum, that was exciting - it even involved delivering some supplies on friends and a socially-distanced exercise in lipreading at their garden gate.

Home to a bread and soup brunch, and then Kitty finally got her walk...we acted on the Janis Joplin principle of 'get it while you can',  and spent plenty of time on the golf-course again, as rumour has it the club will be reopening in a couple of weeks...

The rest of the afternoon was spent in a pottering sort of way - inspired by Son's pics of his new flat, I spent some time redoing my 'ledges'.

And then started to look at finishing the ceramics which emerged from the kiln last night. Mixing some beeswax with a pinch of yellow colouring was fun - the resulting orange gloop on a plate was EXACTLY what I wish was oozing from my ears.

Sadly not...

The day deteriorated from then on...Alistair went out to do his Samaritans shift and returned after 8pm to  a tipsy grump, who had achieved nothing - the ceramics are all rubbish, I had watched a terrible film (you know those ones with a pill-popping witch of a mother, an alcoholic father, three damaged daughters who arrive with their various philandering spouses and delinquent teenagers. And everyone proceeds to tear each other apart with breath-taking viciousness. And then they all leave...)

And drunk too much cider.

And watched the fire burn down.

And forgotten to get any dinner started

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 55

Apparently it is Sunday today...

And today I walked the dog, after delivering some sourdough starter on a neighbour.

Kitty and I walked up the golf-course track with Alistair - which was companionable, if quiet.

Yep, I am still deaf.

But Kitty doesn't mind, and the sheep are unconcerned...so I thought about things to be grateful for.

A pretty long list, really...

The ground beneath my strong feet and the muscles in my legs. 

The smell of the ferns and gorse and the salt in the breeze.

The blue hills inland and the cliffs and shoreline.

The birdsong I can still hear.

The wild garlic in the woods to flavour our dinner.

And that's just my senses...

Later I had a long skype-call with my buddy and enjoyed fresh bread.

And this afternoon we had an easy (ish) gym session (deload week - yay!) and haircutting.

My kiln had cooled by dinner-time, so all the goodies are unpacked and ready to ink/wax/paint/smoke or whatever.

Tomorrow...

Ah, tomorrow - time for my fortnightly supermarket trip.

Yay.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 54

Today I am still deaf

And today I walked the dog...up to Kitty's Field, round the top of the golf-course and home behind the Big House.

We met two or three people we know...but, apart from telling them I am almost stone-deaf, it is pretty difficult to have a deep-and-meaningful. Quite frustrating...I do like a good conversation up in the sunshine of an early summer Saturday, with dogs and birds for company. Ho hum...

A pottering sort of day really...it was sunny and warm enough to be in and out of the house, but not the sort of warmth to spend the afternoon in a deckchair with a book.

So we did pottering sort of things:

Alistair re-covered an old deckchair for some friends and neighbours...

I re-potted a few bits and pieces, including potting-on my mighty oaks.

And then cleaned the brass plate and goblet my grandfather brought back from the Dardanelles...

...and the lovely old copper coal scuttle I rescued from the shed of my childhood home, and use for kindling..

And then I set up a kiln-firing for tonight. And chucked things into a casserole.

And tonight we have just watched The People's Choice of Lewis...I KNEW it would be 'And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea'....

WHAT a well-written script...the late, great Alan Plater, of course!

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 53

Just for J-M then!

Today I walked the dog...late, as I'd got up late and started slowly.

I let Kitty choose our route today, which was fun, and we went up the road and then cut over the golf-course, up to her favourite circuit.

I thought it was about time I did some cleaning, as Alistair had vacuumed by the time I returned.

So I had some brunch and then gave the porch a really good clean - yuck!

And then set to to declutter my bookshelves...cleared a while boxful from the fiction collection, on the basis of:

'I'm actually never going to read/reread this'.

Today is the fortieth anniversary of my friend's death. We were the same age, best friends and flatmates, and Janet was house-sitting for us, while we were abroad for the year. 

I mourned the life she didn't get to live, and missed her for years. 

She remains 25...

'...as we who are left grow old...'

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 52

Here we are then, day 52...and the significance? None...I am just fed up with writing this diary - this is all going on FAR longer than any of us expected in March...

When I wake in the morning, and remember, it's like :

'I want to go somewhere this isn't happening!'

It reminds me a bit of my old dad, in 2012, asking if we couldn't go away somewhere for a couple of weeks

 'to avoid the Olympics'

(Actually he died on the day of the opening ceremony. I thought at the time it was taking avoidance a bit far, though didn't like to say so!)

Today my ear isn't hurting and I have made sourdough rolls

done a VERY hard gym session and taken possession of yet more books from my new favourite online store:

And sympathised with Kitty...she doesn't know what earache is, but knows that if you lie on the hearth-rug you might get your ears fondled:

Please, if you are reading this, and want to read more, SAY so, one way or another, or I shall stop within a few days.

Oh, I nearly forgot...today I walked the dog

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 51

Today I walked the dog...on the beach, as the tide was out and the breeze cold.

My ear was hurting and, after another phone-consultation, I had a face-to-face appointment with a doctor!

A surreal experience...driving into a near-deserted car park (there was a young man coming for a blood-test), ringing the doorbell, eventually being told to wait in the car for ten minutes and then ring the doorbell again...

We were eventually ushered in through a side-door, by a gowned and masked doctor. It was as well Alistair was with me to act as interpreter - with his hearing-aid in he could hear what the masked-man asked, which I couldn't, and turn to speak to me!

It turns out there is no infection, which is what was worrying me, but I have to persist with the Otex for three weeks! Ho hum...

I don't cope well with pain, good night...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 50!

Today I walked the dog...in fact, by lunchtime (well, admittedly late lunchtime) I had walked the dog, done a really tough gym session and walked into town for essentials (breadflour and reading glasses)...

Kitty likes to help with the gym...

And that was it...this afternoon my earache got the better of me and I fell asleep on the settee.

And read a bit of Ali Smith's 'How to be Both'.

And now we are watching Hamish Macbeth on dvd, because it has subtitles for me...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 49

Wow...today I walked the dog.

And at 10am, as I was getting back, Alistair had just got home with the week's provisions, The Bar had arrived (!) And the doctor rang back for  my consultation!

THAT was traumatic - I am known for my dislike of phone-calls. And no, the irony of phone-calls being, at present, almost the only way I can have a conversation, has NOT escaped me!

Ho hum to that, anyway...I have only a prescription for two or three weeks of Otex drops, in place of the best olive oil we have been wasting...

And earache.

I needed to lie down in a darkened room after all that excitement, and have spent much of the rest of the day reading, listening to the radio and generally feeling sorry for myself.

Alistair has been happily tinkering with The Bar and composing another 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' letter.

And tonight he is out, being a Samaritan. And still I am sitting...drinking cider and watching the fire. And I have just binge-watch ed the last four episodes of 'Normal People'.

Let me know what you thought of it...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 48

Today I walked the dog...while the brilliant sunshine lasted. 

Up to Kitty's Field and through Coed Y Cwm to gather wild garlic. We met the elderly chicken-man out with his shouty-dog - and stood well away with our backs to him, while he manoeuvred it past...

Someone has been building a really impressive den in the wood...

Home over the golf-course, just in time to make my 11am Skype-call...leaving Kitty, who was suspiciously pongy, outside with Alistair, who then bathed her...

By the time we were finishing lunch it was clouding over and cooling down, so we did a hard gym session, before retreating inside for showers and Sunday admin.

Testing the smoke, CO and heat-alarms is one of my jobs...yay, I can still hear them!

A few days ago I rescued a large homeless piece of wood from the cliff-side. It doesn't have a story - or at least it hasn't yet revealed it's story to me - but it has settled well into its new home, don't you think?

Yes, I am still deaf...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 47

Today I walked the dog...up through the green-singing woods in dappled sunshine to meet Alistair, and then back around the Promontory Walk.

And this afternoon I sat in a deckchair in the garden with my 'new' books.

Son has been busy making his new flat beautiful and sending pics of his houseplants ...

...and wanting to know what I am growing...

(sprigs of herbs rooting on the kitchen windowsill)

And mighty oaks from Taraloka acorns...

Our deckchairs are many, many years old...they came to us 3rd-hand over forty years ago and I have re-covered them at least twice

And tonight we watched The People's Choice of Morse...not the one I would have chosen tbh, though Diana Quicke was lovely and you can't fault Jim Broadbent. But a young Sean Bean?!

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 46

Today I walked the dog...up the road the new pinky-green leaves of the copper beech are already deepening in their colour, the bluebells are over and all the ferns unfurled. The foxgloves are a deep purple and the air is heavy with the scent of may blossom.

Kitty's Field was brilliant in the morning sun and there were few people about.

It is a Bank Holiday...but one of the strangest ones I remember...it's an extra, the 75th anniversary of VE Day, but, because of Lock-Down, all 'celebrations' were as muffled and muted as...

Well, as my hearing, I guess...somehow it seems appropriate that I am hearing as though underwater, like seeing through a veil.

Actually I often do see life in that way...a haze of black and white photos and snatches of old music.

No wonder I love Stephen Poliakoff's films so much...

But I digress...when I got home I took tea up to the attic to 'Zoomy' with my study-buddies...a hopeless attempt today - dying headphones, too many people and the state of my hearing...

So, when we broke for the 2-minute silence at 11am I left the meeting.

And made sourdough croutons and parsnip soup for lunch.

This afternoon I pulled up plantain in a desultory fashion.

And then looked through some old photo albums for the one I remember of Son, when we went to Ickwell May Fair for the first time, and bought P.P...

25 years ago... yikes!

Tonight we have been watching Cinema Paradiso...that won't help my tendency to wallow in the past.

But at least we both needed the subtitles...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 45

Today I walked the dog ..the 'plan' had been to do the gym this morning, and take the opportunity of a very low tide to walk to Clarach and then back along the rocks this afternoon...

But the weather had other ideas, so Kitty and I set off for our walk this morning as usual, but in spitty rain. I had started to listen to George Monbiot on YouTube, but it cut out halfway up the road, so (with an ill-concealed sigh of relief) I returned to music.

'Beirut' came up randomly, and were a perfect match for the day - sprightly, waltz-rhythms and a combination of banjo and trumpet was just the ticket!

The sun came out later, in time for a tough gym session this afternoon. And now we are sitting on the sunset bench on the west side of the house, enjoying the last of the day's warmth.

Picture? Ok...

Here are my 'thoughts-so-far' on the subject of deafness, change and impermanence - lifted from my email to my 'mentor', late last night...

"For me, the Lock-Down and the loss, even if only temporary, of things dear to me was beginning to make some sort of sense as a vague prefiguring of the slowing of the body and mind, eventually - no matter how far in the future and how far and fast we run.

So, focusing on strength and resilience of spirit...so far, so good.

And now, in the space of a week , I have become almost totally deaf...we are hoping it is only a temporary wax thing and are treating it accordingly - but it is nevertheless most disconcerting!

It has given me much food for thought, and I realise how totally unprepared I am for things to go wrong with my health...and that inevitable slowing of mind and body I spoke of.

The best I have come up with so far is:

'We have no right to imagine we can dictate the terms of normality'

Here's to resilience then!"

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 44

Today I walked the dog...THE most beautiful day again, and we went up to Kitty's Field and around across the top of the golf-course, seeing no-one (hearing nuffin').

Taking advantage again of the emptiness and accessibility of the places we can't usually visit, we came down a different route behind the Big House. 

I was listening to music on my headphones, for a change (and had been dancing up at the top)...

We came down the slope in glorious sunshine, with the trees in spring-leaf, Kitty insanely chasing the tennis-ball and the scent of sea and ferns. A band called Paper Aeroplanes were playing the song they sang here, not very long after we moved...

https://youtu.be/Y76vBUiIpa4

You'll like this...trust me, it's called Aberystwyth.

That's all...gonna Skype-call me bestie now, 'cos I'm so 21 century.

Actually 'cos I can't sit in Medina  with her, drinking Gingerella. 

(Though atm I couldn't hear if I was...THAT'S an interesting thought!)

Lying down with olive oil in my ear...Kitty decides to stake a claim to the cushion...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 43

Today I walked the dog...in the glorious sunshine and chill east wind we have become accustomed to this last six weeks. 

Up and round and through and back round and down, via the now obligatory few minutes on the golf-course, playing 'catch' with the tennis ball. Creatures of habit, dogs.

And I got my glad-rags on - well my new trousers from TOAST Sale and my new shoes from VivoBarefoot Sale + my usual years' old second hand jumpers - and strolled to town and back along the prom, for some essential supplies  - breadflour and soap.

It was pretty frustrating as I met several people I wanted to stop and talk with, but the combination of my almost total deafness (yep, still) and social distancing made it well-nigh impossible to do anything other than say 'deaf', and mime uselessly - somehow I can't quite believe that everyone around me is hearing as normal!

And then this afternoon we did a session at the Jimmy-gym, as I named it, or Sunny-gym as A. prefers...

But I woke this morning with the continuation of last night's musings in my mind:

"I, or we, have no right to imagine we can dictate the terms of 'normal"

You're welcome.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 42

Today I walked the dog...

But not until after my social event of the fortnight - a trip to the supermarket!

It was weird driving in my silent world, but I am ALMOST getting accustomed to being deaf! Didn't help at the till though...

After a quick trip to friends to drop off 'essentials' - milk, tea and wine - 

I came home to take Kitty out...

It was low tide, so we started at the beach, but Kitty was in a recalcitrant mood and I couldn't be bothered with it - so went up the the hills and golf-course instead.

After lunch we cleared out the old sink and refreshed the compost, so I could plant it up with some quick bedding flowers from the supermarket...

That was pretty much it - A. has been a Samaritan this evening and I have been drinking cider and watching 'Normal People' on Iplayer.

'Normal' hmmm...will life here ever return to normal I wonder?

And why do we think of something as normal? Do we have any right to expect it to continue unchanged?

So...here's to resilience I guess...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 41

Today I walked the dog...after juggling meditating with getting a sourdough loaf baked, and drinking lots of tea.

A misty start to the day again meant there were some strange light effects across the hills - at one point it appeared that the whole Dyfi valley had filled with water...

A long Skype conversation with my mate (and some yummy warm sourdough) followed.

Although I am still almost stone-deaf, I can hear better with headphones in...so Skype, using my phone, worked as well as usual. 

The TV is the most annoying...

I can rely on subtitles, which don't come as standard, and even when available are out of synch with sound - irritating for Alistair.

Or I can use a big and comfy pair of headphones, which is great for me, but bypasses the speakers, so useless if Alistair is trying to watch too!

Or I can turn the volume up REALLY LOUD! We did this last night as 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' wasn't offering subtitles and we both really wanted to watch it...

Alistair pretty much needed earplugs, but we managed until ten minutes from the end, when a large plane takes off from the island. This was SO loud that the settee vibrated! And the amplifier cut out completely, missing the romantic bit...

IPlayer took several minutes of cajoling before it would restore to us the happy-ever-afters, And the lovely soundtrack behind the end-credits.

Fab film, restoring my faith in the essential goodness there is in humanity (somewhere)...

"Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism"

As for today, we managed a gym session this sfternoon. And made 'leftovers risotto'.

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 40

Day Forty! How time flies when you are enjoying yourself!

Stone-deaf again today...I could get used to this. Nothing like a bit of silence...!

Actually, it is REALLY weird!

SO today I walked the dog...it was a hazy start, so Kitty and I went up to her field for a good roll in the grass (her, not me!) and then down into the woods to pick some wild garlic for the soup. Up and over the sheep-field and then home via chasing the tennis-ball around the golf-course for a few minutes.

Kitty is 'useless' at playing with a ball...but she has so much fun for a few minutes, that I just have to remember that 'useless' and 'playing' cannot go together!

Lunchtime random weekend-soup today turned out a fun colour:

This is what happens (well, happened today anyway) when you make soup with purple carrots, wild garlic and coconut milk.

I hasten to add that this is not some 'I'm bored with Lock-Down, let's create something silly and put it on YouTube' effort - random weekend-soup is pretty standard fare in the Thompson household...

My afternoon was quiet...poor Alistair will go crazy if I am longer-term deaf.

I am busy working out what a difference it makes to my life...bit like social-distancing in a way, I'm treating (or learning to treat, or trying to learn to treat)) all this as an opportunity to 'nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune'

For who ever knows, really, what the future will bring ...individually, nationally or globally ?

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 39

Today - still stone-deaf - I walked the dog...Kitty was very good and kept coming back to me in the wood. Disconcertingly, I couldn't hear her bell, so kept finding her unexpectedly under my feet, while I was calling her!

A quietish day for us, with a good gym session in the afternoon

And my new shoes arrived from VivoBarefoot...yay!

The card in with the shoes (wild-hide leather) bears this priceless testimony:

"Supple, naturally scarred leather from animals that have lived, explored and made love under the sun"

Hahaha!