Clocking up the Miles

Thank you to all of your lovely comments on my last post, wishing me well after my recent illness.  I am completely recovered now.  My husband who was unwell at the end of last week went into work on Monday morning feeling better, a work colleague had tested positive for COVID over the weekend and as he had been working closely with her last week thought it wise to do one himself.  It was positive too so he came home for the rest week.  I took several tests last week when I was unwell which were all negative.  I was due to take Alice to her music group on Wednesday and got her to take a test which was also positive, she has no symptoms and apart from her day on the sofa last week she is has been fine since and has tested negative today.  Cameron has to take a test several times a week for college, his have all been negative too.  All rather strange.

My husband being at home, meant that Cameron needed taking to college this week.  They normally go together, his campus is handily a fifteen minute walk from Dad's work place.  I have forgotten what it is like to do so much driving.  In the time before COVID I was doing over 200 miles a week driving every day to home ed groups, classes and meet ups all over the place.  They never really got going again before Cameron started at college and Alice and I have chosen a more sedate pace to our week with two whole days at home each week.  I have driven everyday this week clocking up nearly 200 miles this week never more than 15 miles from home,  I am not used to this now and I am ready for a quiet weekend.

On one of those journeys to pick up Cameron I was thinking about all the driving I had been doing this week.  I was reminded of driving to my Grandparents who lived exactly 100 miles from my childhood home.  We didn't own a car until I was in eleven or twelve and I remember the first time we drove. it seemed so exciting to be driving there rather than taking all day to get there by train.  It still took three hours to do that journey, there was only about twenty miles of motorway on the route at that time, the rest was on slow winding roads.  That excitement did not last long.  The train was much more appealing than three hours squished into a car, you couldn't get up and walk around when you wanted to.  We would think nothing of driving 100 miles nowadays, I am sure you could do that journey in a fraction of the time now.  Life has sped up in ways that are not always totally positive.

My complete change of routine this week has meant another week of not doing very much housework apart from the bare minimum (laundry, changing beds and a cursory wipe down of surfaces in the bathroom).  I found a routine at the beginning of 2020 which has been working really well for me (my routine is a little different to suit my house/other routines).  Over the Christmas holidays the routine kind of stopped and truth be told it hasn't really got restarted what with one thing and another.  I know that once I get going again it won't be long before everything is how we like it.  I am not after a show home but there are a few too many cobwebs and dusty bunnies for my liking right now.   I am really hope that next week is a more normal week in every way shape and form and I can get back into my morning groove again.

When I was sorting out using a new site to manage the blogs I follow I realised that the settings on my own blog were not right.  After many hours searching online disappearing down several rabbit holes I managed to fix the problem.  I also discovered how to fix a different problem I couldn't seem sign into my blog properly on Safari which meant I couldn't comment without it being anonymous.  So for those of you that use Safari, have a blog hosted through blogger, and you have the same problem you need to go into Safari > Preferences > Privacy and untick the box website tracking: prevent cross site tracking.

I dusted off my sewing machine over last weekend.  I did not do very much sewing last year at all which is not like me.  A friend had a birthday this week and we always make gifts for each other.  I had been thinking about what to make her since the beginning of the month and had not been able to come up with anything.  I tried all my crafting books for inspiration but nothing seem quite right.  I resorted to the rabbit hole of Pinterest which I have a love/hate relationship with, one thing I do love is the ideas for this board facility which shows similar pins to those that you have on your boards.  After a few minutes of viewing those that came up on my sewing board I found what I was looking for.  I always completely underestimate how long things take to sew and thought this would take all weekend.  The only place I have to sew is on the dining room table which has to be cleared for meals and I need to take time out to prepare them too.  You can see why my sewing projects takes so long.  I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to get this all made in a one day, a major achievement.  Perhaps that is where I have been going wrong, I need to reframe things and think that a project will take a long time, equally that could completely back fire!

Now that I am fully recovered I have been enjoying my daily walk once more.  My intention to make this happen every day at some point is really working for me.  Wednesday is Camerons half day at college and I didn't want to come home after dropping him off, I filled the time he was in college with a lovely long walk around the edge of the town.  I love that you can leave a busy main road and within seconds be in a completely different environment, in this case a delightful river walk.  I was amazed to find a huge pool in the river round the back of a busy industrial estate, there were so many birds feeding it made me wish I had bought my binoculars with me, it felt like a hidden oasis.  I have also restarted my morning yoga practice which sets me up for the day, I didn't feel up to it when I was ill, it has been good to get that going again.

The yarn I ordered last week arrived really quickly,  I came back from a walk on Saturday to find it had been delivered.  The colour was perfect which I was really relieved about, it is always feels like a bit of a lottery ordering yarn online when you are looking for a particular shade.  I cast on straight away and have been busy knitting, it has been the perfect antidote to all the busyness I have had this week.  I was delighted to find a new, to me, yarn shop in the town where Cameron goes to college.  I only had time for a quick look round so I will have to go back and have a proper look, they also do fabric and had some wonderful sewing patterns too.  I am thinking that it could be a place that is rather dangerous for the wallet!

I hope you have had a good week, bye for now!