So our PM has outlined how we are going to get out of what seems a permanent Lockdown with various dates and what we can and can’t do and when closed businesses can open including restaurants, hairdressers, beauty spas etc.  Supposedly by June 21st, the day after my Birthday (!) we will be able to go about as normal without restrictions.  Of course this is all dependent upon whether the R rate stays low and we don’t get any more spikes.  We will be keeping our fingers crossed.

There was an article in the Daily Telegraph yesterday however which was really funny, entitled “The 16 Worries of Post Lockdown Anxiety” by Shane Watson (you can read the article here

Here are the 16 points :

1. Now we’ll have to see everyone. All of them. How can we not see them when we haven’t seen them for the best part of a year and there’s nothing stopping us any more? We’re going to be hurtling up and down the country, in and out of front doors, waving bottles of fizz, arms aloft, every other day. We’ll never again be tucked up at home.
2. No more being at home watching TV. We have – in between bouts of rage and weeping – quite liked being at home watching TV – what if that becomes taboo post lockdown? “You’re what? Watching a David Niven film on a Saturday afternoon? You’ve had a year to do that.” You can see how it might go.
3. Now we’ll have to be more than just doing fine. We’ll need to be on terrific form when we  reconnect with all the people we care about. There will be no room for an off day or feeling a bit anti-social. We’ll have to have clean hair too.
4. No more compulsory locked in time when we were forced to get things done. For the first time in 20 years the house is quite tidy and we know where things are. No more idling time, either, which some have been using to learn Italian or play chess while others spent it looking at wallpaper online, or holiday villas.
5. Now we’ll have to join in the Guess The Right Holiday Date dame. This has already become the test of a switched on, post-coronavirus human being. Should you go ahead and book the place in Greece in September… or risk going earlier? Weighing up all the factors around holidays is always stressful and this is much worse.
6. No more being able to WFH in the back garden while wearing a sunhat with our feet in a bucket of water.
7. No more time for marinading.
8. No more always being in for the delivery that they would previously claim you weren’t in for and automatically redirect to the post office.
9. No more not having to worry about when exactly the plumber is going to bother to turn up.
10. No more being able to justify the fancy cut of meat from the butcher and the £3 more than usual wine from the wine shop, because we are doing our bit for small retailers.
11. No more being greeted by our local shopkeepers like long lost friends.
12. No more early bed even on a party night.
13. No more meeting a friend for a socially distanced walk in the middle of the day and discovering that you will get more said and sorted on a walk than in any other situation, with the possible exception of a long car journey.
14. No more not having to spend money on hair, make up, waxing, nails, or grooming of any sort.
15. No more never rushing like a maniac to be somewhere and then somewhere else. Pant pant no time to talk! Just arriving! Just leaving! There was none of that in lockdown.
16. No more fantasising about all the many things we cannot wait to do, just as soon as we’re able to……..

I have to say that I agree with quite a lot of these.  Now the end is possibly in sight I must admit I am a little anxious of going back to how it was in 2019 with most weekends being busy with activities and then having to try and fit in doing jobs and things for ourselves between all of it.   I have rather liked getting jobs done at home, especially the garden last year, but also having a weekend of not doing anything at all except for chilling.  Also spending time with DH, Eldest, Youngest, Girlfriend and Treacle.  I do think that going forward we will definitely have a plan of what we want to do and what we do not want or need to do!  Also I like being up to date with work and home jobs as well which doesn’t always happen in a normal year.   

The weather here has been a lot warmer over the last few days so Treacle, who is getting quite wooly, is going for a spa day on Friday and whilst she is there I will do the grocery shopping.  The weekend is due to be nice too, if a little cooler (!), so we will be getting into the garden to do some tidying after the Winter. 

I hope you are having a Terrific Tuesday, it will soon be Friday!!!! 

Hugs & Love, Susie xxx

This is why I have not been blogging over the last week or so!!  I managed to re-sprain my left wrist again!  It was just back to normal when I did it again and it was so sore but obviously as I use a keyboard all day I was trying to work in the morning and rest in the afternoons!!  It is getting better again and certainly not as painful as it was last week!

I missed Book Club Friday last week so will move it to this Friday.  We are still in Lockdown (!) but there is talk of some of the restrictions being lifted on March 8th but very slowly so the rates don’t go up again!  It is getting quite wearing as we are all just working and being at home and as I work from home I don’t go out at all!!!  I know it is the correct thing to do but oh boy…..!

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Literary Monday

“Why does February feel like one big Tuesday?”
― Todd Stocker

February does always feel like it drags, I really don’t know why!

How about this for a Library.  Isn’t it cute and in fact I could also see a cute little quilt shop here too!!!  It dates from the 1900 and is from the University of South Alabama Archives.  There is not a lot of detail regarding the Library but I am sure it served the Residents in the local area.  (https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/usa01/id/179).

I will be back tomorrow with some pictures of the bits of sewing and quilting I have been doing.

Happy Valentine’s Day you Lovely Lot

Had a lovely day yesterday doing not a lot!  And also to my Valentine of thirty five years:

Happy Monday everyone and have a great week.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

I did get a bit of hand sewing done over the weekend, which counts towards my “some sewing/quilting each week right”?  Anyway this was one of the first quilts I made at a workshop, Snail Trail although I know it is called other names too.  Well the original binding I put on was dreadful so I finally got around to taking it off and putting a proper one on and it needed just sewing to the back. 

The workshop was in the November so I used Christmas fabrics and I had some star Christmas fabric left over from another project so bound it in that.

All sewn down to the back. 

I will be doing some different sewing tomorrow as I am making new curtains for our kitchen!    I have not made any for a few years but the ones that are up are quite faded as the window gets a lot of sun during the summer months.  It has taken me ages to find a suitable pattern in a washable cotton fabric and I have finally found it and will show you them when I have done.  I hope I can remember how to sew ordinary square things?!!!!!!

(Picture : The Royal Family Instagram Account : @theroyalfamily)

The above picture shows Her Majesty The Queen Knighting Captain Sir Tom Moore last year.  Captain Moore became a national hero during our first Lockdown by walking around his garden 100 times, as he was celebrating his 100th Birthday, to raise a little bit of money for our NHS.  He thought he would raise around £1,000.  Well his story was reported by the local news, picked up by the national news and by the end of his fundraising he had raised £35m!!!! 

Sadly he went into hospital at the weekend with pneumonia, which he had been fighting for a while and died there today at the grand age of 100. 

Captain Sir Tom Moore

1920 – 2021

RIP

Hugs & Love, Susie xx