12th April
Yesterday's cross post for monthlydiaryday under the cut for those who read it there....
Today started when the alarm went off at 7am and I got up and had breakfast with Mr Cee. He went off to work in the study and at around 7.45am it started to snow, starting with frozen rain, but soon turning to white fluffy snow. It only lasted for about an hour, and didn't lay on the ground, but it was a bit of a surprise.
I've been waiting for better weather as I had a delivery of strawberry plants and begonias to plant a few days ago. Since then it's been frosty in the morning so I haven't dared to plant them out. By around 10.30am it was sunny, so I took the risk and planted the begonias in hanging baskets and the strawberry plants in my veg trug. The trug is a raised planting bed with a cover, so I've zipped up the cover over the plants and left the hanging baskets inside so that hopefully that will protect the little plants from any further frost.
It was sunny after I'd done that so I sat outside for about 10 minutes and then it got cloudy and cold so I gave up and went inside. Mr Cee finished his morning at 12.15 so we had some lunch and he was back at work at 1.00. My afternoon was taken up with chores and paperwork, and getting some sourdough dough ready. My starter is now 4 years old, and still bubbles up when you refresh it with flour and water. All the bubbles are produced by the natural yeast in the starter. I put the dough in the 'fridge to prove overnight and I'll bake four loaves tomorrow.
At 4pm Mr Cee walked to our local town to get his hair cut - he was lucky to be offered an appointment on the first day the hair salons open up after several months of lockdown. I have to wait until the end of the month so I'm quite jealous that he's managed to get it done so quickly (even more so as he only called them on Friday!). The pubs and restaurants are open for business if you sit outside - Mr Cee said the pub gardens were busy with people braving the cold temperatures.
Once he came back we sat and chatted for a while and then caught up with some TV. At 8pm it was time for our Tai Chi lesson (online). I'm always amazed how difficult it is - we've been learning for 12 weeks now, and we're slowly getting the hang of it, but it is much harder than I thought it would be. Definitely a challenge! The good news is that we seem to be remembering some of the combinations now, so they seems a bit more automatic which is good. We still can't do a slow motion kick out in front so it ends up straight out at right angles to our body while standing on one leg - or at least not as high as our teacher can LOL!
That was about it as once we'd had showers etc it was pretty much time for bed.
I slept well as a result of the exercise! More frost this morning, so I'll have to check my begonias later to make sure they are OK. Today I have a free day, but I have loaves to turn out and set up for their second prove, and then I'll bake them. My new Pilates teacher is going to send me a recording of one of her classes as we don't have a lesson this week. I'm pleased as I enjoy her classes and it will be good not to miss out as she's got a week off.
I have questions to catch up with:1
2. What’s the most historic thing that has happened in your lifetime?
I have had a long lifetime, so many very significant things have happened, not least a pandemic which pretty much shut down most of the globe. However - other significant things were 9/11 which of course changed the way we travel and the security surrounding it all. Then there's the taking down of the Berlin wall and there was the Falklands war and the Irish 'troubles'. In 2012 the UK hosted the summer Olympics. The UK joined the European Union and then left again. The Concorde supersonic plane was brought into service in partnership with France, and then it was scrapped after a horrific crash. The French and British dug a tunnel across the Channel making travel to Europe by train so much easier. The money all changed in the 70s with decimal currency taking over from pounds, shillings and pence. I should also mention the first 'test tube' baby was born, and a sheep was cloned. I can't think of anything else LOL!
13. What brand are you most loyal to?
I don't really have brand loyalty, as sometimes its only one thing I like from a brand rather than the whole range of things they make. I suppose the closest I come is BareMinerals make up but I don't like some of their products.
Current local estimated active cases have gone down to 125 (down 36 from last week). I'm hoping that the downward trend will continue although there's a new outbreak in London of the South African mutation which the current vaccination programme doesn't give much immunity to.
All over 50s in the UK have now been offered their first vaccination (around 32 million people have been vaccinated once, and 7.6 million have had both jabs so are fully vaccinated). Hopefully we'll get our second one soon (we have to wait 11 weeks, so end of April).
Today started when the alarm went off at 7am and I got up and had breakfast with Mr Cee. He went off to work in the study and at around 7.45am it started to snow, starting with frozen rain, but soon turning to white fluffy snow. It only lasted for about an hour, and didn't lay on the ground, but it was a bit of a surprise.
I've been waiting for better weather as I had a delivery of strawberry plants and begonias to plant a few days ago. Since then it's been frosty in the morning so I haven't dared to plant them out. By around 10.30am it was sunny, so I took the risk and planted the begonias in hanging baskets and the strawberry plants in my veg trug. The trug is a raised planting bed with a cover, so I've zipped up the cover over the plants and left the hanging baskets inside so that hopefully that will protect the little plants from any further frost.
It was sunny after I'd done that so I sat outside for about 10 minutes and then it got cloudy and cold so I gave up and went inside. Mr Cee finished his morning at 12.15 so we had some lunch and he was back at work at 1.00. My afternoon was taken up with chores and paperwork, and getting some sourdough dough ready. My starter is now 4 years old, and still bubbles up when you refresh it with flour and water. All the bubbles are produced by the natural yeast in the starter. I put the dough in the 'fridge to prove overnight and I'll bake four loaves tomorrow.
At 4pm Mr Cee walked to our local town to get his hair cut - he was lucky to be offered an appointment on the first day the hair salons open up after several months of lockdown. I have to wait until the end of the month so I'm quite jealous that he's managed to get it done so quickly (even more so as he only called them on Friday!). The pubs and restaurants are open for business if you sit outside - Mr Cee said the pub gardens were busy with people braving the cold temperatures.
Once he came back we sat and chatted for a while and then caught up with some TV. At 8pm it was time for our Tai Chi lesson (online). I'm always amazed how difficult it is - we've been learning for 12 weeks now, and we're slowly getting the hang of it, but it is much harder than I thought it would be. Definitely a challenge! The good news is that we seem to be remembering some of the combinations now, so they seems a bit more automatic which is good. We still can't do a slow motion kick out in front so it ends up straight out at right angles to our body while standing on one leg - or at least not as high as our teacher can LOL!
That was about it as once we'd had showers etc it was pretty much time for bed.
I slept well as a result of the exercise! More frost this morning, so I'll have to check my begonias later to make sure they are OK. Today I have a free day, but I have loaves to turn out and set up for their second prove, and then I'll bake them. My new Pilates teacher is going to send me a recording of one of her classes as we don't have a lesson this week. I'm pleased as I enjoy her classes and it will be good not to miss out as she's got a week off.
I have questions to catch up with:1
2. What’s the most historic thing that has happened in your lifetime?
I have had a long lifetime, so many very significant things have happened, not least a pandemic which pretty much shut down most of the globe. However - other significant things were 9/11 which of course changed the way we travel and the security surrounding it all. Then there's the taking down of the Berlin wall and there was the Falklands war and the Irish 'troubles'. In 2012 the UK hosted the summer Olympics. The UK joined the European Union and then left again. The Concorde supersonic plane was brought into service in partnership with France, and then it was scrapped after a horrific crash. The French and British dug a tunnel across the Channel making travel to Europe by train so much easier. The money all changed in the 70s with decimal currency taking over from pounds, shillings and pence. I should also mention the first 'test tube' baby was born, and a sheep was cloned. I can't think of anything else LOL!
13. What brand are you most loyal to?
I don't really have brand loyalty, as sometimes its only one thing I like from a brand rather than the whole range of things they make. I suppose the closest I come is BareMinerals make up but I don't like some of their products.
Current local estimated active cases have gone down to 125 (down 36 from last week). I'm hoping that the downward trend will continue although there's a new outbreak in London of the South African mutation which the current vaccination programme doesn't give much immunity to.
All over 50s in the UK have now been offered their first vaccination (around 32 million people have been vaccinated once, and 7.6 million have had both jabs so are fully vaccinated). Hopefully we'll get our second one soon (we have to wait 11 weeks, so end of April).