Lockdownish week 17 - Monday and Tuesday - style

Yesterday I did the garden in the morning and the evening - and was discouragingly stiff afterwards. My gardening consists mainly of getting on to my knees, weeding or chopping or whatever, getting up again and then down again a couple of feet along. And repeat - a lot. I don't feel that this used to be so difficult... .

In the afternoon I had coffee with a group of friends in someone's garden, which was very nice. We usually meet every Monday for about an hour, but this was the first time since March. 

Meanwhile Mr L was painting Daughter 2's Edinburgh bathroom, which has now got its new suite. 

I went down with him today and he continued painting - the bathroom and the insides of cupboards. My part consisted largely in wiping the insides of kitchen cupboards, cleaning windows and providing flat-dressing, as below. This plant is supposed to hide the communal bins in the street outside. As Daughter 2 said via WhatsApp, "Bins? What bins?"

The flat is painted white and the idea is to make it very neutral so that a buyer could just move in, but Daughter 2 put these shelves up when she lived there (or, to be more accurate, Mr L put them up for her) and so obviously we had to put some artistically-arranged what-nots on it. The boat picture was left by the tenants, while the other stuff comes from our house or Daughter 1's. Much WhatsApping went into getting it arranged just as Daughter 2 wanted it.

This is the very neutral new bathroom. The tiles are actually pale grey, not beige as they look here, and the suite is white.

She got us to buy two Ikea mirrors for it. Again, we consulted her as to where she wanted them.

We also needed to know the height above the shelf. (Talking of height - have I always been that much shorter than Mr L??)

It was quite easy because she answered our questions with a quick architectural drawing via WhatsApp. Isn't technology amazing? The bottle at the side in her drawing is a deep blue and I found another couple of blue things to go with it.

Obviously we want someone to buy the flat who cares deeply about the exact placing of objects... .

Talking of objects, I've been battling again with archives. I find it very difficult to throw away bits of paper of sentimental value or archival interest - but there's too much of it! Also photos - it's such a difficult balance. How many photos will our unborn descendants (if any) want of, for example, my parents? Probably only one or two, so that they can see what they looked like. But I find these hard to throw out. And how many will they want of my childless aunts, of whom I was very fond but who will be of limited interest to future generations?

So far I've put photos into boxes, to be sorted out properly on some cold winter evening when I have nothing much to do. Will that ever happen??

On days like this, when we've been by ourselves and just pootling along, it's easy to forget about the Covid situation. The other grandparents of the Edinburgh Two came up from England today for a few days because they're now allowed to, but we can't go down south because in England, we're not allowed yet into someone else's house - I think. It's quite confusing and becomes more so, the longer it goes on and the more (the different more) that things are loosened, here and in England. In Scotland, for example, you can't fly to Spain because the figures are too high there, but in England you can, so people are just driving down to England and leaving from there. Not that I myself want to go to Spain, or at least not in the foreseeable future.

I'm amused at how quickly masks have become fashion objects, to match one's outfit or express one's personality. I have two, one lime green and one turquoise, but I bought them somewhat randomly without thinking of stylishness.