Genevieve's Blog begun March 21st 2020...

To be continued...

Tuesday May 12th

It’s a lot warmer today because the cold wind has gone away. After breakfast I did some more painting. Dad has an old postcard showing a family standing on Vicarage Hill. He made a black and white blow-up version of this for me to paint. Dad has given me a folder with plastic sleeves for my artwork.
We had soup and sandwiches for lunch, then I watched 'Only Fools and Horses' which was very funny. Later in the afternoon dad and I went out for a walk to the duck pond and dad showed me where the old mill had stood. We walked round the back and dad photographed some buttercups and horse chestnut flowers for me to paint.
For tea we had chunky fish fingers and leeks (my favourite!) and watched 'The Yorkshire Vet', always a bit gory, but interesting and a big favourite of mums. After that we watched ‘The A-word’ about Joe, an autistic boy. It made me feel both sad and happy…

Wednesday May 13th

It’s cloudy and chilly and the cold wind has come back! We won’t be going out today, so I’m going to do some painting and watch some more 'Only Fools and Horses'. Here’s my painting of dad’s old postcard of the family on Vicarage Hill and the photo he took of the horse chestnut flower on our walk yesterday
I’m looking forward to tea tonight as dad is cooking his sweet chicken curry with courgette and red pepper. There’s lots of chopping to do with the vegetables so guess what - dad puts on ‘Antiques Road-trip’ much to mum’s disgust!

Thursday May 14th

It’s nice and bright, but not the warmest day, but dad and I decide to brave it and do some work in the garden. I do more clipping and dad finishes repairing the doors on the summerhouse. We watered our young plants and seeds that are still being protected from frost. Suddenly it clouded over and got quite chilly, so we went inside. Dad printed me some more flower pictures and I did some more painting.
We’ve had a delivery today and it’s the new dimmer for my broken bedroom light - another job for dad! For tea dad cooked liver and bacon and it was very yummy!

Friday May 15th

A fairly uneventful day which included a bit of gardening, dad fitting my new dimmer in the bedroom, then mum and I went to Morrison’s for essential supplies, guinea pig greens, kitchen roll and toilet paper, both of which have disappeared from Westerham supermarket shelves for some reason. Bangers and mash for tea - always a winner!

Saturday May 16th

Yay! It’s Saturday morning and time to Skype Sam and Lucy. I was a bit surprised, because when the came on the screen I got quite tearful. I’m really missing them but they reassured me and I soon cheered up. We swapped all our news and Lucy told us she had been to Canterbury and brought her sister Nina back to her mum’s house as Nina was very tearful and lonely. Nina will stay at her mum’s for the foreseeable future. After saying goodbye, we drove to Baverstock Farm to buy corn and grit for Rosie, the chicken. With the news that garden centres had re-opened, mum suggested we go to Coblands and buy some border plants. We were surprised to find they had completely revamped the garden centre which is now huge and very well stocked. They were only letting in 2 people from any one family, so dad sat in the sun outside while mum and I shopped. We bought lots of good bedding plants which I paid for to ‘pay-my-way’ for living with mum and dad during lockdown.
We finished the day with a gin and tonic on the top patio followed by prawn cocktail (very 1970s!) and salmon. Dad had a fillet steak and chips!

Sunday May 17th

It’s a lovely warm day today and it’s set to get warmer next week, so mum and I will do the hanging baskets today. Dad wheels the compost down to the bottom patio where mum and I are sorting out the plants. By lunchtime most of the baskets are done. I start hanging them on the hooks and they look very nice. It takes most of the day, but we finish off with a nice cup of tea by the summerhouse. As it’s Sunday we’ll watch ‘Countryfile’ then have a roast chicken dinner.

Monday May 18th

Another bright sunny day today. Dad wants to rest his weary bones after a hard day of digging and moving plants yesterday to give room for our summer bedding. In the morning I sat in the sun and listened to Tony Hawk’s ‘Round Ireland with a fridge’. It’s a talking book and very funny. Coffee then lunch which is soup and a sandwich, I have prawns in mine. In the afternoon dad and I take some photographs - some of which I can paint - then I watched some of the second series of ‘Fawlty Towers’ which was very funny. For tea we had dad’s sweet chicken curry with the leftovers from Sunday’s roast dinner. All I can say is yum!

Tuesday May 19th

It’s sunny again today, and dad’s plan is to relay the brick edging on the long border. He says would I like to listen to a talking book and keep him company. I chose Griff Rhys Jones’ ‘To the Baltic with Bob’ which I’ve not heard before, and is quite funny. Dad has completed the brick edging with a certain amount of swearing, but it looks very neat. In the afternoon I watched some more ‘Only Fools and Horses’ which was the ‘coach blow-up’ story when they had to stay the night in a B&B. It was hilarious! For tea dad cooked corned beef hash which was yummy!

Wednesday May 20th

After breakfast I listened to Black Adder series 3 and it was very funny. Later in the morning, dad and I drove to two garden centres in search of roses. We only found one rose that dad liked, so he will have to buy on-line. We did buy a nice passion flower at Westerham Heights, which we can grow on a trellis at the back of the long border. In the afternoon I sat in the sun on the bottom patio and listened to the rest of ‘To the Baltic with Bob’ while dad started weeding the area we will start to turf on Friday. A new handle arrived for dad’s border fork. It’s the wrong one as it has a ’T-bar’ handle instead of a loop which he wanted, but he can’t be bothered to send it back. I watched him fit it to the fork which involved lots of cursing, but nothing I hadn’t heard before! At 4 o’clock dad met with his friends Harry and Stuart for a ‘social distancing’ beer in the garden beside the Long Pond. He came back and cooked turkey and asparagus in white wine sauce with a crusty potato bake top. It was delicious!

Thursday May 21st

In the morning I watched Fawlty Towers, the ‘rat’ story which was very funny. Dad and I did the blog for Wednesday and added some more photographs. In the afternoon I listened to Bill Byron’s talking book called ‘at home’ but I didn’t like it. Some of his books are very funny, but this one was a bit rude! Tomorrow we will Skype the guys at Longfield, and on Saturday we will Skype Sam and Lucy who I’m still really missing! We are having garlic chicken steaks and new potatoes for tea.
The turf will arrive tomorrow so dad can crack on with laying that while I sit in the sun and keep him company!

Friday May 22nd

The turf arrived but the order was wrong! They had sent 60 rolls of turf instead of 30, and no topsoil! Dad drove up to the garden centre and they promised to sort it. He will have to lay the turf with no extra topsoil - he’s not best pleased… At 10.30 we Skyped my housemates at Longfield. We had a chat but the staff thought I was a bit quiet. I just felt tired, I’m finding lockdown a bit stressful. Dad had ordered me a new pair of head phones as the wire on my old ones had got in a terrible knot that dad couldn’t undo. The new headphones have just arrived, they are pretty smart and a better design as the wire only comes out on one side. For our evening meal we had a take out from Napoli. Mum had seafood pasta, I had salmon pasta and dad had tuscan sausage and mushrooms in a white cream sauce. It was all delicious but the portions were huge!

Saturday May 23rd

At 11 o’clock we Skyped Sam and Lucy. We had a really nice long chat and caught up with all the news. They have taken out a big fitted wardrobe in their spare bedroom to find damp and mould. The wardrobe was hiding an air brick! Dad told them to take the vent plate off the wall as he suspected someone would have filled the space with newspaper or old socks! Sam took the plate off to find dad was right, but it wasn’t newspaper or socks, it was loft insulation. For tea we ordered fish and chips from our local Chinese chip shop and it came with a big bag of prawn crackers. The portions were massive but delicious!
After tea we were watching ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ when the power went out! Dad lit some candles and we sat and chatted. There was complete blackout in our side of Westerham, it gets more like war-time every day!

Sunday May 24th

Dad’s new garden trellis have arrived. We have bought another Clematis and a Passion flower for the back of the long border and the trellis will support them. Mum is busy planting the bedding plants that she and I bought at the garden centre yesterday. As it’s Sunday we are having roast chicken again. We watched ‘Countryfile’ then the Freddie Mercury documentary which made me feel a bit sad. Tomorrow Deli da Luca reopens! We’ll go and see how Andrew is going to make it work…

Monday May 25th

Dad’s friend Christina came over and took away six of the unwanted turf rolls, maybe dad and his friend Dudley can now drag the pallet of remaining turf rolls out of the drive and we can park the car! I watched ‘The Art Club’ on BBC3 which was quite interesting. We walked up to see if we could have lunch at Deli di Luca, but the queue was quite long so we decided to buy cooked meats and salad and have lunch at home.In the afternoon, mum finished planting the long border and it looks fab! One of the day service staff at ‘SEC’ in Gravesend sent me an activity pack including sunflower seeds for a growing competition, and parts to make a butterfly feeder. Dad printed out a flower-head from clip-art which I painted and we glued it onto stiff card. I now have to be patient and let it dry overnight - never one of my strong points… For tea dad cooked his sweet chicken curry, one of my favourites!

Tuesday May 26th

After breakfast dad and I did yesterday’s blog. I then started listening to Bill Bryson’s ‘Walk in the woods’ which was very funny. For lunch we had sandwiches and soup. After lunch dad and I finished the butterfly feeder, but the drinking straw supplied to make the stalk of the flower was not strong enough to support the flower, so dad asked me to get a metal coat hanger which he cut to size to go inside the straw - success! For tea dad cooked crispy potato topped chicken and asparagus in a creamy sauce which was very nice. Tomorrow we will go to Coblands garden centre to buy two patio roses to stand in a bare bit of the long border where we can't plant anything because of underground tree roots. More about this later...

Wednesday May 27th

After I had washed my hair I had warm weetabix for breakfast and a cup of tea with dad on the top patio. Mum is on a conference call for work so we have to be a bit quiet, like mice! First thing we do is Tuesday’s blog, then dad and I drive to Coblands garden centre to buy two patio roses to stand on the undiggable section of the long border. It’s impossible to dig a hole in this area as its full of roots from next door’s mountain ash tree. Dad is planning to get the area ‘stump-ground’ and have our ancient ‘Berberis’ bush removed as well. We end up buying three roses as dad finds a pretty pink climbing rose that will flower all summer if we dead-head it regularly.
When we cleared out the summerhouse at the start of 'lockdown', we discovered a mosaic flowerpot I had made at the Scott’s Project over twenty years ago. Just before we leave Coblands we buy a pretty pink striped geranium to go in the pot on our plant table beside the house.

Thursday May 28th

Weetabix for breakfast again. Dad helps me pot up the geranium and we put it on the plant table on the side patio. We sit and have a coffee there in the sun. Dad cooked chilli for tea last night and it was yummy! We have the leftovers for lunch on toast. I asked dad if we could go for a walk and he suggested a snack picnic with ginger beer at the Long Pond. On our way to the pond we passed Stratton Terrace where the locals had really gone for it on VE day! 

When we got to the Long Pond dad said we should count the number of wild flower heads in a square metre of grass to help celebrate ‘No Mow May’. In our square metre we counted 24 bluebell heads, 50 red campion and 26 buttercups. Back home dad sent the figures off to ‘Plantlife’ who are running the countrywide survey. A parcel had arrived and it was my new talking book, Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ so I sat in the garden and listened to it. It was a bit mad but very funny!

Friday May 29th

A relaxing morning sitting in the garden with a coffee listening to Bill Bryson’s ‘Short History of Nearly Everything’ which is interesting and funny as well. I went to the Co-op with mum to get essential supplies including tea-bags and milk - we drink a lot of tea these days! Dad said my box-set of Black Adder audio books should arrive today and sure enough at 5 o’clock there was a knock on the door and there it was - lots of amusing listening! Mum and I go for a walk each evening now just before tea. Its a bit of exercise as we’ve all put on a bit of weight. For tea mum and I had salmon with broccoli and new potatoes and dad had steak and chips!.

Saturday May 30th

I had a bath first thing, then we Skyped Sam and Lucy. We had a great chat and caught up with all the news. It’s very exciting, we agree that they will come over to see us next Saturday, and we’ll have a ‘social distancing’ picnic in the garden! After we finished the Skype call dad checked the weather forecast for next weekend and it is going to be cold and cloudy, so mum phones Sam and we suggest them coming over tomorrow! They think that’s a great idea so we agree they’ll arrive at 11 o’clock. I can’t wait to see them! Mum suggests we have a ‘Napoli’ takeaway for tea - great idea! I had salmon pasta, mum had seafood pasta and dad had a calzoni pizza. Yummy!

Sunday May 31st

Baths and hair wash for everyone first thing, then Sam and Lucy arrived! It was strange not being able to hug and kiss, but we have to use ‘social distancing’ just like everyone else. It’s great to see them anyway and we have lots to talk about. Mum made a salad and we had French bread, pate, guacamole and red pepper homous. Lucy had brought some Tuna rolls, crisps and their own mugs! She will have to go back to school tomorrow as they are re-opening for the tiny tots. They stayed all afternoon and then they had to go. We’ll Skype them next Saturday and then we’ll go over to see them the following week. We had roast chicken for tea and watched ‘Countryfile’ and ‘Antiques Roadshow’.

Monday June 1st

It’s a nice sunny day but still quite breezy. After I had washed my hair and had my breakfast I listened to the rest of Roald Dahl’s ‘Henry Sugar and other stories’ on the i-Pad. That one is a bit gory, so not one of my favourites! Just before lunch, dad and I went to the Long Pond to meet dad’s friend Stuart who had been gardening there with the churchyard gardeners. There are two old trestle tables that need rescuing. Dad had taken some screws and drills but they are past that and need some wood replacing. Just before we went home Dad and I walked to the Round Pond which has filled up now the weir board has been replaced. It looks like a proper pond again now and some ducks have returned.
We had pate and French bread with chicken soup for lunch, then dad and I did some more clipping. Now the garden has settled down a bit you can see where the old roses by the bottom patio have died off in places so we did some pruning and tidying up.
For tea dad cooked his sweet chicken curry with the leftover chicken from our Sunday roast. It was yummy as usual!