Christina Hollis: A Little Bit of Peace and Quiet...

Fresh from the Garden

Lockdown has eased slightly here in England, but I'm in no hurry to get back into the human race. All the reports of prejudice, riots, pandemic, and financial problems makes life beyond home seem uncertain. The events of the past few months have changed life forever. Both my OH and son have health problems, so rather than put them at risk I've only left the house (apart from walking the dog around the wood) three times since March 18th. Here are a few things that have saved my sanity...

Gardening:
Luckily I had bought all my seeds before lockdown, so I had plenty of sowing and planting to distract me from not being able to leave the house and garden. 

This spring we had a lot of dry, sunny weather so in places, I've even managed to keep on top of the weeds. One patch of undergrowth has got away from me though, so I'm now calling that The Wild Garden!

University Work:
I had four major essays to complete within a couple of weeks, so for some time I did nothing but read, make notes and edit my work. 

With deadlines hurtling toward me, the time flew by. Luckily I managed to complete everything in time, and handed in my final essay last week. 

Now all I have to do is wait for the results, while writing my dissertation...

My Best Effort So Far!

Baking:
Once I'd finished my university work for the day I felt like leaving paperwork behind and doing something crafty. During lockdown I worked on perfecting my sourdough bread. You can read how I started here, and how I progressed here. How I finally solved all my problems and produced the loaf in this photo will be the subject of my next blog at christinahollisbooks.online!

Poultry:
We lost out last ancient hen back before Christmas. After that, it was so easy to buy eggs from the supermarket it was several months before I got around to ordering some replacements. I chose Beechwood Blue Rangers, partly because I liked the name but mostly because they are supposed to lay nice brown eggs. 

The New Girls

Although there's no nutritional difference between white, tinted and brown eggs, I think dark ones look nicer, so shell colour is my chief criterion when it comes to poultry. 

The new birds arrived on the 18th May, and we got our first beautiful white egg on 3rd June. We've had a further twenty-three eggs from them since then, and not one has had the merest speckling of brown!

Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women. She has written more than twenty novels, sold nearly three million books, and her work has been translated into twenty different languages. When she isn’t writing, Christina is cooking, walking her dog, or gardening.

Catch up with her at https://christinahollisbooks.online, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Christina Hollis: Evening Magic

Pic by Wal_172619, via Pixabay.

Each year, my daughter and I book up to go on one of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' Nightingale walks. These are held during May in a local bird reserve. This year, of course, they were cancelled because of Covid 19. That means we'll be missing out on our evening magic this year.

Although the ancient coppice and tangled understory of brambles surrounding our house was once alive with the sound of nightingales, thy haven't visited her for many years.  At least we still have sheets of beautiful wild bluebells running through the sweet chestnut trees like blue mist, despite the wild boar regularly digging up the bulbs.

The news about the virus is so depressing, I ration myself to one news broadcast per day. Both my husband and son suffer from asthma, and my son has a fragile immune system. I brought him home from university on 18th March, and until yesterday we've been stuck inside, except for three daily dog-walks. We've been taking it in turns to get our exercise. Apart from that, the only time I'd been out of the house since March was to post a birthday card, last week.

The spicy fragrance from these has been really strong in this week's  warm sunshine

On Monday, the garden centres in Wales opened. As we live only a few miles from the border, OH and I crossed it to visit our favourite garden store. Only one shopper per family was allowed, so he stayed in the car while I stocked up on the bare necessities of gardening life. It's a small, family run business of the sort that will be hit hard by the economic downturn this lockdown has caused. We went there partly to give them some support, but also because I truly believe gardening is the best kind of therapy for low spirits.  It never fails, and now I've got plenty of seeds of wallflowers, sweet williams and stocks to sow for flowers next spring. That's optimism!

I've even been able to find a substitute for our annual nightingale walk. Three hours of uninterrupted birdsong, thanks to the wonders of YouTube! 

Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women. She has written more than twenty novels, sold nearly three million books, and her work has been translated into twenty different languages. When she isn’t writing, Christina is cooking, walking her dog, or gardening.

You can catch up with her at https://christinahollisbooks.online, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com