Covid-19 Shielding Diary

A blow by blow account Month 4 -Continues from Month 3

DayDateAction
12215/7A dreary day weather wise, to the JL Foodhall for grocery shopping in the morning. Then waiting in for oiler sevice that was then postponed to next week. Brief excitement when a young herring gull invaded the garden and didn’t seem able to fly. Ushered it out into the courtyard! Evening family quiz entertainment by Zoom. Caroline the big winner today.
12114/7M had a zoom meeting of the Gravesend Art Society which turned out to be all Zoom and no Art! Went to M’s mum to check her mobility scooter and then to the club to finish the lettering on panel three and final tidying on panels 2 and 3. Varnished all three completed panels. Drafted an article on Foss for the Dartford U3A newsletter,
12013/7Morning exercise was cleaning and a good water in the garden. In the afternoon M had a first trip to the hairdressers while I did some painting on the third panel of the mural.
11912/7A short shop in the morning for lunch and dinner. In the afternoon a trip to Scotney Castle for a walk round the grounds. Visitors were well spaced and we had an ice cream to finish. Completed first draft of action summary and sent out for review. Evening meal of Thai beef and beans salad using the homegrown beans!
At Scotney, NT garden.
11811/7To Bluewater for a few bits, elevenses in John Lewis in a socially distanced way! Dinner from Cote home is delayed birthday dinner for M.
11710/7Bluewater in the morning, M for an eye test and me some bits of shopping. Had our elevenses in the M&S cafe for first time since lock down began. Fed the plants. Completed collation work and sent out sheet for next step. Freed bird trapped in netting, hopefully too traumatised to return.
1169/7Shopped and then set up a temporary fruit cage over the raspberry and red current area. Worked on collating the results of our online petanque survey
1158/7Birds, probably juvenile blackbirds have discovered the redcurrants and raspberries. Worked on collating the results of our online petanque survey.
1147/7Big grocery shop and new shower rail/head in morning. Afternoon installed shower head and in the evening the family quiz by zoom, 3rd by 1 point!
1136/7Morning house clean. Afternoon take up with M to dentist then took birthday cake to her mum’s and avisit to the garden centre for a couple of plants and bits. Evening walk and then to the club to draw up another panel of the mural project.
1125/7Happy Birthday M! Made a birthday outing to Colchester zoo to meet up with family and see the new born cheetahs. Mission accomplished. Much wilting in the garden on our return so a big watering and then harvest of beans, raspberries, redcurrants and 5 blackberries, 3 tomatoes.
1114/7A trip to M&S Foodhall at Dartford, easy distancing as not busy. A dull and cool day. Watched an RI lecture on Origins of the universe. The salad spinach has started to come through. Weather too miserable for evening walk.
1103/7A morning cleaning and a socially distanced visit by M’s brother and wife, elevenses in the garden. Afternoon at the club painting panel three. Beans from the garden with pie for dinner! Evening walk as usual.
1092/7A trip to the Post Office and then Bluewater to get some white acrylic while M did her art group talk on Arles by Duo. Harvested, lettuce, raspberries. Drew up the third panel of the project.
1081/7A morning shopping for groceries at JL food hall, quiet. In the afternoon painted the second panel on our mural project and just wrapped up as the rain came down. Harvested one of the potato pots, definitely more than were planted! Image may contain: food

In the evening a family quiz organised by grandson Joshua. I was the winner by 2.
10730/6A wet dreary day so started a new jigsaw, 1000 piece antique shop. VC meeting on maintaining the Petanque England website produced lots of ideas.
10629/6Shopping trip to Bluewater in the morning, bought a new pencil sharpener and some pain brushes then at M&S bread for us and fruit for M’s mum. In the afterneen M visited her mum and I painted background on four panels at the mural. Evenig with young Montalbano!
10528/6Painted the first GRFC Petanque mural panel with M, it took about 3 hours. Watered the garden and harvested raspberries and a few beans. Used lots of home grown herbs, rosemary, mint and parsley in the roast lamb dinner.
10427/6Wrote up minutes of the Events Group in morning and in the afternoon an excursion to buy seat cushions and spinach seeds. Made a lovely salad with own grown tomatoes and herbs to go with chicken Kievs. M found a new trolley on line and ordered it.
10326/6Grocery shopping, in and out of the food hall in an hour. watered and harvested another high twenties day. Evening at the club drawing up the first two panel of the mural project. Actually did one and a half. Annoyingly my trolley broke!
10225/6Began the wall project by painting a cream back ground on the first three boards with a 4inch margin. It was very hot so only spent an hour. Evening meeting of the vents group by Zoom. M watered I harvested the raspberries.
10124/6Collected and compiled the last photographs for the wall project. Assembled all the pictures into a presentation to match the number of slides to the number of boards to be painted. Watered and harvested raspberries.
10023/6Main event today was the socially distanced tea party for M’s mother’s birthday in the grounds of her church. Lovely supper of brie and our tomato.
9922/6Enjoyed the first red currents on my breakfast cereal. A morning of grocery shopping at the quiet JL Food Hall then vacuuming. Created a long roll to scale model the phot wall with 20 panels. In the garden, some watering and then picked beans and raspberries.
9821/6Worked on Photos and the Petanque survey – all responses so far now collated. Watered the garden harvested a few beans and a pot of raspberries. Completed a tial paining of a group photo. Seems to have worked OK!
9720/6Morning excursion to Faversham quayside. Interesting walk and elevenses at the Secret Cafe that was doing a take-a-way service and some distanced seating. Bought our first Kent Cherries of the season.
Image may contain: plant, food and outdoor
Afternoon working on the mural project assembling pictures.
9619/6Started work analysing the survey feedback. Harvested a romaine lettuce for evening meal of caesar salad
9518/6An exploratory visit to Bluewater shopping centre which has reopened. Walked round ground floor and looked in on JL Food Hall. Not busy no problem maintaining distance.
9417/6Conducted a normal grocery shop at Longfield Waitrose, no queue outside, good distancing inside. Harvested the first two tomatoes from the plant in the conservatory and used them in a caprese salad with basil from the veg tray. Despite rainy and thundery weather continuing the raspberries continue to ripen and be harvested. Prepared for the first Events Group meeting since lockdown and sent out the notices.
9316/6Ordered 8 pots of acrylic paint for the mural project. Located the Kent Petanque projector in the store at Lordswood and after fiddling with the lamp it is now working. Picked raspberries then a thunderstorm that crashed the outside tomato plants! Tied them back up, hopefully not too damaged. Completed the install of Bunsen Labs Helium on hp255 laptop.

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