Thursday 1st to Friday 9th October

Have fun in your new house Hannah 🏠

So the usual trip for my clinic appointment to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham was cancelled due to Covid. Weird to just do it with a telephone call, slightly impersonal. I know they would be there for me if I needed them though. I love the QE 😍

I was lucky enough to have another day out, to a farm park this time not a zoo!

I had a little chat with the animals! 🐐

Ah, when you actually find some charity shops in a nearby town that are willing to take quite a few bags of your donations – 😀 it’s just the simple little things that please me!

Friday 25th to Wednesday 30th September

A trip to the zoo.

I can’t remember the last time I went 🤔 I think it must really be quite a long time ago now!

So here’s a little photo shoot from my trip 📸

It was quite enjoyable to have a day out and to do something different 🙂

Now, have a look at this lovely butterfly 🦋

Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th September

It looks like Covid-19 is coming back already 😱

Boris was back on the TV for his ‘address to the nation’, the first one for a while.

“The virus has started to spread again in an exponential way. Infections are up, hospital admissions are climbing.”

Oh goodness 🦠

So here’s a quick recipe in case we get locked down and all want to start cooking again!!!

Apple Cookies – ready in 20 minutes!

These easy to make, soft cookies are bursting with bits of fresh apple and they are irresistible 😋

Ingredients:

2 eggs

100g (3.5oz) sugar

100g (3.5oz) butter, room temperature

350g (12.3oz) flour

1 and a half tsp baking powder

2 apples, chopped

half a tsp cinnamon

quarter of a tsp of vanilla

Powdered sugar for serving

Method:

1. Using hand mixer beat eggs with sugar and vanilla until light, pale and fluffy.

2. Add butter and continue whisking until incorporated.

3. Separately whisk the flour with cinnamon and baking powder. Add a pinch of salt.

4. Combine dry and wet ingredients to make a thick and smooth cookie dough. Add chopped apples and stir to incorporate into the mixture.

5. Place spoonfuls of dough onto a parchment covered baking pan, then bake at 180C/350F for 20 minutes.

Or watch the video! Apple Cookies

Monday 14th to Monday 21st September

What a beautiful week of weather, oh to have been away at the seaside 🏖

And even better to be staying in this …

Look at this incredible campervan conversion 😱

But this is the nearest I get 🤷‍♀️

So instead I just kept pottering around outside whenever I could. I made this new little area in the garden.

I’ve taken the peas out now and just let my strawberries take over the recycling bin. So 🤞 for lots more 🍓 next year.

I love this pretty little flower.

Oh and I also went walking. I always look out for the birds on these telephone wires when I’m passing.

At the beginning of August there were this many!

Zoom in to see the birds! They seem to meet up here every day in the early evening!

Such beautiful blue sky’s we’ve been having ☀️

Monday 7th to Sunday 13th September

Organ Donation Week.

Time for some promotion! This year I did an interview for the radio station Capital North Oxfordshire and also very briefly spoke on Radio Oxford.

Share Your Wishes, a Facebook group whose name I think explains what they do! were ‘encouraging everyone to grab a cuppa with your loved ones and share your wishes about organ donation’, so of course we joined in …

It was also International PBC Day on Sunday.

I spent some of my day enjoying the warm sunshine and pottering in my garden. Nothing different there then, as we’ve had such lovely weather that’s usually where I can be found 👩‍🌾

Looks like I need to find myself a car now for all my succulents!

Friday 28th August to Sunday 6th September

Going to work and back pain – the two don’t go together very well 😖

Bank Holiday Weekend was a bit of a letdown this year 😖

I was hoping to have been at The Big Feastival like in previous years.

It’s on Alex James’ farm in a village very close to us. It’s a real treat to go there. But of course Covid-19 stopped it for this year.

“The highlight of the summer is having you join us on the farm but the safety of everyone always has to come first. I will miss your smiling faces in the Cheese Hub and in front of the Main Stage. My heart goes out from my family to yours. Stay safe, keep well and I can’t wait to see you in 2021. Let’s make it a bumper one!” Alex James

Both Robyn and Leah went away for a couple of days and got to breathe some sea air, they kindly left some little snack treats for me, of course I haven’t eaten them yet!

And then it became September.

It started with a couple of lovely sunsets 🌅

And the hanging basket I made is still looking well 🌸👍

Have a look at this.

“So very grateful to our 14 year old daughter who has created daily chalk art for the last 95 days to entertain her little brother, who’s in each drawing. He’s travelled the world all from our driveway. This art gives us something good to look forward to every day.”

Here’s just a few of her pics.

You can see all her art on Instagram @macairesmuse

Wednesday 19th to Thursday 27th August

About a month late (due to the lockdown ending, going back to work and mainly thanks to my painful back) but myself and Robyn were determined to do it …

we finished every session of PE with Joe 😀

We both enjoyed doing this together. It has been good for us and it helped us to get through when some of our days were tough.

So thank you Joe Wicks 👍

Watch – A look back on 13 weeks of PE with Joe

Proud to be one of Joe’s Class of 2020 💪

I think the following video will only really mean something to those of us that took part every day.

So now watch another version of PE with Joe 🤸🏻‍♂️

From the background set to the cute exercises and then his silly lean back at the end – I LOVE it 😍

What a lovely doorstep delivery treat. Mmm thanks 😋

It feels like I haven’t had a decent evening walk across the fields for a while now. It was very enjoyable and good for my head.

Wednesday 12th to Tuesday 18th August

Here I am in my lovely Co-op uniform and face shield! Back to work I go.

So after planting the seeds, watering them every day, falling into the container and hurting my leg, regularly tying them onto their support canes as they grew taller, trying to find out what was eating them and spraying them … this is what all my pea plants gave me, TWO tiny peas!!!

Maybe I should just stick to growing strawberries 🍓

Look at this tiger 🐅

Friday 7th to Tuesday 11th August

A night at the drive in 📽

Blimey the weather has been SO hot! ☀️🥵

I should have been busy packing and maybe now enjoying some of this hot sunshine on the beach down in Cornwall, but unfortunately the holiday all had to be cancelled ☹️

I bet this is the seagulls in Cornwall at the minute now that all the tourists have gone back!

Look at these beautiful flowers given to me by a friend.

I think they might be my new favourite flowers 💐

Friday 31st July to Thursday 6th August

So at the weekend my car finally got fixed 😱

The part was fitted, the battery was taken off and got completely charged up.

And it now works!!!

Also shielding has ended.

After 137 days – FREEDOM!

During this lovely lockdown 😖 I’ve had to endure a painful and swollen leg from falling into my peas! I’ve had a very painful back, there have been a few times when I’ve felt unwell (although thankfully nothing serious), I’ve spent some of the time on my own and felt rather lonely, I’ve had a broken down car for just over 3 weeks with lots of stress trying to get it fixed, and other things …

Of course there have been some good things that have happened too. I’ve been able to spend lots of time in my garden which I have really enjoyed, I’ve been on some lovely walks, and the weather has been very good to us generally.

I wonder how the rest of the year will treat us all?

There was a little trip out to visit this field of sunflowers 🌻

Remember I previously mentioned the ‘Heart at Home’ campaign, this was to thank everyone for staying home and protecting the most vulnerable.

It has now come to an end. To see all of the amazing hearts from the artists and illustrators that supported the campaign, click below.

#HeartAtHome