A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 19th February 2022

February's photo an hour day fell on Saturday 19th, the day after Storm Eunice. It was mostly a day of doing jobs at home with one outing to the local hospital to visit my Dad. 

Here's what the day looked like...

7 lovely others joined in:

Jennifer joined in on Instagram

Josie joined in on Instagram

Catherine joined in on Instagram

Bev from Confuzzledom joined in on Instagram

Hazel from World of Joy joined in on Instagram

Susie from Second Hand Susie joined in on Instagram

Naomi from What Naomi Did Next joined in on Instagram

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

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

 

 

February at the Duckpond

So now we're into March, officially Spring!

February was a bit wet and windy down here although there were a few sunny days thrown in. Here's what we got up to...

• We had a lovely (if blustery) day trip to Teignmouth in Devon as a "mystery tour" present for my Mum's birthday a couple of weeks earlier. We had blue skies all day and managed to fit in a car picnic, a playground, hot chocolate, ice cream, a stroll along the prom, geocaching and fish & chips for supper.

• My Dad's still waiting for a nursing home place but in the meantime he's staying at the local hospital (which kind of makes it sound like he's choosing to be there when actually it's all paperwork hold-ups!). At least he's closer to our home and we've been able to go in and visit most days. 

• Good film and TV we've watched - wow, the last 2 episodes of 'Call the Midwife' were a bit of a rollercoaster weren't they? Very good though. 'This Is Going to Hurt' was excellent, as I thought it would be (having read all of Adam Kay's books) although it did leave me wondering whether there'd be a second series. A bit like my mamoth 'to be read' list, we also have a long 'to be watched' list - and it doesn't help that Netflix keep releasing things which sound great! I think we're going to watch 'The Lost Daughter' and 'The Responder' (on BBC) next. I also spotted this list from the BFI - 100 Best Films Streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime - which is brilliant but means we now have even more things to watch :-)

• Lily was ever so excited to be able to get her first COVID vaccination (due to living in the same household as someone immunosuppressed). Once the doctor's surgery had added the neccessary code to her record, we were able to go to a walk-in vaccination centre to have her jab. Our nearest centre doing 5-11 year olds was Exeter so we packed a picnic and had a morning outing down there. The staff were happy to see her; they'd just decorated the floor with chalk pictures for children and she was the first one to see them all! 

• Just because I clearly need another thing on my to-do list {laughs hysterically}, we started an Instagram account for our geocaching adventures - familyduckadventures (which is our geocaching name). Mainly beacause I often take pictures of the caches we've found but don't share them on my own Instagram account as I'm aware that not everyone is interested in it. Feel free to follow if you think it might be your sort of thing :-)

• I've just finishing reading Josh Widdicombe's 'Watching Neighbours Twice a Day' book which is very funny and worth reading if you did any growing up in the 1990's. 

• I noticed the Minack Theatre in Cornwall put their summer shows on sale and managed to book tickets for 'Hetty Feather' in April and 'Calvino Nights' in May. Both look excellent - Hetty Feather I saw a few years ago and Calvino Nights is presented by Mike Shepherd who founded Kneehigh so should be fab. And the theatre has the added bonus of being outside so much safer COVID-wise.

• And speaking of COVID, I can't say I'm that keen on this 'brave new COVID world' (with apologies to Aldous Huxley). Less/no testing plus not having to isolate when positive means that potentially every person you meet *could* be infectious - as there's just no way to tell. So what that means for us is that we do even less than we did pre-COVID (or even back when the COVID rates were low) - ie. we're not spending money on anything indoors like cafes, shops, soft plays, etc. So when journalists and others go on about the economy, well we're another family that won't be contributing to that. Ironically when the rates were low, that's when we did take a chance (in an FFP3 mask) to buy things from indoor places. There's two reasons: 1) there's an immunosuppressed person in our household but more importantly 2) none of us actually want to get COVID. And we've been incredibly lucky so far that none of us have (knowingly) had COVID - and I say knowingly as none of us have ever had a positive test or been told that we've been a contact. And that's with regular lateral flows and regular PCR's for my mum due to her hospital treatment. Although I do completely understand that we're in an incredibly privileged position; I really feel for people who have no choice to be in a place where they may catch COVID. I guess it's the whole 'learning to live with COVID' thing - it kind of implies that some *learning* has actually taken place (ie. putting in place things like HEPA filters, monitoring CO2 levels, maybe implementing masks when needed, etc) but like many things, I'm not so sure the government (and some people in society) have learnt anything. Anyway, grrr. 

• But back to nicer things, there's daffodils, snowdrops and lots of crocuses plus it's lighter past half 5 now - spring (and summer) is hopefully on it's way!

 

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! 

 

Autumn at the Duckpond

Been a bit quiet around here over the last couple of months. I haven't found the time to write a monthly round-up post or sum up my photo an hour days because on the 23rd August my dad had a stroke. 

He had neurosurgery at Southmead hospital in Bristol and then spent the last couple of months being looked after in hospitals in Bristol and Bath. And last week, he was moved to Frenchay Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre to start lots of therapies and rehab. 

My mum and brother moved in with us so we could take care of them and also drive my mum to her oncology appointments so the last couple of months have been rather busy. Thankfully my work granted me a year off (as a 'Career Break') so that's helped.  

I've still been taking part in Photo an Hour over on Instagram and of course, life carries on. 

We've managed to do a couple of swims at the local private hire farm pool and there has actually been two small carnivals down here in the South West - one in Chard and one in Castle Cary. Both were what they called 'walking processions' with no large floats involved but were still rather good. There's a few more small processions happening over the next month as well, in Bridgwater, Burnham on Sea and Honiton in Devon. 

Lily did pumpkin picking, carved a pumpkin and then did some trick and treating last night with my mum's neighbours which she seemed to enjoy a lot! (or perhaps it was just the free sweets and chocolate :-D)

And now it's November and it'll soon be Christmas! No idea where the year has gone.

 

July at the Duckpond

Ooh look I've kept up a monthly post for a second month at least. Bit of a hot month wasn't it? We managed to fit in 3 swims, a bit of gardening, some sewing and excitingly, our first actual show since before COVID. 

• We had an excellent day out to Portishead and Clevedon, visiting the outdoor pool (which is beautiful and you can even smell the sea when you're swimming), feeding the ducks, finding playgrounds and Lily even dipped her feet into Clevedon Marine Lake.

• Good books I've read - The Promise by Lucy Diamond and I also reread One Sweet Moment by Maggie Craig (it's set in Edinburgh - I first read it years ago before I started going there and it mentions lots of street names and places so I wanted to reread it now I know where it's referring to).

• We had a day trip to Barry Island to visit the funfair. We went there in May on the bank holiday Monday and at the time the funfair was far too busy so we promised Lily we'd return when it was less busy. We went on a Thursday and she pretty much had all the rides to herself! She loved it, obviously. 

• Our last show before COVID was Mark Thomas at Frome's Merlin Theatre. Our first show since then was Russell Howard at Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol. We originally had tickets to see him doing a work in progress show at Edinburgh Fringe back in August 2019 but he had to cancel that show. Then we spotted he was doing a gig in Bristol during July 2020 so booked that instead. Obviously it was postponed to 2021. It should have been at the Bristol Hippdrome but they moved it to the outdoors Ashton Gate Stadium so everyone could be sat distanced. It felt a bit weird but was still a really good show. We probably overcompensated because we kept our masks on during the performance anyway even though it was outdoors. We seem to have come through it COVID-free though so that's good. 

• I had my second vaccination on 10th July (exactly 8 weeks after my first) so I'm now double-Pfizer-jabbed! We're still doing everything we were doing before though - avoiding indoor spaces, wearing masks, etc - as we all know the vaccinations aren't failsafe against infections or mild disease. 

• We visited White Row Farm fish and chip shop for mother-in-law's birthday meal. If you're ever heading north or south on the A36 near Frome, White Row Farm shop is an excellent place to stop. Their chip shop is really tasty, they have lots of outdoor seating, 2 playgrounds and farm animals to look at. 

• We had the results from Lily's LAMDA exam and she passed! Her teacher said all the students passed with either a Merit or a Distinction although we don't know Lily's exact score yet.

• We're looking forward to our August holiday and have even booked 3 shows to see at the Fringe! 2 of them are outdoors shows (1 for us, 1 for Lily) and 1 indoors in a very well-ventilated venue. We "treated" ourselves to a load of FFP3 masks so we'll wear them indoors anyway. 

• We're looking forward to Series 3 of Sex Education starting in September and also the new series of Ghosts starting in August. I was also excited to spot they're making a second series of Good Omens!

• Photo an Hour day was on Saturday 17th July - the round-up is here. August's photo an hour day is Saturday 21st - feel free to take part if you like :-)

• I downloaded the 1 Second Everyday app to use after seeing Denise using it on Instagram. I thought I'd give it a go and see how interesting it it (or more accurately, my life is!). I'll put a summary on Instagram at the end of the month. 

• We're looking forward to Carters Steam Fair visiting Bath during August. The last time we were there on the fair was back in October 2019 when me and Andrew were working for them for a day. We haven't told Lily they're coming yet so it'll be a surprise. 

• And we discovered an excellent splash pad play area in Chippenham which was apparently the "best thing EVER!" according to Lily :-) 

How was your July?