The world is pretty crazy right now, everyone who can be, is mostly indoors. Key workers are exhausted, parents are exhausted, everyone is struggling. I think the thing I want to say most is that it’s not a competition, everyone is having a hard time and if we can all remember that and have sympathy for them and for ourselves we’ll be ok.
Right now I’m really fascinated by the progress of my sweet potato slips, this organic sweet potato was bought in January and has finally started to do something. This is Ma’s new veg for 2020, mine will be fennel!
That said, I’m finding Friday Links pretty hard because it’s all coronavirus, all the time and I don’t think it’s terribly healthy for a lot of people right now. So here are a couple of links some about the current situation and some very much not!
Last week, Monday to Friday, I went to the allotment every morning, I didn’t go on the weekend because I was feeling really puny (not at all virus related, not even a cold) so I had a weekend off and indoors (which is also the socially responsible thing to do!).
But I have been transporting compost to the allotment three bags at a time and filling up the beds. We bought 46, 50 litre bags of compost and it’s not quite enough. Yeah, I know 2,300 litres of compost, I’m aware but the new beds are completely empty, the old beds need filling and the soil on the new half is knackered. It’s stony, heavy clay and it’s been slightly neglected and needs some love in the form of compost! So things I thought might not need compost (rose garden, flower bed next to the herbs, pond area) are going to need a compost mulch at some point.
Other things, I’ve been doing, I planted peas and some of the potatoes but the rest of the potatoes are going in a bed because I’m really not sure about being able to get compost for the pots.
By Sunday I should have the remaining empty beds filled.
I love spring, I said a couple of weeks ago that my brain is waking up because the light is back. Last week we hit the vernal equinox, equal amounts of day and night and that’s pretty much my own personal sweet spot, it’s Spring and baby, I’m back!
Without being too dramatic, I have been to the dark places, I’ve been depressed, I’ve watched people I love die, I’ve worked through a fractured relationship with my actual father and grappled with how to heal a relationship that was broken long before I knew how to fix it. I’ve done things that I’m not proud of that killed relationships I valued and I’ve had people I love walk away without explanation. Darkness has been if not a friend, certainly a presence in my life. I know the dark places of my soul, I’ve examined them and it has sometimes felt that there are parts of me that are broken almost beyond repair.
On an annual basis I go through a cycle of depression and wellness because of SAD. I’m better at dealing with it nowadays and as a result aware of the change it has on my thought patterns. But even though it sucks, it’s brought me to a knowledge of the truth of my faith, God is the only thing that is forever.
Every Spring, I’m reminded of that. At 3am nothing feels good, but the morning comes. In the dark of the Winter, it feels like it’ll never be Summer again but Spring reminds us that it will come. God is with us in every season if we want Him. God doesn’t promise protection from suffering but He will help us endure until ‘morning’. God is strong enough for all my hurt, my confusion, my anger, and my disappointment. When my soul is cold and dark and hurt, my faith won’t stop me feeling all of those emotions, I was made to feel them, but they are not the only emotions I’ll ever feel, I was made for others too. God’s presence reminds me, I’ll feel those emotions again. Every year, when Spring comes, God reminds me, in the most concrete of ways, that He keeps His promises to me.
Right now, in the UK (as with many other places) we’re in lockdown, work, if we still have it, whether we’re still doing it or doing it from home looks very different. Life looks very different, it’s been over a week since I’ve touched another human being. I’ve hardly been out of the house and all my communication to the people I care about has been via Facetime or call or text. Other people are suffering more and less than I am but we’re all struggling to adjust to this ‘new normal’. I’ve been able not to be anxious or scared because I keep looking out of the window. Everything has changed, but at the same time nothing has, it’s still Spring and it will be ok again..
Happy Friday! I hope you’re all coping with lockdown as well as you can.
I’m finding working from home, all the time quite difficult but being at home just fine. I go to the allotment in the morning before work and do some yoga after it. I went shopping yesterday and that was a strange experience.
So back in January, I said I was going to purchase one thing that improved my home and/or made my life more sustainable.
Last month I bought an ironing cover, which while necessary was not terribly sustainable or exciting.
This month I’ve done two things. The first was planned. Say hello to my new toy!
My slow cooker is great but it’s sort of falling apart and requires some planning. I got a small bonus this month and while I’m doing all sort of sensible savings things with some of it, this was the thing I wanted to buy for me. I also bought a slow cooker lid so I can use it as a slow cooker if I want to. So far I’ve cooked beans in it and made port ragu and yoghurt.
The second thing was more sustainable, because of all the panic buying happening over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been unable to buy sanitary towels. I’m due on about now and flannels are not going to cut it so I bought these and these.
If we are stuck inside for three months, I’m prepared!
In all of this madness, I’m still allowed to go to the allotment, so that’s good.
I was there for 5 hours on Saturday and I dug a pond! It needs some planting but that can wait for a bit
I also weeded the very overgrown inherited parsley bed. I’m going to sow coriander in the other bed.
I mulched the boysenberry and supported the leaning apple tree (you can see the unweeded parsley bed in the corner). I also filled up some beds and the next day Ma and I bought 10 bags of compost which I had a minor breakdown over, I’m worried that we won’t get what we need, we’ve ordered another 30 bags to be delivered this week, but I’m not sure if that will happen now.
I also bought a new rhubarb plant and some more daffodils and planted them in the bed at the front of the plot. I’ve also ordered two new blueberry plants because I can’t help myself!
Ma has had her last visit to the plot for a while, right now, I’m using my daily exercise time on the plot, which is good because it’s just going to be me for a while. This weekend, I want to paint the shed and cut the grass on the paths as well as sow peas, beetroot, carrots and salad. I also want to start tomatoes, kale, leeks and cauliflowers over the weekend. As I’ve finally washed all the pots, so lockdown is good for something! Oh and finally the sweet potato that has been sitting in my kitchen since January finally has a slip! Sweet potatoes were something Ma wanted to try, so I’m really hoping we’re done with lockdown sometime this summer so she can reap some benefit to her good idea.
Most of the world is at home right now, the people that aren’t are NHS workers, delivery drivers, train drivers, and anyone who can’t work from home or doesn’t work from home.
I’m at home and we’re planning for that being the case until mid June at the earliest. Ma has given up volunteer work, Ben and Laura are at home and looking after the boys who aren’t going to school.
We’re all ok and, as far as we can tell, virus free. Which is the first thing to be thankful for.
Life is very grim for a lot of people, there are lots of people in my life who can’t self isolate because they have to work and there are people that have to work or they don’t get paid and there are people at home who have no work or aren’t being paid or have lost their jobs. No-one in my immediate family is in trouble like that. Godchild two is in France, Jo is in Cote d’Ivoire with godchild six, CID just shut down flights, godchild one was just made redundant (probably), other friends have lost work or are worried about sick children or vulnerable parents. I’m not enjoying being at least two bus rides away from my mum. I know that things aren’t brilliant, I would not chose to be indoors all day for days on end, but I live alone and I’m an introvert, so in a sense I’ve been preparing for this all my life, which is the second thing I can be thankful for (although it would have been much easier if it had happened between October and February!).
Other things to be thankful for include not having to live on the street, a landlord who checked in to make sure I was ok and (because he lives across the road) said that if I needed anything and was isolating to let him know and he’d drop stuff off, all of the people that I’ve spoken to this week because they are checking in, a friend who let me raid her rhubarb, having the money to buy a set of reusable sanitary towels when all the shops this week were out of the ones I usually use (I tried 9 different shops!), food in the fridge and cupboards, the Friday night virtual drinks with my work team and the very bad jokes that various colleagues children told, the allotment and chatting from a couple of meters away, the comfort of my bed and having a place to socially isolate, good food and an instant pot to make yoghurt in, blossom on the trees, water in the taps, the manhattans project cocktail making videos on instagram.
I know its hard right now, I’m having problems reading anything that isn’t news or social media and I know that some of you out there are having much harder times but I say this as a person that learnt gratitude in the midst of a hard time, thankfulness helps.
If you can find one tiny thing a day, find it and hold on. If you can’t, I’m so sorry and please hang on, the world needs you in it.
That’s really all I’ve got. I hope you’re all ok, you’re in my prayers…
It’s Mothers Day here and I know everyone is may not be seeing their mums today but I wanted to do something for mine!
Our parents if they do it right, are our first musical influences and Ma was the parent with the best taste!So today for her, her favourite Beatles song…
The advice is now work from home if you can, self isolate if you need to and only be out and about if necessary. All schools will be closing on Friday and in London, there is talk of a total lockdown based on the 958 cases (that we know about).
I work from home fairly regularly and a couple of years ago spent 6 weeks more or less trapped in the house as I recovered from an osteotomy. So I know a little bit about not leaving the house but I’m also an introvert and live alone so I don’t leave the house for at least one full day a month. Even so working from home for at least a month and probably longer will probably hard, even for me, so here are my top tips but before I do that, I want to be clear, right now, I’m in the very lucky position of not having to worry about employment, money or housing. I also have all four rooms of my house to myself, even so, these are things that will help:
Clean and tidy. Guys, if you’re going to spend all your time in your house, it’s going to be much nicer if it’s clean and tidy. I’ve spent a lot of time this week, getting laundry done, hoovering and doing stuff like cleaning the bathroom. That done keep on top of it, make time every day to put things away, wash up, tidy your space, do laundry. Put work stuff away when you finish work. It’ll do two things, it’ll keep your flat pleasant and it’ll give you a small amount of purpose.
Exercise. I start work from home days with yoga, but if you’re not sick, a walk, yoga or some sort of exercise is a good. If and when we go into lockdown, gyms are doing work from home classes, there’s loads of stuff on YouTube.
Open your windows. It’s not all that cold where I am but it’s not really warm enough to fling open the windows and I know other places are colder. I open the windows at least during exercise. Fresh air is good for you and if lockdown happens and you don’t have a garden opening you’re windows even for an hour a day is a good thing.
Routine. It’s really hard, but get up at the same time every morning and make a structure. When I was recovering from the foot op, I was up, washed and in clean pj’s by about 8am every day. I wasn’t very mobile but the change from bed to sofa was important.
Take breaks. At work, I get up to see people, I get up to fill up my water bottle. I don’t tend to do this at home. So get up every hour and have a little walk around, make a cup of tea but get away from the screen for five minutes. One of my colleagues who has been in isolation for a while, walks around his kitchen when he’s taking calls or on a conference call, he says that if he doesn’t, he tries to work as well and he’s focus isn’t properly on either thing and it boosts his tiny step count…
Drink water. Make sure you hydrate, I tend to drink more when I’m in the office than at home so I make sure to drink three 750ml bottles of water a day. Work out what works for you and stick to it.
Take a lunch hour. Preferably away from where you’re working but if you have to clear it all away for lunch and then set it up for the afternoon session.
Be clear about when you’ve stopped work. Stop put everything away and don’t answer work calls.
Find a hobby. It could be cross-stitch, it could be a book, it could be a jigsaw. Find something that makes you feel accomplished or at the very least absorbed. A friend of mine is isolating with her family and they are playing board games for an hour, another friend is re-watching The Wire, with his mates. They are all in different places but having an hour every night to watch an episode and have a Whatsapp group to talk about it.
Reach out. It might get lonely, call your friends, skype or facetime or zoom them. They are mostly locked away too. Be honest, if you miss them or are finding it hard. Today I told a friend of mine I wished I could hug her. She got it..because she’s my friend and we really are all in it together.
Think about others. I know people who work for the NHS and are going to be working through all of it. I’m offering house room to one of them that commutes up for work and I’ve told the others that if they need a meal they should let me know and they can pick it up on their way home.
This one, is an only if you can one. Donate to a foodbank. I’m not going to pay for travel for a couple of months, I’m donating some money to my local foodbank so they can continue to help feed people who are already in a tough spot or who will be needing to use the foodbank because they aren’t getting paid. Let’s try and help each other through this…
So we went to the plot this weekend. We can’t sow anything yet because we need a ton of compost so there wasn’t a lot to do, I wanted to put the last bed in and then our plan was to go and buy some seed compost and sow some tomatoes.
But we got to the plot and there was a ton of wood chip so we decided to re do the paths that didn’t get done last time.
That’s a job we shouldn’t need to do again until next year!
We are now done with building beds for a little while. Once the broad beans are finished we’re going to make that bed a square bed and in the autumn, we are going to move the blackcurrants into separate beds that we need to make and then move the bed over to sit next to the other fruit bed we moved. That then gives us a clear path from one end of the plot to the other! I also need to work on the back of the plot but I have so many potential ideas, wild garlic, blackthorn bushes, flowers or a place for slow composting. All of them will start with a retaining ‘wall’ and some compost. But it’s not urgent so can wait until autumn.
So what’s next? Buying compost. With the current coronavirus issues, we aren’t going to get a delivery, I’ve order a little trolley and I’m going to take advantage of the 5 40 ltr bags of compost for £10 at Morrisons. We’re basically going to spend £100 and get 2000 litres which should be enough for the beds. One of the things I am going to say is that although I’ll be working from home for most of the time, the plot is necessary for my well being, both physically and mentally so I will be visiting and working on it. I can walk there and keep a metre away from anyone.
This weekend I want to start on planting potatoes and sowing peas, beetroot and salads. There’s a lot of weeding to be done and if the weather is ok, I probably need to paint the shed.
Nic Dempsey 