Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day twenty-two

Covid-19 confinement day twenty-two, feeling reflective

Feeling reflective

We are now into week four of confinement and life outside of our little home bubble is still a very scary place. People are still falling ill in large numbers, hospitals are still struggling to cope and well-known names, including the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, are being hospitalised. I don’t read too many newspaper articles in full as the more I read, the more out of control it all feels. 

Despite all of this so many still do not seem to have grasped the concept of staying at home, or the importance of social distancing when they do leave home. I find this as hard to get my head around as I do the surging rapidity that the virus is spreading by.

I last ventured out of the village on day eleven. It was calm, uncrowded, some people wore masks and gloves, many didn’t. I think it would be different if I went out now. The French official line on wearing masks has shifted in the last few days, from there being little point in wearing one, to them being an effective barrier, and if the wearing of them is adopted by many people, a good way of reducing the spread of the virus. Medical masks are now impossible to get hold of, but our Mairie has encouraged those of us who sew, to make homemade ones to be given to the more vulnerable in the village. Once my accounts and admin duties are completed this week, I shall be making some more, especially as I unearthed a lot of spare fabric during a tidy up. If you would like to give it a try, here is the pattern I used and some simple instructions.

Mask template

Mask instructions

Coping

My current coping mechanism seems to involve the need to be as organised and in control at home as possible. In fact, this need has given me more drive and motivation than usual. Every task I achieve from clearing out the freezers, to ensuring there is always a homemade cake in the tin, to getting around to sorting areas of house and garden that have festered for too long, all help to improve my mood. This increased activity is balanced by yoga and home cooked meals, which keeps me feeling calm, grounded and sleeping well at night. We are all different. For Adrian, hard exercise is what he needs and for Ed it is his music.

Change of focus

In some bizarre way I think I needed this massive change of focus. Something big and beyond my control, forcing a rethink and taking the attention away from the doom and gloom of Brexit. This is bigger than Brexit and has the magnitude to create more harm and damage to our lives, but this time we are all in it together. There are no smug voters who won, nor any ‘remoaners’ who lost. This is an invisible war. We can’t see the enemy approach we can only try to protect ourselves and those around us to the best of our ability and do whatever is necessary to cope. If we are targeted, we just have to hope that we can recover.

Stay indoors, stay safe.

Lockdown library

My reading selection for today is Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings. These books are pure magic, two collections of short stories from different authors, set in different era’s but all featuring the enigmatic Miss Moonshine and all scoring a 100% hit rate on feel-good happy endings. Just what we all need in the world right now.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day twenty-one

No blue sky or sun today, so here is a pic from the garden I took a few days ago

Early bird

I often wake up early, tentatively listening to the sounds outside before opening my eyes and taking a peek at the clock. This morning the birdsong had been replaced by soft rain falling on the roof and splashing into the gutter. I lay still and quiet as Adrian isn’t at his best on rainy days and I figured he had no need to discover the change in weather when it was only 6.20am. 

Things didn’t get much better when I got up and realised I had once again forgotten to make my breakfast last night. I somehow thought writing about it here would help me to remember, I was wrong about that. Adrian has come up with a clever solution, so rather than overnight oats, mine will now be 24hr oats and will be made up at breakfast time, for the following morning. Surely even I can’t forget breakfast, at breakfast time.

The rain continued on and off all day, but at least this gave me a good excuse to busy away on the quarter-end accounts. Work may have come to a dramatic halt, but the accountant will still want to know what has been going on since January, and I’d much rather sit indoors with my spreadsheet and piles of receipts on a wet day than a sunny, gardening one.

In the pain cave together

We also did a bit of indoor exercise in the pain cave, notice how I’m moving so fast, I’m blurred!

My writing buddies

I did take a well-earned break this afternoon to have a virtual catch up with my writing group via Zoom. We normally sit around a table, writing, learning, thinking and sharing, before enjoying tea and tasty homemade cake. Today I was sat on an inflatable cushion with my notebook and pencil, in my new yoga nook thinking it seems a shame I moved the writing desk two days ago. Mel gave us five words and about ten minutes to come up with a short piece using as many of them as possible. If you would like to have a go, the words were; blue, hat, water, table and waiting. Here is what I came up with:

Sitting in my garden on a warm afternoon is one of my favourite ways to relax. The blue sky above me, cloudless on a perfect day, busy with the birds circling and diving, dipping into the pond to sip at the water. On the table in front of me my lazy old cat is stretched in a pool of sunshine, his paws playing with the ends of the ribbon that is tied around my discarded straw hat. The time passes easier out here, with the gentle distraction of bees and butterflies to catch my eye, soothing my pain a little. I know my time waiting for his return is far from over just yet.

Trying to look intelligent in my glasses

A documentary film star in the making

Ed has also been busy, working on a project for uni on the topic of “Are small French villages dying?” The plan, before lockdown, was to interview a few key figures in the village and seek their views. Sadly, this is now impossible, meaning his only option was to use the one member of the village council he lives with, me. The main challenge for him was that I instantly freeze when you poke a camera in my face, and to add to my woes I had to plan what I wanted to say, and deliver it, in French. However, (and here is the funny bit) as it’s for his English class, he now has to subtitle my text back into English. If you are still with me here, well done.

Mobile attestation here

Mobile phone attestation

The French government have launched a new mobile phone version of the attestation we need to fill in every time we leave home. You can follow this link here, fill in the details online, on your phone and it will generate a copy of the form that includes a QR code to show if requested.

Stay indoors, stay safe.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day twenty

Ready, steady, cut!

Pop-up hair salon

Well, maybe salon is taking things a bit too far, but I could wait no longer, my fringe (bangs) had to be trimmed and as I’ve been shaving Adrian’s hair for many years now, it seemed only fair he got the chance to have a go too.

I can see again!

I was unnecessarily nervous as the minutes ticked slowly by, imagining the result would be something way too short, but even before I got a peek in the mirror, it already felt so much better now it wasn’t tickling my eyes. As I hope you will agree, he’s definitely hired and did a great job even if the only comb we could find was a beard comb and the scissors were kitchen scissors!

La Cornuelle

Palm Sunday or Rameaux

Today is the last Sunday in Lent and a day I’ve always looked forward to, since I discovered the special biscuit, la cornuelle, baked locally to celebrate. In these unusual times I was looking forward to a moment of normality this morning when I arrived at the boulangerie. However, I was disappointed as sadly, there were no pretty triangle shaped buttery biscuits, with fluted edges, a hole in the middle and decorated with aniseed sweets, for me to buy today.  Bernadette admitted that with everything that has been going on recently, she had completely forgotten all about les cornuelles. 

The tradition behind these biscuits has two explanations. The first being the triangular shape represents The Holy Trinity; The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit and traditionally it was baked to be sold at the entrance to church on Palm Sunday, where a sprig of box (another traditional French symbol of Palm Sunday) would have been placed in the hole. The second story comes from those whose beliefs are more Pagan than Christian, and with spring signifying new life, la cornuelle is believed to be triangle shaped to represent the female reproductive organs and is a sign of fertility. Maybe Bernadette was subconsciously erring on the side of caution, as many believe this period of enforced confinement is likely to lead to a rise in the number of births in nine months’ time, so I guess there is little need for a fertility biscuit this year.

My courgette, squash and pumpkin seedlings

Talking of signs of new life, I can’t help but share news of my courgette, pumpkin and squash seedlings, that are growing so fast, they will need to be potted on this week. I hope you agree they are little beauties and so far, I have counted a whopping 60 have germinated.

Adrian in the potager

Adrian has also been busy rotivating the potager and turning the compost heap, all necessary tasks getting things ready for the seedlings to be planted out next month. As I now know the exact contents of my freezers, this year’s harvest can’t come soon enough as stocks of last year’s roasted veg purée are running very low. 

Stay indoors, stay safe.

The Roma Nova series by Alison Morton

Lockdown Library

Today’s reading suggestion takes us away from France, into the alternative history world of Roma Nova, a series written by local (to me) author Alison Morton. Alison is currently offering book one in the series, Inceptio, FREE on kindle. 
Universal link here.

Alison and I both write a regular piece for The Deux-Sèvres Monthly magazine and Alison and her husband kindly offered us a bed for the night when we took on the challenge to cycle the whole of the department on a charity bike ride back in 2017.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day nineteen

In my new yoga nook

My yoga space

I now have a new yoga nook in a corner of our bedroom. Many years ago I added a desk here, somewhere I hoped I would sit and write or use my sewing machine. However, the bedroom is a long way from the heart of the house and even when home alone, I tend to write and sew on the dining room table and the desk, chair and area around it have become a dumping ground, dust trap and general no-go area. 

Online yoga needs a space in the house. Space we have a-plenty, but this week I have been using the lounge where Mini wanders in and out, joins me on the mat, snores on the floor or snoozes on the sofa. If Ed is up, he often walks through to get to his shower room, and I can always tell what Adrian is doing in the kitchen. The smell of fresh coffee in the morning, the hiss of a beer can and rustle of a peanut bag in the evening. Somewhere a little more remote seemed a good idea.

Today’s task of lockdown was a big tidy and clean of the bedroom. We moved out the desk, the sewing machine, the bags of fabric, and attacked the dust and created a calm and tranquil space for the yoga mat. In much the same way that time has crept up on us in the garden and orchard, with nettles, brambles and ivy taking over planting areas and the stone walls that surround the potager, stuff and dust have taken over many corners of the house. This enforced time together, with the need to plan our days wisely and fill them constructively, has given us the opportunity to see into the corners and to start a long overdue sort out, clear out and clean.

Adrian's pain cave

Pain cave

As I had my girly retreat space it seemed only fair the boys had a more manly pain cave, so the ‘dining room’ was next on the attack list. I say dining room, but it has been almost three years since the table lived in there and more recently it has been a bike storage area, a home for the bike touring gear, a cemetery for many a dead bit of computerware and again, dust, lots of dust. 

If my Dyson could speak it would probably be screaming “enough”, however it has only really just begun. All we have so far achieved is to rearrange years of hoarding in order better utilise the space we have for our current needs. What we now need to do is be ruthless and go through the many bags, boxes, shelves and cupboards, and part with belongings we’ve cherished in the past, but have neglected, forgotten or no longer need now.

Returning summer visitors

In other news, the Swallows are back! Whilst enjoying our morning coffee in the garden a pair of swallows circled and swooped overhead, the first two I have seen returning this spring. It is always a turning point in the calendar and promises warm, summer days to come.

Stay indoors, stay safe.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day eighteen

#KTTinyTourer bike yoga covid-19 confinement madness

Losing our minds

There are certain things that used to be routine, that I’m now finding myself forgetting on a regular basis. Take breakfast for example. I’m not one for faffing in the morning, making up hot porridge that even on the iciest of days leaves me too hot inside, but I do believe in the benefits of oats. My preference is for Tom Kerridge’s Overnight Oats. As I prepare dinner, I put the oats into a bowl, add a little cold water, some fruit compote, walnuts and a few spoons of natural yoghurt. Left in the fridge overnight to work its magic, my breakfast is ready to serve as soon as the coffee has brewed the following morning. However, I’ve woken up three times in the last week realising I’ve forgotten to make my breakfast. You know it will be a tough day to get through when there is no breakfast ready and waiting for you.

#KTTinyTourer bike yoga covid-19 confinement madness

Katie bike isn’t happy either. She appreciates that she is a folding bike, but she’s just not used to being kept folded and two and a half weeks spent tucked away in her storage area is beginning to get her down. She persuaded me that she really needed to stretch her frame and give her wheels a turn or two, so it seemed only natural that she should join me in the garden for a spot of sunshine. 

#KTTinyTourer photo yearbook 2019 3285kms of fun

We both enjoyed looking through the photo book Adrian bought me for Christmas and remembering all the great adventures we had together last year, and we hope to be planning some new touring holidays for as soon as we can escape.

#KTTinyTourer bike yoga covid-19 confinement madness

We then decided a bit of stretching, bending and meditation would help us both at this difficult time. Yoga with your bike, I’m sure it will catch on soon.

#KTTinyTourer bike yoga covid-19 confinement madness

I’m not the only one experiencing strange behaviour either. Ed has now been seen well before midday, two days running, and today he even ate his lunch before we did. 

This is a worrying situation, but thankfully Adrian seems to be bearing up well, although I did find him in the laundry room earlier today handwashing and spinning his cycle clothing.

Stay indoors, stay safe.

Lockdown library

Today’s reading suggestion is any of the brilliant and funny travel memoirs by Susie Kelly, but especially Travels with Tinkerbelle that she is currently offering for FREE on kindle UK. This is the hilarious adventures of Susie, her husband, two large dogs and a campervan called Tinkerbelle as they make and epic 6000 mile road trip around France. 

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day seventeen

Emergency food package UK

A helping hand

One of the more positive things to come out of this crisis is news of communities pulling together and people checking on their neighbours to make sure things are going as smoothly as possible. Volunteering networks have been set up in France (Je Vieux Aider) and in the UK, although living in a small village in the middle of nowhere, there isn’t much scope to help around here at the moment. Until the French local elections can be finalised, I am still on the village council, which means I am in regular email contact with the Maire and the mairie. It is nice for me to see what small steps are going on in the background and they know that if there is anything they need me to do locally, I will be there.

I have to admit though my desire to help out is somewhat compromised by my need to stay safe and keep my family safe. It is a little outside of my comfort zone at the moment to be regularly driving the thirty kilometres to our local hospital where they do need volunteers to help with tasks such as deliveries and serving meals to patient’s rooms. I have always been happier living my life close to home, so I’m really not missing going out nor am I in any hurry to escape the village. There is a guilty feeling that I am not doing enough though, especially given our privileged position. We are all together, safe and well, with enough to keep us occupied indoors and out, as well as enough food to keep us fed. I am enjoying this bonus family time, but I appreciate not everyone is as lucky.

Adrian’s mum falls under the NHS ‘self-isolate for twelve weeks’ category in the UK and although she has managed to get a bit of shopping delivered it was still a nice surprise for her this morning when she received an emergency food package from her local council. As you can see from the picture above, all the basic foods were covered, as well as toiletries and loo roll and there were a few nice sweet treats too. All delivered by a friendly driver who wished her well and told her to stay safe.

Brompton Bikes Wheels for Heros

Brompton Bikes NHS Wheels for Heros

I might be missing out on the opportunity to ride my Brompton at the moment, but I had to share this good news story from the Brompton factory in London. 

Since the beginning of the crisis Brompton have opened up their bike hire scheme to enable NHS staff to have free access, ensuring they have a safe and quick way to get to work, without the need to use public transport. The initiative began in London but has now spread nationwide and is proving so popular the number of bikes available no longer meets the number of staff who have registered to take part. Brompton are now pledging to make up to 1000 bikes, in NHS colours, to be used by key workers across the UK. They have set up a Crowdfunder ‘Wheels for Heros’, as the more money they can raise, the more bikes they can produce. Brompton Bike Hire will not profit from these bikes. You can read more and donate here.

Stay indoors, stay safe

Lockdown library

Today is publication day for book five in the Dales Detective series by Julia Chapman. Set in the Yorkshire Dales, rather than France, but I’ve loved every book Julia has written so I’m happy to recommend this one too. Prior to this series she published five books set in the Pyrenees, The Fogus Chronicles under the name of Julia Stagg.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day sixteen

Mini does yoga

Day sixteen or maybe day four

I have been thinking that I should start counting the time in lockdown in terms of number of cakes baked rather than in days; making today number four, which seems a lot more manageable than number sixteen. That is until I realise it means we are getting through a cake every four days. I have a feeling the longer this goes on the more difficult the habit of a daily slice of cake will be to break. At least we are all keeping active and even Mini joined me for a morning yoga class today.

April Fool

It is April fool’s day or Poisson d’avril here in France, the day French children sneak up behind you and stick a fish on your back, just so they can laugh and snigger at you. With no one going out or getting within two metres of anyone else, I’m guessing there will be no sticking of fish this year. I think life is doing a pretty good job of acting the fool at the moment anyway. If I’d said to you last Christmas that by April the world would have come to an abrupt stop, with no work for millions, flights grounded and a deadly virus keeping people in their homes, you’d have thought I was a mad fool. There are times when if I wasn’t writing this every day, I’m not sure I’d have grasped what we are living through either. 

Most of the news stories seem unbelievable these days so I guess it’s no surprise I actually fell for an April Fool this morning – the announcement that the Tour De France would be raced on Zwift this year. Rather than risking riders, teams and the public in a big outdoor event, everyone gets to ride or watch via the online training app Zwift. Adrian has already switched from outdoor cycling to doing indoor online rides, so this seemed a logical outcome to me. How Adrian laughed at my gullibility. 

One barrow a day

Back in the garden

The winds of yesterday have blown themselves away and I was tempted back into the garden to resume my daily barrow of weeding, to enjoy lunch alfresco and even to relax with a book on my sunlounger this afternoon. Life is certainly easier to cope with when the sun is shining, and the birds are singing, so, long may it last (the good weather not the lockdown that is). I have also decided that life in lockdown means it’s ok to wear whatever combination of colours/clothing you like.

The Deux-Sèvres Monthly

The Deux-Sèvres Monthly

This latest Deux-Sèvres Monthly magazine is now available, but for this month it is online only. You can read it here and find my monthly contribution on page 31. Many of you know I have been a regular contributor for eight years (or 94 issues) so it is sad not to see a paper copy this month or have anything to write for next month, as understandably the sensible thing to do is to have a pause in publication for a while.

I need a haircut

Fringe

I’ve a difficult decision to make, do I resort to a rather dated headband look (see garden pic above) in order to keep my fringe (bangs) out of my eyes, or do I try and cut it myself, or even let Adrian have a go? Answers on a postcard please.

Stay indoors, stay safe.

Lockdown library

Today’s reading suggestion is Summer in Provence by Lucy Coleman that will be released tomorrow. You can read my review and enter a giveaway here.

Book review of Summer in Provence by Lucy Coleman

Summer in Provence Lucy Coleman

Summer in Provence by Lucy Coleman

Is a change as good as a rest?

When married couple Fern and Aiden have a windfall, their reactions could not be more different. While Fern is content to pay off their mortgage and build a nest egg before starting a family, her husband is set on traveling the world.

Fern’s not much of a back-packer so, before she knows it, the idea of a ‘marriage gap year’ takes shape. And, as Aiden heads off to the wilds of Australia, Fern chooses the more restful Provence for her year out.

Set amidst the glorious French scenery, Château de Vernon offers a retreat from the hustle and bustle of normal life, and Fern agrees to help out in return for painting lessons from the owner – renowned, but rather troubled, painter Nico.

As their year unfolds in very different ways, will the time apart transform their marriage, or will it drive Fern and Aiden even further apart…

Let Lucy Coleman whisk you off on a heart-warming, sun-drenched and magical French adventure.

Summer in Provence blog tour

My review

Wow, this book is another great read from Lucy Coleman that is powerful, packed with emotions and totally drew me in.

From the beginning I felt sorry for Fern. At a time in their lives when they have the money to give them financial security for their future, she is forced into heading away and doing something different for a year. The prospect of trying to carry on as normal and avoid moping around alone while husband Aiden is travelling around the world on his gap year, isn’t appealing. 

I don’t think we were supposed to like Aiden and I certainly didn’t feel much warmth towards him as a character, but his selfish actions did at least enable Fern to do a bit of self-discovery at Château de Vernon in Provence. Here she quickly becomes an integral part of the close-knit team running the retreats for the lost souls who find themselves there, just at the time that is right for them. The magic of the Château starts to work on her too as she processes the confusion and changes to her life imposed on her by Aiden’s need to travel. She meets some fab new people who became as important to her as her family, as well as learning some new skills and discovering a talent for art. 

As their marriage gap year draws to a close, both Fern and Aiden have had the opportunity to look at life differently and things have certainly changed for them. They have had many emotions to work through, including confusion and love in its many forms, as they come to realise what is important for them.

This book will be your perfect escape from the current madness we are living in during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Purchase Links 

Amazon: https://smarturl.it/SummerInProvence

Linn B. Halton/Lucy Coleman

Author Bio 

From interior designer to author, Linn B. Halton - who also writes under the pen name of Lucy Coleman - says 'it's been a fantastic journey!'

Linn is the bestselling author of more than a dozen novels - including Summer on the Italian Lakes, Snowflakes over Holly Cove, The French Adventure and A Cottage in the Country. She is represented by Sara Keane of the Keane Kataria Literary Agency.

When she's not writing, or spending time with the family, she's either upcycling furniture, working in the garden, or practising Tai Chi.

Living in Coed Duon in the Welsh Valleys with her 'rock', Lawrence, and gorgeous Bengal cat Ziggy, she is an eternal romantic.

Linn is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and the SoA and writes feel-good, uplifting novels about life, love and relationships.

Summer in Provence blog tour stops

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Giveaway

Giveaway to Win a signed paperback of 'A Springtime to Remember' and a Boldwood Tote bag (Open INT)

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Also by Lucy Coleman:
A Springtime to Remember
The French Adventure