The Thrifty Times Issue Six

So it's been another busy  if not thrilling week of lock-down activities. This was the day I sorted out all my scarves and rolled them so they'd take up less room. I have lots as you can tell, but I wear all of them regularly. Once upon a time I had a striking set of unusual earrings, but I had to give up wearing them when my pierced ears would no longer play ball. The ones hanging up on the back of the chair as gifts from TYM after his stints in Bangladesh and Uganda. I just love the stories they tell of his time out there.

One of the things Mr GBT and I have spoken about is even the simplest decision seems to require so much more thinking and discussing these days. We are on our last toothbrush heads...do we do click and collect from one of the shops in town? risk the supermarket? [not keen....prospect makes me too anxious at the moment] or look online. We chose the latter and then had to research the cheapest way of doing it, as I'm not able to resume work yet so every outlay is being kept as low as possible. Sussed it eventually and we're now well stocked, but we've had the same discussions around vegetable seeds. Not quite so laboured as we've been growing for a while so have already narrowed our choices down...new on the list to try is kale. Then there was compost.....thankfully that particular conundrum was easy to solve....nobly Mr GBT took on the unenviable task of digging out the compost bin, but we had enough to top up all of the raised beds.

Despite my somewhat laissez-faire attitude towards the garden it's all looking quite pretty. As the bluebells and forget-me-nots die back they're being replaced with lots of self seeded columbines and Welsh poppies. Then there was the mass of pretty leaves that I left in situ...expecting it to be a forgotten perennial...I am now proud to say that I have a glorious blooming patch of buttercups!! N'er mind they'll be food for some mini beast or other. The garden birds are also stuffing their beaks. As feeding our feathered friends is a priority for us we dug deep and bought a 20kg sack of seeds. Without wishing to attract rodents or let them get wet we've split it into two bags...the paper one stays inside and I've reused the big plastic bag that TYM's delivery job kit came in. I knew I'd find a use for it!!

We're still mainly cooking from scratch aside from the odd reduced price pizza we buy.. It's good to have a night off once in a while. I risked the Nadiya Hussain's recipe for baked bean felafels with her version of coleslaw. It got the the thumbs up, but I missed out the egg because they would have been liquid otherwise. Also braved a rather unappetising looking bottom of the fridge soup to use the chicken stock and lurking veg...thank goodness it looked marginally less offensive once it had been blitzed!!

Entertainment wise can I just say how taken I am with Grayson Perry's programme over on Channel 4. I've been an admirer of his wife for a long time, but hadn't really taken much notice of him. He talks a lot of sense and is very down to earth around the whole subject of art. Being me I had completely ignored all mention of "The Crown" as we don't have Netflix here [don't watch enough TV anyway under normal circumstances]. However, TYM did subscribe [cancelled now] so before it ran out I binge watched all three series...typical of me. All or nothing. I did exactly the same with Peaky Blinders. I very rarely watch films either, but armed with the stitching below I have settled down well over a couple of afternoons and enjoyed some of the offerings on I-player. This heart is the start of a folk art hanging project I have in mind for our bedroom. It will take shape slowly over time as I want to be sure I'm happy with the end result.

Both of us are missing the live folk sessions we were going to every few weeks at the local folkclub. Listening to a live session over on FB last Friday night with a glass of homemade wine made as good a substitute as possible. It was Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll and the recording is still up on their page if you're a folkie. Here's my very own folk musician...during the clap for the NHS we've discovered that one of our neighbours plays the ukulele. She started off by just strumming chords, but as the weeks have progressed she has moved on to playing a well known song with all of us joining in. Mr GBT had a socially distanced chat with her last week and she popped the chords through our door so he could join in. He'll be performing again tomorrow.  We've said that we're going to throw a street party once we can all get together properly...one to look forwards to eh!

As a final footnote....we treated ourselves to a takeaway last night. TYM heard this week that he's got his degree with the mark that he'd worked so hard for. Mixture of relief and parental pride here at GBT!

Arilx

Along the way.

Photos from last week's walks. We made a few detours and waddled a little off piste to ring in the changes as I don't want it to become a set routine. The taking of photos is an outlet for me to record both my memories and this period of how different people are responding publically to the changes affecting them.

If you're going for a spare wheel cover be bold and distinctive I say....this reminds me greatly of the Mythago drummer with his skull mask....

We ventured over into a nearby village one evening...behind this gate is a most gorgeous black and white timbered building...all wonky angles where the original wood twisted because it wasn't seasoned at the time. The gate in front has an interesting set of patterns with with the metal grate interspersed between the paving stones.

This is what happens to all those lost golf balls when the golf course has been closed for a while...people find them and make contemporary art!!

A beautiful little nod being made to Beltane here with the white spray of flowers methinks...how this tree has not fallen into the river below with all its roots so exposed is beyond me, but there it has stood in this same state for many a year.

The redbrick building is a former water mill. Last time I looked it was a vet's practice, but time has moved on and now it's a canine grooming salon. Rather liked the play on words from the Hairy Bikers!

Finally it wouldn't be one of these posts if it didn't feature a rainbow....except it's a real one this time....I have of course outrageously twonked about with the colours just for my own personal interest. It didn't look remotely like that, but I've enjoyed creating the effect just for the hell of it! I've got to get my highs where I can these days😈

Arilx

Living the High Life!

The living wall in Horsham was planted up on the side of a new carpark last year and met with rather a mixed reaction. I photographed it back then and walked past it again the other night. I think it's come into its own and was looking stunning in the low evening sunlight. The shot of crimson running through it is down to the Valerian.

Appreciating these simple outdoor pleasures seem even more precious at the present time.

Arilx

Bigwig

[Image from Pixabay]

Nowadays the term "bigwig" isn't a complimentary one, but when it first came into usage it meant a very important person who literally could afford the biggest wig made from human hair [horsehair was for those of lower means]. People have been dressing their hair for thousands of years and adapting their styles to meet the changing whims of fashion.

Currently it seems that we're obsessed with hair removal in parts of our body [even inside nostrils now I gather] and then having extra hair in others [eyelashes, big beards, hair extensions] and dyeing it the most fabulous range of colours. I was a little flummoxed when a much younger family member coloured her hair grey when I'm here adding in pink foils to deflect some of it [not possible under the current circumstances]. It did look amazing though I have to say. It's not the first time that grey has featured as a fashion colour either. The later 17th century Kings wore grey wigs and even today members of the legal profession still wear them to add formality and an air of wisdom/experience to the court proceedings.

Typically the only wig I ever wore was a long burgundy Cher one for a fancy dress charity fund raising event at work some years ago...that'll be about right!!

Arilx

Extracting the Michael

Normally I'd have been out shaking my bells at some May day/Beltane themed bash...this year we were due to be back at the Rochester sweeps festival which we've done most regularly over the years.  From time to time we've done the famous Jack-in-the-Green down in Hastings and they're doing a virtual parade this time round. I miss all the fun and spectacle of these events as well as the earthy humour. This song "Morris Dance" by the Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican takes the rise out of us perfectly and touches upon many true aspects of being part of the very eccentric parallel universe I'm a proud part of!!

It made me hoot with laughter!

Arilx

Challenging

"Challenging" is one of those words that makes me want to dive for cover at the moment....you immediately assume it's going to be something heavy and miserable....my personal challenge has been a tough one to meet, but I have bravely risen to it and met it head on. Thankfully there's been nothing more difficult for me than to take photos on my daily walk that are coloured themed with one specified per day on a local FB group I've joined. Usually I'm really bad at doing this sort of thing...if I manage to build up sufficient enthusiasm in the first place to even get started [that's a miracle in itself...I'm not a very good joiner-in!] then generally I fall off the radar very quickly.

Having been a bit apathetic with the purple and green I finally got my backside into gear with yellow.  I rather gloomily predicted to Mr GBT that I didn't reckon I'd find anything beyond a dandelion to show on our evening walk, but like a good girl took my phone just in case! Turns out there's bleeding yellow everywhere once you start looking! So what have I learnt about this little experiment? If I photograph bits of other objects that matched the brief you get quite interesting shapes and suitable candidates were to be found high and low. Generally people tend to stick to white or fairly dark colours for their front doors, but there are those [like me who has a pillar box red one] who have gone rogue...the town has colours in all shades rainbow shades bar orange [or not that I could find anyway!!].

In the end I completed the yellow, red, orange, blue, pink, white and black/silver days. For such a simple thing it really added an extra dimension to our nightly sortie....even if TYM would have rather liked to have disowned his Mother when he joined us on one of them!!

Arilx

Beltane 2020

 

The May blossom is out in all its beauty around my little corner of West Sussex. Locally it was once known as the Cuckoos' Bread and Cheese Tree. Others may know it as the White Thorn or more commonly the Hawthorn.

If you follow the old ways may I take this opportunity to wish you Beltane blessings.

Arilx