Lockdown - another week in this strange new world

Here we are, another week in lockdown behind us.  Are you getting used to it?  Are you keeping busy?  What are you doing to pass the time?

This week has been a busy one. We are making the most of this time we have been given, yes I know we are retired and our time is our own most of the time, but somehow this feels very different.  Nothing to side track us.  Nowhere we comfortably want to go.  No one to see for a meaningful visit.

Monday - was our youngest grandson Gus's 4th birthday.  We went for a socially distanced birthday visit, which was so hard when all you want to do is give him a huge hug. I can't believe that Gus is 4, the years have gone by so fast and its hard to believe that he should be starting school in September

A quick visit for provisions in Waitrose and apart from a parcel collection that was about it for the day

   

Tuesday - breakfast in bed and some knitting

Wednesday - I spent the morning working in the garden, putting in some plants I'd collected on Sunday.  A wisteria and clematis on the pergola and some shrubs in the borders.  I tidied up the daffodils and removed all the gone over wallflowers, they did two years which was great for annuals

Thursday - we made a start on the laundry room, we had moved the chest freezer out last week and Peter refitted some of the old units from the kitchen which had been in the garage.  The second washing machine will go at the end of the run and we have ordered a new run of worktop.  The old worktop is now a shelving unit in the garage for some of Peter's tools, so nothing has been wasted.

I decided that the unit doors could do with a facelift and had a tin of Ronseal Garden Paint, which gives a nice matt finish - two coats on each side and they look great

Friday - I started preparing the walls in the laundry room.  This room is on the back of the garage and not accessed from inside the house, so really doesn't need to be smart, but one wall had flaking paint so I decided it needed to come off.  I could not find the scrapper so I decided to improvise with my trusty palate knife!!  It actually worked really well, being nice and flexible.  I got the wall back to a position that I now have a flat surface to paint. Peter fitted some new security lights so we can get around the back of the house without taking a torch

I spent the afternoon planting up the new front border, ran out of plants, hence no photos yet.  Rumour has it that one of the plant stalls will be on the market on Monday so I'll pay them a visit

much deserved refreshment - gin o'clock

Saturday - today - we decided to have a day off.  Aching joints from kneeling and squatting.  Its times like this you realise you aren't as flexible as once you were.

Breakfast in bed again - I'm spoilt 

So what did we do?, we went for a walk - 6 miles - we really cannot sit still and it was a great walk, so many wildflowers.  The one thing we did notice was that there were a lot more people around.  Walking, sitting, picnicking.  We had got used to having the walks mainly to ourselves, but alas no, we had to share today.

Dog roses

So many buttercups this year

This chap was standing guard on a gate post on our way home - majestic 

and when we got home, why cut the grass and edges of course.

Retirement Trip - further on up the road

A few grey days which had some bright spots.  I braved the rain in Richmond and found a yarn shop

Then we called into Nelson and had a wander in the cathedral

and of course I found another yarn shop - Cruellas - lots of yummy yarn

Pelorus Bridge was our lunch stop

and we ended the day at Havelock - the green mussel capital of New Zealand.  I did our laundry and caught up on the news - Coronavirus was really kicking off and we started to wonder what would happen.  A walk and a beer and we checked out the restaurants for dinner.

Fortunately we decided to go out for an early dinner - 6pm - and had the last table in the restaurant.  These mussels were so amazing, I've never had anything like them.  So big that you really needed to cut them with a knife.  I think they have spoiled me for any others

The plan for Friday 13th! - Peter found us a very scenic route up into the Marlborough Sound.  Another route - narrow lovely twisty roads, which finally turned to gravel but with plenty of stops along the way for photo opportunities.  The views really were breathtaking.  The round trip actually took 6 hours but it was so worth it.

Punga Cove - a quiet resort where we stopped off for a cool drink

Our overnight stop was at Momorangi Bay - right on the lake, such beautiful views

As we were so close to Picton we decided that on Saturday we would see if we could we could change our crossing to the North Island - you will have to wait until the next post to see if that happened.