It's been a while since we last wrote on the blog, as neither of us was really sure what to write - we are acutely aware that for most people, lockdown has been/is really hard, so it didn't seem fair to write about what we've been up to here, where we are actually having a really good time. But, then we agreed that the whole point of the blog is to write about our lives and our adventures, and no one wants to hear about boring stuff, so here, after all, are the highlights of the last few weeks:
- lots of dead things - we found loads of badger setts on a walk - we know they were badger setts and not fox dens as we also found a dead badger. Sadly, I've still never yet seen a live one. The dead one was fascinating though. The children were a bit more hesitant in their appreciation! Which is why, when I found half a dead frog (with a bit of spine exposed) and a whole, fresh dead shrew (vole?) yesterday I suggested we dissect them in homeschool. I had visions of that being the prompt for the children becoming surgeons or the next David Attenborough. Charlie, however, vetoed the idea and said I'd give the boys nightmares instead. Now my housemates think I have an unnatural obsession with dead things...
- Margaret - and just to prove I'm not obsessed with dead things, we rescued a bee and stopped it from being A Dead Thing - we found it (well, her, as we discovered all male bumblebees die at the end of the season and it's only the females that hibernate, so we called her Margaret), looking a bit woozy in the garden - think the poor thing had just woken up a few days too early, lulled into a false sense of security by a day of warm weather. We gave her some sugar and water (we grew up with Blue Peter so knew exactly what to do) and watched her lap it up with her tongue. Amazing! She had a little rest overnight, then started cleaning her wings and we released her the next day.
- homeschool - OMG - how are any of you doing homeschool while still working? We are managing 1.5-2 hours a day and that's exhausting enough when we don't have anything else to do! We've done experiments with lemon juice/baking powder (produced C02 to blow up a balloon), made a castle (with working portcullis) out of toilet roll, practiced guitar, and tried to work out why we have eggs and rabbits and chocolate at Easter (needless to say reading the bible didn't help with that). Thankfully the 'bigger boys' are arriving tomorrow (age 12 and 14) so that will entertain our smaller boys - Kit will ask from the second he gets up when will they be awake (they are teenagers, so the answer is always, after lunch), and then he'll follow them around like a groupie all day. It is quite endearing. And they are *so* patient with him. Thanks boys!!
- pilates - C has been teaching us all pilates - every 2 or 3 days we've been having lessons and I'm happy to report, we're getting better. Even managed one lesson outside. I've been running, and C tried a bit, but he's had to stop before he injured himself. Not to be deterred from getting his hour of daily exercise though, he found a bicycle in a outbuilding, fixed a pump in a Heath-Robinson style, and went cycling without bibshorts, fancy pedals or shoes or even a bike computer. Who knew such a thing was possible?! He came back a happier man though, so all good (he's been pretty down the last week as the reality of 3 more weeks of lockdown hit and the possibility of getting to LG slipped further away)
- raft - having said that though, we did manage to get afloat last week! There is an ornamental pond/lake here, with pontoon, so C and the others built (again in a Heath Robinson style) a raft, out of pallets and old containers and bits of rope, and we spent a happy few hours rowing the thing up and down (only let the children go on after C had taken his phone out of his pocket and taken his shoes and jumper off, just in case...)
Right, think that's all for now. Actually, no - I nearly forgot! I've been to hospital! With the world's most pathetic injury. I fell and got a thorn in my hand (well, I assume it was a thorn - I didn't actually see it - given the after effects though I'm wondering if it was, in fact, the lesser spotted blue fang tooth hairy spider or similar. It was pretty sore at the time but got worse all afternoon until I ended up calling 111 at about 2000 as I couldn't move my little finger or index finger and my middle finger and wrist were beginning to get in on the act too. Happy to report that one out of hours appt (hospital was empty, very hard to put on face mask/hand gel with a dodgy hand, staff couldn't have been kinder) and a couple of days of flucloxocillin later, it's nearly back to normal :) (C and I were pondering, on the way to the hospital, does anyone ever phone 111 and not get an out of hours appt? Every time we call we get an appt - is that just because we only call when we're actually sick? But if everyone always got an appt there'd be no need for a phone triage system. So what does everyone else call them about?)
Right, that really is all for now. I can hear the dulcet tones of the boys next door arguing about who's turn it is on the game boy (they can't find the charger for the other one). I shall have to intervene, but I'm loathe to do so as they might suggest playing the same game as yesterday when I spent over an hour with them pretending to be knights with helmets and swords, rescuing a princess from a dragon in the dungeons and then building a den in the time honoured fashion out of cushions and tables and blankets. I was Sir whinge-alot (whose accent was most west country, but slid into yorkshire and then irish for some reason), Kit was Sir eat-alot and Roo was Sir sleep-alot). Wish I could hand on heart say it was fun - I've just never been into imaginative play - I simply don't get it :( they thought it was great though and that's the main thing.
Do send your news - apparently Comments is now turned on apparently
Much love Hxx
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