March 25th: Food and space

Well if we're in this for the long haul, we should be good here. I already had onions, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes, leeks, radish, spinach and rhubarb on the go in my (very small) plot, and yesterday I sowed tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers. I would say we won't starve, but it'll take months to grow so it might be too late by then. Better brave Tesco's or some other outlet soon then...

Actually I went to Lidl's. It's a five minute walk, so I doubled up on my allowances for a daily walk outside the house essential shopping. The Lidl store has been rammed of late in common with many other supermarkets. In fact, come to think of it, it's busy most off the time, even when we haven't got an apolcalyptic situation. This morning to be fair, whilst it was fairly busy, I've seen it busier, and there was an air of calmness about the place. It was pretty well stocked with everything (except flour, and I didn't go down the loo roll aisle) plus the normal "extra" stuff that the store is famous (or is that 'infamous' for). People didn't seem to be panic buying anything (apart from a bloke who had a carte of 24 cans of cider who it seemed was politely asked to step to one side and speak to someone (seems you can't buy 24 tinnies at once). Trouble is, when I go shopping I end up buying things I wasn't sent for. Today it was two doughnuts and a a pair of Belgian iced buns, some eggs (apparently we already had some) and a chicken and mushroom pot noodle. The main thing I went for was milk, and I forgot to buy that.....

Elsewhere, both kids have been WFH, my daughter's IT issues seemingly largely resolved. My wife went to see her mum and get her shopping and stuff. I've done more gardening, sorted my compost heap (yes it's a thing), cleaned the uPVC windows (plus the conservatory inner window sills (did the outers yesterday), and have managed to walk the equivalent of 2.8 miles today doing it all.

Oh, and I cooked tea. A favourite of ours, since I've started my retirement cooking, chicken and turmeric rice.

The cat's still loving the sunny weather (no rats today). She's in for a shock when the weather turns colder later this week.

Photo of the day, an overhead pass of the International Space Station taken this evening on my iPhone. This was the second half of the pass after a quick run from the back garden to the front garden. You can also see the constellation of the Great Bear/Big Dipper or Plough to the left of the picture. The bright star to the bottom is Arcturus.

The ISS is approx 250 miles up and going 17,500mph. Currently has a crew of 3 three, although it can accommodate up to nine. There are usually six, and they usually stay on board for around six months. The current crew is US astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew “Drew” Morgan and Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka. Self isolation at its best! You can learn more about the ISS here 

International Space Station over Barry