Social distancing: May

Today is Saturday and, though some aspects of the lockdown are being relaxed, I still have to wait until the 23rd June until our 'shielding' will be completed. I am getting deliveries for everything to the house - yesterday we had an Abel & Cole veggie box and a fruit box which is always a delight to receive. It takes me some time after arrival to clean everything and with some items I prepare half for the freezer - this time we had blueberries, courgettes and beetroot, so I put half in the fridge and half in the freezer. Later in the evening we received an Ocado delivery so more cleaning and trips to the freezer (which is in an outdoors utility shed). They have been a godsend, especially Abel & Cole during the early days of lockdown when we couldn't get an Ocardo delivery for three weeks! This morning I have been putting together an order for The VeganKind Supermarket, another lifesaver during this time of crisis, which should arrive tomorrow. I have discovered many new recipes through the veggie box deliveries because you never know exactly what you will get, necessitating experiments with new vegetables. Swiss Chard was a surprise as were some other types of green leaves; this week we have received Pak Choi together with mini avocados, fresh apricots and peaches. As I am vegan, I have a number of vegan recipe books and also subscribe to a monthly vegan magazine which is mostly (but not exclusively) about food. I used to get Simply Vegan, but with the current crisis it has had to merge with its sister magazine Vegan Food and Living, so my subscription has been transferred to that, and so far it looks good. The Abel & Cole website has many suitable recipes there as well, so I am spoilt for choice. Yesterday I was experimenting with recipes for beetroot - unfortunately my poor husband, who is not a vegan, does not like beetroot but there are many things in the deliveries that he does!
As far as reading goes, I finished Bernadine Evaristo's book Girl, Woman, Other and I was glad that I reached the end because it makes sense of what has gone before and makes a lovely satisfying conclusion. I try to read a few prize winning books each year and they are always a surprise. I have joined in with the Goodreads 48 book challenge for 2020 which has been made easier by the lockdown though I have not read as much as I expected.

 

 I am looking forward to watching Little Fires Everywhere on Amazon Prime (only just available) as I read the book by Celeste Ng only last month. Although I did not see the author at last year's literary festival I did see the filmed version of her talk on Sky Arts and, as so many people loved it decided to challenge myself to read something different to that which I normally would. Written in the currently popular non linear multi time period style it keeps the reader interested to find out why the fires were started, as there was no secret as to who did it.
Whilst remembering Cheltenham Literary Festival last year I was pleased to hear that Michael Rosen is at last out of ICU after a very long stay in hospital.
Last night we managed to get our Sky Box to function properly with some help from a phone call to Sky Support. It had been displaying a curious set of faults which involved its refusal to respond to instructions via the remote, a penchant for changing channel on its ownseeming to have a mind of its own and a preference for BBC1. Hopefully it will now behave.

 The Society of Artists announced their 2020 shortlists for their various categories
https://www.societyofauthors.org/News/News/2020/May/SoA-Awards-2020-shortlist which include the 'Betty Trask, McKitterick, ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Awards, the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, and inaugural Queen’s Knickers Award, a new accolade recognising a quirky, outstanding children’s illustrated book for ages 0-7.'


Lots of potential new books to read in these lists, for adults and children.