Week 16

Got a bit behind again - been busy with things and also suffering from emotional roller coaster that is you only child leaving Primary school.

So week 16 - saw Tom deciding to do a poster about an animal in the rainforest and maths.  He chose a Hornbill for the poster.  Now Tom is the first to admit that he isn't a great artist, so drawing a hornbill wasn't going to be an option.  We could have printed one out, but I wanted Tom to be able to do something artistic, so we found a good vector image of a hornbill and used it to trace and colour in.  Get this - Tom has never done tracing before?!  I used to trace everything as a kid, I LOVED Asterix and used to trace him and his friends all the time.  So I spent one morning showing him how to trace (apparently school doesn't allow them to do it because they think children should develop their freehand skills - I think tracing is a very necessary skill - I wouldn't be able to do half of my cakes if I didn't trace logos / images etc etc).  He was pleased with the outcome and within an hour we had a lovely looking Hornbill ready to be placed in the centre of his poster.  He then spent a long time researching hornbills on the internet and found some interesting facts.  We then filled the poster with vector images of rainforest images.  

Maths was area and perimeter which Tom aced.  I didn't need to help him at all.

On Tuesday, Tom was supposed to have a Year 6 leavers picnic, but it rained all day so it was postponed to next week.

The rest of the week was 'normal'.  We did a Storrs walk on the Tuesday evening.  Wednesday we spent the afternoon at Anne's with Nicky and Florrie so the kids could do their virtual sports day.  Was a really lovely afternoon.  Weather was ok, kids got on really well and we adults sat down whilst the kids played.  We ended up inside Anne's kitchen as it was so windy.  Felt very normal, sat around kitchen table gossiping whilst kids played outside. The most normal we have been in 16 weeks.  Came home very relaxed and chilled. 

Blue tit

Thursday saw us up at Ribblehead meeting up with the Raddas again for an evening walk.  We went through a nature reserve which we had been in before, but had got a little lost in.  Was dense vegetation which normally would set me and Tom off, but we were both ok - is hayfever on the way out?  I hope so.  Anyway we had a lovely evening, Rebecca (as usual) was a bit of a motormouth again which always makes us giggle and we saw a deer which is always a bonus.

Windermere steamer

Friday saw Tom have his first cricket training of the season.  They are doing 1:1 30 minute sessions.  We had a lovely time - as we know all the cricket crowd quite well, there are 6 benches overlooking the field so we each had a bench each and we chatted - lots to catch up on.  The training was all very clinical - sanitise hands here, coach wearing gloves, only the trainer can hold the ball, 10 mins between kids to sanitise everything etc etc.  The kids not being trained were further over on the field playing cricket together not following the strict rules!  Should you stop the kids playing?  The coaches were fine with it - they would prefer the kids play as much cricket as possible, just that they are bound by strict rules as they are official coaches.  It does sort of make a mockery of the whole thing though!

Packhorse bridge

Saturday we fled Ingleton which was over-run with tourists and headed to the far side of Windermere.  We decided to do a short walk around Far Sawrey walk, which is on the mini peninsula from which the car ferry departs.  It was a short walk because we were all worried about hayfever, but once again both Tom and I were fine.  It was only a 3 mile walk but it took us about 3 hours as we had lots of stops en route.  It was a lovely walk, taking in woodland, lake edge (loads of wild campers) and then we came across a National Trust property which not only was free but had an open courtyard with a cafe.  A CAFE, we couldn't resist, we were lucky, they were about to close.  Matt went in and ordered some drinks and cakes and boy they tasted amazing.

Tom and Florrie

Anything not cooked by me tastes amazing at the moment.  We then looked around the property, Claife Viewing Station which is the remains of what was a lovely building where the well-off used to go for dances and balls.  Just a couple of walls and stained glass windows remain now.   We looked around then headed back to the car.  Now, we had parked the car, next door to a pub.  On returning, we had a look at the garden, there were some empty tables...it seemed rude not to support it.  The boys secured a table, I went in and got the drinks.  No-one asked for contact details?  But the server was wearing a visor and everyone was observing social distancing, so it felt fine.  We then decided to head to the car ferry to go back.  We timed it perfectly and only had to wait about a minute.  All the staff were wearing face masks and pretty much all foot passengers were wearing them too - those who had forgotten / been caught out put their heads into their jumpers in an effort to comply.  As we were in a car we didn't need to (I have a bag of disposable masks in the car in case we get caught out somewhere - don't fit Tom though!).  Got home exhausted, what a lot of new experiences for a day!

Sunday, we met up with the Wilkinsons for a walk around Thorns, taking in the packhorse bridge etc.  It was a lovely sunny day and once again we were glad to get out of Ingleton - as it was packed again.  Ribblehead was packed too, but the Raddas were happy for us to use their driveway so we did and we didn't meet anyone else on our walk - oh it is so good to know these little gems that are off the beaten track.  We had a lovely time looking around and no mad woman this time, which meant that we could take our time.  The Wilkinsons hadn't been there before and I think really enjoyed it.  They then came back to our house and we had the whole awkward situation with the house - I had cleaned and disinfected it incase they wanted to come in, but didn't want to make them come in, so gave them the option, but then of course they didn't want to offend / put us out so in the end they went round the back to the garden and we sat outside eating Tom's brownie (which he made in the morning) and drinking cold drinks whilst enjoying the sun.  It was a good afternoon with new friends thanks to Tom and Florrie's lockdown blossoming friendship.