April 2020
This spring my camellia has had so many flowers it didn’t know where to push out the next bud. You should see the azalea too! The Victoria plum tree finally got planted. I can see wee plumettes forming.
The upside to this evil virus situation is that the garden looks very good. With time in your hands you invent jobs after the real jobs have been done. It has been sunny but cool most of the Spring. The growth has been slow and that includes the weeds. The sunny Spring and a garden have been a blessing. I can only imagine what it’s like if you live in a wee flat in a high rise. Not great fun being stuck there in awful weather and with small children. Then again, being stuck there in glorious weather is torture too.
Not only I got ‘this’ll do the job’ but also ‘hopefully this’ll do the job’ certificate. I wanted to raise the height of the fence behind the compost, where the courgettes hopefully go soon. I did it with planks of wood and more barbed wire. It’s not pretty but hopefully it deters the cows from leaning over too far.
20.5.20
In the past few weeks some days have been longer, some shorter. On some days you can’t wait to go to bed so the next day comes sooner.
Today I was pleased with myself.
I got a lot of jobs done – and not one involving housework. It happened all outside.
The day started grey but soon developed into a glorious sunny warm day.
I sawed a pallet to bits. I had scavenged bits of it to make a box for a bonsai that had fallen off its perch in the high winds we had a couple of weeks ago. The beautiful dish couldn’t be saved, it was in pieces.
I made a windbreak for the courgette bed out of webbing and canes. It probably will get blown away in the first gust.
I sanded and varnished the garden table. Well, just the top…
I sprayed the moss and lichen on the paths and driveway. I sprayed weeds around the house.
A load of washing got done.
I have made a feeble attempt at de-cluttering in the house but failed miserably, nothing went out. How can you throw out something that is still in a good condition and usable! The Sod’s law is a well known fact, that as soon as you throw something away you’ll need it.
I finished off the two birds I made yesterday. They are for a work called 2020. The birds will be standing ‘2 metres’ apart…
The bow and arrows got an outing. I shot two rounds in the morning and five in the afternoon. My rounds are eight arrows each. Bliss.
It was nearly a Perfect Day.
23.5.2020
The weather is back to winter. I ventured to town today to get the papers, one for me and one for the neighbour. I got groceries, bird food and dog treats. How exciting is that. Also, I took some works to the Gallery. Lynne, the manageress of the Whitehouse Gallery has been putting works on the web pages to keep the gallery going. There is one big problem though. The courier specialising in delivering delicate art works isn’t operating at the moment and most of my stuff is in the delicate category.
Somehow I need to get myself starting to work again. I make boxes for all my works and even there I am struggling. I made a box yesterday for Louise, a big shiny bird and made some fundamental mistakes. Like adding up. 12+12 isn’t 22. It was an overlap and instead of it being 5cm it was 3cm but I got away with that. And cutting the flaps I had to think hard how much to cut off. The brain too seems to have gone into lockdown.
Everybody is getting very frustrated with life at the moment. With me it is to do largely with the imprisonment. I probably wouldn’t go anywhere anyway but it is irritating knowing that you are not allowed to travel, see people, do anything socially.
Lots of sucking air through the teeth – the kind when you ask a tradesman to quote for a job. Expensive… – when ‘experts’ tell us the virus is going to be with us for long long time and we have to be wary now, possibly forever… Ok. Did polio, TB, malaria, measles etc etc disappear? Someone called it the media terror campaign. It’s all speculation and guesswork be it by any kind of ‘expert’ or politician. I’m going into news lockdown.