December

The beginning of December saw the end of the second lockdown.  We are in Tier 2, meaning that all shops, bars and restaurants are open, but you can only go with people who you live with.  We can meet up outside with up to 6 people.  We could also stay overnight in accommodation, once again, as long as it is only with people we live with.  Yay.  This meant that we could, at last have our nights away at the Den.  We got in touch with Katie and Jon and booked ourselves in.  We were ridiculously excited.  Just to be somewhere else - and the fact that this was third time lucky.  

The Den at night

We were slightly worried earlier, as it snowed quite hard on Wednesday night.  The hills were covered in snow and of course the road to Ribblehead is always the first to close.  Luckily, the snow did melt in the lower slopes, meaning we could get up there in the Civic, we took the sledges with us just in case we could find some good runs.

We picked Tom up from school, quickly packed the car and headed the 7 miles up the road to Gauber, unpacked and relaxed.  There was a fire burning for us, which was lovely.  The Den itself was very cosy.  It is tiny but the use of space so clever, that it feels bigger.  Matt and I even had a kingsize bed.

I had made a stew at home in the slow cooker, so we plugged that in, opened a bottle or two and snuggled down on the sofas for a lovely, warm, evening in, drinking lots, eating plenty and, well, relaxing.  Pure bliss.         

We had a fabulous night's sleep. Bacon sarnies for breakfast and then we headed to Snaizeholme to see the squirrels.  We went with Katie and co - they are a family of 3 and as we are allowed to be together as a 6 it made sense to do it together - they weren't sure where to go and (of course) we are all starved of social interaction.  

Wowzers, the squirrels put on a brilliant display.  There must have been a dozen or so of them, and they were happy to play around us.  The scene was amazing too - bright blue sky, snow on the hills and gently steaming trees and meadows.  We must have spent a good 1.5 hours up there just watching all the squirrels darting about.  Matt was very happy as he got some great shots. Katie and co were enchanted by them - think they will go back.   

Tuffty!

Hawes 

We then split up - we headed to Hawes, whilst Katie and co went home.  I had some chocolates to deliver to Chapel Gallery, so we stopped off at Wensleydale Creamery for lunch (I was good and just had soup) and then we went into the town.  It was completely deserted.  Eerily so.  We dropped off the choccies, did a little bit of shopping on our favourite stores and then headed back home.  

We wanted an hour or so in front of the fire again.  We then headed out to the Station Inn for dinner.  Felt very decadent and very safe. Tables were very far apart, the foot was good old comfort food for walkers - so it was a lamb shank for me and bacon wrapped cumberland sausage for Matt.  We walked home with happy bellies admiring the stars above even though it was a little cold!

Sunday we went for a walk with Katie and co around their house, and then headed to Thorns for another ramble - such an interesting place.  As I was looking in a barn, suddenly there was a movement and a flutter...a huge barn owl flew over my head.  Wowzers.  Unfortunately, Matt didn't have his camera ready.  We ate our sandwiches and then headed over the road to clamber on some limestone pavements before returning to the Den and heading the long way home.  Was a lovely weekend - so glad we finally got to do it.

The next week, I had my head down getting orders done.  With the threat of isolation always above our heads, it was imperative that I got as much done as possible as quickly as possible just in case.  I basically worked every single minute I could.  I didn't actually advertise myself that much this year as I didn't want to get too many orders, but somehow I still managed to get quite a few - lots of new customers (people wanting to support local business which was great).  Also, of course I needed to keep Gingerbugs stocked and they were selling a lot of my chocolate.  Also, on Monday we got our tree and the decs down from the loft, put the Christmas music on and got the house ready for Christmas.

The Beck at Austwick

English Prize

At the weekend, I broke off.  Tom came home from school on the Friday very excited as he had been 1 of 2 children chosen in his English class to get an effort prize.  He was delighted, as were we as English isn't his favourite / strongest subject and the fact he got recognised out of 30 means that he must be putting himself out there which is good to know.

On the Saturday we did the long walk around Feizor which was nice.  On Sunday I think we had a day of chores and Tom watched Polar Express - his favourite Christmas film which he has to watch every year.  A good beginning to the Christmas season.  Oh and we finished putting up all the Christmas decorations.

Tom had 4 days left at school and he managed all of them.  We got his school report which was very bizarre and took a while to interpret.  First of all were effort grades which were all fab - improved from last term.  Then attainment grades which averaged out as G/Fs?!!!!  We were completely confused, but it turns out that these are the grades he would attain right now if he was to take his GCSEs today.  What is the point of that?  Do we really need to know that?!  Anyway, once we had worked out that that was what we were looking at, we ignored it!  He got chosen to enjoy a Christmas film with popcorn rather than double Chemistry on the Thursday as one of 30 who had got top effort grades.  Not bad considering he is in a year group of 256.  We were very happy with him and for him.

I got all my orders finished and most of my orders collected which meant I could sort of relax, the kitchen was in a state, but the main thing was that the orders were finished and packed.  On the Friday we all enjoyed a lie in and then had a useful day doing chores.  I packed up fudge which was left over from orders to take to Gingerbugs.  It wasn't the nicest of days, but Matt and Tom managed to fit a short walk in to get some fresh air.

Tom and Florrie tree climbing

On Saturday, we finally got to see the Alpacas.  This was also third time lucky - due to Tom being isolated and Florrie being isolated for the last two dates that were arranged.  First of all we met up at Whinlatter Forest for a walk.  Was lovely, through a forest up to a peak from which we looked over Keswick and Derwent Water.  Was a bit of a slog though, especially as we were talking and walking up hill at the same time.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't great - we had shower after shower of heavy rain, meaning we were all soaked and cold, but it didn't really matter - we were all glad of the company and being out somewhere.  

Inca the Alpaca

After the walk we headed to Lingholm Estate where we met up with the Alpacas.  After a quick talk we were let into their field with some food.  Wowzers, as soon as they saw us they came hurtling towards us at full pace - we all thought we were going to be bowled over, but they all stopped in time and stuck their noses into our bowls to chomp away on their food.  They were all males, and all very social, very calm, gentle and quite comical.  We came away wanting to have one as a pet.  They basically looked like big sheep whose necks had been pulled.  They allowed us to pet them and Tom and Florrie managed to get some selfies.  It was good fun.  Shame they were all bedraggled from the rain, I would like to see them fluffy.

Alpaca selfie

We went looking for a mulled wine to warm up - but being two families we had to stay outside and it was cold and wet outside.  The cafe at the Alpacas was licensed but they didn't do mulled wine, so we decided to call it a day and head home, if we found a pub doing mulled wine we would have to eat a substantial meal which we didn't want - the pains of tiers!  (At least we are in tier 2 and have some freedoms).  We decided to call it a day and headed home for hot showers and mulled wine.

Sunday we had a quiet day.  Tom and Matt went out for a quick bike ride, whilst I went for a walk.  

So, towards the end of the week, the government changed their minds about Christmas.  They had promised a 5 day window where people could meet up (max of 3 households) regardless of where they were in the country.  However, incidences of Coronavirus have risen massively in the South-East, meaning that a new tier 4 has been introduced (basically the same as lockdown v2) and people who live in tier 4 told not to move.  Christmas is now for one day only meaning that people (hopefully) won't travel too far.  Just as well we had arranged not to meet up with anyone - everyone I know around here with family outside of the local area has decided not to travel - I think pretty much any sensible person would have decided it wasn't worth it - especially as the vaccine is being rolled out - a couple more months and we will be able to meet up safely - might as well wait.  Let's hope not too many people travel here to second homes from the South-East and spread their variant to us, our infection rate is the lowest its been for a while at the moment.

Monday we had a useful day.  I got up at 6am and drove to Sainsburys in Kendal for the Xmas shop.  This year, for the first year ever, I forgot to book a delivery slot.  With the announcement that the extended Christmas meet up period had been cancelled, I figured that more people will need to go to the supermarket to pick up food that they thought they wouldn't need.  The earlier I got to the store, the better it would be.  Anyway, I had the most pleasant supermarket experience I could hope for.  There were more workers than customers, everyone seemed in a good mood.  I didn't have to do the Covid dance to get my stuff from the shelves and everything was fully stocked. 

When I finished I thought I would hop across to Aldi to restock my cake ingredients.  It was a different story there.  The shop was rammed and there was a queue to get in.  I took one look and decided to leave it - I won't need anymore cake ingredients for a while.  I did a bit more Christmas shopping in the retail park before heading home.  I got home around 10am and everything was done.  Great stuff.  Turns out it was a good decision as the French closed their border to us on Monday due to the Covid infection rates in the south-east and as a result some food items have been hard to get hold of.  Phew!

Big fat pig!

On Tuesday we had a non rainy day so went out for a walk on the Bowland Fells.  It was going to be a short circular walk, but somehow it got extended and it was pretty slow going as the land was sooooo boggy.  We got ourselves to the top of Clougha Pike and were rewarded by wonderful views of Morecambe Bay down below us - we could even see Blackpool Tower.  We sat and ate our sandwiches (we went to Seasons to get them Tom had chosen the biggest one he could find - a Yorkshire pudding wrap with a Christmas dinner in it - the big fat pig!)  We then headed into the bog to get home.  We were all exhausted when we finished - basically we spent 6 miles pulling our feet out of muddy bogs, not the easiest walk, but we felt good afterwards (even if we had leaden legs!)

View from Clougha Pike

Wednesday was a miserable, rainy day, so we had a day of chores.  Laundry, vacuuming, washing floors, cleaning the kitchen etc etc.  The house looked a lot better afterwards.  I feel I can relax now.

Christmas Eve, we had a nice quiet morning, then the boys went out for a bike ride (was very cold and windy - they did good) and I went for a short walk and seemed to bump into loads so turned out to be quite social.  Was a beautiful day - bright sunshine and blue skies - very very cold though!

We are now all set for our quiet Christmas

Merry Christmas Bike Ride

November

Back to what we have been up to..

So, on the Tuesday after half term, Tom went back to school and enjoyed 4 normal days of learning.  On the Saturday lockdown 2 started: a month of all hospitality, non-essential shops etc closed.  We weren't allowed in other people's gardens, but we could meet up 1:1 to go for a walk.  This I did a couple of times until Christmas orders got too much.  

On Thursday I had a very rare night out.  Janine, myself and Steph met up at the Wheatsheaf for tea.  It was just wonderful, having a girlie chat about not much, munching on pub chips and burger and a drink.  A delicious treat I haven't experienced since before March.  The barman at the Wheatsheaf really didn't want us there and was very passive aggressive, trying to get us to move, but all of us were revelling in being out that we ignored him and waited until 9.50 until we left.  It was a wonderful night out - much needed.

At the weekend we made a point of being outside and walking as Tom had been stuck inside for 2 weeks, so on Saturday we drove to Kingsdale and walked up to Gragareth.  It was a long old slog through bogs, made worse by the fact I had new hiking boots on which gave me a blister and the usual pins and needles in my feet - all my hiking boots give me pins and needles - I think because my feet are so wide.  Anyway we got to the top and were rewarded with magnificent views across the countryside towards Kirkby Lonsdale.  A good stiff walk.

On Sunday we went for a shorter, easier walk along the Greta which was lovely, we managed to bump into the Woollys too which was fab - shared a pack of Cherry Bakewell biscuits which were a revelation to us!  When we got back from the walk we got an email from school saying that Tom would have to isolate for another 2 weeks (see earlier blog post) We weren't happy, Tom only had 6 days of freedom, so he spent 4 out of 5 weeks stuck inside - not good.

Chicken Korma

Up until 20th November was spent attempting to home school Tom and watching films (we got through the whole Roger Moore collection of James Bond) and making dinners - Tom has found my curry cook book which is a step by step book and teaches you how to make curries from scratch - grinding up spices etc - it is a great revelation - for him making lovely food from scratch and for us - eating lovely food not cooked by me.  Oh and he spent an afternoon making a cauldron of bolognaise for lasagna and school dinners.  Fantastic.

Lasagna production line

Tom was brilliant during his isolation, never grumped, just got on with it and tried his best (mostly) with the school work we could find.  He went back to school on Friday 20th November, he was very very excited, so much so that we was dancing around the house as a crab (?!) all of Thursday afternoon.  His bag was packed mega early and, well he was just very very excited. Couldn't be a moment too early - he was visibly grey from lack of fresh air on Thursday - not a good look and not good for his health.  

We took him to school in the car - we figured 2 isolations close to each other was enough for a while.  Whilst we can't control who gets Covid at school, we can control how he goes to school (if someone on the bus tests positive, the whole bus has to isolate, regardless of the fact you could be sat a good 10 metres away from the person with Covid - this has happened to Sierra twice).  So from now on we will be dropping him off and picking him up - this, of course significantly eats into our working day, but it is worth it, knowing we won't get the dreaded email for the bus trip.

On Friday, once Tom was home, I made him get dressed and we went out for a Storrs Common walk.  It was raining, it was windy but Tom was grey and needed some fresh air.  We got home, he had colour in his cheeks - very good to see.

Saturday, the plan was to have a nice long walk.  We headed to Settle and did the Victoria Cave walk - which is quite a stiff walk but very beautiful: the crags of Attermire Scar are very jagged and interesting.  We were lucky in that the sun came out and shone on the landscape.  A beautiful afternoon.

Buzzard

Sunday we headed up the Hawes road and did a walk around Great Doak Cave.  A short but steep walk with lots of interest.  Last time we went up there we came across a lost sheep, no such adventures this time.

Tom then managed a full week at school (well sort of - he had a hospital appointment about his hayfever on the Wednesday so he missed 2.5 lessons because of that)  He saw two Drs who are going to monitor him as closely as they can next year (although depends on Covid etc), they will change his medication again but if it still doesn't work, then they will look at desensitisation jabs to see if that helps him.  They take 3 years to work - so we really need to get it started soon.

Saturday, we did the Ingleton quarry walk and then Tom made us a green hara masala curry - which was chicken in a mint and coriander sauce, very refreshing and tasty.  

On Sunday, Matt and Tom went for a bike ride up to Broadrake via Oddies Lane, whilst I went for a run.  Took me an age - a combination of extra weight and less fitness due to also being stuck in because of Tom's isolations.  Always the way, the first thing to go is always my running and now I am 10 minutes slower than I was a couple of years ago.  It is going to take ages to get back to that level - if I ever do!

Tom came back and made a lemon drizzle cake (he really does have the cooking bug at the moment!).  A great weekend.

Unimpressed with school

So, Tom managed 4 days at school and then at the weekend (luckily late on Sunday) we got the email of doom and were told that a classmate of Tom's had tested positive for Covid and that he couldn't go back to school until Friday 20th November.  BUGGER!  A number of FB messages later and we narrow it down to someone in his English class - not that it matters who it is, but it means that most of his form are still at school, Tom is 1 in 5 who isn't in class for general classes, I think this makes it worse as the work goes on without him and the teacher won't remember who was off isolating when they are working out report grades etc. 

We were thrown into on-line learning, the school uses TEAMS for their on-line learning which is basically a database of resources.  They don't have live lesson streaming (not sure why - it would mean less queries coming their way if so!)  It is a nightmare system to navigate, mainly because every department uses it differently, files are all over the place, links don't work, there are hidden channels, worksheets that you can't download, basically a mess.  How an 11 year old is supposed to find their work and then do it unaided is beyond me.  Because he is isolating at home and wanting to do his work in the kitchen, I can't do any chocolate work.  Not great with Christmas coming up, but it does mean that I can dedicate my time  to helping him keep up.  It was the most frustrating week ever.  The worse subject by a long way was Maths, then all the sciences and then French.  Some, geography (naturally) were very well organised and a dream to do.  No subjects have asked for any work to be submitted and marked which I find extra-ordinary.  Tom has filled in worksheets for Maths, but once again no answer sheets - how on earth is he expected to know if he has understood correctly, or are they expecting me to work out all the answers as well?  He is missing 6 maths lessons, which is not good considering they were just beginning to learn algebra!  In an email to Matt, Tom's old headmistress said that we should expect excellent on-line resources, and we would be well within our rights to moan to them... Then on Thursday we get a letter from the headteacher basically saying to stop moaning about home schooling, all the work is available, you aren't doing it properly.  A red rag to a bull...the work wasn't there, so I spent Saturday whilst the boys were watching James Bond taking screen shots of the Teams system to prove that the work wasn't available and where it was available, impossible to find.  I ended up with a 15 page letter, showing proof that the info they said was available wasn't available and trying to explain to them how difficult it is to navigate.

It made me feel better if nothing else - I had a lot of pent up frustration in me!

Despite the on-line resources being rubbish, Tom has yet again been brilliant, doing all his work as well as he could (although he is a stickler for having his breaks at exactly the same time as at school regardless of whether he has finished what he is doing or not).  He has looked a bit sad though, it isn't fair on him, not able to have any fresh air, get some exercise etc.  The school are very quick to send reams of children home, for example, for 1 positive case, 120 children in Tom's year got sent home (at Settle College - they only send home children who were within a 2m radius of the positive case).  How can two schools read and implement the regulations set out by the Dept of Education so differently?  Also at Settle they have live lessons and teachers who phone to check up on pupils, we've been told that is too much work for the teachers at Tom's school?  How?  The teachers wouldn't get oodles of emails and messages asking what work to do if they could log in and see the lessons in action.  Also regardless of how big a school is, the class is still the same size.  So a form tutor in Settle will have 30 pupils to check up on, the same number as a form tutor at Tom's school.  Needless to say we aren't that impressed with the school at the moment!

I sent the email on Sunday, just before 9am on Monday I got a phone call from one of the Assistant Head Teachers, who firstly gave me a lecture saying I didn't understand how much work the teachers were doing and that it was extra stress on them every time children get sent home.  I knew I would probably get a lecture, so I was ready for it.  I didn't rant in the letter (as much as I wanted to) and I didn't mention any teachers names either and I kept the tone very neutral as I knew they wouldn't take me seriously if I didn't.  Once she got that out of her system, she relented to agree that the provision for the sciences and French could be improved, but wouldn't agree that Maths was awful, apparently it is ok to have black screens, where you have to hit 'back' to load, hidden channels with hidden files, presentations that make no sense and worksheets that you can't read or download.  Because the work was in the system, we should be able to find it...these children are 11 years old!  She said that every teacher has in class shown the children where the files are - how you can expect an 11 year old to remember the location of files for 11 plus subjects is beyond me?!  I kept the conversation positive, but inside I was boiling.

Anyway, I've said my piece and probably made a name for myself!  Funny later in the day we get a one line letter from the Head of Year 7 saying how well Tom has done in his first half term at school...a coincidence?  I don't think so.  However, Tom was very happy to see it.