After all the rain last night, suddenly the sun came up and lit up the Choisya blooms so brightly.
There was a lovely view across to St Euny on our walk today.
Tonight’s supper was a Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry – scrumptious.
Monthly Archives: April 2020
Sunshine, A View and Supper
Another Lane, A Bluebell and A Butterfly
The rest of our baby veg plants were ready for collection this morning . The lanes around the nursery are very pretty at the moment, so many bright new leaves and lots of Cow Parsley.
On our return, I spotted a lone Bluebell growing in the stones of our drive.
I followed a butterfly, a Green-Veined White around our garden this morning, took many photos and this is the best. It flittered about at speed!
Rain, Sewing and A Lane
It rained in the night and the garden seems delighted! I spent most of the rainy day sewing and completed my first six scrub caps. Our walk was short, just along the lane where we foraged more Wild garlic and dodged a shower. 
Clematis, Zoom and A Birthday
The Clematis Armandii sent us the last blooms today.
Choir was on Zoom tonight and was great fun! What a lovely lot we are! Thanks to Claire for a fabulous lesson. 
It’s my kid brother’s birthday today and despite us posting on 7th April (to Atlanta, USA) his card has not arrived so here is another! 
Wise Words, Special Fabric and Cake
I read this yesterday and it seemed so perfect to me in these strange and unsettling times.
“My grandmother once gave me a tip:
In difficult times, you move forward in small steps.
Do what you have to do, but little by little.
Don’t think about the future, or what may happen tomorrow.
Wash the dishes.
Remove the dust.
Write a letter.
Make a soup.
You see?
You are advancing step by step.
Take a step and stop.
Rest a little.
Praise yourself.
Take another step.
Then another.
You won’t notice, but your steps will grow more and more.
And the time will come when you can think about the future without crying.” ~ Elena Mikhalkova
Cornwall Scrubs delivered some new Seasalt fabric for me yesterday. Seasalt, a Cornish company, have been amazing in donating metres of beautiful fabric for making bags and scrub caps. Today it has been washed and is drying on the Victorian pulley rack that I inherited from my Mum and tomorrow I can start my next pieces. 
Our Chocolate Crunch treat is helping us through the days. This is the third trayful I have made since we started self-isolating 8 weeks ago……….
Bluebells, An Old Oak Tree and Piano Dancing
Our walk today took a different route, down lanes, past many glorious bluebells and under a grand old Oak Tree.
This delightful entertainment cam my way the other day and I thought you might enjoy it too.
Sewing, Sheep and Clematis
My next project is sewing scrub caps. I’m trying to do the same process on each cap in turn to save time. Here they a have all been pinned and two have been tacked. I’m hoping to get them sewn tomorrow. The weather’s been so good that I’m gardening much of the day too, today planting the Sugar Snap Peas and potting up the Kalettes (Flower Sprouts) that I have brought on from seed and prepping the box for them with shovel loads of compost.
The lambs spend much of their day being really sedate, just munching away at the grass near to their mothers and then suddenly, they all gather and race around the field, jumping and scrambling and leaving their mothers munching and murdling at their youngsters. It seems the lambs have reached their teenage ‘years.’ I have not managed to video them yet as their moments of madness are sudden and brief. Here is a peaceful video for you, full of birdsong.
Another Clematis has come into flower, Huldine, very pretty with its touch of green in the white and its purple centre.
Potatoes, Beans, Sweetcorn and A Birthday
Our veggie plot is coming on. The potatoes have been in for a while, First Earlies, and they have been earthed up several times already. The Dwarf French Beans were part of yesterday’s purchase as were the Sweetcorns. We used to grow Sweetcorn when we lived in Yorkshire. This is our first attempt here. I’ll be planting the Sugar Snap peas tomorrow, then the brassica bed and then everything will be in there. The edible trough has Pak Choi and Lettuce seeds beginning to come through. The Nasturtiums have yet to show. Yesterday’s 6 lettuces became 3 overnight! The slugs ate well. 
William Shakespeare was born on this day, died on this day too. The Tempest is one of my favourite plays.
“O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!”
― The Tempest
A Lane, A Lettuce and Camassia
The phone rang this morning and it was our local nursery to say that our baby veg plants were ready to be collected so we went out! It was actually quite exciting to go out in the car for a ten minute ride each way, constantly on the alert to be stopped by the police who are doing a great job of encouraging people to stay at home. We were ready with our explanation for our journey – collecting food. We hoped they would understand that it would be all food in a few weeks/months and that would be that. We weren’t stopped!
Here then are one of the lanes we travelled along, one of the lettuces that I planted this afternoon and one of my favourites, Camassia flowers.
Ten of my scrub bags were collected this afternoon. I have saved one for the young woman that I used to teach who is a Nurse in Yorkshire. She and her husband, both nurses, have taken the huge decision to send their two boys to live with their Grandparents for the duration as S and her husband are so frightened of taking the virus home. I can’t find words to describe how that makes me feel. People use the word heroic to describe our frontline carers – that’s a truly heroic thing to do and my heart goes out to them all.
Isolation, Walk and Sewing
The poet, Kim Ridgeon has written very movingly about isolation. Like me, he worries about those whose views, in isolation, are just bricks and graffiti, who have nowhere beautiful to walk and he expresses that so clearly. He feels he wants to do something, as we all do, and here he is, doing something – writing poems that touch our hearts and set us thinking. I thank Kim for the permission to share his poem with you here. 
Our walk today took us across the railway line and along some lovely lanes with the gift of open skies. We are so very lucky.
I feel the same need to ‘do something’ and though I write for myself, my gift right now is being able to sew. I have made eleven scrub bags which will be collected tomorrow and sent to wherever they are needed. Although I am a political animal, I rarely show that here but I have very mixed feelings about being an amateur sewist doing my bit along with everyone else in the national movement to sew scrubs, caps and bags when our government has let the side down so very badly. NHS and other care workers are dying for lack of PPE. Clapping on Thursdays is good but proper funding over the last ten years would have been much better.
11 scrub bags
Thank you ribbons
