Snapshots of a year

I have not been blogging much this year, being away from this space means that I take far less photos, I really wanted to do a roundup of the year post as a reminder to myself of what we got up to and I managed to find a photo of something we or I had done for each month.   So here are some of the things that I and the family have been doing this year.  

January bought us snow, lots of it, which meant that we were out sledging at every opportunity.  I love how the familiar world around you changes so much when it snows.  It becomes quieter and when the sun shines really sparkly.  The sound of snow creaking underfoot is unique to this time of year.   I do love a really cold sunny winters day when you wrap up warm and venture out.  

February is usually a grey, cold, wet month when I find myself wanting to be inside all the time, it would have been very easy to hibernate inside all month but as we were still in lockdown I was determined to get out, whatever the weather, for a daily walk somewhere.  We did have rare instances of sun, these were the only time the camera came out......

March saw the end of months of hard work by Cameron as he completed his Bronze Arts Award.  The final piece of this project was for him to run a tutorial based on the skills he had learnt for the other elements of the award.  He chose to run a tutorial on drawing cars which, as we were in lockdown at the time, had to be held online.  I wasn't sure how he manage running a tutorial, when he started this level of the award scheme he was nervous about this element.  He was totally ready for it and it was a great success, it lasted a whole hour and he had some lovely feedback from the children who joined him and their parents.  He did not dictate to the participants what kind of car they should be drawing, he just gave them tips and advice on each section related to different types of cars.  He chose to draw a vehicle himself at the same time, and the photo above is the car that he drew.

In April Alice was finally able to have the haircut that she had waited so long for.  She had mentioned back in November 2020 that she really want to have her hair cut short, at the time we were in a lockdown so I was not able to make an appointment.  When that was possible again, a few weeks later, the first appointment I could get was for January that ended up being cancelled due to another lockdown.  My lovely hairdresser who knew why Alice wanted this appointment contacted me as soon as she was able to start working again to make a date.  Alice had hair down past her waist and she wanted to donate it to a charity who make wigs for children whose hair has fallen out.  They particularly wanted donations over 30cm.  Alice donated a whopping 50cm/20 inches!  My hairdresser, who has been cutting my hair for over 20 years, would not take a penny for cutting Alice's hair she was so impressed with what Alice was doing for someone else less fortunate than her.

May was a rather chilly and blustery month with a fair amount of rain.  It is Alice's birthday month and she really wanted to camp with her friends this year.  She was not able to meet with anyone last year and was hopeful that she could get to spend time with friends whatever the weather threw at us.  It ended up being a very wet cold night but they still had a wonderful time.  They had a wonderful evening together cooking tea before the weather broke.  I am not sure that much sleeping happened as they all looked very tired when we went to pick them up!  Alice's best friend lives on a small farm and they were able to camp there, they had amazing views from their tent.  I am so glad that she got to spend her birthday with friends this year.

After a chilly blustery May,  June was much warmer and sunnier.  My husband had booked a weeks leave and it coincided with some lovely dry, warm weather.  We decided to make the most of the weather and the fact that the children are now much taller and stronger this year to take to the hills near our home for a walking expedition.  We planned our route to pass as many tarns (small lakes) as possible and packed our swimming stuff along with tents, provisions and other kit for an over night in the hills.  We managed to swim in three tarns over the two days, one right next to where we camped.  It was a beautiful spot well away from the crowds we had encountered as we set off that morning.  Whilst walking back to the car the following day we explored a few old mines and quarries, long abandoned but a reminder that the hillside would once have been a busy, noisy and bustling place. 

My husband had another week of leave in July, it was a wetter week this time but we still managed to find a two day window to do another walking expedition into the hills.  Again we started off from a popular place with tourists, we got ourselves ready the night before and set off as early as we could, once Cameron had finished work, to make sure we had a good spot to park.  We didn't see another soul until we returned to the car the following day.  We stopped to swim in the stream on our way up the valley reaching a high tarn where we pitched our tents.  We left Cameron to have a snooze (he got up really early to do his paper round so we could set off early) and headed up to the ridge above the tarn, the views were amazing from there and the photo above is taken looking down from there towards our tents which you can just see in the centre of the photo, above the tarn which we swam in to cool off after our ridge walk.  We woke the next morning to find we were in the clouds which was a little different to the beautiful sunny day the day before.  We swam in a tarn on the way down which was a really strange experience as it too was in the cloud and you could not see very far!  When we returned to the car there were so many people around, mostly enjoying themselves by the large lake in the valley.  We took the opportunity to swim in there too, it is a really deep one and we were amazed at how clear it was.  We wore wetsuits for that swim (we carried a basic swimming kit into the hills) which meant that we could stay in for longer, we only got out as we were hungry, the water was so warm we could have stayed in for hours.

August is a bank holiday month in this part of the world and often falls on a friend's birthday.  He wanted to go sea kayaking this year and ask my husband and I to join us as we are more experienced than him  and his wife.  We were blessed with glorious weather for most of the trip, the first day was rather foggy to start which made kayaking rather interesting as we could not see very far at all.  We were out for the best part of three days, paddling round two islands and camping in two different spots on the largest of the two.  We saw lots of seals and some birds species that I have not seen in years.  The wind picked up on the final day which made crossing back to the mainland rather interesting!  This was the first trip where we have left the children with friends and travelled so far away.  Over the same weekend Cameron also completed his expedition for his Bronze D of E Award which made arrangements for him rather complicated.  As I was writing this I realised that this is the only time I left the county where I live in the whole year,  I haven't travelled far in 2021!

Alice and I had a lot of adjusting to do in September when Cameron left us both to start college, after twelve years of home educating this was a big change for all of us.  We found things to do, her and I, including going out to a spot a short walk from home to do some nature study for a Scout badge.  We live in an area rich in geology and right where we live we have limestone and granite side by side.  She chose this limestone escarpment to focus on, we found a rich variety of flowers and learnt a few more names for grasses.  We visited a few times and were there for the Autumn Equinox, we had a small ceremony together and a short eared owl joined us for a fly by as we were pausing at the end.

October saw me completing two jumpers for myself.  The green one I started back in August pausing in September to knit up a smaller version of the pattern for my nephew as a birthday present.  I loved it so much that I bought some more yarn and knit another.  I have no idea how I have lived without these jumpers I wear them all the time, they are cosy and warm, fit me perfectly (I have long arms and bought jumpers are never long enough) and go with everything in my wardrobe.  This bought my knitting tally of the year to four jumpers and two cardigans along with several hats socks, mitts and cowls, the other jumper was for my mum who although a knitter herself is not very quick, I was very honoured to be asked to knit for her.  One of the cardigans was for me, the other a birthday gift for a dear friend who turned 50 in 2021.

Back in September Alice and I started going to a newly created home ed group, like all new groups it took a while to feel settled and established and is now a lovely, welcoming and friendly group of all ages.  Someone suggested that we do some knitting as a group (having watched me knit whilst there) and we came up with the idea of knitting squares to make a blanket to donate.  It has been a lovely social activity with upwards of 20 children and adults, some weeks, all sat around knitting and nattering.  Some could already knit, some were rusty and needed reminding of the skills and others were complete beginners.  The blanket is growing slowly and we now have 27 squares.  We are hoping that this will be an ongoing project and once one blanket is complete we will start on another.

A few years ago I started the slow transition to wearing a different kind of shoe, some call them barefoot shoes, I would call them super comfy and totally transformational.  This kind of shoe has an ultra thin sole (to mimic walking barefoot), are totally flat with no heel at all and have a lovely wide toe box to allow your toes to spread and sit as they need to without being squished.  The slow transition has not been because I don't like these shoes but because they are expensive (but worth the expense) or I have been searching for second hand pairs which don't come around in my size and a style that I like and works for my feet that often.  I am slowly replacing each type of shoe I own and for my birthday I received a new pair of walking boots.  These have been used a lot in December as we have been out for many walks especially during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.  I am loving these boots which are super comfy and have completely stopped any pains in my knees that I used to get after long walks.   I am now totally confident about crossing the many streams we have in this part of the world as it is so much easier for me to find my balance, my foot moulds around the rocks as I cross.  I got a second pair of shoes from this company for Christmas, the fabric of which is made from recycled coffee grounds!

Thank you for all of your lovely comments when I started blogging again recently, after a year away.  It was so lovely to be welcomed back into the lovely blogging community with open arms.  I have been really touched by your kind words.  I am looking forward to reading along with you and sharing more of my own adventures in 2022.

Winter Adventures

We have started this Winter with lots of days out enjoying the beautiful countryside we get to call home.  My husband was off work for 12 days over the Christmas and New Year period which gave us lots of time to have some great days out.

We got the canoes out for a trip around a local lake.  I love canoeing, especially as a family, but we don't manage it that often as the only day we can all go is on a Sunday.  I very often need the time on this day to get myself ready for the week ahead or do those jobs that there is not the time for during the week.  It was a grey day in the main with welcome odd sightings of the sun and enough wind to get the little sail out for the journey back to the car.  We were the only boats out and about, apart from the steamers taking folks out for trips around the lake.

Our friends who live in Scotland were down for a few days just before Christmas, we managed to spend the day with them and another family on a walk alongside a different lake.  We were so lucky that that it was another dry day with patches of sunshine.

Whenever we are at home for Christmas we go for a walk on Christmas Day.  We have kedgeree for breakfast which is really filling, we take snacks with us, there is no need for a picnic.  This walk is very near to where we live, the hills in these pictures are the view from my house.  The small amount of water in the middle photo is a reservoir that was built to supply water to Manchester about 100 miles away, it flooded the valley covering a small village, when we have a really dry summer and the water level drops you can see remnants of walls and buildings.  The water travels underground in a pipeline which is feat of engineering you can read more about it here.

My mountain bike was dusted off and taken out the garage for a rare outing.  I am not a massive fan of mountain biking I prefer to ride on roads.  My husband and Cameron go mountain biking regularly and love it when Alice and I join them.  We weren't riding together though as Alice and I opted for the wide open forest tracks whilst Husband and Cameron were on a purpose built mountain biking route that had no appeal for us!

Alice enjoyed our dusk walk on the Winter Solstice so much that she asked if we could do it again only this time staying out until it was properly dark.  We headed out at about 2 o'clock when most folks were heading back to their cars.  It was a wild and windy day with good views from vantage points, we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset and the thinest sliver of a newish moon.  It is something we are going to do again whilst the evenings are still dark fairly early.

We had plans to go for a big walk with friends on New Years Eve.  They challenged us to take them somewhere new, to them, so we opted for a ridge that my husband drives past on this way to work every day.  It was a glorious day, big wide blue skies with the odd fluffy cloud, once we got up on the ridge we could see for miles and had a 360° view.  We saw one other walker in the six hours we were out walking.  We covered 13km/8 miles mostly off paths and through some very wet boggy places in parts.  As we walked down off the ridge the sun dropped down behind the hills and it got very cold indeed.  We followed our walk with an evening meal at our house, seeing in the New Year with a glass of champagne and some inspired dancing and singing to Auld Lang Syne!

We haven't been on quite so many adventures since then but I have realised that at this time of year if you don't plan to go out you will never do it, you have probably worked that out already.  If we were to wait for the weather to be fair then we would definitely never leave the house.  We are planning on having a day out a week doing something, whatever the weather, throughout the Winter.  We have the clothing and equipment to cope with cold, wet days  and I have heard it quoted often there is no such thing as bad weather only the unsuitable or wrong clothing we don't have any excuses.  So Winter here we come!

Have you had any fun adventures yet this Winter?

Life in the Slow Lane

Alice and I have returned home from our lovely micro adventure to a happy Cameron, who had a great time at home by himself but was delighted to have us back again. Any adventure big or small involves time to prepare and tidy away afterwards, shoehorning that into our everyday lives is not always straightforward something that I always forget when I say yes to these things, I am now studiously ignoring the pile of jobs, teetering like a large messy pile of lanudry, that need my attention.

We went away because I was assessing a Duke of Edinburgh gold expedition, this involves a group of young people completing a four day, three night expedition, unaccompanied in remote countryside.  I have to meet up with the group beforehand, to make sure that they are prepared for such a demanding undertaking, and during the expedition to satisfy myself that they meet the conditions that are required of them.

Over my years of being an assessor, the role has taken me to so many beautiful parts of my country and this time was no exception.  I found myself in a part of Wales that I have driven round and through in the past but have never stopped and explored.  It was beautiful, rugged and at times really remote.  The lanes were narrow, the traffic non-existent for most of the time, the rain poured and the sun shone.  We got soaking wet and have sunburnt noses!

We saw stunning scenery, walked many paths, enjoyed waterfalls, paused for the changing colours of nature, explored ruinous castles.  I feel as if I have soaked up enough beauty to last me a good while.

Our days were largely ruled by the timings of the expedition and my need to meet the group.  I have learnt that it is best not to plan our days too much, that if we go with the flow and enjoy where we need to be it is much easier for us all.  We stopped when and where we wanted to, explored, allowed time to do what we wanted to, there was no rushing, life at its simplest, pared back.  Although it is a lot of effort to make times like this happen the nourishment they provide on so many levels makes it all worth while.

I have come crashing back into life at home, hitting the ground running.  But I feel ready and able to tackle anything as my cup has been filled up with the loveliness of having been away.  I hope you have had a lovely week too.

Outdoors

For many years the advent of Spring, with its warmer temperatures, marked a change in our rhythm.  You see for a few winters we took to hibernation, only venturing out to visit friends or do our weekly shop.  We are prone to having winters that are grey and heavy, with lots of grey cloud which brings the rain, damp cold is the very worse kind.  It gets inside you and chills you to the bone.  So when my children both reached that age where they were too heavy to be carried all day, but their legs were too short for walking about fast enough to keep me warm we virtually stopped going out in the Winter.

That time seems so recent, yet so far away now.  As the children grew I was determined to spend more of the colder months doing things outside but each time I tried something new, attempting to venture out seemed like trying to hold back the tide and when we were out all they wanted to do was go home.  I was clearly choosing the wrong activities.

I know that some people go for a walk at the same time everyday, I thought this sounded like a lovely idea.  But it just didn't work for us.  I thought perhaps if we did the same walk every week round our village, that might work?  No.  What has worked is setting aside one afternoon a week, usually the same afternoon to focus on being outside.  Going for a walk, a bike ride, birdwatching.....this year we have decided to vist the same wood every month to see how it changes through the seasons.  We did this once before, about three years ago and the children requested we did it again.  Our walks have taken us all over the place, up big hills, around lakes, through castle grounds, along rivers.  But what has been so wonderful is that we carried on doing this right through the winter without really noticing.

I know that much is written about the lack of time children spend out of doors, the lack of connection to nature.  What I always knew to be true was that the more time you spend outside the more time you want to spend, and that this would naturally lead to loving it rather than hating it.  We always fear the unknown.  So what started as a birdwatching trip once a month has turned into birdwatching every time we are out and about.  We have started to be able to spot birds by their flight and their song.  A very wet winter afternoon spent identifying trees by their winter buds has led to both children being able to identify a number of trees in this way far more reliably than I can!

I spent so much of my childhood outside.  I grew up in a town but we lived on a road with few cars, less people owned cars in the 70s, large gardens and there were lots of open spaces and tree belts nearby.  We rode bikes, built dens, cooked on fires in all weathers.  I worked outside for over ten years, all year round.  I need to spend time outside to feel recharged and connected.  

It makes my heart sing that, for now, I have found what works for us.