Diary > Monday 18th May

[Caw1]

Caw1
My other half and I have never spent 24/7 together in our 55 years of marriage,  just a week after this all happened he has been I'll, so 3 weeks taken care off but no murders as yet. It must be difficult for some people though cooped up, I am thankful I have a garden and a couple of spare rooms

Louisa Maud

I agree a big garden, my own work room where I can shut myself away and a few other rooms...
I've always been independent comes from being a boarding school girl and parents who left me to get on with my life, running my own business for  40 years in the rag trade. The last made me have to stand on my own two feet against men and I was a young woman in those early days... made me harder than I wanted to be but I had to survive in, what was then, a mans world!
I like my space and we don't always see eye to eye! Testing times indeed for us all on every level!

[Mowsehowse]

So true.

[Viktoria]

This is not a criticism but just the other side of the situation, and of course I
 speak from the position       
 of never having  been in lockdown with my OH, but I can’t think of anything nicer at the moment.
I watch Morse often as there is a great resemblance, so this week I am up until after 1-30.
Neighbours, I spoke too soon!
The one I politely asked not to bang his bin into my fence so the wild flowers in the lane would survive, ( and my fence)he complied last week but today he has put his bin
right on the main road side of my corner plot,in full view of my lounge window.Everyone else has put  theirs round the corner ,there is room for his ,but no,he seems to want to be awkward.
It is a win win thing for him, if I mention it he knows has bothered me but if
I say   nothing he will still know it is unpleasant and so he wins either way.
Be careful Roobarb, you don’t know for certain what has been used on your plants .
Things are dying in my garden too, a spirea, but the lady next door’s daughter did some gardening at weekend and sprayed weeds .
There is horsetail in that garden and last year I did mention they ought to deal with it on the basis they would not be able to sell the house with that in the garden, so if they have sprayed wildly,it may have come through the fence ,or soaked in the soil and done the damage that way.
People!
Made pea soup today and shredded some ham in ,will use the last of the ham in a ham and leek pie tomorrow.
A mystery parcel has arrived ,probably for my approaching birthday.
Will leave it for a good few days in a lidded crate in the vestibule.
I miss my crosswords ,nothing to stretch my mind really .
Cheerio folks , hope you are keeping safe and well.
Viktoria.

[Mowsehowse]

Viktoria can you find an online crossword. I am sure there must be some.

[Viktoria]

Thanks, do you know I had not thought of that!
I sometimes make my own, in reverse so to speak.
Draw out the squares, fill in random black ones and then put in words that fit ,then do the clues.
I can always cheat and alter the squares!
Crosswords have played a big part in my life.
My OH was so good ,could do The Manchester Guardian one in a few minutes.That really impressed me when we first met.
Then we took The Telegraph, and he was good at that too.
Once I was sitting on a bench at Manchester’s Exchange station,my husband and two little boys were looking at a model of  Stevenson’s Rocket along the platform.
A young man sat beside me and asked was I any good at crosswords, I said my husband was and called him over , he was annoyed the young man had sat beside me so took the paper and finished the crossword very quickly and said “ Now you can go ,” giving the young man the paper back.
I felt dead glamorous 
Thanks again.I am quite dim at times!
Viktoria.

[Mowsehowse]

#13 What a poignant memory Viktoria.....

No I don't think you are dim at all, but it is rather astonishing what can be found on Google. Try:
free online crossword puzzles

https://www.boatloadpuzzles.com/playcrossword

I suspect the difficulty will be finding your preferred level.

Very clever to make up crosswords.... do you manage to keep the blank squares as a symmetric pattern? Unless you are forced to move one, as you say!!

[Viktoria]

No, not necessarily symmetric ,but just a rough guide,and as I said can cheat as much as I like and as OH would have said “ When you cheat the person you are really cheating is yourself”—— oh he and his principles!
But that is true isn’t it in exams etc!
I have a half finished book of very old Telegraph crosswords from ages and ages ago,( stone ones!) and he had completed some but still some not finished but he never looked at the back for the solution ,now curiosity gets the better of me and if I have given up I do look but I don’t fill in the clues I did not get, he would have thought” how pathetic!” had I done that.
Thanks again.
Sunny day and washing in.
 Must tidy up the sewing  stuff on the table, when I get the machine out I do lots then it gets put away for ages.I even had forgotten the unusual way the spool is threaded and got the machine all choked up!
Hours of hacking a bird’s nest of thread out of the works.
I need a leek, got some leftover ham and have done pea soup but thought a leek and ham pie would be nice ,I’ll see if anyone is going shopping.I will surely see someone in their garden when I hang the washing out soon ,so handy I can talk to so many people all around me in three directions with many yards between us .
Cheerio,hope everyone is O K ,glad to see a post from Skoosh, he has not been on for a while .Thought perhaps Nessie had got him!
Viktoria.

[Maiden Stone]

viktoria, don't worry about Skoosh falling victim to Nessie. The social distancing trend was begun by Nessie centuries ago. S/he is keeping well clear of humans at present. 
Is it still Monday? I put food caddy out thinking it was Wednesday.