June musings . lockdown diaries

When I look out on the streets, lockdown feels like it’s a thing of the past. I’m not ready though, I’m taking my time… In June, I slowly started to meet friends – one-to-one or in very small groups. It’s weird moving back into what we used to know as normal when this virus is still out there. It’s scary.

So over the past 4 weeks, life hasn’t changed too much for me yet. I’ve visited Brighton and my flat in Hove a few times. The first walk into town was weird. The city centre felt deserted, the life that makes Brighton so unique and wonderful, wasn’t there. If I’m honest, seeing this made me miss Brighton a little less. So it was good for me.

Since then, I’ve met a couple of friends for a socially distanced stroll along the seafront, with my first takeaway coffees since March. Oh, how I’ve missed this luxury!

I bought some more plants, discovered pottery with dry clay (and am slightly addicted now), got some pretty new coffee mugs (to deal with the takeaway cravings). We also replaced an old couch with a new one. Lee got a little bit too invested in making a face mask for 2 online quizzes. We went out for walks and drives when we realised that we haven’t left the house often enough. Lee’s facebook cooking show took a break halfway through June and I actually miss our Thursday evening entertainment on facebook now.

The tips opened so it was time to go through the garages and get rid of stuff that nobody needs anymore. Lee helped a friend in Littlehampton putting up a wall in her shop. Lee’s daughters came to visit a few times which meant TikTok, Disney movies and arts and crafts.

This month, I also decided it was time to finally clean the oven. You couldn’t even see through the glass anymore. It took a lot of scrubbing and a few hours of soaking but we succeeded and have now a clean oven. Yay!

Hm, what else happened?

A few weeks ago, we brought my bike to Worthing from Hove. It needed a little love and attention so Lee took care of that. Last week, I finally used it – for the first time since September probably! It was a hot day (one of three in total – what happened?!) so I cycled to Shoreham to meet my friends for an evening dip in the sea. Hove was way too busy for a beach visit so they decided to cycle over my way and we’d meet in the middle. First sea swim of the year done. Can’t way for the next one.

Since summer seemed to have arrived, my friends and I decided to have a BBQ. Sadly that didn’t work out so instead, it was an indoor gathering with food and dachshund cuddles. Not the worst way to spend a Saturday.

Oh and we finally hung up one of my photos in Lee’s room. It’s of the crashed plane in Iceland. I took this photo in 2015 and framed it for an exhibition in 2017. Since then it was stored in Narnia (our spare room, sort of). Even though during daytime it’s hidden behind the bed (which we fold up to have more room), it’s nice to see it every night.

Oh, and you might have noticed, my website got an overhaul. I’ve been working on it on and off over the past 3 weeks and am now at a point where I happily invite people to have a look around. I’m very pleased with how it all turned out – it was a lot of work to redo the whole website. Especially since all changes happened while it was live… Now I can go back to faffing and watching too many YouTube videos again – which I actually already started doing. I’ve recently discovered a love for furniture DIY hacks and have never been so intrigued to try it myself. Watch this space. The clay is just the beginning. Muahahah!

So yeah, that was my June. What happened in your world? How’s life going this summer for you?

Anyway, here are “some” photos. It gets increasingly harder to narrow down my image selection. I wonder if that’s going to change when really interesting things are happening in my life again.

That’s it. Thanks for reading. And looking at my insane number of photos. Took me ages to go through the ones from June to present you with hopefully a good representation of how “exciting” my life was over the past 4 weeks.