Home Safe :: Week Two

Today marks the start of the third week of the UK lockdown due to Coronavirus, and although we are now into the Easter holidays for the Little People, it doesn't really feel any different to the past couple of home-school weeks. It's been a time of acclimating to our new routines, and I would say we are doing pretty well on the whole. I don't think our days in any way feel "normal" just yet, and quite possibly they never will while we are living with such restrictions. But we are managing to create some small daily habits and gentle structure to our days, and maybe that's the best thing to aim for as we all muddle through.

I am so very grateful for our daily family walks, an hour each day where we can breathe in deeply, stretch our muscles and soak up the calmness of our immediate local neighbourhood. It really does help to balance our days, it helps a lot actually. We are pretty much doing the same walk every day which takes us up some steep streets of houses, along a farm track and into the very top of the woodland. We then follow footpaths up and down through the trees in a circular loop until we come all the way back to the farm track. We climb an old wooden stile, heading up across a huge sloping field until we reach the dry stone wall at the top (you can see our hilltop view in this post). We rest a while here, taking in the sweeping view of our town nestled in the valley, before walking all the way down the grassy slope and back to the streets which lead us homeward. 

I find I don't get bored of this walk, even doing it day after day - every day has it's own unique feel depending on the weather and the time of day that we head out. It's been fantastic to witness the wild garlic growing ever greener, and to see fresh new buds and the may blossom emerging. The Little People complain a little about the repetitive nature of it all, but we are quick to remind them to be thankful for what we have on our doorstep, to be happy that we can take these walks and experience nature in all it's wonderfulness. 

Little Lady doesn't always come with us, but I do love it when she does. A few times she's been for a daily walk on her own, choosing to head out in the early evening now that we're into British Summer Time (yay!) and it's not getting dark until after 8pm. But I really appreciate her company and happy chatter, and try to encourage her to join us as I think in these strange times it does us good to be able to talk with each other. 

I always carry my camera with me when we walk, but don't always feel in the mood to take photos. But I had an idea that I'd like to chronicle these weeks here on my blog so that I can look back and remember in years to come. In my mind, I call these posts my "Lockdown Diary", but I decided to change the title to be more positive and have settled on "Home Safe". So these photos today are a mixed bag of things that were captured on my camera last week. I sincerely hope that you don't get fed up of seeing a stupid number of woodland photos, I'll try and hold back with sharing endless trees with you.

Little B and I did some baking last week, for the first time in a long time. It was my idea - a solution one afternoon when he seemed to be climbing the walls with boredom and in need of a distraction. He really enjoyed it, taking control of the weighing, mixing and beating like a little pro.

We made and iced buns, finding everything we needed already in the cupboards, including some rather dodgy looking blue food colouring and some charmingly named "unicorn sprinkles". Cadbury mini eggs are a permanent fixture on our weekly shopping list right now (they just hit the spot when a little chocolate fix is needed) so they provided the finishing flourish. The buns didn't last long, and I am thinking a tray of cranberry and sultana flapjack will be the next thing on my baking schedule.

The kitty is finding it hard having us around all the time, she is used to a quiet house during the day and undisturbed kitty naps in the Big Chair. She has started taking herself away somewhere in the house to sleep in the daytime, I've no idea where exactly she goes but I do get where her head is at - I often find myself wishing I could find somewhere to hide away for some solitude!

I tell you what though, she really can't resist the lure of my crochet blankets, especially if a convenient human is positioned underneath one. Within seconds of me getting comfy on the sofa for a bit of magazine browsing, she lands, turns a few circles then slumps down to nap. It's the most comforting thing to have the warm, heavy weight of a dozing kitty on your lap, but it never fails to make me feel reeeeeally sleepy myself, like I could just nod off sitting up. It's the ultimate sedative.

I'm making some progress on my cross stitch and am still really enjoying stitching this design. Last week I kept it out on the dining table and found myself picking it up and stitching little bits in odd pockets of time in between doing other things. I like it best when I can really get in the zone with cross stitching, but I've been finding it hard to settle for any length of time as my attention span has been quite short of late. I want to start the Craftpod Spring embroidery too, but also there's my crochet Spring Garland, and I feel like if I have too many WiP's going on at the same time my mind starts to feel overloaded.

Another day, and another walk to the woods, this time made a littler more exciting by the arrival of a sheep and lamb train! The farmer was moving them from the small field to the big sloping one, and it was just lovely to see and hear the lambs.

Wood anemones are in full flower in the woodland and on sunny days when they spread their petals right out they look ever so pretty. Bright little beacons of Spring, I do love them.

One of the very best things that has come out of this strange stay-home time is the introduction of daily exercise here in the Attic. And I'm not just talking about the walking we do, but about actual, proper jumping about, heart-pounding exercise, the stuff that makes you heave to catch your breath and leaves your legs wobbling like jelly. Like many other families, Little B and I have been tuning into YouTube at 9am every week day to do a live PE workout with Joe Wicks the Body Coach. At first I decided to do it to encourage Little B to burn off some of his excess energy, and to create some structure to our school mornings. He eats breakfast at 8am, then at 9am we do the half hour of PE, then he gets straight into the shower afterwards and gets dressed ready to start some school work. The routine has been working very well for us, and I guess the half hour of PE takes the place of our usual walk to school along the canal and the 15 minutes of mad running around in the playground that Little B starts his day with.

Part way into the second week of following this routine, I suddenly realised that I was enjoying the workouts myself and now I actually wake up looking forward to it. It's been over a decade since I did any sort of exercise besides walking, and my muscles have been properly complaining! But oh, I do feel so good for doing it! And as you can see in the photo above, we have the best exercise mats ;) 

I have my breakfast after my exercise now on weekdays, which makes it around 10am. Like many of us at the moment I am pretty time-rich and so breakfast has taken on something of a weekend vibe for me lately. I'm really happy about that I have to say! Slow, weekendy brunch-style meals are my absolute favourites, and I am enjoying them enormously. I am obsessed with making these little oat pancakes, they make me sooooo happy, like I want to squeal with joy after every mouthful.

In these days of enforced stay-home, I am so, so grateful for my creative habits, most especially crochet. My Spring Garland is keeping me busy and making me ridiculously happy - the fresh happy colours, the floral cuteness, the simplicity of making small things which come off the hook at a fast pace, all of it. Love love love love love it. Last night I finished up all the crochet (40 flowers and 40 leaves) and today I worked on photographing the tutorial for my new Polyanthus flowers. Tomorrow I have the pleasure of pulling it all together and creating the garland, and I am very excited about it. I'll be able to share the patterns and making process with you all on Wednesday, I absolutely can't wait.

Last week was cold here in Atticland and even though we now in British Summer Time, the temperatures remain wintry. Luckily we have enough fuel in to last us through this month, and I am still relishing lighting the fire on the evenings when we need a little extra warmth and cheer.

I also pulled my Sunny log cabin blanket back onto the bed and love having the extra little bit of weight on top of me at night and the bright colours to cheer me up in the mornings. As always I've been finding a lot of quiet comfort at bedtime, climbing under the soft, well washed flowery cotton and feeling so thankful for the simple fact of being at home with my family all safe and under one roof.

I hope very much that you are all feeling safe and cosy at home, and that despite the worries we are living with at the moment, you are finding small joys in the ordinariness of your days.

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Comments

[Kate]

I like your title, Home Safe It sounds so much nicer than social distancing which is being used here in the states. I'm finding it rather nice that we don't have to rush around and go places all the time. My house has never been cleaner and my husband is an organizer so all my quilts and table cloths are nicely folded and stacked. How are your stores doing with stock on the shelves? We are having trouble finding some things, but we have plenty to eat so we are not worried. Love your walks and love your blog. Be safe and enjoy these days with your family. You will probably look back on them as some of the best.

[Lisa]

I would love the recipe for your oat pancakes, too! They look delicious.

[Maureen]

Very much enjoyed reading this!
Could you point us in the direction of the oat pancake recipe? They look light and airy. Not at all what I thought oat pancakes would look like.

[carol partridge]

Its so nice to read that you are all well. We all are aware of the slowing down process. You have always enjoyed the simple things. We too are doing our daily walk but its no different to what we do anyway. What is nice though is the lack of traffic noise and being able to hear the birds. Take care.

[cathleen lindell]

I do a walk around our farm when not raining and the sun is finally out. we have a lot set up for our grand kids but the swings, clubhouse and trampoline look so lonely as my heart is. your pancakes look yummy.

[Gill Finlayson]

Absolutely love your blog-totally cheers me up !!

[Sal]

Your posts are a welcome change of focus, thank you.
Can we have your oat pancake recipe please? They look yummy 😋

[Mary H]

What a lovely post! I felt just like I was sitting and chatting with you.