Friday 25 September 2020

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 28 OF LOCKDOWN: SECOND WAVE

It is now felt that a second wave of the coronavirus is upon us.  Of course, it will be several weeks before we will know the extent and the trend but due to the rise in cases (and a couple of deaths) it is felt that we are now looking at the start of a second wave.  The UK is following the pattern of France and Spain only is about 3 weeks later on the trajectory.

Our area had already had the restrictions increased 3 weeks ago; now it is all of Scotland.  So life has not changed that much except that we are certainly feeling that this is going to go on for a long time.  And this is  only the beginning of the autumn-winter season.


Iain has bought himself a new car, a Vauxhall Mokka.  I took this photo at 7:30 am yesterday and was pleased to see the early morning sunshine on the front of the house.  It will soon be moving away and leaving that side in shade for the next 6 months.

The garden is full of early autumn colour now.




Harriet aged 7 and a half.


Harriet aged 7 and a half and Ellie aged 5 years.

* * * * * * * * SOME LOCAL SCENES * * * * * * * * * 





Friday 18 September 2020

CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN WEEK 27: GLASGOW CITY CENTRE WALKABOUT

The number of cases of covid virus is rising so stricter measures are being put in place to try and keep the infection rate below 5% of the population.  Currently it is 4.5%.

So no visiting in other people's homes.  However you can meet up in restaurants.  Also train and bus travel is operating with social distancing and masks in place.

I went into the city centre this week. I took some photos in the morning sunshine which a general theme of Cornovirus Lockdown.  

For all that the city centre was fairly quiet there were several construction sites which were hives of activity.  I particularly liked these following posters which were painted on the boarding around the building site in the Merchant City.




 * * * * * *Mercat Cross, Trongate * * * * * *





* * * * *  Glasgow City Chambers and George Square  vicinity * * * * * 



* * * * * Queen Street Station is nearly completed now  * * * * * 










Friday 11 September 2020

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 26: LOCKDOWN MEASURES INCREASED DUE TO 1.5 'R' RATE

Things are going backward this week due to a rise in the coronavirus infection rate. I suppose since restaurants, bars and schools have opened up it was inevitable.  Also there is now a Test and Trace network working which means monitoring of the presence of the virus is perhaps improved, i.e. more of the population being measured means more found? 

We have now moved to a state where we can no longer visit other houses or have social gatherings of more than 6.  Any thoughts of  opening up halls for cultural, sports, church are now on hold.

Today an app has been put out by NHS Scotland. It is supposed to indicate if you have been in contact with a person who is Positive. It was straightforward to download.

In the meantime we keep busy; it's the only way!

Up until this week the children have been coming to us after school.  That has now stopped, regrettably.

Some photos of last week:

Alastair's school jacket in the hall

Doing a jigsaw - I order them from Wentworth puzzles using one of John's group photos from their summer holiday... worth every penny for the peach and quiet it give!

Ellie eating porridge after school.  She is strongly left-handed.



Harriet 7 and Ellie 5 taken by Mairi recently.


Alastair who will be 13 years old in February


Ishbel will be 14 years old in December.   We have been spending more time in our 'Test Kitchen', i.e. she comes over on a Saturday or after school.  The kids are now bigger eaters which means we enjoy baking things for them to try.



This is a Lockdown Sky. After being to the shops and using a mask in all buildings, malls, tea-rooms upon entering but not eating... it is nice to sit out and just enjoy the deep blue sky.  Normally there would be planes going over heading to Glasgow Airport. - very few these days.  How can that last for the airlines?!


Tuesday 1 September 2020

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 25: NHS SCRUBS SEWING UPDATE

I have finished sewing 3 more pairs of NHS scrubs.  Here they are below.  I give them to John who gives them to anyone who wants them (not for OR or normal use, i.e. for children's hospices or care homes for example.


I am still using the fabric I was sent by the shop who supplied fabric at a knock-down price for signed-up sewers of Scotland NHS Scrubs in the early days of Lockdown.

The story of the above photo... just for the record:

The top pair, Pair number 1, are a made of brown cotton for the bottoms and kiddies' patterned cotton for the top.  I found the brown cotton sent to me was faded in places as if the material had been sitting in a window in the sun. (That is OK; I just laid out the pattern pieces to accommodate.)  I put the finished bottoms aside and later purchased the blue Winnie the Pooh fabric from John Lewis's to make a co-ordinating top.  The material was OK (but needed at lot of straightening!) 

Pair number 2 in the middle is made from a piece of Marimekko fabric I bought years ago in Sweden and made into a tablecloth.  It was  slightly faded and had a few marks on it from spaghetti hoops or some such orange food colouring but OK for this project. It sewed up fine; lovely weight of cotton and no dye running.

Pair number 3: I had 4 metres (enough for 2 pairs of scrubs) of this sent from the fabric store supplying NHS sewers and this was me using it for the first time. When I got it I put it in the washing machine to make sure it was 'pre-shrunk', then dried,straightened and ironed it, then folded it and put it aside.  

A couple of weeks ago I decided to cut out the first of 2 pairs of scrubs from this piece.  When I complete both top and bottom I noticed that there was a soiled mark on the top so I put into the sink to wash it.  Oh my goodness!  The dye ran something awful!

Because I had put the original 4 metre piece in the washing machine I had not noticed the dye problem!  Needless to say, while I was not charged a lot for the material I was vexed to find this problem and that the rest of the fabric unusable i.e. I will not be able to use it for scrubs.

Finally ... again, just for the record, I raised the V shape opening in the top so it wasn't so deep.  By doing (these and) the other scrubs I made were not taken but the sewing co-ordinator as they did not meet the NHS specification.  Quite right, of course. (They have to go over the head really easily without brushing against the skin - fair enough.)

The good news, of course, is that I really enjoy sewing these scrubs and do lots of other bits and pieces in tandem, e.g. altering Oxfam shirts for Iain, using up really good fabric in my stash for various household or sartorial projects.