9 years a blipper

Even though the calendar dates don’t align, blipfoto tells me that today is the 9 year anniversary of the start of this journal begun on 12th January 2012. As is my usual practice (at least when I remember!), I have revisited all my blips since the last milestone, and written a wee account of life chez hazelh since then. This includes a list of my favourite blips in this period, as can be seen at the end of this text. I’ll be interested to hear from anyone who understands the significance of the photograph that I have blipped. Cheeseminer should get it, at least :-)

My last milestone blip was on 28th March 2020, at the start of the first lockdown in response to the 2020 COVID19 pandemic. I think that I would have been shocked at the time had I known that we’d still be living under similar restrictions 10 months later, without any prospect of their being lifted soon.

In some respects my everyday life has continued as usual in these pandemic times. For example, my work tasks still relate to research, teaching and academic leadership: writing, reviewing, supervising, assessing, examining, managing etc. The main difference, however, is that I have spent every working day but one (19th November 2020) of this entire period in my study at home. There has been some good news along the way, including three PhD graduations - Leo and Lyndsey were awarded their doctorates on 9th July 2020, and Iris hers on 28th October  2020 - and some less welcome news too, e.g. notification on 30th November 2020 of an unsuccessful grant bid to which I and several others devoted a lot of time over the summer.  Perhaps the saddest work event (for me, but not for the person concerned) was Laura’s departure when she retired at the end of September 2020. Although I now miss her as a colleague, I am delighted that a few of us persuaded Laura to take up blipping. So I still get to see her every day online.

At home I have also kept up my usual activities: cooking, exercising, reading, playing games, and dedicating an inordinate amount of time to my secret recreational project (to be revealed on Sunday - watch this space). These activities have simply taken on a different flavour since we have been confined to quarters. For example, I’ve worked all my way through lots of new vegetarian and vegan recipes in a cookery book that I received as a birthday present in March (see my blip of 4th January 2021); on 18th July 2020 I returned to running after a long break due to injury; Carcassonne (blipped 29th July 2020) is the house game of the moment (because you can’t really play Catan with two); and the reading that I complete with my book group pals is discussed in Zoom calls rather than around the dinner table. The latter distresses me somewhat, mainly because I miss the culinary talents of my fellow book group members. I’m lucky that I have still been able to sample some of Ridgeback13’s wonderful baking. For example, she made a secret cake drop to our flat on 6th May 2020; she brought a delicious pavlova when she came round for outdoors supper with us on 25th June 2020); and she delivered florentines to us as a Christmas present on 20th December 2020 . We also enjoyed some lovely meals with Winsford when we stayed with her and T at the end of our holiday in August, e.g. a salmon supper on 18th August 2020.

Two aspects of our usual life have been severely curtailed recently: travel and socialising.The furthest south that I have ventured since March is to Northumberland. The first trip to see Mummy hazelh was organised as soon as it was permitted to travel after the spring lockdown, on 6th July 2020. I returned there again on 1st September 2020 to collect Mummy hazelh for a long overdue visit to Edinburgh. Although we were obliged to cancel a number of planned trips (notably to Malvern, Cirencester, Bristol and Chichester, plus a work visit to Canada and the US) we did manage a much longed-for summer holiday in the far north starting at Muir of Ord on 7th August 2020. In the spring and summer we made up for the lack of travel with numerous local walks and bike rides, for example: to the East Lothian beaches on 25th April 2020, 20th May 2020, 28th May 2020; to Roslin on 9th May 2020 and 25th May 2020 ; to Threipmuir reservoir on 26th May 2020; to Gladhouse reservoir on 30th May 2020; to Haddington on 1st June 2020; and to the Dalmeny estate on 24th June 2020.

Our limited social life has meant far fewer overnight visitors to our flat than usual. Other than my mother’s visit noted above, Mr hazelh’s sister and partner are our only other recent guests. They came to stay for a few days from 27th August 2020 when their summer holiday in France was cancelled due to quarantine regulations. We made it to a wedding celebration on 20th July 2020 and we have enjoyed every precious permitted moment with our nephew Paddy and his girlfriend Caitlin, including our Christmas Eve yarden dinner party under Mr hazelh’s winter tent. Otherwise, like work, most of our social interactions have been mediated by technology using tools such as FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Skype, Teams, WebEx, and Zoom.

Something else missing from recent blips is any moaning about catching colds. Normally I tend to pick up anything doing the rounds on campus. Permanently working at home has health-giving properties! Indeed, the only illness that I have suffered recently is hay fever, and some aches and pains related to exercise (e.g. on 19th September 2020). Poor Mr hazelh has suffered more than I have with the latter. He endured a particularly worrying back injury in the summer, as evidenced in my blip of 3rd July 2020. Insomnia is the one affliction that I would really like to rid myself of (and stop moaning about, as I noted on 15th November 2020). At least I am a highly functional insomniac, able to survive on very little sleep (see my blip of 22nd November 2020.)

Watching television series seems to have taken the place of going out with friends. In recent months we enjoyed all the following: Derry girls, Ghosts, A house through time (Bristol), Mrs America, Norsemen, Queen’s gambit, The quiz, Sunderland til I die, Unorthodox, World at War, and the second series of the Elena Ferrante Naples novels. We also watched The crown, but were less impressed with the fourth series than we were with the earlier ones. I watched His dark materials with Mr hazelh out of wifely loyalty rather than for my own entertainment, but I did like the music, the cinematography, and Pan.

I’m pretty sure that we would not have been so productive in some of our endeavours if it had not been for the pandemic. For example, taking into account earlier progress on making photobooks from our huge photo archive, Mr hazelh would not have closed the gap in our collections by 14th July 2020. Similarly, I doubt that the garden makeover would not have progressed so well had the Head Gardener (Paddy) and his Assistant (Caitlin) been able to spend weekends away on Holy Island or hiking in the Highlands, as first envisaged when they moved to Edinburgh at the start of 2020. I also question whether I would have been quite so interested in birdwatching walks led by Jack on 21st November 2020, 22nd November 2020, and 2nd January 2021, and who would have believed that I would catch the gardening bug in 2020?!!! The exact date for the latter can be pinpointed in my journal as 5th May 2020; I was well and truly hooked by 5th July 2020.

Other happy discoveries since my last milestone blip on 28th March 2020  include a previously unknown branch of Mr hazelh’s family resident just a short walk from our flat - we met for the first time on 20th June 2020; and Mr hazelh with long hair (see the before and after looks in my blip of 22nd July 2020). We’re also delighted that we were permitted to help Paddy and Caitlin move into their new flat in Portobello on 12th November 2020, just four days before the 30th anniversary of our moving into our own flat on 16th November 2020. We now know Caitlin a lot better too: she’s a great artist (see my blips of her work on 22nd April 2020 and 8th June 2020), an enthusiastic wild swimmer - even on Christmas Day, and sneaky Catan player (evidenced on 6th September 2020).

Here’s hoping that by this time next year we will all have been vaccinated and we will have made up for everything that we have missed during the pandemic restrictions. In the meantime, I am looking forward to the completion of my garden makeover in time for the spring.

The following are my favourite shots since my last milestone blip:

Deserted Waverley station on 24th April 2020  (selected for BBC's Scotland in pictures)
Red feet ripple reflection on 5th May 2020
Maya’s wave on 14th May 2020 (with bonus extra of a stonking Scrabble game)
No holiday - stay home - clear enough? on 25th May 2020
Gladhouse reservoir and Musselburgh poppy field on 30th May 2020
Swan family at Dunsapie Loch on 12th June 2020
Crooks up a tree on 16th June 2020
Fish supper and Foxy Loxy on 24th June 2020
Edinburgh bus crashes into New Town building on 27th July 2020
Dolphin swallows salmon whole on 8th August 2020 - my most favourited/starred blip ever to date
Room for everyone on Uig Sands on 11th August 2020
Happy hazelh on 14th August 2020
Dawn, Uig, Isle of Lewis on 17th August 2020
Otter jaws on 8th September 2020
Hanging out the washing on 17th September 2020
Sunset over the Water of Leith on 23rd September 2020
Sunset at Newhaven Harbour on 2nd October 2020
Reflections in Newhaven Harbour on 7th November 2020
Garden cat on 12th November 2020
Water of Leith reflections on 29th November 2020
Christmas at the Botanics on 3rd December 2020
Winter sunset on 14th December 2020
Yarden fungi on 15th December 2020
Christmas swimmers, Portobello on 25th December 2020 - my personal favourite, also selected for BBC Scotland in pictures
Snowy, sunny walk on 29th December 2020

Exercise today: none, other than an unsuccessful walk to the Post Office.