Week 12

St. Patrick's Chapel, Heysham

It has been quite a miserable week weather wise.  It has been at best grey and dull and at worse, rain, rain, rain and cold - so much so that the bobble hats came out again.  We couldn't go for our daily exercise one day and other days all we managed was a quick walk round the village between showers.

Things are slowly becoming 'normal' again - meaning that things that seemed strange (staying 2 meters away from people) now seem normal as well as the fact we are allowed to meet up with friends now and drive to go to visit places.  Next week the shops will open again - so things really will seem normal again.  We are hoping that this will mean that the morons visiting Ingleton at weekends to trespass and litter will instead go to shopping malls and leave us alone to the nicer type of tourist we like and welcome.

Splashing

This week home schooling was fractions in maths which Tom enjoys and Black poetry to appraise - in response to the Black Lives Matter protests.  The poem was very thought provoking - you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cHIWtl8PNk&feature=youtu.be.  At first Tom didn't 'get' it.  But after a potted history of slavery and racism by me (I hope I did an OK job - difficult to know where to pitch it to an 11 year old!) we watched it again.  He was in tears.  I was in tears.  He got it.  Apparently a number of his classmates had the same reaction.  Certainly something to think about.

Pendolino at Hest Bank

Afternoon mindfulness was taken up catching up with work he didn't finish at school, seems they play more than they work at school - which is fine, but all the children attending school are falling behind those who are wholly home schooling - funny how things turn around isn't it?!

Thursday and Friday, Tom went back to school and I was busy making chocolate and decorations for a cake for a week away.  In fact I had my head down the whole time he was away - Gingerbugs is opening next Monday and they don't have much stock left!  I was hoping to have some 'me' time once he went back to school - but it isn't looking likely.  By the time I get myself back on track with choccies for Gingerbugs, Tom will be back with me full-time.  Oh hum.

"Wild Boar" Fell

We did manage one bike ride and a couple of shorter walks, but nothing really of note, with things going back to normal, we are going back to normal - and not getting as much exercise as before.  We all think proper lockdown was more enjoyable than this half:half lockdown we are in now. 

Saturday dawned grey, but it quickly cheered up.  We decided to spend the afternoon in Heysham - so after an early lunch we headed over.  We've been to Heysham before to get the ferry to the Isle of Man and at the end of a bike ride along the Morecambe prom, but we haven't explored the town itself.

Cairns on Wild Boar Fell

The Flying Banana passing Ais Gill

The outskirts are what you would expect of a port - not particularly lovely to look at, industrial areas, cheap housing etc etc.  However, we discovered the centre of the town is really lovely...chocolate box lovely.   Also there was a lovely church overlooking the bay.  Some nice looking restaurants and cafes too.  We wondered around, got on to the beach, took our boots off and squelched in the mud/sand.  Tom and I had a water fight in a puddle - he ended up sat in it.  I was wearing completely the wrong clothes - it was cool when we left Ingleton, but it was very warm on the beach.  Ended up looking very 'special' with my leggings rolled up under my skirt.  We didn't take enough water with us and of course no shops were open, luckily I had thrown 3 satsumas in my bag before leaving so we ate those greedily, hoping we would find a shop to buy some drinks.  We didn't!  

Oh hum, we headed to Hest Bank where the boys went train spotting and I had a bout of hay fever, so stayed in the car.  Funnily enough the Bickerstaffs walked past, so we stopped for a chat.  The plan for tea this evening was a Chinese from the Water Lily in KL.  We phoned on the way over, placed an order and it was ready for us on arrival - perfect timing.  We all had a main dish and rice dish each and we ALL ate up every morsel - wowzers - I don't know where he puts it!

Local resident

Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day.  To get away from the crowds that were inevitable, we headed to Wild Boar Fell which was the fell we tried to climb the weekend before lockdown - we had to abandon it due to extreme winds.  Think we went up in thick coats and woolly hats.  Today we were in shorts, T-shirts, caps and lots of suncream.  There was hardly anyone about (great stuff) so we walked up.  Well Tom and I walked up - Matt raced up as he wanted to see the flying banana go past from the top (he got there in time, we didn't!).  It was a stiff climb, but we all made it and it was worth it for the view from the top.  It is another flat topped mountain so we had an explore - there were some interesting very tall cairns perched on the edge, not sure what the history of those was?