Cross stitch & Projects
I was quite excited about the prospect of having lots of time to cross stitch during lock down. The current one is an extract from the Bayeux Tapestry which my brother gave me for Christmas many years ago, in the year that we had a family holiday to a caravan park in Battle. It is very fine - small gauge evenweave and single strand thread, and the background is done in half stitches but you have to work it out for yourself which is the background as the symbols are the same. There are a huge number of colours, and hardly any blocks of colour so it is necessary to change threads often to complete a small area. I started it a long time ago and then put it to one side as it was so complicated and I was struggling to follow the pattern. However, once I had finished the Snow Wolf I decided I would tackle it again. I enlarged the pattern and printed it out, and I had been slowly making progress. So lock down was a perfect time to really make some progress and enjoy doing it. It was like being on permanent holiday.
This is what it will eventually look like
This is what it looked like a year ago, when I first picked it up after all those years
Progress made at 3 November 2019
This is how it looked when Lock Down started - 17 March
I'd completed that section by 21 March!
Another section completed 13 April
Another section completed 12 May
And another on 20 May - finally reaching the bottom of the picture
Progress was slower once the cooler wetter weather returned in June, as I had "indoor" projects to be getting on with which took up more of my time.
Middlesex Peals Database
I had started building a database of all peals rung for the Middlesex last year when I took over the Report Editor job and when it became possible to download a csv file from Bell Board, as there didn't seem to be a list anywhere else - just what was in the reports. Unfortunately the csv file did not contain the footnotes, but it was a good start and gave me a base of about 1700 peals. The current peal number is around 8200. I had my back catalogue of reports with me going back to 1940, so I started there and had been adding just the date venue and method from then - and had reached 1987 when lock down started. I enlisted the help of Mike with this thereafter - but he much preferred to put them on Bell Board. So I started to do this too - and then download them to the database. I created a query to update the footnotes, and a process for converting the csv file to data which could be uploaded to the database. Mike started at 2005 - which is where bell board became complete - and worked backwards, while I started at 1988 and worked forwards. We have made steady progress during the months of staying in and have found quite a few anomalies with the numbering which will need to be sorted out at the end. The most drastic was the year that ended with number 6041 and the following year which started with the number 6402 thus missing out a chunk of nearly 300!
Click here for current progress on Bell Board.
Scanning old photos
Jayne went up into the loft and got down the suitcases containing all Mike's parents' old photos and slides. There was a projector too up there too. Mike sorted through all the slides and photos, working out which ones to keep, and then gave us a slide show of the slides. I had not seen any photos of Mike as a baby, or a little boy before. I started scanning in all the photos into digital albums on One Drive (unfortunately One Drive does not show the captions or file names - click on the (i) symbol top right for an individual photo to see its title):
I will have to leave the scanning of the slides until I get back to London as that is where the slide scanner resides.
Books
I had a number of paperbacks picked up from various charity shops which had been lying in a pile waiting for me to have time to read them - and now I had. I finished two paperbacks which is unheard of - it was really nice to be able to sit in the garden and just read. It felt like being on a long holiday. I also listened to some of my audible books - first of all listening to one I had listened to before - but it was a good one so I didn't mind. I also had a ebook on the go. I probably could have got through more books than I did - I find I haven't got much concentration these days and it was easier to pick up my phone and play solitaire than to read a book when I just had half an hour to spare. But I do enjoy reading and I must be stricter with myself about doing more.
Finished books during lockdown:
| Paperbacks | Audio | Epubs |
| State of Fear - Michael Crichton |
Single v Single - John Le Carré | |
| The People v Alex Cross - James Patterson |
Other projects - not yet started!
I have yet to get the knitting machine out of the box; neither have I played one note of the organ! But Mike has been playing it, which is nice.
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