Offering service to others

I have a website about family history, which I set up with the encouragement of others who said that I should make the services I have given to people freely in the past into a business. The trouble is that I love family history research so much that I feel wrong selling it. I haven't kept up the blogging there either, so it looks out of date... and I realise that the wall of text I have on the first page is probably only attractive to other family historians and not the customers. It's on the list of things to do.

Also on the list of things to do is my other site, Recording Angel, which is about recording the personal stories, family histories and memorials for people in the family.  Originally I was again planning to make it a purely business site, offering those services to the community. But the current circumstances mean that so many people are unable to attend funerals, it occurred to me that offering people information on how to do it for themselves would be a service to others, and so that is what I am doing in between gardening and housework: making a website to explain how to do it, and how to go about it.

I'm hoping it will help - it breaks my heart to see people buried without any formal memorial.  I know those can happen in the future, but I think the memorial of the person is an important part of grieving - you want the world to acknowledge that the person had a place in the world and a personality, and to acknowledge their loss to the world.

So if I am a little distracted, forgive me.

Another beautiful day

The weather is just as I like it at the moment, sunny but cool with a breeze, although the tall walls in my garden make it less breezy than elsewhere. Yesterday I put in my strawberry plants when they arrived. I have now received my liquorice seeds, and the ancient seeds I have ordered for old breeds of edible plants.  I'm looking for perennial plants which will have a long growing season. They're in quarantine for 24 hours. I'm probably going to have to wait for my compost to arrive to plant some of them... and some need to be planted and then put in the fridge.

My tomato plants are growing on a windowsill at the moment.  I got excited when I saw my onion seedlings have started to sprout. I have spring onions and onions in seed trays (actually repurposed egg boxes) on windowsills and on a table. I am becoming more and more convinced that we should be gardening - the UK only grows 50% of its food at the moment, and what with Brexit and the coronavirus, we need to be able to grow more. It makes sense for all of us to be growing as much as we can, to leave food in the shops for those who can grow their own.

I'm feeling a bit ashamed about how much I let my garden grow wild while I was away and then grieving last year, although the hum of the bees in the morning makes me feel better.  I may not be using the space - yet, but I am giving the bees things to visit - honesty, dandelions and bluebells at the moment.

One of the unexpected benefits of the lockdown is how good my children are at cookery!  My daughter made a beautiful cheesecake overnight, and I am looking forward to a slice of it later today. My son has been cooking us chicken curries which have been a revelation.  I don't know why I've been cooking the curries or leaving it to the co-op (theirs are very good) when I have a master curry chef in the house!

Cosmo Sheldrake released a new song a couple of days ago. I love his music, and have bought his records. I think this piece is very calming, and it incorporates beautiful film of the bluebell woods, and the song of birds which are endangered. Enjoy!

Sewing scrubs and scrubs bags

I've sewed three scrubs bags for the local maternity hospital (although I have yet to iron them).  I don't think my sewing skills are good enough to make scrubs, although I have sent off for a pattern.

Meanwhile, both scrubs and scrub bags need cord, and this video shows how to make a bias or straight cord without ironing or using a plastic guide.

I will collect any useful information for sewing scrubs here.  There is a facebook group for the whole country here, called for the love of scrubs.

There is a facebook group here for Lincolnshire only, called for the love of scrubs - Lincolnshire.

There is a facebook group here for Market Rasen, where locals are making scrubs and scrub bags etc for the Lincoln Maternity hospital specifically.

Gardening in my pyjamas

As the UK is experiencing California-like weather, with long sunny days every day at the moment, I have been out in the garden trying to get it under control.  I left my garden for about six months in 2018 when I looked after first my ex and then my mother for several months, then spent a lot of time helping to sort out my mother's house.  Then six months after I lost my mother, my partner died, and for the whole of 2019 I hardly did anything in the garden except water - and it shows.

I'm gradually getting it under control.  I've brought in a new compost bin, put in raised beds, and have given up on trying to have a lawn and put paving slabs as a path through what is rapidly becoming a meadow.  It's only small, but it is full of life, my garden, with frogs and birds and insects, lots of worms in the soil and abundant plants.

This morning I took delivery of a dozen strawberry plants.  I argued with myself about where to plant them, but eventually decided to put them in the raised bed.  I banked the soil up, as I am expecting a lot more next week, and put the plants in within a short while of them arriving.  The soil is a combination of well rotted compost and commercial soil, and I'm hoping that it will suit them.

Meanwhile one, just one, of my knee pads has gone missing.  I can't imagine what anyone would want one knee pad for.  Fortunately I managed to do what I needed to do on one knee... but I will have to find the other!

I'm not gardening in my pyjamas today - I was expecting deliveries, and so even put a bra on! But it is warm enough to be out there in a bikini, let alone pyjamas...and I have been out there in my pyjamas this week....