Lockdown musings.........

I am almost out of my favourite 6 x 6 white card bases, but rummaging around uncovered this shaped edge card base from years ago - I stamped and coloured the flower from the Make a Wish set by Clearly Besotted then cut it out. The shape of the card seemed to lend itself to a simple easel card (score the front of the card at the halfway point, and fold)

I couldn't find any cardstock to exactly match the colour of the flowers for a sentiment mat, so coloured a piece of white card with the same colour ProMarkers

 This lockdown business is strange - for non-UK friends, our whole country is in lockdown for the third time. People who can are working from home, pubs, restaurants, non essential shops and schools are shut. You can only travel from area to area for specific reasons, and can't have visitors inside your home, or even in your garden - although who would want to chat a garden table over a cup of hot chocolate on a freezing winters day is beyond me.

So when friends drop by to return a borrowed book or jigsaw, you stand inside the house (with your coat on because the front door is wide open), whilst your masked visitor stands a dutiful 2 metres away, and you chat awkwardly about the weather and other trivia until they climb, teeth chattering, into their car and drive thankfully away

This goes entirely against the grain for me, raised as I was by a hospitable mother who put the kettle on for a cup of tea as soon as your feet crossed her threshold. So for all of my grown up years, the window cleaner, odd job man, boiler servicing guy etc barely have time to unload the tools of their trade before a cup of tea or coffee is thrust into their hands. The problem now is that all those years of nursing and infection control have left their mark on me, I am indoctrinated in the extreme measures needed to fight the pesky virus....... So let's face it, anyone working for a couple of hours in your house with frequent refreshments provided are going to ask if they can use the bathroom before leaving. So a whole new can of worms is opened. Not only do I have their mug to gingerly place in the dishwasher, treating it with as much respect as if it were a radioactive bomb primed to go off and destroy the whole neighbourhood, I now have to clean the darn cloakroom as well. So it's easier to smile and wish them a cheery good morning with no mention of the tea word. This means that when I am desperate for coffee, I have to smuggle it unseen into a random corner of the house where I can't be discovered, and furtively gulp it down before my inhospitable actions can be witnessed by the thirsty workman....