Friday 30 April:

Went for my regular dawn harbourside walk… watched a cormorant catch an eel; watched the sun emerge from an orange sky (well, almost); saw the harbour cranes all lined up quite close together (and with their jibs at the same angles… wonder why?).
Moira and I had relatively early coffee – as she had an ‘actual’ doctor’s appointment. They’ve referred her to a ‘motion clinic’ (for her wobbles) and for a chest x-ray and blood test (for her breathing).
The bulk of the day (apart from some more brief preliminary sketching) was taken up with a combination of vacuuming/dusting and reading (I now feel reasonably confident I’ll finish my bookgroup book by the deadline!).
Evening spent on a zoom call with Chris Goan… which was lovely (and we even had time to talk about cricket!).
Image: cormorant and breakfast.

Thursday 29 April:

No walk this morning despite the weather looking bright and sunny.
Another patchy night’s sleep, but much less of the tossing+turning!
Decided to do some more sketch drafting over breakfast in advance of Sunday’s USk trip.
Moira was keen for us to go out for morning coffee – to REAL café! So we went just down the road to ‘Albatross’ and sat outside in the sunshine… very nice.
Had hoped that Laurence would have had our house ‘on the market’ during the course of the morning but, for some reason, it didn’t happen… but it WAS on the website by mid-afternoon. Still don’t quite understand his optimism that there will be viewers booked in on Saturday from 10am-3.30pm, but hey!
Had lunch with Ru (she was working in her studio) and she showed us the amazing garment she’d made for her imminent Devon Guild exhibition – complete with intricate hand-sewn texts. I was incredibly impressed… it’s absolutely beautiful.
Somewhat worried that I won’t have enough time to complete my Storysmith bookgroup book by next Wednesday – so I spent a fair amount of the afternoon reading.
Evening telly: history of make-up and Portillo.
Image: lorra lorra masts by the marina (from yesterday’s dawn rain walk). 

Wednesday 28 April:

Another night of very poor sleep… almost a repeat of the previous two nights.
Tinnitus and left ear deafness continues…
Went my usual dawn walk route along the harbourside… in the rain (the first rainfall for several days).
Moira and I had morning coffee and then went to east Street to buy rhododendrons and dishwasher tablets!
Sketched a little… front room plus the start of an Amsterdam scribble (in advance of Sunday’s USk).
Didn’t feel particularly well (slight shivers, stomach ache and headache) so spent some of the afternoon just reading and watching the snooker.
Exciting to receive Laurence’s particulars for our impending house sale (“offers over £495,000”!)… and the photos make all the rooms somewhat larger than they really are! A couple of minor errors in the particulars, but the details will probably be up on ‘Right Move’ tomorrow.
Evening telly: ‘Repair Shop’ and ‘Sewing Bee’.
Image: her face mask is off (perhaps a little prematurely?). 

Tuesday 27 April:

Another rubbish sleep night… thinking about the implications of impending house move!
Another no walk day… I decided that, as the photographer was arriving at 9.45am and Laurence coming at 11.30am (plus Deborah+Pete), it made sense to make sure everything was in its right place.
In the event, everything seemed to go smoothly (not that we have much experience of such things)… and Laurence is confident that the house will be on the market before the weekend (in fact, he reckons he’ll be arranging the first inspections for Saturday morning – I can’t quite share his optimism, but who knows?). L+D+P all ‘incredibly enthusiastic’ about our beautiful house (“I bet they say that to all their customers”!).
Ru had an interview at Centrespace in the afternoon regarding a possible studio… but it sounds incredibly competitive (apparently 40 people are interested!). She’s feeling pretty ‘down’ about things at present and so it would be brilliant if she received some positive news. Fingers firmly crossed. X
Read some more of my ‘Honour’ book.
I managed to undertake some ‘manual work’ for her forthcoming exhibition at the Devon Guild in a couple of weeks’ time (she’s juggling SO many things at present!) – lining her glass jar lids with black card!
Once again, we have LOTS of recycling to go out for the bin men tomorrow (despite the fact that our ‘proper’ bin is achingly full, that will have to wait for next week).
Evening telly: Portillo railways and ‘jewellery’ programme… then early to bed in the hope of getting some sleep.
Image: super pink moon (taken from the front door at 5am today!).

Monday 26 April:

Haircut day! First haircut since mid-November… and my 7am appointment went without a hitch (but also meant that I didn’t go dawn walking).
Needed to complete a questionnaire for Lawrence (estate agent)… and, ridiculously, it seems that we no longer have copies of the Building Reg consent! Spent an awful long time trawling through files, but without success. I’ve written to the Council and asked for them to send me a copy (for £17.80!).
Ru worked in the studio (she’s utterly overworked, stressed and tired… poor thing), but it was good to have coffee, lunch and a chat together. 
Went to the local pharmacy for advice on my hearing (still very little hearing in my left ear)… they’ve told me to persevere with the ear drops as it sometimes takes some time to soften(?) the wax.
Tom’s ‘tree man’ was supposed to be coming today (to reduce the height of the ridiculously overgrown bay tree)… but he ended up phoning at the last minute to cancel (annoying!).
Vacuumed the entire house in preparation for the photographer and Laurence tomorrow. Everything feels rather strange… something of an anticlimax?
Evening telly: watched a programme on the history of make-up(!) and ‘Mastermind’ final.
Image: before and after hair (I think prefer the 'shaggy' look!)...

Sunday 25 April:

Another day of preparations for our ‘photo and estate day’ on Tuesday… things seem pretty ‘under control’ on the whole (famous last words?)…
Moira and I went for anti-clockwise harbour walk (and fetched the newspaper) on another bright, sunny morning before streamed church… (I’m feeling somewhat guilty that I’ve not been ‘enjoying’ streamed church – because a lot of people are putting in a lot of effort)(having said that, I don’t think Lee has contributed since Easter… or even before?).
Yesterday, Moira reckoned I’d been having trouble hearing things and so, last night, suggested I use ear drops (she reckoned there might have been a build-up ear wax?). Well, sadly, having applied the drops in both ears, I ended up more or less losing ANY hearing in my left ear! This continued throughout the day… perhaps a night’s sleep might make a difference? Fingers crossed.
We had another of ‘clear out’ with still a fair amount of stuff left to put out on the street (actually the weekend proved pretty successful and lots of things were taken away).
This morning I ‘cleaned’ the studio loo (but frankly it’s still a mess… damp plaster flaking off walls etc) and I washed the kitchen floor, cleaned the dining table plus various other odds and ends.
I did a quick sketch of folding chairs in the afternoon – really just to take advantage of being able to sit at the kitchen dining table without feeling freezing cold!

Villa played Albion in the evening…2-2 with Villa equalising in injury time (despite dominating 70% of the play and having more than 20 shots on goal)… probably means that Albion are doomed for the Championship.Evening telly: nothing again (apart from ‘Countryfile’ and ‘Antiques’).

Image: folding chairs sketch.

Saturday 24 April:

Another busy ‘clear-out’ day! Put a whole load of stuff out on the pavement first thing (BS3 Clear Out Weekend’)…
Fetched the newspaper and got Moira tea in bed as usual… but the priority was her double telephone doctor’s appointment - about a) her ‘wobbly chin’ etc and b) her nose/breathing (at times her nose feels blocked?). Phone call happened at appointed time (9am) and the doctor decided that it made sense for him to see her for an ‘actual’ appointment… so ‘proper’ appointment duly fixed up for Friday.
Coffee over the newspaper with Moira…
The rest of the morning and the first part of the afternoon was spent clearing out the dining room store area (never-ending!) and then packing cardboard in the ‘blue bag’ for recycling day on Tuesday. Good to get all that behind me…
Spent the rest of the afternoon desperately trying to read more of my ‘fantasy’ book (and failing).
Evening telly: nothing… ‘Landscape Artist Canada’ (not good) and ‘Jewellery Design’ challenge thingy.
Image: Clear-out clutter from first thing this morning (lots of stuff was taken… but, fear not, we have lots of other clutter to replace it!). 

Friday 23 April:

I went for an anti-clockwise dawn harbour walk… another bright, sunny day. Then called into Tesco’s on the way home to buy tonic water (I’d been drinking Moira’s!) and paracetamol (we’d run out).
Before setting out on my walk, I put out all our left-over books plus a pile of CDs, DVDs and old clothes outside the front of the house in response to a flyer received earlier in the week. Part of me suspected they’d fail to turn up… but, hey, they actually DID collect! Huge relief and much gratitude!
Spent the rest of the day continuing to sort, clean and tidy (the estate agent is coming round on Tuesday to measure up etc and the photographer will also be there to take pics).
Changed the bedclothes in the back bedroom (and washed the dirty bedclothes AND managed to dry them on the line in the sunshine!).
Finished off the living room, then went downstairs and sorted out the back studio and storage cupboard.
Tried to get rid of various other stuff on the street (including golf cart, golf bag and some plates, dishes and bowls)… with mixed/reasonable results (but someone breaking a blue bottle was a bit of a pain – and which needed clearing up).
Evening telly: rubbish (I started to watch a ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode but stopped half way through).
Image: single sculler setting off from the marina just after dawn…

Thursday 22 April:

I went for a somewhat reduced dawn walk (down to Gaol Ferry Steps/M-Shed/Bathurst basin)… another beautiful, albeit very cold, sunny morning.
Felix had very generously agreed to help me take ALL our old timber to the council recycling site and so the hallway had been packed with lots of wood we’d accumulated over the years (a lot!)… and, after we’d loaded his car and as I was about to get in the car, Felix pointed out that they only allowed one person in at a time into the site… and he was very happy to do this himself!!
So, while Felix trundled off the waste site, Moira and I enjoyed morning coffee in the garden!
Spent the remainder of the morning sorting out some filing; responding to various emails about last night’s ‘Death’ session; shredding old finance papers and getting stuff (clothes, DVDs, CDs and book) down into the hall for tomorrow’s collections. Goodness, I hope they come after all this!!
In the afternoon, I endeavoured to tidy, clean and sort out the living room (but didn’t get it finished!)… but, on Si Smith’s recommendation I also watched (multi-tasking!) “Orpheus in the Record Shop” on iPlayer – quite brilliant!
Evening telly: ‘Repair Shop’… then early to bed to TRY to read some of my ‘fantasy’ book (not making much progress thus far).
Image: timber for recycling!

Wednesday 21 April:

It was going to be a pretty busy, full-on day so I skipped my usual dawn walk.
Put out the refuse and recycling with my fingers crossed that they’d take everything… and, in fact, we were pretty fortunate – they took it all apart from some old clothes of mine.
But, very weirdly, at the end of the morning we had a two flyers pushed through the letterbox from (presumably?) charities asking for a) clothes and b) books, DVDs and CDs – ALL things we’ve been trying or thinking about getting rid of for months! Well, they’re supposed to pick up the stuff on Thursday… so fingers firmly crossed.
Early morning coffee with Moira (she had a zoom Slimming World session at 9am) and then it was a case of continuing to sort out (and clean) the back bedroom.
Then into the garden to sort out/tidy broken terracotta pots and bag the weeding stuff from the weekend into a garden waste bag… and re-arrange the pots of tulips!
After lunch, it was case of collecting together CDs and DVDs for ‘disposal’ (I’m being very ruthless – hope I don’t end up regretting it!).
Then downstairs to sort out, tidy and clean the utility room (awkward cleaning up studio stuff, but think I achieved what I needed to).
STILL nothing from Shaun the Builder… I sense he’s a bit unreliable!
Before supper, I sat down to try to ‘prepare’ for this evening’s Bloke’s session on ‘Death and Dying’ (I know!)… so much that I COULD say, but I just hope I’m able to keep fairly quiet (some hope!). In fact, it proved to be quite fascinating (although, for me, Jeff ‘went on’ rather too much)(he probably felt the same about me!)… and we’ve vowed to continue at some stage.
Late evening telly: ‘Sewing Bee’.
Image: garden after my ‘tidy session’! 

Tuesday 20 April:

No early morning walk because I was going into town later…
Slept a little better last night… woke up at 11.30pm and then 4.30am (which is fine).
Still no quote from Shaun The Builder…
Moira phoned the doctors to book an appointment… and eventually managed to get through and book a double appointment for Saturday (breathlessness and quivering chin).
Once that was sorted, we sat down for our morning coffee…
I went into town to meet up with five other urban sketchers at Queen Square (on a lovely sunny day). Organised by Niki… and attended by Mithi, Jonty, Amy, ANOther and me. It worked well.
Somewhat depressing (but not altogether surprising) to see ten of the Queen Square office buildings up to let.
In the afternoon, I made a start at tidying/cleaning the back bedroom… steady, albeit rather slow, progress.
In the evening, I ‘attended’ a Resonate zoom event… about creativity and community (interesting that a few people felt that ‘creativity’ had lessened at St S’s since there far more joint services with HTH).
Image: my sketch of the Thekla (another one!) from today.

Monday 19 April:

Went for my usual dawn walk along the harbour just after sunrise. Another beautiful, bright morning… clear skies, still waters.
I’d had a pretty useless night’s ‘sleep’… I was awake by 2.30am and just couldn’t get back to sleep (thinking about ALL the things we’ve got to get done over the next couple of weeks) – so ended up going downstairs to make my ‘to do’ list.
Removed a batch of my old clothes from the wardrobe in the front bedroom (for recycling?) and, finally (after several months), moved the boxes of books on the half-landing into the wardrobe (out of sight, even if we’ve still got to dispose of them!).
Removed all the various bits of timber currently being ‘stored’ in the under-stairs basement cupboard and in the utility room (loads of it!)… to make room for some more ‘out of sight’ storage (for estate agent’s photo shoot!). Lots of the timber had to ‘cut down’ to ensure we could get it in the back of a car. All the timber is now lying in the hall – waiting to be taken to the city’s waste recycling place (fingers crossed).
Phoned Felix and he’s agreed to drive me to the city tip with as much rubbish as we can get in his car (on Thursday).
We had a handyman/building come and look at basement ceiling (and front entrance steps)… he was late(!). He’s going to give me a price… we’ll see.
Ru was busy all day trying to sort out her studio (huge job)… she made a very good start.
I obviously created an awful lot of ‘dust’ in sawing up the timber (which, of course, was duly walked  around the house)… so lots of vacuuming required.
In the afternoon (as a break in things!), I watched the last two episodes of the Watergate documentary.
Evening telly: nothing on apart from ‘Mastermind’ (which I didn’t fancy!)… so early to bed in the hope that a) I can ‘get into’ my book (finding it difficult thus far) and b) get some sleep!
Image: from this morning’s dawn walk.

Sunday 18 April:

Harbourside walk with Moira prior to morning coffee and streamed church… and newspaper.
Another bright sunny day (albeit very cold).
Various ‘tidying’ (eg. picture frames back in the wardrobe)… and then early lunch before urban sketching session in Jerusalem.
Good fun as always (I think there were 10 of us in total)
R+S+I+R popped round towards the end of the afternoon (to bring back loads of Ru’s stuff to the studio from the house)… seemed slightly ironic, given that we’re trying to de-clutter etc! They stayed for a quick drink in the garden – which was lovely. Stu had found my 'lockdown' books (where I suggested he should look for them!).
Gloucester beat Somerset by 8 wickets at Taunton!
Roast beef supper (lovely)… followed by early bed for me (while Moira watched ‘Midwife’).
Image: R+S+I+R in our back garden.

Saturday 17 April:

Busy ‘working outside’ day…
Fetched the newspaper first thing and briefly flicked through the bulk of it before going outside with the intention of wire-brushing the back external steps and then slapping on a coat of white masonry paint… but, after rubbing down, I decided that it was best just to leave the steps ‘raw’ (there seemed little point in adding paint that would only flake off within the next year). The end result looked fine.
Took a mid-morning break for coffee with Moira.
The second job involved thoroughly de-weeding the front steps and the back patio. It took quite a long time to complete but, again, felt like a very worthwhile job completed (it seemed an awful long time since they were last done).
Rather flaked out in the latter part of the afternoon and watched part 3 of the Watergate documentary (resisted the temptation to watch the DoE funeral).
Enjoyed drinks in the garden before supper!
Evening telly: nothing on (again)… so re-watched an old Andrew Graham Dixon ‘The Art of France’ documentary.
Early to bed to try to ‘get into’ my bookgroup’s ‘Honour’ fantasy novel (last night I struggled!).
Image: the back yard (freshly weeded!).

Friday 16 April:

No morning walk because we were meeting Iris+Rosa at lunchtime on the harbourside.
Moira and I had morning coffee together as usual and catch-up.
Spent part of the morning drafting out potential sketching locations in Jerusalem (venue for our next USk trip).
As we set out of the house on our way to the harbourside, we met I+R en route so we were able to make the most of our time together. Gaol Ferry Steps was pretty busy and we ended up getting ‘cones’ of chips from ‘Salt+Malt’ and eating them leaning on the harbour rails… not ideal but absolutely fine (and the sun shone – although pretty cold!). Good to chat to the girls – who both seemed in good form and very pleased to meet up with us. Iris was calling in on a friend on the way home, so I walked Rosa back to Temple Street (Ru said she’s been feeling a bit nervous about walking on her own recently). We had a nice, happy chat. I didn’t take any photographs (a decision that the girls would probably have welcomed)!
I started watching the remainder of the ‘Red Joan’ film in the afternoon – but ended up giving up (not because it wasn’t a good film, just because I knew that there would be difficult outcome… so I chickened out!).
Evening telly: nothing on worth watching (again)... except that I watched a documentary (parts 1+2) of a 1994 BBC documentary on Watergate. 

Moira had a bookgroup zoom... so I went to bed early to start my Storysmith bookgroup book.
Image: Tulips: gradual decline… 

Thursday 15 April:

I didn’t go walking this morning because I was ‘focussed’ (well, almost!) on undertaking some really awkward jobs – which I certainly wasn’t looking forward to.

So, got everything sorted (in terms of preparation) first thing over breakfast… then stopped for coffee with Moira.

The first job involved pulling a very small part of a ceiling down in the basement (adjacent the entrance door) and trying to tidy things up. Well, it now looks a bit neater (ie. the ceiling isn’t hanging down), but it’s hardly brilliant… and I ended up covering the ‘gap’ with chipboard. Hey ho!

I then spent the rest of the morning and the first part of the afternoon ‘sorting out’ the basement understairs cupboard – which had become absolutely full of a variety of stuff (timber, boxes, various tools and miscellaneous bits that didn’t have a home (made doubly-difficult by the narrowness of the space). Well, let’s just say that I made a lot of headway… it’s far from perfect, but it’s a huge improvement.

Later, I also sorted out my two boxes of stuff in the bathroom (old razors, after-shave etc).

By the end of it all, I felt pretty tired and so decided to watch some old film on iPlayer… and, of course, the only category that wasn’t working appeared to be ‘films’!! So, I ended up watching an old Lucy Worsley crime documentary… after which I discovered that the film link was ‘back’, so watched the first half of ‘Red Joan’ (2019).

Moira had another appointment at the ‘hearing hospital’ in the late afternoon – which seemed to go fine.

Evening telly: nothing on… and went to bed reasonably early to read Kate Atkinson’s ‘Big Sky’.

Image: Dad’s old RAF toolbox (from the understairs cupboard).

Wednesday 14 April:

I’ve decided to give Bloke’s Prayer a miss for the next 3 or 4 weeks… so my Wednesday morning routine was different today.
Received a supportive email from Jeff last night (about my decision to ‘back off’ for the next few weeks)… which was nice.
Moira and I enjoyed morning coffee (just before her ‘Slimming World’ session.
I was meeting up with Charlotte and Alice later (they were accompanying their mother to a chemo clinic on St Michael’s Hill… so popped down to Hugo’s to get some Italian(?) pastries.
Very good to see C+A again (we decided it must be nearly a year since we last met) and we had a lovely chat. Life continues to be very hard for them all… father has Parkinson’s; mother has bowel(?) cancer; Alice has IBS; and Charlotte has severe depression – and all to be dealt with in a pandemic! Despite all the problems, we managed to laugh a lot. I don’t think C+A want to continue to take any active role in the Drawing Group (‘we’ve done our time’… ‘these things have their time’ etc)… and I think they’re probably right.
Back home by 2.30pm (feeling pretty tired!)(I’d walked close on 8 miles) and ended up watching first episode of ‘All that Glitters’ (like a jewellery version of ’Throw Down’?) on telly in the afternoon.
Evening telly: ‘Repair Shop’ (I couldn’t be bothered to watch ‘Sewing Bee’ at 9pm – I’ll watch on catch-up in due course.
Image: the bluebells are out…

Tuesday 13 April:

Went dawn walking (my usual harbour route) on a very cold, but beautiful, clear morning (blue skies and still waters). A coxless four were just ‘going out’ as I arrived at the marina…
Moira and I have morning coffee and then I went off to Wilko’s to buy some masonry paint (for the back steps), plus ‘sandpaper’ and a wire brush… the actual job itself will have to follow on another day!
We seemed to have a LOT of stuff for tomorrow’s re-cycling, so I spent a good 30 minutes organising large bits of cardboard into our ‘blue bag’.
We continued to put out ‘stuff’ at the front of the house and, very gradually, various bits and pieces are being taken (but it seems that people are more interested in bags than books or clip frames!).
I spent the remainder of the morning and the first part of the afternoon finishing my ’A Still Life’ book (very good) and then writing a brief review.
Ru popped round on her way back from work… and we outlined our broad ‘move’ plans (ie. house on the market early May?) and also our intention of giving her £750 towards her next studio rent (whenever she can find one). She was very grateful etc. x
Telephoned both Iris and Rosa and fixed up a ‘chip shop’ lunch date for this Friday… they both sounded pretty enthusiastic!
Trying to think what’s the most effective way of giving away my gold trolley and golf travel bag? Later spoke to Stu and he’s going to have a word with a couple of mates.
Evening spent on another zoom call with Alan and David… which was very good and went on for more than 2.5 hours!
Image: This morning’s dawn rowers emerging from the Marina. 

Monday 12 April:

Woke up early (again)… couldn’t get back to sleep so decided to go downstairs and watch the Masters’ telly highlights (final round) for an hour! It was very enjoyable (and a bit novel!)… enjoyed coffee+breakfast while watching golf (without knowing who was the eventual winner)(Matsuyama).
Moira and I had our usual morning coffee – I admitted my reservations about moving into an apartment (I still think that’s what we’ll end up doing – I just wanted to air my thoughts).
No early morning walk today because I’d decided to go into town to get my watch battery replaced (today was the day that non-essential shops re-opened… and ditto pub gardens!). Somewhat frustrating to be asked by the shop assistant to drop off my watch and come back in 30 minutes (which I couldn’t quite understand – I was the only customer and there were 3 shop assistants?)… so I duly went for a walk around the back streets (too many people in Broadmead!) and returned at the appointed time – only for a different assistant to go and retrieve my watch (nothing had been done to it while I was out walking!!) and proceeded to replace the battery while I waited. Hey ho!
On my ‘walk’, I came across a 150m long queue of customers outside Primark (mostly young females… and virtually no social-distancing)… very depressing and but perhaps unsurprising! Very few of the people ‘on the streets’ seemed to be taking ANY notice of social-distancing rules. I found the whole experience pretty depressing (but, yes, I fully accept that I was one of those ‘eager’ shoppers that had gone into town on the first day re-opening!).
Read for much of the afternoon.
Evening telly: all our ‘usual’ Monday programmes have finished… so watched the second instalment of ‘Painting in the Holy Land’ and two ‘Mastermind’ programmes.
Image: some of the 150m queue of people outside Primark this morning! 

Sunday 11 April:

Got out of bed relatively late (for me) at 7.45am.
Moira and I did our Vauxhall Bridge/Marina/home walk (good that Moira did it pain-free)… and collected newspaper en route.
Logged into streamed service Richard/Frances (talk)/Phil (prayers) over coffee.
Read the newspaper and then finished my sketch of some more Sicilian buildings.
Bacon sandwiches for lunch.
Read more of my ‘Still Life’ book in the afternoon.
Gloucester and Somerset both won their first cricket matches of the season.
Evening telly: more ‘Midsomer Murders’ (sigh!) and a bit of old ‘Endeavour’.
Image: more garden tulips! 

Saturday 10 April:

Bright but very cold morning… fetched the newspaper.
Yesterday, I decided I needed to step back from Bloke’s Prayer for a few weeks (essentially because it ‘wasn’t working for me anymore’)… although I can’t put all the ‘blame’ on Jeff, he’s been the one who’s been either wanting to change the format (with emphasis on prayer), but also regularly coming up with requests such as that we shouldn’t include ‘dying’ in our forthcoming evening discussing ‘Death+Dying’; that we shouldn’t make any references to our fathers because it reminds him of being abused as a child; or telling us how difficult it was for him to be heard in any discussion etc etc. For me (perhaps selfishly), I’ve always seen our total time together on Wednesday mornings as a prayer. Anyway, I sent an email to everyone last night to explain my intentions… thus far (5pm Saturday), Dave is the only one to have responded.
Checked out some further sketching locations in Noto, Sicily… and started a sketch.
Also read more of my ‘Still Life’ book (fascinating, but also somewhat depressing).
Hannah, Fee and Ursa popped round for tea/hot chocolate and apple pies/flapjack in the garden (sunny but very cold). Lovely to see them and be able to do some catching up at long last.
Villa lost 1-2 to Liverpool at Anfield… winner coming in injury time!! Arggh!
Evening telly: Re-watched ‘Painting the Holy Land’ (episode 1)… reasonable, but nothing special.
Image: HUF+refreshments in our back garden.

Friday 9 April:

Another somewhat strange day…
I didn’t go for my usual morning walk because Moira and I were off to the Marksbury Surgery later for the second of our Covid vaccinations!
With our appointments scheduled for 11.50am and 12noon respectively, we ended up frittering away the morning… usual morning coffee together, followed by me popping down to Hugo’s for this weeks’ fruit+veg.
The vaccinations were completely straightforward and, like before, very well organised… so we were back home for lunch just before 1pm. We both felt extremely grateful (and humbled) that we were able to take advantage of the vaccination roll-out. At present, of our children’s families, only Stu, Dave and Alice have had their first jabs.
While we were at the surgery, we heard about the death of Prince Phillip (aged 99)… and, of course, when we got home we found that the TV channels were swamped with non-stop coverage. In fact, BBC1 and BBC2 were carrying identical coverage (and ITV were doing the same)… only Channel4, it seemed, was prepared to ‘do its own thing’ and show its regular episodes of “The Simpson’s”!
Ru popped in on her way home from the framers… always good to see her.
Moira and I had previously been chatting about the lack of telly programmes that we were interested in (even on catch-up)… so the evening was spent reading/diary writing etc.
Image: sketch of the Doll’s House… pondering whether it should be saved for posterity or given away?

Thursday 8 April:

Today it would be my dad’s 100^th birthday!
I posted a blog post to mark the occasion… but failed to get out for a walk!
I spent the morning finishing my ‘Project’ novel (excellent… although somewhat contrived).
I sketched our Doll’s House in the afternoon (on the basis that we might be putting it ‘out the front’/giving it away)… it’s a lovely object and I’ll be sorry to see it go.
Evening telly: ‘Imagine’ featuring author Kazuo Ishiguro.
Image: photographs that accompanied my blogpost about Dad.

Wednesday 7 April:

A day spent zooming! No walking as I had Bloke’s Prayer at 8am… I regularly find myself getting irritated by Jeff’s foibles (I wanted to talk about my Dad’s 100^th birthday, but Jeff said it made him feel very uncomfortable – as he was abused by his father as a boy). I obviously sympathise with Jeff,  but we keep discovering various no-go areas (eg. Robin’s forthcoming evening ‘Death+Dying’ evening session – Jeff says he’s happy to discuss ‘death’, but not ‘dying’! Give me strength!).
Spent part of the afternoon reading my ‘Project’ book and also preparing for my two bookgroups.
Early evening bookgroup zooms: Storysmith on ‘The Land Where Lemons Grow’ (very good discussion) and Bloke’s Books on ‘Born To Run’ (not my kind of book at all… all a little frustrating).
Image: Blossom from my regular harbourside walks. 

Tuesday 6 April:

Went for my regular harbourside walk just after sunrise. Beautiful sunny day, clear skies… and incredibly cold! I hadn’t taken my gloves and soon regretted it.
Back home for morning coffee with Moira.
The morning was very much involved in domestic chores… clothes washing, sorting out refuse/re-cycling/folding up cardboard boxes and clearing (well, partly) the wardrobe in the back bedroom.
Among the things I re-discovered were yet more picture frames!!
I’d previously put more picture frames out on the street (and a couple had gone)(I think we must have disposed of perhaps 15 in total thus far – plus the old wardrobe mirror)… but, having ‘discovered’ another ten(?) frames in the wardrobe, I resolved to try to get rid of these too in due course (as the other frames were taken… or not). I was about to replace two frames when a young bloke came along and looked eagerly at the ‘new’ frames (it transpired he’d taken a couple of previous frames) and, after a brief conversation, ended up taking them for his artist girlfriend… which was nice.
Spent the afternoon sketching and reading (and eating mini-chocolate eggs!).
Had another zoom meet-up with Alan in the evening (should have included Barry, but he forgot!)… and talked about Ron’s 100^th birthday (on Thursday).
Image: Marina photograph from this morning.

Monday 5 April:

Bank Holiday… very overcast first thing and opted out of walking.
Morning coffee with Moira then reading some of my ‘new’ book (‘The Authenticity Project’).
With Dad’s 100^th birthday coming up later in the week, I imagined meeting him for ‘catch-up’ drink and scribbled some rough blog notes of what it might be like.
M+I went for a walk to the harbourside after lunch – bright, sunny and bloomin’ cold!
My watch battery stopped working!
Did some online sketching in the afternoon… plus more reading.
Evening telly: the second documentary episode on the partition of India and ‘University Challenge’ (final!).
Image: one of my Durham sketches from yesterday. 

Sunday 4 April:

Slept particularly badly – awake at 11.30pm and din’t get back to sleep again until gone 5am (but slept for 90mins or so).
Busy day. Fetched the newspaper first thing… despite my doubts of a couple of days ago, the weather was lovely – sunshine and blue skies.
Went over to Ru+Stu’s at 10.30am for coffee+hot-cross buns in the garden… followed by cake and prosecco (wonderful cakes by Rosa!). It was very lovely and everyone was in very good form. First time we’d been properly together since before Christmas… so very special.
Home just after 1pm to prepare for my urban sketching ‘trip’ to Durham. I think a dozen or so joined in (which was better than I’d anticipated, given it was Easter Sunday). Very relaxing and enjoyable.
Our garden tulips started to come into flower (very lovely).
Lovely roast lamb supper (which we actually ate at the dining table!).
Bears lost 17-36 to Bordeaux in the Cup, but Villa beat Fulham 3-1 (Grealish still injured).
Evening telly: the ridiculous ‘Midsomer Murders’ (so bad!).
Image: Rosa’s cakes!

Saturday 3 April:

I think I passed my driving test 53 years ago today (or was it 52?)…
No morning walk… just collected the newspaper.
Morning coffee over the papers/magazines with Moira.
Put out more picture frames in the hope that they’d be ‘snatched up’ (one went!).
Somewhat shockingly, I spent most of the day reading my Emma Beddington book… and managed to finish it too (very good).
Number of weekly Covid-related deaths down to 253 – the lowest since the end of September.
Evening telly: documentary on 1947 partition of India and Kings College Easter service.
Image: Lilies (from last week)…

Friday 2 April:

Good Friday… and a rather unusual Good Friday at that. We didn’t go to church (or be involved in any streamed link)… and I didn’t go for an early morning walk.
Sunny day.
I went shopping for a newspaper, some hot-cross buns (enough for Easter Day at Ru+Stu’s), bagels (for bacon bagels at lunch)… and lemon curd (Moira was yearning for some!).
I also ‘attended’ Nikki’s funeral in France via zoom. The sound was pretty rubbish, but I was glad to have ‘been there’ (70 attended online, some 30 at the crematorium). My second funeral in a fortnight.
In the afternoon, I had originally intended to watch ‘King of Kings’ 1961 film (in lieu of my ‘usual’ ‘The Passion of the Christ’ Easter DVD)… but gave up after 30 minutes or so (very dated and with far too many white, American actors!).
Collected a copy of ‘English Pastoral’ from Storysmith (for SteveE’s birthday).
Moira spent the bulk of the day trying to finish off Rosa's knitted jumper (but it might take a few more days yet).
I spent much of the rest of the afternoon reading my Emma Beddington book.
Evening telly: ‘Pilgrimage’ (final episode) and ‘Grayson’s Art Club (final episode)… how are we going to cope without them?
Image: Signs of Spring (I walk past these trees at least once a week… and good to see that green leaves are emerging on one of them). 

Thursday 1 April:

Went on my dawn walk through Leigh Woods up to the suspension bridge/North Road/back down through Leigh Woods to the Avon/metrobus bridge/harbourside/Gaol Ferry Steps and home. Lovely walk despite the slightly disappointing weather (overcast and dull).
Morning coffee with Moira at home.
Read more of my Emma Beddington book (which I’m really enjoying) during the course of the afternoon.
Early evening zoom session(s) with BABEs – which was predictably lovely… and actually went on until 9pmish… so early bedtime.
Image: Wild Garlic, Leigh Woods.