Sue Doo
This is one of the few times in my life I’ve not been accountable for what I do day to day. It is probably the same for many of us. At the outset of lockdown, none of us had a real idea of how long it would last, leaving us in a limbo of priorities varying from loo roll, hand sanitiser, elderly relatives and loss of employment. The fabulous weather, late evening walks, meals outside have given time a strange elasticity. On one hand, days seem to stretch luxuriously, on the other weeks have gone past without being noticed. Equally contradictory, I’m aware of being wasteful of my time, yet alive to other lives being cut short.
After Mothering Sunday in Letchworth, I stayed to make up a household with daughter Pip, son-in-law Joe and Beatrice, three next week. The cat came too, which has had an important effect as Joe, not so keen on having a pet, has now agreed they will have a kitten. All down to Gentleman Trim. You may know that my husband Mike has been based in The Netherlands for work, so I am used to being alone and getting up at what seems a very sensible hour of 8.30. What a change! Around six in the morning, I was ready to play any game, read any book, and found myself in a curious world of imagination, chases and questions. It was great fun and good luck to have three weeks of this, though the thought of resting sometime soon did appeal.
Rest didn’t come straight away. We’d planned to celebrate Mike’s retirement with a month in Italy. Good choice eh! He went to Sicily and I was to join him after our choir weekend - remember those, but my day of travel was when all of Italy, not just the north, went into lockdown. We had an anxious week as he tried to get out of Sicily and back to Amersfoort. The position was made more difficult by his having to clear his rented flat by the end of April, not easy by yourself and when businesses are closed. He has found new skills in specialist cleaning, which I’m sure will be put to good use.
Repatriation to one’s own country is considered essential travel. I set off to collect Mike by car. It was an adventure, after being stuck in one place, to drive through the dawn countryside towards Harwich, the ferry - and Mike!
So the two of us were apart for almost two months, and now we are together ALL THE TIME! A lot of sorting and preparing to recycle. There’s so much duplicated household kit – it’s like two singletons marrying late and not being sure what to do with all the stuff. There is also more still in storage in Amersfoort as we couldn’t get a van to carry everything back.
In my fabric box there is a remnant of silk embroidered with crescent shapes, bought from Liberty, that I’ve been shy of cutting into for over twenty years. But I dived in and have made a jacket, finishing it off with handstitching to decorate it but also strengthen the cuffs and button stand. Hand-sewing, if you like it of course, is one of those pastimes that is relaxing as it needs a certain amount of careful concentration which releases your mind to think, or not think, as you choose.
Mostly the latter in my case. I was due to visit a friend in April and to see the Walker Gallery exhibition of An English Lady’s Wardrobe, but caught a virtual tour instead.
I’ve always enjoyed cooking with yeast, but now I make all our bread and some for others too. I’d recommend Elizabeth David’s English Bread and Yeast Cookery, which is as much a reference book as a recipe book. The other useful one is How to Make Bread by Emmanuel Hadjandreou. Because the weather has been so dry, I have also been doing rather a lot of exterior paintwork. For this, I’d recommend getting someone else to do it.
Lots of people have been able to do more in the garden and ours does look pretty good. Most pleasing is the wildflower patch which is now in its second summer. In part, I made it so Beatrice could run down the middle on the grassy path with wildflowers high above her head. Hopefully, she will be able to do this before she gets too tall. The other reason was to attract insects. The seeds were bought from Boston Seeds who have expert information on what to choose for your ideas and location. Not many butterflies yet, but the bees have arrived. Here is a before and after…
It does seem that we hear more as the traffic, never very noisy here, is much reduced. But it took me a while to realise that the church clock, which usually sounds the hour, has stopped. The hands stand at noon, but this is not ominous, it’s only that the mechanism needs an update which can’t be done just now. The bees are certainly busy, and I caught the sound of the cuckoo from our garden in the centre of the village, rather than when out walking in the fields. This was on May 5th, which was when my brother in Leighton Buzzard heard the sound too. Surely not the same bird. It did remind me that we were to sing Sumer is a-coming in.
I do miss choir, it is one of the very few ‘organised’ things I do with a group of people. Many of my interests are solitary – as for writing a blog I hardly think what I do is significant enough to take up other people’s time – so I’ve never written one before. You may say, why break the habit of a lifetime, why did she start with us? Well, I miss you and hope we can be together and sing together soon.
Sue
Sumer is a-coming in
Performers - Team Alto
Brave one that started off - Kate H
Soloists - Everyone
Audio mixing - Joo. Elle. EE.
Producer - P. Diddly m’Julie
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