Ellie has captured the...

Coronavirus and has it behind bars.  After giving it a very good duffing-up!

Hopefully this has cracked it!?!

 I knew this grille would come in useful sometime!

This is going to be her kennel when the clematis grows through...
air raid shelters eat your heart out!

The greenhouse has sadly been postponed once again: in the grand scheme of things is it important?
I don’t think so, although the husband might say different as his   dream of peace is shelved for the time being!

The plan for today is to make pea and ham soup, well not exactly ham!  I have just found some ham stock in the bottom of the freezer and a half dead packet of dried peas.  
Pea and Imagine Ham soup will be on the menu for today’s luncheon. 
My slink is getting slinkier as the podge as if by magic dissolves.
What is there not to like?

The plus side of...

our self isolating world.

We live in a lovely tucked out of the way cottage with no road frontage.

We are new to the area so folk haven’t quite worked us out yet or even that we’re here!  

I am happy just pottering about, not really doing anything.

My mind floats free with dreams and schemes that I know just aren’t going to happen.

Ellie is our excuse to get out and exercise, although the kibosh will be put on this anytime soon, no doubt?

At speed the husband will read his birthday present, the great tome that is the last in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of Cromwell.

‘The Mirror and the Light’

I am hardly containing myself to get my mitts on it.  I do have lots of my own library books which I wisely got anticipating this happening.  Like a toddler with toys, I don’t want to read mine...

I want his book.  Not to put too fine a point on it, his obvious 

enjoyment is making me feel rebellious I can feel a hissy fit bubbling just below the surface! I want to rush over snatch it out of his hands and on stout legs run away.  Problem is I wouldn’t get very far as it weighs a ton!

The dust deepens as we know for a fact no visitors will darken our door.  Suits me as I am a top show girl, as long as everything looks fine and artistically arranged I’m absolutely fine with that.  The dust will be settling long after we are dead.  Come to think about it, all dusting really does is stir it up for it to find some other surface to inhabit obv!

The garden is being made my own, I have to resist nipping out to the garden centre to buy compost’n’stuff.

We will inadvertently lose weight as I make a very little go a lot further.  I have always made a point of never throwing anything out that I could make into something else.  I hate waste.  At this rate I might rediscover my waist... one can only live in hope?

When a glance or...

a wave can kill?
Or maybe not?

Bright idea of the day...

‘Let’s go to Clee Hill!’

A wild isolated, isolating spot.

Wrong!

Cars, motorhomes, motorbikes all congregated.  Lots of space for all to keep clear of each others bugs and virus’s.

A beautiful sunny and bright day, 

a happy thought: a marvellous place for all to share yet be safe.

We walked our usual route hardly seeing a soul apart from cut-out silhouettes on the skyline.

Until that is, we turned for home along the fallen stones of an bronze/iron-age hill fort.

Tucked smack on the path were a family having a grumpy looking picnic, eldest son sat apart valiantly trying in the bright sunshine to see a picture on his flat thing, his whole posture was of ‘Do I have to be here!?!’  Leaving the path and giving them space we trogged over the tussocks of rough ground.  As we passed a goodly distance away we both waved in cheery acknowledgment.  Not a glimmer, not a nod, a wave, any sign to let us know they were aware we had deviated from the path.  Just stony faces glaring.  Why?

Rejoining the track we hadn’t gone far before another couple were hunkered down also very near the path.  Once again we did the same, they watched us without a smile or any sort of recognition.

Fear flavoured sarnies maybe?

We walked away sadden by our experience.  Is this what we all have to look forward to I idly wonder?

In my weakened state I...

 got to thinking... what is it exactly about loo rolls, bog rolls, toilet rolls, toilet paper call it what you will.

Am I thick?  I just don’t get it!

Hang your head in shame if your cupboards are full to overflowing of things that you know in your heart of hearts that you won’t need in the foreseeable future.  

After which those who are fixated with best by dates and sell by dates will chuck it all out when things get better.

The world has gone stark raving mad, when half of the world are starving.

Let’s get real here and consider folk needier than ourselves...

Normal service will...

 be resumed as soon as possible.  

Today I am poorly, just a stinking cold.

I leave you with the base for the greenhouse which is now coming on Tuesday!?!

And the harvested grass...

Beneath the slothful...

exterior lies a dynamic woman craving to escape.  My mind whirs  with plans, schemes and dreams.  This is the lot of an only child, I live in my head.  I quite wear myself out with thoughts hence (another word I like) nothing really gets done.

My latest thing is I am up 

early-ish with the thought that I ought to go to the shops to get special biscuits for the workmen coming tomorrow to erect the greenhouse.  The fact that we have everything we need for ourselves is a mere bagatelle.  My workmen usually get fed home baked biscuits, scones, luncheon even!

I know, I know!  I’m a feeder, you see!  Now my latest worry is I don’t want to give them our germs. The husband isn’t 100% free of the cough, me I feel a tad below par, so you can see the dilemma I face?

The decision I have come to is, for the greater good... stay home make a few scones, cheese and maybe sour cherry and chocolate ones, offer them and let them be the judge of whether they accept!

Sound like a plan?

*

Yesterday strolling through the woods in my Berghaus which I ought to say is beginning to feel like a corset!  I got the distinct impression my body was going one way, the waterproof the other!?! Tum and bum felt tightly encased as I sized up clumps of grass.

Clumps of grass? 

Yes, clumps of grass!

Carefully I selected a trowel- shaped piece of timber.  Husband looked on wondering... Now what?

I spied a suitable specimen and bent with difficulty I ought to say in my newly acquired corsetry!  As he saw what I was about to do he plaintively cried 

‘Wouldn’t it be better to bring the trowel tomorrow?’

With total disregard to his pearl of wisdom I set to.  The wooden implement soon gave up in the face of my determination.  Undeterred I carried on now using my God-given tools... my more than capable hands.  The grass soon saw who was the boss and roots’n’all gave in without not too much of a fight.  I filled the poo bag with a goodly amount.  The very few people we passed looked and looked again at the vision in the blue corset, carrying what to all intents and purposes was a dog turd the size of an elephant poo!?!  Worse than that it had grass in it.  Their next glance was at Ellie, with marvel in their eyes at the discrepancy of the two.

They wandered away I am sure with the thought...

‘The world as we know it is changing!’

My partners-in-crime this morning.

As I sat twanging my...

elasticated trousers I got to thinking... just how am I going to play this enforced isolation?

Am I going to let my true slovenly self out, which I ought to say is very appealing to me?

Stop wearing a bra, as no one will be able to see the resulting swing?

If I wore dentures I could keep them safely in the glass beside the bed without fear or favour. 

I could eat for Britain and the rest of the world combined... well until my bunker full of store ingredients ran out.  That or the waistband of my trews got elastic fatigue and died, revealing my lower half to the unseeing world.

I need never pluck a stray hair out of my chin ever again.

I wouldn’t need to wash, well apart from my hands, floss my teeth or clean them even.  The food parcels I make and send I could still make and scoff the contents myself.  I could tell folk I am booking a world cruise knowing full well it wouldn’t happen.  How impressed all would be at my great wealth.

I could start to be kind and considerate, well that wouldn’t happen because there would be no one around to enjoy my bonhomie.  It would be wasted on the husband as his suspicions would be on high alert.

What’s a girl to do I ask you?
Not to touch your face...
I know, I know.

Worrying times.

The effects of...

the virus thus(I just love that word?) far...
I feel odd!
Not worried just odd!
The world as we know it is having to change, not before time I honestly think.
For too long we have taken things for granted.  Old folk often used to say the trouble with this generation is they have never experienced a war.  Well we are now on the cusp of doing just that.  Not admittedly war as we know it, but one of a totally different kind.  And ‘kind’ it ain’t!
Don’t be fooled by her name...
Mother Nature!

The kindness and consideration that has been sadly lacking with the me, me, me attitude of today will have to change.  Let’s all become less self centred, open ourselves up to others views, their needs and wants and let’s put ourselves in second place instead of the pole position so many of us think our 
divine right!

Stand by your beds for further bulletins and nuggets of nonsense from the old soothsayer of Ludlow.
Pearls before swine?
Maybe!?!

I am...

ready!  

For some strange reason the husband who is the conventional one of us is kicking against the government ruling for us oldies to self isolate. I wouldn’t mind but he is the one with the flaming cough!  Yesterday bossy boots, me decided that he should stay home, the Sunday paper ritual we could do without.  We already have it on our iPads so what is the fuss about?  

Today, himself was saying I have only got until Wednesday until the seven days are up and I can get on with my normal life.  This afternoon that all changed when Boris announced we now have to stay home for fourteen days if one in the family has the symptoms.  The funny thing is, it is usually me kicking against any sort of rules and regulations.

I totally get it!  We must all do our bit in order to crack this thing.

My only worry now is, do you think I might be getting a tiny bit sensible?  I do hope not!

What to do...

for the best?

I have all my life been a planner, get ahead of the game type of thing.

A catch phase of mine is

‘What can I do next for badness?’

Yes, really!

Now as I sit here in the quiet of the morning, husband still slumbering, still coughing.

I must say I am mildly alarmed.

Reading in this morning’s electronic newspaper how things will rapidly change and how we must all alter our ways for the greater good.  Today the severity of this virus is slowly occurring to even the most cheery and optimistic person i.e. ME!

Early on I had slowly built up a few extra tins, being a tomatoholic I feel strangely bereft if I don’t have eight tins in the house.  Tins of many and various beans, tins of sardines have always featured large on my shopping list.  My MO hasn’t changed.  Even the dreaded loo rolls, I have avoided the temptation to buy more than we want.  My cupboard boasts one pack of nine bought  weeks ago, which we haven’t even opened why buy more?  Being a cordon bleu chefette I can make nutritious food out of very little.  Dried beans and pulses make for a tasty well balanced and healthy dish, given the right amount of imagination.  Ready meals and the dreaded sell by dates don’t even come into my consciousness, let alone my culinary world!  If food gets really scarce folk aren’t going to say 

‘It’s a nanosecond out of date so I won’t eat it!’

Blooming ridiculous!

They will if push come to shove eat it and be grateful.

I make my own bread, I have a few bags of flour in store.  We have a milk delivery.  Inadvertently we have cracked it.  Wonders never cease!

Hold tight LL!  All your crowing is getting a tad OTT.  You do have one achilles heel...

Canapes?

Well not exactly canapés, canapés, but 

Cheesy Wotsits!

My son wandered in with a glass of wine to offer his visiting mama.

‘Just a mo while I get the canapés!’

I visibly brightened!

In he came with his mother’s secret passion... a large bowl of Cheesy Wotsits!

Ever since in our family world they are canapés.

Now in the event of you discovering a long lost bag of the aforesaid I would be extremely grateful if you could send them to me.  I will even pay the postage!

Hangover headache...

I have today, strange as not a drop of alcohol touched my lips yesterday or today.  The aftermath of the BPPV I suspect?  

‘Capstan Full Strength’ 40 a day cough he has, so staying home seemed prudent.  I stepped out to get the paper, this time with a more restrained gait, not the usual turbo take off I usually adopt.  I nipped into the fishmongers to thank them for  being so helpful to the 
Moby Dick/Moping Sick that wandering in yesterday.  Saturday morning early in town is a total different world, folk have a spring in their step, smiles abound... it’s the start of the weekend.  The butcher was singing, all ‘seemed’ good in our little town in Shropshire.

Home to himself having finally finished the base for the greenhouse.  Ellie as always overjoyed to have me home.
Just wish this flaming headache would bog off and leave me bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  The husband is I get the definite impression enjoying the peace that me being a tad less enthusiastic brings?  
It won’t last...