...WOYWW - The One With The Poppies

This morning the workdesk is in a tidied up, in-between state, with nothing much to talk about. I'm fairly certain that other desks (available via Julia's weekly workdesk tour) will have a lot more going on!

Meanwhile, a bit like Big Brother's Little Brother, here is the big workdesk's little sister workdesk, tucked neatly into the corner of the spare bedroom next to the shelves where all the toys and materials that I use for Work work are kept. So technically it's a Work desk, not a workdesk at all. I'm finding that the chair, chosen primarily for its space-saving qualities (and ability to pass as "reasonably comfortable" during a 30 second trial in Ikea where my main goal was to get in and out in the shortest time possible), is actually quite punishingly uncomfortable by the end of the working day. I'm not quite ready to admit it was a total mistake yet, mainly because my back is permanently grumbly and sore these days no matter what chair I sit in. It's too much sitting that's the problem, not what I'm sitting on (or so I keep telling myself).

So it was a relief  to have a complete break from sitting last week and meet up with colleagues for an outdoor, socially distanced, team get together at Lotherton Hall, near Leeds. Even though we couldn't hug each other, and had to abide by the "two metre rule", it was still lovely to see everyone properly, in living 3D, rather than catching fleeting glimpses of them during the weekly video conference call. The icing on the cake of this outing was the discovery that there is a creamy yellow version of my favourite "pincushion flower" (bottom centre, below). Sadly they were still at the flowering stage, rather than the "pop a couple of seeds in your pocket stage".

Back at home, my optimistic sowing of an ancient packet of poppy seeds has paid off. Half a dozen plants, are just coming into flower - one in this rather fetching shade of bubblegum pink...

...one with just the faintest hint of a rosy blush...

...and one in the more traditional red, having trouble getting rid of the creases in its petals, after being crammed inside a tiny seed for far too long!

On the making front, I've been having fun with some custom-painted rainbow masks for two little friends who wanted to match each other on the bus journey to school...

...and a tiny cardboard cupboard for the mouse house, complete with some teeny-tiny tins (little finger-tip size) of lockdown staples. My grown-up daughter, who is still too young to appreciate the joy of revisitng childhood pastimes, is beginning to think I've taken leave of my senses. You don't have to be mad to entertain yourself in lockdown, but it certainly helps!