A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 22nd January 2022

The first photo an hour day for 2022 fell on Saturday 22nd January. This was the day Lily had originally chosen for her birthday day trip but a last minute hospital appointment for my Mum meant we had to change our plans slightly. So instead we arranged two birthday day trips - one going westwards from the hospital in Bath and one going southwards to the New Forest (Lily's first choice of destination). 

The 22nd was her first birthday day trip and we went across the Severn Bridge to Wales and on to Barry Island! Fairground rides, ice creams in the cold, a drive down Trinity Street (natch) and fish & chips by Penarth Pier. 

Here's what the day looked like...

9 lovely people joined in this month:

Catherine joined in on Instagram

Josie joined in on Instagram

Sarah from Sarah Rooftops joined in on Instagram

Susie from Second Hand Susie joined in on Instagram

Christine from Christine Lucas joined in on Instagram

Naomi from What Naomi Did Next joined in on Instagram

Bev from Confuzzledom joined in on Instagram

Hazel from World of Joy joined in on Instagram

Jane from Is That You Darling joined in on Instagram

And myself on Instagram and on this blog post :-)

February's photo an hour date is Saturday 19th - see you there! 

 

 

A Photo Every Hour - August to December 2021

Even though life since my Dad's stoke last August has been incredibly busy, I still managed to take part in the monthly Photo an Hour challenge over on Instagram. 

So here's a round-up of the last few months of 2021...

August's photo an hour date was spent at home catching up on jobs in the house and garden. Andrew spent a good portion of the day cleaning his lorry ready for the Bath and West Show the following week, which of course he didn't get to go to due to my Dad's stroke. 

September's photo an hour date happened to fall on my Dad's 69th birthday! At that point he was still on an intensive care ward so he wasn't really aware of anything but the staff had decorated his bed with balloons and given him a card. We'd prepared a 'Happy Birthday' photo to stick on the whiteboard next to his hospital bed. 

October's photo an hour date saw us visiting the brain injury rehab unit which my Dad had just moved to. In the evening we also went swimming at our local private hire pool. 

November's photo an hour date fell on one of the few carnival processions which took place in 2021. This time down in Honiton, Devon. We went down to watch the parade and collected some tasty chips on the way home. 

December's photo an hour date fell on the Saturday closest to my birthday. We'd packed a picnic and went on a birthday day trip to the seaside at Weymouth. We walked on the beach, had hot chocolate, saw Christmas lights and ate chips from one of our favourite fish & chip restaurants. 

And if you need a handy picture of 2022's dates, here you go :-) 

 

New Year at the Duckpond

So here we are, in 2022 no less. Not quite sure how we're almost a quarter of the way through the 21st century and equally, not quite sure how it's February already. 

• My Dad's still recovering from his stroke. He spent a few months in a brain injury rehab unit (with occasional trips to hospital for infections) and is now waiting for a space at a nursing home. We haven't been able to visit that often (as the rehab unit closed to visitors whenever there was a COVID outbreak) but the staff at the unit were able to help him do video calls. 

• Christmas came and went. We took Lily to a couple of outdoor events with Santa - one festive-themed session of her usual sports class and one trip on an outdoor miniature railway. Both events were much safer than being indoors and she loved them anyway regardless of having to wear hats, gloves and scarves. 

• All of us adults have had our COVID booster and we took my Mum for her 4th vaccine back in January (she was eligible for a 3rd primary dose then her 4th one was her booster). Lily is eligible now as well (due to living in the same household as someone immunosuppressed), we're just waiting to see when we can actually take her to have it done. 

• I managed to overachive on my GoodReads Reading Challenge last year. I set a target of 39 books and managed to read 70 so that was good. This year though, I'm behind! 

• Good TV and film we've watched - obviously 'Don't Look Up' on Netflix :-) Such a good movie, very well put together and definitely worth watching if you've haven't already. 'Call the Midwife' which we watch every year is just as good as ever. We're also very much looking forward to 'This Is Going to Hurt' on BBC which starts this week. I've read Adam Kay's books and we've also seen him perform live twice so fingers crossed, the series should be equally good. 'Back to the Outback' on Netflix is also brilliant. It's a children's film but is still very funny. 

• Lily turned 6 - which is both great and horrifying (where did those years go!?). She asked for a birthday day trip (which ended up being 2 birthday day trips due to a last minute hospital appointment) and we had a lovely afternoon in the winter sun in Barry Island followed a week later by a car picnic in the New Forest with the ponies. 

• We went to a theatre show - Dr Semmelweis at the Bristol Old Vic - which was a magnificant performance by all the cast and such a interesting story. It was a show I booked back in January 2020 pre-COVID and after being postponed several times, it finally had its performances from January this year. We were in two minds whether to go but a) I'd been looking forward to this one for 2 years (it stars Sir Mark Rylance!) and b) the theatre was still requiring people to wear masks and they also had details of their ventilation system on their website. We donned our FFP3 masks for the entire time and they must've worked because we came through it COVID-free. 

• I've still been doing the photo an hour challenge every month over on Instagram but not actually getting round to writing them up on here. February's photo an hour date is Saturday 19th - feel free to join in if you want to!