Long Weekend

I feel that food has become more important to us as a household now than ever before. I'm not talking about the physical acts of shopping, cooking and eating, but the emotional way it feeds us. It marks certain points in the day, helps a dull day at home pass more agreeably, differentiates a weekend meal from a weekday one, and gives us something to look forward to.

What I choose to eat for breakfast, say, marks the difference between a week day (cereal or fruit and yogurt) and the weekend (pancakes or waffles or toast) more than it used to, and I really enjoyed cooking and baking so many treats to celebrate the Easter weekend: mini egg nests, biscuits, chocolate fudge cake, roast lamb, strawberry pavlova.... 

We've started having things like homemade pizza or nachos with chilli and homemade guacamole (a revelation) more on a Saturday night, maybe with a film too. 

I also recognise here the privilege we enjoy as a family: we have enough money to buy food, a car to drive us to the supermarket so that we're not reliant on public transport or deliveries, good health so that we can shop in public without fear or worry, and children old enough to be left at home unaccompanied should they need to be. I've felt my privilege more than ever before in these last weeks, as I watch Bella and Angus play in our back garden knowing they have free access to a secure outdoor space, as we all live together in a house big enough for us to have space to escape to, and as we live in an area where we can easily walk our dog at any time of day without thinking twice about our safety. Not everyone has this and I do not take it for granted.

Politics aside, it's been a lovely Easter weekend. I think I finally gave up fighting the enforced lockdown and just relaxed into it. I make time to exercise daily, I do everything at a slower pace (for someone who always feels she is rushing, this is taking some getting used to) and try to enjoy this strange and temporary situation. The warmer weather, lighter evenings and lack of school have given us after-dinner water fights and a generally more relaxed approach to bedtime routines.

We finally braved the Lego situation yesterday. 

If not now then when?

Our daily walks have been glorious, the most boring street transformed by the blossom everywhere.

On Easter Sunday, late in the afternoon, we walked down to our local woods which seem to become more green with every day that goes by.

I've not really started any particular "stay home" project yet, but now seemed like as good a time as any to pick up this hexagon patchwork quilt which I started in summer 2018.

I've made 108 hexagons, about enough for a pillow case, and I estimate I'll need between 1100 and 1200 to make a quilt big enough to cover our bed.

I had a lovely trip down memory lane looking at all the different fabrics, and remembering when and where I bought them, what project I used them in. I feel that might deserve a blog post all of it's own sometime. 

I did finally finish this beaded bracelet. I bought in on holiday last summer from Purl Soho in New York and it's not my usual craft but I ordered a small beading loom from Amazon and I thought I'd try it.

It's fiddly, and it took me a while to get the tension right, but it's also incredibly satisfying to make and I found it strangely addictive. 

It has the most beautiful texture, like a slinky, and feels wonderful when you wear it. I have lots more beads, and the loom of course, so I might make another.

My trio blanket is growing slowly. I was starting to feel bored by the lack of colour change but when I turned over the bottom and compared it to the foundation row, you can see the colour change more distinctly as the purple and brown fade and the cream turns to grey.

I am enjoying it though, and it's a good TV crochet project as it doesn't require much concentration. 

I hope you are all ok. Take care and stay safe.