Lockdown Tales

Yesterday, in a show of easter spirit, the universe sent us a lambing season adventure.

We were out for our government approved hour of exercise when we saw two pretty lambikins out with their mum on the wrong side of the fence.

They got off the path and we passed them by and thought not very much more of it. They’d find their way back in. Next thing, though, they come bounding along behind us with a dog chasing them and they panic and head off to the side of the path and… over a cliff.

They tumbled a bit and ended up on a slight outcropping, but we (and the runner who also saw this) didn’t fancy their chances of getting out of it on their own.

So the three of us gamely clambered down the cliff a ways downstream and got below her with a view to prodding her back up the cliff if she could make it. At the very least dissuading her from continuing down. She was not minded to cooperate.

Over the next hour and a half, half a dozen other people joined the effort, one fetching a small rope not much good for anything but stopping her from falling further if she were to panic, so we did that. By this time I had tried prodding her and she wasn’t moving. So I ended up quite up close and personal. I got the lambs and handed them up to Julian who handed them up to someone at the top. I thought that would motivate her to go up, but she was dead weight in her panic by this time.

Somebody had thought to go for some loppers so we could clear some of the brambles between sheep and clifftop.

Eventually, the farmer was called by one of the neighbours and turned up with a long lorry strap. He chucked one end down to me and I tied it round her (pleased that I know a few useful knots) and everyone at the top hauled her unceremoniously up.

She was pleased to be back with the lambs and seemed pretty chill as she wandered back into the field.

In other news, covid-19 continues to ravage the country. I volunteered along with most of the other costume technicians in the UK, to make scrubs for medics who need all the PPE they can get.

We had a bit of a marathon session, with me and Lisa sewing and Julian ironing and packing and got the first lot done for Friday pickup, hopefully delivery soon to Manchester Royal Infirmary and the Nightingale hospital they’ve set up at GMEX.

Glad to be able to do something to help and glad I have a room suitable for turning over to production line sewing.

Also been doing a bit of gardening, augmenting Julian’s heroic efforts on the hillside. I have always wanted to have a go at starting a bunch of perennials from seed, since one ought to be able to get hundreds of pounds’ worth of potted plants if one puts in the effort.

I bought mixed fancy aquilegia, mixed snap dragons, pink nasturtiums and dark purple lobelia in the end, just picked some things that hopefully will fill in space while the rest of the hillside planting fills out a bit. I think they take ages to come up, so I have to pay attention and water them now (what a pain) but hopefully this is the cheapest way to a hillside garden full of lovely flowers rather than weeds.

Both camellias bloomed this year, after three and five years respectively of doing nothing at all. We potted them last summer just to see if they’d fare any better and they do seem to have done.

In other news, Ben has been building a staircase bookshelf for ease of access to the little nook we have been struggling to name.

Julian reckons we might call it the projection room above the auditorium. If you don’t get it, go watch Mean Girls. Apparently.

And finally, here is a picture of my first attempt at hot cross buns for Good Friday, because Julian was sad that we hadn’t bought any and I can’t have Julian sad. They were damn fine. And very sticky.