Wanderings Lately :: November 2020

England went into a second lockdown in November, and after what happened in the first lockdown I managed to meet my mum, SIL, niece and nephew outside (socially distanced) just before lockdown. Unfortunately this was the same day a the mass exodus from London - as people escaped from the city to work from their homes in the countryside. This meant a 3 hour journey from Essex back to south London.

I've got very used to being at home, and not venturing too far from home since March. It's been a strange year, but there are some positives to pull out. Like discovering how close to Richmond Park and Kew Gardens are to where we live. I've learnt to sew more confidently. We got engaged. <3

Lockdown 2.0

Walk around Gruffalo trail in Essex.

V went for a haircut the day before lockdown, and the barbers is also a florist (?!) and they gave him these flowers as they were having to close the following day.

We went on a walk through Wimbledon common. It was raining but still a nice bit of nature and an escape from the city.

Rapunzel finally got a haircut. She's not grown back yet so I am hoping it's just because winter is a dormant period!

Ready for Christmas

I tried drying oranges, which initially seemed to have worked but later went mouldy...

A little treat (V wasn't happy I got this so early!)

But he was happy enough with these new mugs from Sainsbury's filled with hot chocolate

Wanderings Lately :: June & July

Here you go mum!

June and July flew past, all mostly spent inside our flat and the furthest I've been is Wandsworth Common (excluding one surprise trip to Essex).

Sewing

My sewing machine arrived at the beginning of June, which was exciting and transformed lockdown time!

First sewing project was a curtain for our bathroom. One of the windows isn't frosted and I've had a towel hanging from the tension rod for the first year of living her. So first thing to sew was the curtain from seahorse fabric. Quite basic but I am still quite chuffed with this one!

First clothes item was this 'vivien' dress. It turned out ok, and I am pleased with the zip insertion but I actually don't really love wearing it and the fabric is quite stiff so it's not particularly comfortable. I made quite a few mistakes with this too, but it's all part of the process and the only way to improve so chalking that down to experience.

These last two months I have also developed a bit of an obsession with buying fabric online. I have now restricted myself to not buying any new fabric until I have used some in the cupboard!

With left over fabric I made a few reusable kitchen towels. The poundshop towel hasn't washed very well, so I am now reassessing how to re-hem to stop it disintergrating in the washing machine.

Most pleased with these shorts. They are definitely not perfect, and close up I can see bits where the sewing isn't great or seams are likely to come apart a bit, BUT they fit well and from a distance they look ok. So that's a big win. They were definitely not a suitable project for a beginner sewist!

Food

Made some bread, made some cake!

Brunch at our local cafe. They have closed the road to pedestrianise it, which is nice generally because there's less traffic but this is also so that restaurants can put more seating outside. So this was a nice sunny brunch in the middle of the road!

Got dressed up for our first evening meal out for 5 months!

Friday night fish and chips!

Exercise

When you leave the house for a run and then see this sky at the end of the road...

Wet, wet, wet.

And finally

This pigeon likes to wash in the puddles on the top of the house next door to us. For obvious reasons he's not been there recently, but there was slightly more rain in June/July and he became my unofficial colleague.

Wanderings Lately :: January 2020

This month has very much dragged along, I don't always agree that January feels like the longest month but for this year it seems to have gone on for ages. Christmas seems such a long, long time ago!

Thankfully the days are definitely getting longer, and although the mornings are still dark I've enjoyed a couple of cycles home in the twilight. Spring might be a way-off yet but some signs are showing. I noticed today that the tree in front of the church opposite has blossom already appearing on it's branches. It's been interesting to watch the transition of those trees from bountiful summer to sparse winter. Nice to see life forming once more.

January has been a hectic one at work, as I straddle two roles and things jumped forward a few steps in the yearly application cycle. Looking ahead, I am hoping for a few work trips in the spring, although nothing is ever guaranteed.

Quite glad to get January out of the way, the start of the year always has such promise but January also has such grey, miserable weather and sits in a shadow of Christmas. What does it really have going for it? Bring on February - the best month!

New Year's Day walk. It was nice to get out in the new year for some fresh air and a muddy wander through a local nature reserve before heading back to work and routine.

Making use of a Christmas present from my Nan. Shortbread made using an old fashioned mould. I've made a couple of other batches since this one too!

After new year, our Christmas tree just about made it to the 6th January. 

It wasn't fun trying to get it out of the living room though...

We were finally able to cash in Victor's Christmas present from 2018. A trip down the slide at the Olympic Park. It was fun, but I wouldn't rush back.

Celebrating Burn's Night with some Cullen Skink. A traditional smoked haddock chowder. The recipe wasn't great, but the soup was still delicious!

A visit at the end of the month to the Chelmsford Museum was very enjoyable. Lots of info on local well known people, who had made an impact in different areas. One I had not heard of before was Edward Bawden a "storytelling artist'. He'd illustrated for lot of famous novels, poems and short stories, plus designed things like wallpaper and tiles. He had a very distinctive and pleasing artistic style.

Randomly there's a bee hive in the museum. They looked a bit slow and had quite a few dead bees inside - I suppose because of the time of year - but it was fascinating and quite relaxing to watch them all buzzing around inside. The local honey on sale was £6 a jar though, so I decided to pass on buying that to try!

Wanderings Lately :: October, November, December 2019

Bumper three months of wanderings in this post, closely followed today by a couple of retrospectives... as always, I'm not very consistent with my blog. I'm going to partly blame the puzzle I'm currently stuck trying to complete - as I would usually have spent more of this Crimbo Limbo time writing blog posts!

Here are the last three months of this year, and this decade.

October

Short work trip back to Albania. I was not ill this time, and was staying in a much better hotel. The weather was amazing - very unusual for the time of year.

I posted a montage of all of the electricity boxes on facebook, but Scrooge McDuck here is my favourite. I'm assuming that the artwork on these is officially organised since all of the electricity boxes in the city are decorated with this kind of street art, rather than tagging or hastily scribbled grafitti. It's quite cool, and interesting to wander around to see all the different designs.

Victor and I explored Wandsworth a little more and found Wandsworth Park. We played a round of crazy golf, and enjoyed a walk around the small, riverside park before heading back home. Nice to find more nice places on your doorstep.

Chevening orientation came round again. Scholars that I'd interviewed didn't remember me, and the journey home was a lot more epic than last year! Victor and I ordered our first five guys take away in the evening which was very much appreciated!

I made an attempt at Rosół, Polish chicken soup as a cure for Victor's cold. Needs improvement!

I took Victor for Moules Frites for his birthday. Not the best version, and certain not the nicest restaurant ambience. This next time we have this dish it should be in Belgium! 

November

Work trip back in Moldova. Lovely weather once again and a really interesting conference topic. This trip also included a visit to Milestii Mici Winery - holder of the Guinness world record for largest wine cellar (by number of bottles). My suitcase was bursting on the way back!

Becoming a pro at blood doning - in and out of the chair in around 8 minutes!

Christmas wreath making with Mary. We were disappointed that this was a fake wreath as we had both thought it would be with real foliage. Nevertheless it was fun to make, and I was pretty pleased with how mine turned out.

Started Christmas at the end of November with my Christmas pudding on stir-up Sunday and local Christmas markets with mum!

December

Our Christmas tree was delivered on the 1st December. Our bumper Christmas bauble haul was put to good use. The tree is just about still going strong!

Work Christmas party kicked off December. It took a while to organise but was a fantastic success. The cheese table the shining glory - just came out a little bit late on in the evening!

A Christmassy trip to Edinburgh - and a rainy return meant I was able to get a great shot of the airport sign!

Candlelight carols with Carola. We turned up at the wrong church initially - where the bottom photo was taken. Thank goodness there was another carol service in process otherwise we'd have been waiting around for ours to start when it was all getting underway at the correct church 5 minutes away!

Another general election. Another slightly worse result.

More friend catch-ups with epic table spread!

Finally got my China map framed and hung. Forgot that I still had the pinyin written at the bottom from where I was trying to learn Chinese. I really love this map and the memories it holds.

A christmassy trip to the London Transport Museum. Ongar got a little shout out, which was nice. There was also a lamp from Blake Hall on display. This 'ticket map' was really clever although difficult to get a decent picture. They'd re-created the tube map but with tickets for each station. Even Ongar and North Weald were on there!

Finally Christmas back at home and a really relaxing end of the year in Wandsworth.