The New Normal: 2nd Lockdown

It's been a quiet week, working in the conservatory, it gets dark early now so I have a candle lamp on and the oil fired radiator to keep my legs warm.  At night I can hear the owl hooting in the woods behind us and I think how lucky I am that, due to these strange Covid times, I can enjoy working from home  and that life has slowed down for us in this way.

These horses were waiting with a long line of old, original, gypsy caravans in the town car park (owners in the pub) last week, I got a chance to stroke the black horse.  Caravans like these aren't seen often these days and especially not in such great condition and in use, so a lot of people in the town stopped to admire.  There is quite a large gypsy community about a mile or two from here and they have visits like this for funerals and family events.  

 Mollie is settling in, still nervous but learning to trust us.  Unfortunately on Wednesday night our neighbour let fireworks off, which petrified her, she hid for four hours behind the sofa.  Same again on Friday.  In fact Friday was not a good day for her as she had a visit to the vet for her second vaccines which is a good 1 hour drive (Cats Protection nominee). She went in while I waited outside and the vet came out to say he could not check her teeth as she was so terrified of him but her ears are fine and the likely reason for her not liking her head touched is manhandling by a previous owner.  He advised us not to let her out until we have her complete trust as she might not come back.

We have had some walks in the woods this week, late mornings then back for lunch before I start my late shifts.  All the trees out there are so beautiful in golds and reds.  There have been some pretty early morning frosts too.

This little cottage is part of a small farm in the woods, I can't resist peeking when we pass.

I moved all my lemon trees into the conservatory.   We also have chillis ready to dry off. I grew a pot of grass for the cat to nibble and found the garden centre is open during lockdown so was able to get a broken bag of pebbles for my pots (£3).  

Also found some half price boxes of woodland flower bulbs (snowdrop, narcisus, frittilery and anemone) and planted them up straight away while hubby wood stained our new garden gate (after 27 years it was beyond repair and had a big cat sized hole in the middle :)  

I  made a lemon sponge and a loaf of  bread and headed off to bed with my new library book  ..

We saw the Yorkshire Shepherdess on tv and I was so entranced I had to get the book out - our library quarantines books for 7 days on return, it is open for  online orders to be collected at the door only and within a few days it was mine :)

The lemon cake was a bit too moist - too much lemon juice, but it got eaten before I had a chance to ice it so couldn't be that bad.

My bread machine does all the work for my loaves, I  am off to make it into toast with marmite and butter and a poached egg for breakfast and then off to work, four steps and I'm there!