We had a day at home today, hoping that the Prodigal Son might come, but he didn’t. He was at work, despite it being a Monday. Busy boy. So, instead of a garden get-together, we just worked our way through various tasks we’d set ourselves.
This morning, it was doing a spot of washing for me, and a sort out of some of Mum’s papers, while John had a catch-up on some TV programmes, like the Grand Prix, that he’d only got half-way through yesterday.
After lunch, John pottered out into the garden to gather up the hedge trimmings that were still lingering, and I gathered up some foodstuffs to take over to Mum’s. Historically, Mum had a helper to do her shopping, who thought she might continue, but when I phoned her the other day, she’d changed her mind and decided she didn’t want to risk her health any more than she need to. So, it was a quick whizz round our cupboards to see what I could take to replenish Mum’s and then hop onto the Ocado site to order what she’d like. Cake, of course!!
Masked and gloved up, I made the visit across to Mum’s, who was delighted to see me, but objected to the mask. “I really don’t like to see you wearing that silly mask,” she said, as she turned her nose up at me. No? Well, rather that than risk being dead, I said. Oh, yes, now that I’d reminded her, she remembered why we are wearing these silly masks…..
But she couldn’t find her milk. Oh, dear. This is the second time, there’s been a kerfuffle with her milk – what now? I opened the fridge, and there it was in all its glory – two 2-litre cartons. “Oh….there it is! I was looking in there,” she exclaimed, indicating the cupboard next to the fridge. “Ah, best not keep it in the cupboard, Mum, it’ll go off in there.” I found labels and stuck ‘Fridge’ on the fridge, and ‘Freezer’ on the freezer. Then a little note inside the cupboard: ‘The milk is in the fridge’. But will it do the trick?? We’ll find out no doubt!!
Otherwise, Mum was very well and very contented. Thoroughly enjoying her ‘new’ chair, demo-ing it, and asking me again what I thought of it. But she was with it enough to sort out her washing which I brought home with me, and compos mentis enough to confirm which pieces of paper she wanted to keep, and which could be thrown away.
When I got home, I could see that John had done an excellent job in the garden and I was delighted with his efforts. He’d even gone so far as potting up the peony that he’d had to dig up along with a horrible, nasty clump of decorative grass that threatens to take over the whole garden. Fingers crossed it survives. The peony, that is, not the grass – horrid thing!
Another thing that seems to want to take over – not my house, mind you – are moths! Harriet called for advice on how to deal with an infestation of the darned things whose caterpillars were busy eating their way through a carpet at the back of a wardrobe. My philosophy has always been prevention, harking back to the ‘olden days’ when they were a real problem in everyone’s houses, and I use sandalwood and cedar wood in my cupboards. I couldn’t quite remember what to do in the event of an infestation, so wasn’t an awful lot of help really. But t’internet is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? All the answers are there.
We have had a leisurely evening watching the box tonight after John had made some paleo ‘sandwich rolls’, which smelt delicious as they were cooking, and I have done my blog early in an attempt to get to bed before midnight for once!!
So, looking at the figures for COVID-19 infections today, it’s a rather massive figure of 938 confirmed cases. Nine deaths in all settings and two in a hospital setting. I am not sure if the number of people reported as infected is due to more testing, or whether the figure is a direct reflection of the situation in the areas of the country that are currently experiencing a surge. However, we do know that the trend is upward again, so probably the latter.
It’s going to be a yo-yo year, isn’t it? You can come out to play now, oh, no, hang on, get back indoors!!! The pesky virus hasn’t gone away. In, out, in, out……. Ah, well, I am sure we’ll get used to it!
Enjoy your day tomorrow wherever you are – and stay safe.