Lockdown diaries - week 5 🌼

Time has become irrelevant and meaningless, I can't believe it's week 5 but I'm not sure if that is because it's gone slowly or quickly. Who knows. The prospect of lockdown ending is starting to linger on the horizon, I'm starting to wonder what it will be like to return to "normal" (if we ever will?) and how I'll feel having to do things again like working and having commitments.

Day 29 (Tuesday 21st April) - did a facemask, had breakfast and watched Friends (the one where Ross said Rachel YIKES), fed the snails, did my week 4 blog post, had lunch and watched Friday Night Dinner, put new ink cartridges in the printer, went for a bike ride and it was hot outside! We fed grass to our favourite horse and tried to feed cows but didn't succeed, got home and watched the University Challenge final, I made prawn crackers to go with Dad's delicious curry, then we videocalled the siblings, and had a big slice of Dad's victoria sponge and watched Killing Eve! Followed by Friday Night Dinner and some knitting.

Day 30 (Wednesday 22nd) - went for a run (separately and listened to podcasts), stretched, showered, prayed together, and then made bacon sandwiches for breakfast! Went to town to drop some hair clippers to my brother (emergency lockdown haircut), collect my asthma meds from the pharmacy, and do our first shop in Asda to get a microwave etc etc. I cut out pictures from last year's calendar (The Simpsons) and listened to a podcast. Ed made risotto for dinner and we watched The Good Life, then ate some victoria sponge. Zoom house group! Friday Night Dinner! Then I stayed up too late making funny edits of Tom.

The tiniest daffodil I've ever seen

Day 31 (Thursday 23rd) - had a lazy morning with Tom, breakfast and Friends, made a banana cake! Cheesy leftover beef toastie for lunch, had a nice walk and my shoes rubbed so I went bare foot and the ground was so hot! Watched The Sewing Bee, watched a bit of the news, breast of lamb for tea, watched The Big Night In and clapped for carers. Ed and I heard an owl outside.

Day 32 (Friday 24th) - breakfast and Friends, gave the snails some of their special porridge, went on a bike ride! Finally put up my homemade curtains, lunch and Friday Night Dinner, tidied the house, fish and chips, made some bread dough, watched Gardeners' World, spoke to my sister on the phone.

Day 33 (Saturday 25th) *the day that was supposed to be our wedding day* -  overslept with Tom, fed the snails, ate pain au chocolat for breakfast, watched Saturday Morning Kitchen, did some colouring, baked our sourdough and ate some for lunch, went to bed and tried to sleep because I felt sad, went for a walk around the lake and talked about feelings, got some bits from Spar (Ed went in and I waited outside and saw a cute dog), had yum leftovers for tea, followed by the chocolate fountain! Ed and I watched My Neighbours The Yamadas.

Long ducks at the lake

Day 34 (Sunday 26th) - woke up earlier than usual and read my book (I'll Never Be Young Again, an underrated Daphne du Maurier), did some skipping in the garden (with a skipping rope), showered and then had a healthy breakfast consisting of sourdough, banana cake, and pain au chocolat, watched some cooking programmes, then had church livestream, followed by a zoom call, then called the family. Chip butties for lunch (healthy), then did some collaging and listened to Imogen Heap, went for a walk and picked a tiny bouquet, won my first thing on eBay! Watched some news, The Simpsons, then Inside The Factory about Heinz vegetable soup. Nice dins, then Dad's speciality treacle sponge (would recommend isolating with a chef 👌), a cuppa, and The Good Life. Then Ed and I did some reading.

Day 35 (Monday 27th) - got woken up by Tom and decided not to go back to sleep (ish), fed the snails, breakfast and Friday Night Dinner, finished my collage, phoned my grandma, recorded worship songs for Sunday, had lunch and more Friday Night Dinner, went in the loft to look for something, made a video documenting my snails' growth, knitted, had dinner, went for a nice walk around the block with an ice cream, cuppa, watched Grayson's Art Club and Killing Eve.

One of the cats we spotted on our walk

Other news (minutiae):

• The mystery bean I planted in week 1 is now much taller than me and we are going to move it outside. 
• My new monstera deliciosa leaf is almost unfurled.
• I am knitting lots still.
• My sore foot from the rubbing shoe is healing.
• There have been nice shadows in my room this week.

Lockdown diaries - week 4 🍞

So lockdown was extended by another three weeks, here we are again! More of my pleasantly uneventful documents for you to look forward to.

Day 22 (Tuesday 14th April) - woke up at 6am and went to our new house to receive a washing machine delivery (my first time driving in 3 weeks!), the delivery arrived at 8am ish then we ate breakfast and watched Friends, I spent some time struggling with the sewing machine and then we came home for lunch, more Friends, knitted, watered my succulents, spoke to Elli on the phone, had a mini nap, wrote blog recap number 3, had dinner, watched a programme about dogs and then Killing Eve!

Day 23 (Wednesday 15th April) - fed Tom and had a shower, prayed with Ed, crumpets and Friends, knitting, did the Radio Devon quiz, prepared for house group, leftovers for lunch, went for a walk around the block, watched Edward Scissorhands on tv, had a pasty for dinner and watched The Simpsons, then zoom house group yay! Reading in bed.

Day 24 (Thursday 16th April) - reading, breakfast and watched Lambing Live (very cool), researched about the dodgy sewing machine, went on a bike ride and met some sweet cows on the way! Ate lunch and watched Friends, I finished off the curtains so they're ready to hang once the right parts arrive, we watched episode 1 of Friday Night Dinner, had a yum dinner with Dad's favourite greek cheese. Then we started watching The Good Life, clapped for carers at 8pm, then Ed and I made our next batch of dough and set it to rise overnight, followed by some reading.

Day 25 (Friday 17th April) - it was raining so we didn't go for a run but did some work out videos instead (my quads hurt), washed some clothes, made drop scones for breakfast using some excess sourdough starter and watched Friday Night Dinner, browsed vintage dolls on eBay, baked our bread and ate some for lunch, I fed the snails and put my clothes away. Dad and I made scotch eggs for dinner (a great success) and then we watched some more of The Good Life. Ed and I had a zoom call with some of our Falmouth friends which was so nice and funny and made our hearts full of glee, followed by an episode of Friday Night Dinner and a cuppa to finish the night off.

Day 26 (Saturday 18th April) - *my legs/whole body hurt so bad from yesterday's work out* did a facemask, ate some sourdough for brekkie with Friends, knitted, cleaned out the snails (my order arrived containing fresh substrate and snail treats yay!), lunch and some more Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as it was on tv again lol, then I browsed more vintage dolls on eBay, we went for a walk around the houses nearby and saw 8 cats! Ate roast beef for dinner followed by bananas and custard 💛 and watched The Good Life, Ed and I watched a Louis Theroux documentary and then started Tiger King!

Day 27 (Sunday 19th April) - got up and discovered that Tom had been in some sort of situation last night, he was in pain and not himself at all...watched some cookery tv and ate breakfast, church livestream followed by a zoom sesh! It was fun to see everyone again for the first time in weeks. Dad discovered Tom had a wound so went to the vets and got him some medicine, then we had soup for lunch and I began sewing squares onto my blanket + Tiger King. Went for a lovely sunny walk to the lake then had a stir fry dinner while watching Inside The Factory about how they make Le Creuset pots (very interesting), Dad introduced us to a 1979 film called Being There and I worked on my blanket. Then more Tiger King.

Day 28 (Monday 20th April) - went for a 3.5 mile run and a quick stretching work out video, breakfast and Friends, scrolled eBay, ordered a prescription for some asthma meds, looked at microwaves online, read my book (The Marriage Book, would recommend), ate lunch and had a phonecall and sent an email to confirm our wedding is definitely not happening (boohoo), recorded some worship songs, sewed my blanket together, ate dinner and Dad introduced us to another film called Rain Man from 1988, then Ed and I finished Tiger King!

Additional notes:

• I have become addicted to eBay, scrolling through endless vintage dolls and job lots of retro McDonalds toys. I'm trying to fill the hole left by the absence of charity shops in my life at the moment. Lots of cool stuff but not very cheap, I haven't actually bought anything yet, just window shopping really. But there is quite a thrill as the time begins to run out and I wait to see how much the items go for.
• I didn't expect to get hooked on Tiger King, I hadn't even planned to ever watch it tbh. But it's so watchable in a flabbergasting way and very well made, also strangely emotional.
• Saturday marked 1 week until what was supposed to be our wedding but is now no longer thanks to corona. 
• Tom is much better now.
• My monstera deliciosa is growing a new leaf!

• There are 2 spiders living in my room, I'm pretty chill about it, it's nice to have the company.

(Ed and I once we move into our house)

Lockdown diaries - week 3 😴

I really don't know where this week went, I don't know what I did, what day is it? Where am I?

Day 15 (Tuesday 7th) - we stretched and went for a run (faster but my legs hurt), breakfast and Friends, I repotted a plant and took some cuttings, did my week 2 recap blog post, spoke to my grandma on the phone, knitted, did a newspaper puzzle, ate fish and chips for dins followed by pavlova! Ed and I had a cosy duvet on the sofa reading sesh (I'm reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) followed by some more Friends.

Tom the comforter

Day 16 (Wednesday 8th) - prayer with Ed (after a lie in cos I was up until 2am writing a blog post lol), Friends brek, knitted, tidied, watered my leafy plants, bought a washing machine (I am an adult!), recorded worship songs with Ed, soup lunch, made collages, spoke to Elli and Imogen on the phone, leftovers for dins with The Hairy Bikers on tv, then it was time for our 2nd house group via zoom! Was very funny. Then Ed and I watched videos of ravens speaking. 

Day 17 (Thursday 9th) - woke earlier than usual and had a shower, Dad made us scrambled eggs, did a newspaper crossword (didn't complete it), photographed my corvid collages (see my @handmadebethany instagram hehe), did another newspaper puzzle and listened to a podcast, collected pictures of Alice for a blog post, ate lunch in the sunny garden, Ed and I made sourdough and put it to prove, did an 8 mile bike ride which was wonderful, spicy curry and crumble for tea, tv, Ed and I watched Tales From Earthsea whilst our bread proved some more and then baked and we finally got to eat some at about 1.30am. Woof.

Day 18 (Friday 10th) - overslept lol, Good Friday Service at 10am, ate sourdough for breakfast, did some colouring in my Downton Abbey book, listened to a podcast, paid my car tax, ate a sausage sandwich for lunch, fixed my dungarees which I ripped the other day, we went for a walk in the sun and brought bread and mealworms to feed the birds and squirrels, we saw a terrapin! Ed and I made yum roast pork and veg for tea then ate Biscoff cheesecake, we watched Gardeners' World and then Interstellar.

Nice sunrise light before I went back to sleep 

Day 19 (Saturday 11th) - went for a run (first one without an extra layer over my t-shirt), bacon and egg sarnies for breakfast, phoned my family and it was what I needed, recorded worship with Ed, made my Alice blog post, ate the last of the sourdough, knitted whilst watching David Attenborough, it rained for the first time in ages! Ate yum pasta and greek salad whilst Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was on the tv, then we watched Captain Corelli's Mandolin with Dad's homemade chocolate cake.

Didn't take any pics worth mentioning today, have a selfie 

Day 20 (Sunday 12th) - brekkie and Friends, Easter Sunday livestream at 10.30am, knitting, soup lunch, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was on tv so we tuned in, zoom called Ed's family and then called my siblings, ate dinner and watched Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, then Food Unwrapped and we ate chocolate cake. Ed and I started The Nest.

Sleeping on my lap during church

Day 21 (Monday 13th) - went for a run and saw a heron and some ducklings, ate marmite toast for breakfast, Dad made some nice fruit juice, watched Friends, basically sat on the sofa all day, knitted, did a Björk blog post, watched The Nest, spoke to my grandma on the phone, ate an omelette for tea, watched Mastermind and University Challenge (felt dumb lol), and then finished The Nest.

Extra notes:

• As you might have noticed, this week has involved a lot more sitting on the sofa and watching tv, it's like the motivation I had in week 1 is slowly decreasing and turning to sluggishness, but that's ok, I'm knitting as I sit.
• Knitting is my main project at the moment, I'm trying to complete a blanket I've been slowly working on for about 5 years.
• The more I go running the more I hate running, we've been going roughly every other day these 3 weeks and it's still boring and I still have asthma.
• This was the weirdest Easter, apart from the church livestream and the eating of chocolate eggs it just felt like another day in lockdown. 
• I dowloaded a disposable camera app on my phone, I used to be against them but I got over my snobbishness and took some cool pics of my plants.

Ok goodbye.

Reminiscing ~~~ Björk at The Eden Project 🌻

On 7th July 2018 I took a solo trip to see Björk at The Eden Project and it's one of my top 10 best memories. For some reason I never got round to sharing much about it so here I am, almost 2 years later revisiting it in my slightly hazy memory.

This was my first time going to a concert by myself, normally I wouldn't feel cool doing that but this was The Eden Project, surely the safest, most wholesome venue there could be? I didn't (still don't) know anyone else who is a big Björk fan so didn't really feel comfortable asking a friend to pay money to see someone they didn't like lol. PLUS the venue was only an hour's drive from where I lived so that was easy (of course I listened to Mama Björk all the way). The great thing about going to a gig at Eden is that with the price of the ticket you also get entry into the sight for the whole day and the day after too! Nice. 

The concert was at about 7pm probably? I can't actually remember - so I arrived at about 3pm to give me a few hours to wander round and see the sights. It was one of the hottest days of the year, I can remember being very sweaty.

Weirdly the merch stand was right at the entrance of the sight, there was a bit of an underwhelming selection but I had to pick up something (more on that later!), then I got my wristband and headed to the biomes! It was fun spotting other people with wristbands around and about and knowing they had an odd music taste like me.

I based my outfit loosely on Björk's Vulnicura album 

with its purple and yellow colour scheme (I'm a nerd).

After a glorious stroll amongst the plants I went to go and queue up, maybe around 6? I found a gathering of people all sitting around in the shade under some trees and went and joined them, I found out that these were the super keen early birds and everyone in this area was going to be let in first so we'd be able to get to the front of the stage. This was exciting. I ended up chatting to a lady and her daughter who sat next to me, it was the little girl's first ever concert (cool kid), if I remember correctly they were eating burritos. 

The stage

I ended up getting a spot right at the barrier which I thought was great, until I realised I was very close the speakers on the right hand side of the stage. Spoiler: speakers are bad. But I wasn't giving up my chance to come face to face with Björk so I endured. And endurance it was, I won't mince my words, the support acts were...questionable at best and horrific at worst 😂 The first was just a man DJing I think? It was just BEATS and NOISE and he didn't interact with the audience once, so it felt kind of awkward. The second was a...group...of women, there were three I think, maybe more...and they performed ? In a very surreal way, it wasn't quite music...more like spoken word poetry with dance moves and laughter? I preferred it to the first act though so I politely smiled through it and maybe even enjoyed some moments. I think the Fine Art student in me was used to sitting through completely strange performances where you're not sure what's happening and whether you're supposed to be getting something deep and meaningful from it, so I tried to interpret it through that lens, can't remember what conclusion I came to though. I didn't even get any footage of these acts so you'll just have to take my word for it and use your imagination (and then times that by 100 weirdness).

Björk FINALLY came on at about 9.15pm (yes there was 2+ hours of standing around in the sun with a bunch of weary strangers listening to those supports, not complaining just setting the scene) and it was wonderful. It made all the discomfort worth it ✨✨✨✨✨ The opening song was Arisen My Senses and now whenever I hear that song it brings back the anticipation and excitement of the moment she appeared on stage! 

My photos are bad but just trust me, it was an aesthetic feast for the eyes. Lots of colourful lighting and amazing footage of flowers and wildlife on the screen behind, incredible costumes and the staging was a whole theatrical production with foliage and pink. 

It had a very different vibe to any concert I've been to before, firstly because it was outside, but also the audience was different. No one danced or moved really which I found weird, I would have had a boogie but it felt awkward when no one else was. I think some people weren't massive Björk stans but they just knew a few of her old, more famous songs and then were disappointed because she mainly played new songs? Probably people who liked her when she was big in the 90s and were there for a throwback but were confused when she didn't do any of her big bangers. I don't know, I was having a great time on my own though!

Eden at night is a cool experience! It takes ages to leave once the show is over so everyone is in a big queue winding up the path to the exit and you get nice views like this:

It was all over by about 11pm and then I was home around midnight. I remember sitting in bed feeling too hyped up to sleep! All in all it's a really fun memory, the bad bits are just funny to look back on and the good bits are all nostalgic and special. The fact I went by myself and was slightly nervous made it more of a thing, and getting to explore the biomes beforehand was nice. Basically The Eden Project was the dream location for a concert!

This is the bag I got from the merch stand, it has lyrics from this song  (click for the link). 

I made this chaotic and colourful video way back in 2018 but for some reason never felt satisfied enough to post it. Because I was s o  c l o s e  to the speakers all my videos turned out like ALKSDFB;AKSDBFAD;BFAFS;B;KF (really boomy and bassy to the point of being unrecognisable), so I decided to use the few bits of sound which turned out ok and then make more of a visual collage of a video. Revisiting it now I actually like the outcome so I just posted it today without editing anything. Enjoy (which btw is actually the name of a Björk song)

P.S. - I only found out that this magical AND local Björk concert was happening because I was in HMV buying her latest album on CD and the guy on the till told me about it! Shout out to that guy! I was in disbelief because I never actually thought I'd ever get to see Björk, let alone just down the road. That's why I jumped at the chance, it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

This was fun to look back on...remember what it was like to actually go out? and interact ? with other humans? Wow what a concept