The quiet life

I live such a quiet life these days, that I worry about premature aging and also having nothing to talk about.

But I am learning to take the days one at a time, and wringing as much enjoyment out of them as I possibly can.

On Friday I had tea (evening meal to you southerners) with Chrissie in her garden. My garden is always windy and last time she came here, Dave upended the table tennis table to see if it would work as a windbreak. It didn't. 

Chrissie's garden is sheltered, but it was cold on Friday, so I wore two jumpers, jeans, a scarf and my winter coat. I also took a blanket to drape over my knees. We were warm, and we had an excellent evening. We had such a good time we didn't even notice it getting dark. 

We can do it again, and as Chrissie said, after the clocks change and it's dark at 6, we can do lunch instead.

Nothing much has changed for Dave and me since April - the last six months have been spent at home and I've had a tiny social circle.

I've not been away, 

I've had solo bike rides and walks,

walks with Dave, 

walks with one friend at a time, 

I've sat and chatted in friends' and families gardens (no more than two friends at a time),

I've not been in other peoples' houses, supermarkets, cinemas, pubs, cafes, restaurants, or anywhere crowded.

And this is a tally of the shops I've been to:

once to art supplies, the post office, and the jeweller to get a new watch battery; 

twice to the village shop; three times to the petrol station. 

I've been to Quaker Meeting three times, where there were less than 12 people (because that's all we can fit in with social distancing) and everyone was wearing masks.

We've been getting deliveries from the milkman, the greengrocer and latterly from Sainsbury's and it's worked OK, but I have got sick of not being able to choose my own fruit and veg. 

And when this month the new Cox apple season arrived I was desperate to sink my gnashers into a cox. Eating the first cox of the season is almost orgasmic. Two weeks ago the greengrocer assured me he had coxes in stock but the delivery guy brought Worcester Permains. Oh the disappointment!

Last week he raised my hopes again but no coxes arrived, and the village shop had only red delicious and golden delicious. Why growers are still bothering with golden delicious baffles me. You'd think that with all the extinct species there are these days that golden delicious apples could be one of them. I'd rather eat a raw potato.

I was so gutted I went online and found a fruit farm in Essex selling new season coxes. I ordered two boxes and with delivery, the price of each apple works out at about 40 pence. Three days later the apples arrived and they are beyond my imaginings in terms of taste, juiciness and crunchiness. 

They are disappearing at an indecent rate because they're fabulous. They are so fabulous I'm going to tell you the name of the fruit farm: 

G.E.Elsworth and Son, Park Fruit Farm, Pork Lane, Great Holland, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, CO13 0ES  www.parkfruitfarm.co.uk 

The only other news I have is that I have just finished reading All the Light We Cannot See and it's been wonderful - beautifully written, serious, gripping and moving, and I will probably read it again. 

What have you been reading that you'd recommend?

Oh yes, and here's my latest painting. It's called Margaritas.