So I clearly got bored of logging our weekly activity…or inactivity, due to the restrictions. I am still super busy but our house routines are now very set and it does seem to suit the boys (or one of them, anyway).
What we are eating:

I had to stop baking sweet things as it seems we have no willpower. One of the last bakes was blueberry crumble muffins by (again) Ottolenghi. I made wild garlic and cheese muffins the same day and we hoovered those too.

We had another birthday and that has been the only other bake (except bread) over the past few weeks – Delia’s Ultimate Carrot Cake. Scrumtious.
I bake bread twice a week using a sourdough starter that I keep in the fridge. I’m lazy so I keep it simple. Recipe to follow.

I now get a delivery a week from Ocado. We often get substitutions and a few missing items but nothing we haven’t been able to manage and I make a point of using up everything, including making stock from the bones, which is something I always done anyway.

Jamie Oliver ran a few campaigns to save British farms and I was happy to support those. We bought a fish box from Chalk Stream trout farms and I was VERY happy with the fish that arrived. I’ve also started getting a monthly meat box via Field and Flower as I wanted to buy the duck box they were selling to support another farm. The meat box has been a real hit for us, it’s not cheap but high quality meat, fish and cheese shouldn’t be and I’m happily to supplement our regular food shopping with a monthly delivery of such delicious food, knowing I’m supporting small British producers. Field and Flower sell Chalk Stream too so in future I can support them this way too.
Food has been our main expense over the past few weeks. Having the boys home all of the time means they eat constantly, but then I’m saving on their school meals and we don’t eat out (not that we did much anyway). I am normally quite good at budgeting our food with careful planning but it’s gone a bit ad hoc since lockdown and I am too afraid to see how much it all adds up to.

My sister dropped off birthday gifts for the boys as she passes our house on the way to work and she left me a posy of herbs on the doorstep too. My kind of gift – she knows me well.
During the day we have been:
Well, the boys have been at virtual school using Microsoft Teams and some video. I have still been running Foster Restaurant (seriously, they NEVER stop eating) and trying to catch up in needed DIY and sewing. So far I have mended the dripping kitchen tap, the lawnmower and the powerhose. They all needed spare parts ordering and fitting. I’ve tanked out our brick outhouse, fitted a window in it and levelled the floor with a concrete screed. I am half way through replacing all the blown double glazing units in the house and lots of painting jobs. Sounds productive but all of these things desperately needed doing anyway and I feel more justified finding the time when my online shop is temporarily closed (as I can’t make daily trips to the Post Office to send parcels).

I’ve also been doing jigsaws in the evening and drinking wine.
We left the house for:
Picking up prescriptions and that has been it. Actually that’s a lie, I walked up to the Spa at the top of the road for potatoes and ricotta cheese!
TV and film watching:
Oh there has been loads but I can’t remember most of it right now. ‘Homecoming’ on Netfix was good as was ‘Little Fires’ and ‘Upload’ on Amazon Prime. ‘Devs’ on BBC was Ok and I enjoyed ‘Killing Eve’ (series 3). My favourite recent watch has been ‘White Lines’ on Netflix which was awesome. I’m now watching ‘Dead to Me’ and ‘Snowpiercer’ (both on Netflix) having mostly given up on the BBC and ITV.
Reading:
I finally finished ‘The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock’ and moved on to some old books that have been waiting to be read including ‘Clock Dance’ by Ann Tyler which was Ok-ish. I’ve just started ‘The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper’ by Hallie Rubenhold which is meant to be very good.
That’s it really. Just as everyone else is starting to go out more we are about to enter into 4 weeks of isolation as my youngest needs spinal surgery. I plan to make use of the ‘bubble’ opportunity in coming days by (likely) linking us with my Sister’s household and hopefully we will get out on some walks now that local places are opening back up before we get given a surgery date and have to stay at home again.
New hens in the next post (if I get around to photographing them!!).