Tag: family life

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Small steps back to normality

Our lives here on the croft are by nature pretty quiet. We spend our days mostly working on the house build or the land, only going out to do food shopping or to collect building or garden supplies.

As things start to open up here in Scotland again after a year of lockdown, however, we are seeing a slow return towards normality.

We managed a lovely lunch at a local restaurant with friends last Sunday. Although the venue wasn’t able to serve wine with the meal as we were eating indoors (which regulations don’t permit) it was still lovely to have food cooked for us and to have good company whilst we ate.

This weekend we also attended a market in Armadale Castle’s grounds. The locals were out in force to support it, and it was fun to browse the stalls and to sit down and have a coffee and catchup blether with friends.

We didn’t need, or buy, much. A loaf of artisan corn bread and some delicious pear frangipane tarts from the Isle of Skye Baking Co. and a few chive plants from Hamish’s plant stall, but really it was all about the meeting up with friends and neighbours after months of isolating in our cottages and crofts.

Small steps back to normality. There are further easing of restrictions over the coming month. We’re so looking forward to seeing the kids once we’re able to. They still haven’t seen the croft due to lockdown, and we haven’t been with them since last summer. Soon now.

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Upcycling

Whilst sorting through the cupboards to pack we came across some Turkish kilim fabric covers that I had bought some time ago for very little money and had stashed away with the linens.

After I’d bought them, I’d discovered that they were all odd sizes, each one cut from an upcycled piece of old kilim. Because I had no cushion pads to fit them I’d clearly put them away to sort another day. But looking at them again today I thought they’d do very well for the static.

A number of them showed signs of mending, and all of them were old, vegetable dyed weavings. I’m very drawn to textiles, and especially to those with some age and history to them.

I didn’t want to buy more cushion pads. So I repurposed an old, single duvet that we were about to ditch and made three cushion pads from it to fit the covers.

I love their slightly faded, soft colours, imperfect patterns and visible mendings. You can feel the hands of the past on them and I can’t help wondering about their journey and who has repaired them in previous generations. It feels good to give both them and the old quilt a second life.

The rest of the linen cupboard has also been sorted and the old sheets and pillowcases that are way past their best will be used as decorating sheets or cut up as cleaning cloths and dusters this weekend, ready to be pressed into service in cleaning and painting the static in a few weeks time.

When did we give up repairing linens and buying new whenever we felt like it?

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New Realities

My new reality, along with millions of others, has shrunk down to a world of home.

Everything is changed.

Work continues, albeit remotely, with conference calls and Zoom meetings run from my hastily erected desk in the bedroom. With two young adult stepsons, a husband and a dog in the house, everyone has carved themselves a small corner of space wherever they can. The house is bursting at the seams.

It’s important for me at times like this to build new routines to help smooth the passage of the day. A mug of tea and a biscuit in gaps between calls (even if it’s a home baked one. Hell, especially if it’s a home baked one).

Lunch half hour with Hugh so that we can connect over a sandwich briefly before the afternoon restarts.

An hour after the meetings subside in the afternoon to enjoy a book before starting dinner preparation.

Despite the fact that we all spend our days in different rooms, coming together as a family for dinner in the evening, all eating at the table and chatting, is an important part of the day for me.

Important not just for sustenance (there seems to be no natural limit to the number of Oreos or Doritos that teenagers can consume during waking hours) but also for connection and mutual support. Whilst we are all here together in enforced lockdown I want to make the most of our time together. With the boys at 19 and 22 who knows when we will do this again.

The evenings have morphed into lettuce eating competitions (I’m saving the pics from that for blackmail purposes with future potential grandchildren), poker games and Cards for Humanity sessions as well as the inevitable films and Netflix.

It’s nice. It’s our new temporary reality. Whilst the Coronavirus rages in London, it’s the best we can do to stay safe and take care of each other.