Monday, March 30, 2020
Wormery
I've been enjoying spending time in the garden. This little video shows my first experience of getting soil out of my wormery.
Day 8 of CoronaVirus Lockdown
The days are starting to run together a bit. There isn't a lot to distinguish between them. I've been reading about how best to cope with the stay-at-home instruction, and the advice seems to be have a routine of some sort. My routine at the moment involves breakfast in bed reading the newspaper on my iPad. Get up, check the chickens, then it varies. It all depends on my mood. I've been putting together little videos to go on YouTube and link back to this blog. Now that I'm back in the swing of blogging, it is quite nice to have that little bit of structure.
Last night I had a group accordion session with my No1 Ladies Accordion Orchestra. We all went online together and one lady would lead. We used Zoom. Mics were all muted so you could hear the lady who was leading and what you were playing. We then chatted a little between pieces. We had shared around all the music electronically beforehand. Debi could display the score for us via the main screen as the host if we needed it, but that made it difficult for her to join in. Most people had printed off copies. It was great fun.
I've learned a couple of German tunes from a harpist called Merit Zloch. The link below opens on Merit playing an original composition inspired by the Jim Henson movie, Labyrinth called Harfe: Reise ins Labyrinth which demonstrates some amazing sounds that can be made with a harp by somebody who is so musically creative. Merit comes over with other musicians and often teaches at Halsway Manor, the National Centre for Folk Art. Her live streamed workshop on Facebook was brilliant (and I might add the tunes she taught us were nowhere near as complex as the Labyrinth tune I've linked to here!). She should have been in the UK when this Coronavirus hit.
People are being very creative. Today I participated virtually to a great workshop by Ben from Shoot Gardening on how to get the most out of their their garden database, tools and planner. I've got a 5 year subscription to this but have hardly been using any of the features. Now that we are all homebound, I plan to really get into it. The workshop was really good - I took lots of notes.
Last night I woke up at about 1:10am and tossed and turned for a bit. When I did eventually get back to sleep I had odd dreams. I've read that this is not unexpected in this strange and rather surreal existence we are living. Talking to my friends in the orchestra, few of them have even left the house since the lockdown started last monday (possibly none of them apart from me).
On the news they are suggesting that this situation might persist for up to 6 months. I do hope not, but if it does, I guess we shall cope
The daily coronavirus update has just started on TV. Listening to it in the background while typing this. I guess this has become part of my daily routine.
Last night I had a group accordion session with my No1 Ladies Accordion Orchestra. We all went online together and one lady would lead. We used Zoom. Mics were all muted so you could hear the lady who was leading and what you were playing. We then chatted a little between pieces. We had shared around all the music electronically beforehand. Debi could display the score for us via the main screen as the host if we needed it, but that made it difficult for her to join in. Most people had printed off copies. It was great fun.I've learned a couple of German tunes from a harpist called Merit Zloch. The link below opens on Merit playing an original composition inspired by the Jim Henson movie, Labyrinth called Harfe: Reise ins Labyrinth which demonstrates some amazing sounds that can be made with a harp by somebody who is so musically creative. Merit comes over with other musicians and often teaches at Halsway Manor, the National Centre for Folk Art. Her live streamed workshop on Facebook was brilliant (and I might add the tunes she taught us were nowhere near as complex as the Labyrinth tune I've linked to here!). She should have been in the UK when this Coronavirus hit.
People are being very creative. Today I participated virtually to a great workshop by Ben from Shoot Gardening on how to get the most out of their their garden database, tools and planner. I've got a 5 year subscription to this but have hardly been using any of the features. Now that we are all homebound, I plan to really get into it. The workshop was really good - I took lots of notes.
Last night I woke up at about 1:10am and tossed and turned for a bit. When I did eventually get back to sleep I had odd dreams. I've read that this is not unexpected in this strange and rather surreal existence we are living. Talking to my friends in the orchestra, few of them have even left the house since the lockdown started last monday (possibly none of them apart from me).
On the news they are suggesting that this situation might persist for up to 6 months. I do hope not, but if it does, I guess we shall cope
The daily coronavirus update has just started on TV. Listening to it in the background while typing this. I guess this has become part of my daily routine.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Day 6 of UK Coronavirus lockdown
The UK has been on lockdown since last Monday. People seem to have slowly got used to things. I thought it might in interesting to redeploy my chicken blog to capture thoughts and experiences as we pass through this extraordinary period in history.
The guidelines are to stay at home, emerging only to buy food, for one exercise per day or to go to work if you are unable to work at home. As the week has gone by, shops have introduced measures - distancing using black and yellow tape on the floor, limiting the number of shoppers able to go in at any one time. Yesterday we went out to Tesco in Kingston Centre for the first time since last Saturday before the restrictions had been imposed. Last week, there had been huge panic buying with the shelves first cleared of loo roll and hand sanitiser, then more things such as pasta, rice, tinned tomatos, baked beans, everything from the freezer section. It had got quite worrying, but we figured that fresh food still seemed to be available so we wouldn't starve, so we didn't panic buy.
Yesterday at Tesco things were very different. Very calm. There were blue plastic gloves to pick up as you joined the back of the queue. There was tape on the ground to keep the queuing people 2m apart. As you approached the store, a lady cleaned the handle of the trolley and you were only allowed in if you were wearing blue gloves. Once inside the shopping experience was very calm. There was lots of produce on the shelves, but still no loo paper. I think to get loo paper, you'd need to go at 10am. Shops are limiting the 9am to 10am slot for the vulnerable and health workers.
I'm sat here now, at 4pm, watching the daily coronavirus update on TV. This feels very much like those films of families during the 2nd world war, gathered around their wireless radios. The Govt are trying to put financial support systems in place very fast to help people and businesses.
Locally, many of our local businesses are trying to diversify. The restaurants are doing meal delivery. Tonight we plan to have a take-out curry and watch a movie. We wandered down to the village and went into the Nonna's pop up store. Lots of eggs (currently in short supply). Lovely Italian restaurant. Hope it keeps going. They were clearly selling italian stuff that they had to make meals out of - big tins of tomatos etc, but had also sourced cleaning products and other useful things. At £5.50 per teeny slice, I thought the chocolate brownies were rather expensive - I guess they were made in house and that was the price you'd pay if you bought them for pudding at the restaurant.
Spending more time at home has its upside. I've planted lots of vegetable seeds and am spending lots more time with my chickens. I've made a few videos which I plan to upload to the blog. The chickens are becoming super super friendly - but are hardly laying any eggs! You'd think having chickens during a time of egg shortage would give me an advantage! Lazy little creatures.
The scary thing is that each day we get an update on how many people have died of the virus. Over 1000 today with the biggest daily increase so far. The prime minister tested positive yesterday after having symptoms. The chief medical officer as well, and the health minister. Hope they have it mildly as they are criticial to us getting through this.
The guidelines are to stay at home, emerging only to buy food, for one exercise per day or to go to work if you are unable to work at home. As the week has gone by, shops have introduced measures - distancing using black and yellow tape on the floor, limiting the number of shoppers able to go in at any one time. Yesterday we went out to Tesco in Kingston Centre for the first time since last Saturday before the restrictions had been imposed. Last week, there had been huge panic buying with the shelves first cleared of loo roll and hand sanitiser, then more things such as pasta, rice, tinned tomatos, baked beans, everything from the freezer section. It had got quite worrying, but we figured that fresh food still seemed to be available so we wouldn't starve, so we didn't panic buy.
Yesterday at Tesco things were very different. Very calm. There were blue plastic gloves to pick up as you joined the back of the queue. There was tape on the ground to keep the queuing people 2m apart. As you approached the store, a lady cleaned the handle of the trolley and you were only allowed in if you were wearing blue gloves. Once inside the shopping experience was very calm. There was lots of produce on the shelves, but still no loo paper. I think to get loo paper, you'd need to go at 10am. Shops are limiting the 9am to 10am slot for the vulnerable and health workers.
I'm sat here now, at 4pm, watching the daily coronavirus update on TV. This feels very much like those films of families during the 2nd world war, gathered around their wireless radios. The Govt are trying to put financial support systems in place very fast to help people and businesses.
Locally, many of our local businesses are trying to diversify. The restaurants are doing meal delivery. Tonight we plan to have a take-out curry and watch a movie. We wandered down to the village and went into the Nonna's pop up store. Lots of eggs (currently in short supply). Lovely Italian restaurant. Hope it keeps going. They were clearly selling italian stuff that they had to make meals out of - big tins of tomatos etc, but had also sourced cleaning products and other useful things. At £5.50 per teeny slice, I thought the chocolate brownies were rather expensive - I guess they were made in house and that was the price you'd pay if you bought them for pudding at the restaurant.
Spending more time at home has its upside. I've planted lots of vegetable seeds and am spending lots more time with my chickens. I've made a few videos which I plan to upload to the blog. The chickens are becoming super super friendly - but are hardly laying any eggs! You'd think having chickens during a time of egg shortage would give me an advantage! Lazy little creatures.
The scary thing is that each day we get an update on how many people have died of the virus. Over 1000 today with the biggest daily increase so far. The prime minister tested positive yesterday after having symptoms. The chief medical officer as well, and the health minister. Hope they have it mildly as they are criticial to us getting through this.
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Chicken pedicures
So, it is that time again. Despite my best efforts, my three little sabelpoots have got mud and poop all stuck around their little feet and their foot feathers. I decided to make a video of how I sort this out. In fine weather, it is actually quite nice. I'm sure it helps the chickens bond with me, the more handling the better. Enjoy the video
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