Gingerbread Travel - October 2020 🍂🍁🍂

Autumn Strolls

I have enjoyed having a week to myself, doing what I want when I want gas been relaxing.  I have tried to make the most of any time when it isn’t raining. Amongst all of the dishes, laundry, Hallmark movies and good food I have tried to get done much needed fresh air.  I decided to visit Gawthorpe Hall, I haven’t been there since I read The Familiars last year and wanted to reacquaint myself with our Jacobean neighbours.  It was a lovely morning stroll, I had the place to myself, almost.  As I strolled more and more people arrived, you can’t blame them during g the showers it was a perfect autumn day. 

Gingerbread Life - October 2020 🧡💏❤️

Happy Meetaversary

Yes, a Meetaversary is a thing.  It is the anniversary of the first time that two people meet.  It is a time to either celebrate or commiserate, I am obviously celebrating.  Thirteen years ago.......   Yes, we all know the story, drunken people, flight from Germany, Facebook, Peter Kay.  Well it all leads to here and now.  

We’ve had our ups (thankfully, lots) and downs (there has to be a few) but we are still here, still going strong, still getting to know each other and loving spending time together.  Although we both admit that this year we’ve more than made up for anytime we haven’t spent together, call it a lockdown perk. 

I feel like should do a where we were and where we are thing but I’m not sure I have the energy, to be honest.

Gingerbread Haus - October 2020 👻🎃💀

👻 Halloween Is Coming 🎃 

It’s the spookiest time of the year, I love all festivals and celebrations.  I don’t need an excuse to (as our assessor says) make a fuss.  I love decorating the house and making it feel special and inviting at different times of the year. 

Halloween Movie Marathon 

Gingerbread Haus - September 2020 🐿🦔🍁

It’s Time To Herbstify

“And all at once summer collapsed into fall.” Oscar Wilde

Well I thought it was time to “Herbstify” the living room, I love layering up the sofa with cushions and throws,  the  and watching a Hallmark movie or two.  Although Ginger One always calls them “girlie flicks” which sounds wrong.  It’s nice to be snuggling up after spending so much time outside and in the garden. 

Gingerbread Travel - September 2020

Finding Balance

While it is important to stay safe in these weird and worrisome times, we also want to continue to live our lives as best we can.  We realised that We had been hibernating and hadn’t actually done anything fun or nice in quite a while.  Even a short walk to the local Park was a thing of the past.  

Gingerbread Familia - September 2020

Home Styling - Fostering Edit

We were asked to send photos of ourselves and the house to the FA so they can put them into our profile.  It was quite a specific list, I wanted to take styled, Instaworthy pictures but GO said “just use the real estate photos.”  This got me thinking about how much some parts of the house has changed, would the old residents approve?  Has it actually changed that much? 

One photo requested, probably the most important was the photo of the child’s bedroom (is this real?). We sent the photo above, I had taken it to share on social media but never had.  We were asked to take another with all of the personal bits in.  It makes sense now, what traumatised child wants to walk into a room with a SMILE cushion on the bed?  Between this photo being taken and the one we sent GO had sold both of the singles beds (we got them for free on Facebook) as there was a strange, musty smell coming from them, and had bought a more solid white bed.  He had also decided to paint the drawers as he said they were too yellow. The new picture show a neutral room, a blank space to add to a place a child can make their own, for how ever long they need it.

Gingerbread Haus - Juli 2020

Garden Living 

I like to joke that up North when the sun shines you have to make the most of it as that will be the quickest hour ever.  So with that in mind when we heard that July was ending with a mini heatwave (how can it be a heatwave, isn’t it just summer?) we decided to make the most of it. 

We didn’t want to go anywhere as we knew the beaches, parks and any public space would be heaving.  No chance to socially distance and as we were placed into a local lockdown the thought of crowded places gave me the heebie geebies.  

Our/my plan was to spend the day in the Costa Del Burnley, we have put a lot of work into tidying up the garden, we wanted to enjoy it while we could and, also, I had acquired a paddling pool, so it made sense to enjoy it all.  The gin was in the fridge, we had snacks and lots of sunscreen.

Gingerbread Familia - Juli 2020

Time Together

Yes, it has been a weird year.  Yes, we are in the middle of a pandemic. Yes, I am on holiday and want to make the most of it. No, we aren’t allowed to go anywhere.  The government has opened “air bridges” but as people are relaxing on the beaches or in tavernas they are closing the bridges with hours of notice.  To avoid this we have decided to stay home and make the most of the amazing destinations on our doorsteps. First things first we decided to have a picnic, we chose to visit Roughlee, it has a lovely little picnic area by a babbling brook which leads to waterfall.  It’s a village we have visited before, which is steeped in history and has a monument to Alice Nutter one of the Pendle Witches.  For us it was somewhere close by for us to visit so we could have a well deserved (on my part at least) lie in.  It was nice to relax and spend time together chatting, laughing and making memories. Here’s to more trips together and more memories to make.

Fostering

We have been assigned a social worker and have had our first ever Zoom meeting.  The benefits of Covid19 are that we will be having our weekly sessions via Zoom and so they can take place whenever and whereever we want them to.  The sessions will cover our individual life stories, why we want to foster rather than adopt, 

Gingerbread Life - Juli 2020

While it’s probably not true, it feels like the rest of the country have just had four months holiday.  During the pandemic lockdown I have worked everyday, making resources, uploading lessons and calling children to check on their welfare.  It has been hard, I’ve worked harder and longer than if I was in the school building.  I have tried not to get in to any bad habits, so I have been waking up at the same time, having my meals at the same time and have documented everything I have been doing.  For the last eight weeks I have been on the Essential Worker/Vulnerable worker rota meaning I have been back in school.  Initially I worked with groups of children but as they stopped coming(self isolation) I became a glorified mover.  I single handily emptied two reception classrooms and a huge nursery of furniture and resources.  There is a bigger story here about lazy coworkers but I’m not really ready to discuss that, yet. Baring all of this in mind I can’t believe we’ve made it.  It’s the end of the weirdest school year ever.  On top of the global pandemic which has wiped out a generation of children’s academic year, we’ve dealt with a restructure which has meant saying goodbye to some amazing staff.  I have “warned” the senior leaders that I am planning to leave as the commute is really hard.  Particularly when I now know that it can take just over half an hour.  This is because a lot of council staff are working from home (until at least the new year 2021) and because the major flood prevention works has finally finished, after four years of work. Goodbye 2019-2020 I am now on holiday and while I can’t visit family and friends, I intend to make the most of my time at home with my One True Love. 

Gingerbread Travel - März 2020

On the way to the garden centre, we found by chance last year, GO took a road too soon.  Before turning around he pulled into a car park and we found the weirdest place.  It’s called Guy’s Thatched Hamlet and it’s a complex of shops, restaurants, cafes and a hotel by the canal. We couldn’t stay as we had other plans but we took a quick look around.  It was a little bit like a film set and while it looked tired and dated (that may have been what it looked like the day it opened) it was packed. As we left there were still cars streaming in.  

Now I know I'm old

There was a time many moons ago when my go to hangover food was hot and greasy.  Fry ups/burgers/French fries.  No today, today I am having tomatoes on toasted Pitta bread, and it's yummy.  I also have a handover after a couple of ciders, I'm such a lightweight these days.

Who knows how to parteee?

R'Wood knows how to party!

At the end of year party last year I felt like a spare wheel. GO hadn't been there long and didn't really know many people.  This year he knew a few more, he's still quite an unknown character there.  There is such a big staff that it's hard to get to know everyone.  That vein said this year he greeted and chatted to many people.  I wasn't expecting to go, in fact I was looking forward to an evening on my own, but I am so glad we did.  We were some of the first to arrive and the last to leave.  They had a Tikki Bar, Surf simulators, limbo and a silent disco. Unlike last year I wanted to get involved, I had a little Dutch courage in the form of Swedish cider and had an absolute blast.  

We arranged to go on from the party to the local club to carry on until the wee hours, but due to torrential rain we had to order a taxi and by the time ours arrived I just wanted my bed.  I love a good party but even I can accept defeat.