If you go down to the woods today

After a rather restless night, I wasn't at all ready to get up at our usual time on Saturday before last.

I had been tossing and turning, jolting awake every hour to check the alarm clock which is at Jos's side of the bed. As I'm obviously not wearing my glasses at night, I had to squint really hard to decipher the digits, by which time I was far too awake to go back to sleep instantly, resulting in more tossing and turning.

It was the night when we would have set our alarm clock for 3.30 am to start our annual trek to the UK, which of course this year isn't happening. All through the day, I kept checking the clock and imagining where we would have been by then. As we have made the journey countless times before, I kept seeing the landmarks we would have been passing in my mind's eye. Always a nerve-wracking experience, we would even gladly have tackled the M25!

Oh Corona, so much to answer for ...

But back to Saturday, which not only had a slow start, but needed the wearing of a favourite outfit to cheer me up. Clothing as armour, as the wise Sheila would say!

Is she, or isn't she, you may wonder. Well, yes, I am. Wearing a jumpsuit, that is! After having scoured the charity shops for months, I found this one in a high street shop just over two years ago. I definitely haven't regretted my purchase as it has earned its acclaim as a wardrobe staple by now.

The fruit-and-veg necklace, which has a matching bracelet, was a charity shop find, as were the two bangles. Both the orange belt, which is an old favourite, and the yellow flower corsage, were retail buys at one time or another.

It had been raining on and off since Friday evening and overnight our garden had received a good soaking. The perfect weather, of course, for our garden's population of slugs and snails to have a field day. The one on the top left was preening itself in the mirror in the passageway after gorging on the gourmet food on offer.

The one and only flower bud in our Oriental poppy was getting itself ready to reveal its precious cargo. I inadvertently photographed an alien playing hide and seek behind it, with its eyes on stalks spying on me. It really pays to click on the collage and enlarge it. Isn't it scary? I wonder what it is!

We'd been gearing ourselves up all morning to put up the trellis in the newly cleared border and add the plants we'd bought on Friday. But by the time we finally made it into the garden, the sun had decided to put in an appearance, turning the spot in question into a heat trap.

Nevertheless, Jos persevered in putting up the trellis against the old and partly crumbling concrete wall separating our garden from next door's. Some of the tangle of Euonymus and gooseberry stems had to be removed, so we picked the poor berries, which were in their first blush, for further ripening inside. Don't worry, we still have more than enough berry-dripping stems left.

With the trellis in place, I already positioned the plants in their designated spaces, deciding to keep the actual planting for another day. We weren't exactly relishing the thought of the serious digging we would have to do before we could plant the Clematis. 

Instead, we gave in to our lethargic state of mind and just let it be. 

Little black rain clouds to match our moods were trying in vain to chase away the innocent whites. 

A host of Fuchsia ballerinas who were dancing with the blue sky as a backdrop were joined by two of the Echinacea flowers who'd donned their fancy tutus, with the soundtrack provided by the busy buzzing bees.

Yes, I was in that frame of mind!

Fooling around with a cheap fish-eye lens for my phone's camera, I made some otherworldly snaps of the garden. The fish-eye effect makes our garden looks much bigger than it actually is!

Still feeling jittery - and doing Jos's head in - on Sunday morning, I desperately needed to get out of the house for a soul restoring walk.

In order to avoid meeting too many other Sunday walkers, we drove down to a park in a neighbouring village around mid morning.

The park in question is one those semi-neglected leafy places, originally landscaped in a style greatly influenced by Capability Brown.

We needn't have worried as apart from some people sunbathing on the main lawn, we only met a handful of other walkers, often accompanied by their dogs, as well as a lady who sat reading a book on one of the benches.

Of course, now that this silly restriction was finally relaxed, we had to sit down on as many benches as possible, making up for lost time.

The winding woodland paths lined with patches of ferns and dotted with delicate pink foxgloves were a delight to walk along, with the sun filtering through the canopy providing a delicious dappled shade. 

Walking on the park's less trodden paths, it was quietly humming with life. Sudden bursts of birdsong mingled with the drowsy buzzing of insects, the snapping of twigs underfoot and the gentle rustling of the leaves.

My short-sleeved cotton vintage frock was a Think Twice bargain back in February. As it still had its tags, this is its very first wear ever. 

I accessorized its indigo, lilac and pink floral pattern with a pink beaded necklace, two pink flower brooches and a lilac vinyl belt. And look, it's got pockets, their tabs as well as the dress's collar made up in a solid indigo with contrasting topstitch.

A sunhat was a necessity but I didn't need the sunglasses I was carrying in my wicker handbag. As you can see, I am wearing my pink floral sneakers again. They have the longest pink satin laces, which have to be tied carefully to avoid tripping over them. I am also wearing socklets to prevent blisters. I'm sure the shoes would have been fine without them, but I thought I'd better be safe than sorry. 

We were making our way towards the park's folly, an ancient ice house with a gazebo on top.

The gazebo can be reached by a narrow winding path spiralling around the mound into which the ice house is built, almost completely hidden behind a barrier of yew hedges.

As passing people on the paths is impossible and would have been extra tricky in this age of social distancing, we had to make sure nobody else was up there.

We'd just reached the top and were about to make some photos when a lady walking her two dogs came up. We chatted while she patiently waited at the end of the path until we'd taken a few snaps. Then we traded places and made our way down the mound again. There wasn't much of a view to be had at this time of year anyway. We were also quite appalled at all the littering, the viewing plantform disfigured by empty beer cans and cigarette butts. 

Back on solid ground, we started walking back towards where we'd parked our car, crossing one of the bridges over the moat - the park was originally part of castle grounds - in order to take a slightly different route. 

Passing through a clearing, we were entranced by the fallen tree on the top left, which we thought  had the look of a long-necked but friendly faced dragon!

Soon we reached our car, but before going home, we stopped at a small open-air garden centre along the way. There are always bargains to be had here, but as it shares its car park with Aldi, we expect it is far too busy to go there during the week. With the supermarket closed on Sunday, all was fine, though.

Of course we couldn't resist buying some plants, which included some shade loving annuals for the passageway, which is hardly getting any sunshine.

The watering can is actually a flat-backed planter we've had for years. Vacated by the remains of the chives it had housed before, it had been languishing empty in a corner. Perfect to disguise the broken back of the old garden chair I've roped in as a plant table, I planted it with a Lobelia and a Begonia, making the sight that greets us when having breakfast even more cheerful!

I'm happy to say that our walk managed to chase away the remainder of my non-holiday blues and that I spent the next week feeling much happier.

Life goes on as they say, and I'm doing my best to grab it with both hands. I do hope that you are doing the same and staying safe!