And then boom…with Covid-cuffs unlocked we were off. Due east across Scotland for 75 miles we travelled, to our old favourite of North Berwick. The Gurneys were away on an island tour of Mull so we had the run of the place once more. Sun-kissed we hoped for, but more wind-swept it was. That said, we weren’t for caring, it was just lovely to be by the sea. Friends visited, beaches were trod and the sea was paddled – all experiences we'd not had for some months. We peddled our bikes on pastures new and walked on footpaths of old. We even got a visit to the Farm Park. It was just nice to be out.
The week ended with a Tour de Grandparents. Nana and Baba came to Kirky and I went to Brum. It was just great to be back in touch in the flesh. We’re ready now for Part 3…
Just like everyone, holidays have been off the agenda in recent months. And as May/June and early July are the highlight of the annual weather calendar in Scotland, it’s been all about staycation, staycation, staycation.
No long weekends in the van, no trips to festies, no visits to see friends and family. But still we’ve made the best of things and the sunshine has really helped our activities. We’ve taken to walking the paths round and about – many new and untested by us until now. We’ve been enjoying Scotland's finest whether foraging for wild foods or watching nature as its grown through Spring into Summer. We’ve learned to travel in style…Niomi racing ahead on her bike, Mummy and Emily – on foot and scooter accordingly – deeply engrossed in Harry Potter chat, and Daddy – well he just potters along on his tod admiring the view.
Destinations have been woodland adventures, ruined castles, wee lochans and long distance paths. And when our allotted outdoor time expired then there’s been plenty of fun in the garden – we’ve had plenty of play with water (fun if you have a wetsuit), fed our resident robins from the hand, watched the newly hatched blue tits learn to fly, tasted the first bounty from the veggie beds and admired the flowers as they start to emerge all over. Books have also had a theme...Emily's devoured book after book - either reading herself or having all the Harry Potter series and the Hobbit read to her, whilst Niomi has started to recognise letters and is now reading her first words - more than ready for school in August.
And we've done our best to replace the gaping campervan void in our lives...I was given a campervan lego set for Father's Day (it'll be finished by Christmas), Emily's made her own campervan...and we've also treated DDU to a new tattoo.
All in all it’s become The Good Life all round, and we've enjoyed our our new found staycations. Now roll on Part 2 as we start to venture further than 5 miles...
Woodland Explorers I
Woodland Explorers II
Woodland Explorers III
Harry Potter chat and Niomi in the distance
Scooter Girl
We've tramped most of the feet of the Campsies
The baby blue tits first day out the nest - born and bred in the garden
I have 2 very different daughters. One is all unicorns, fairies and magic…the other all snails, woodlice and worms. Niomi loves her minibeasts and she recently co-hosted a Zoom presentation to some of the family all about her favourite creatures. She’s far braver than the rest of us too – no qualms about handling her garden delights and always keen to rescue any insects that get stuck in the house. A future zoologist or entomologist in the making? Possibly. Welcome to Niomi’s mini beasts zoo…
Pleased as punch with the start of the Snail house
Snail house and Wormery in full swing
The beginnings of Painted Lady butterflies
Almost ready for chrysallis
Practising butterfly handling with a Small White
Caterpillar - who knows what it'll be when it grows up
We've been in lockdown for a few weeks now (actually Daddy says it's more like ten). And I want to tell you and show you how I've been feeling and coping, and what I've been doing to keep me busy.
I have been doing a lot to keep me busy like home schooling, going out for walks and cycles and scooting. Daddy's also bought me lots of books to read, I've done some Brownies badges, and when the weather's nice (which has been quite a lot) we play outside almost all the day. When we are in the garden we play skipping, monsters, trampolining, toilet tig, cricket, football and we also do camping and gardening. We have planted carrots, courgettes, pumpkins, sunflowers, kale, rocket, chard, oakleaf lettuce, lambs lettuce, runner beans, peas and potatoes. We've been baking stuff too. And I even got to cut Daddy's hair!!!
We are also trying to keep connecting to people. Even though we are having to keep far away from each other we are still finding lots of ways to connect. I have learnt how to use Facebook Messenger, Houseparty, WhatsApp and I use them to talk to my friends and family. I've also chatted to some of my friends from a safe distance. Me and my friend Brodie have made a secret code to write secretly to each other. I have also made care packages for my grandparents, put a rainbow in the window, done hand clapping for the doctors and nurses who have been working hard and chalked messages on the ground for the bin men.
I've also really liked seeing my family at home all the time and I have done an interview with Mummy:
What has been the biggest change? Not going outside very much and not getting close to people. How are you finding homeschooling? Fun spending time with my girls but tiring. How are you feeling? Happy and unsure. Your top 3 moments from this experience?
1. Sleeping in a new tent in the garden.
2. Spending a lot of time in the garden.
3. Picking wild garlic. What activities have you most enjoyed doing? Learning new hobbies like wool felting and mosaics. What are you most thankful for? Having a lovely and healthy family. What TV show have you watched? The Detectorists. What's your new found favourite inside family activity? Just Dance. What's your favourite food in Lockdown? Emily's pizza. What is your goal after all this? Remembering to enjoy slowing down.
There are also some things I've not liked such as not being able to see my friends and family as much, having to stay away from other people, not getting to properly go to school and not doing my activities like art classes and Brownies, not going on holiday and no trips away in the van!
But the things I'm excited to do when its all over is have play dates again, seeing my friends and family much more and getting back to school.
Bye for now...Emily x
Flower cupcakes
Yummy yummy pizza...Mummy's favourite food in lockdown
2020 has got to be by far the most unusual year of my 47 so far. And yes, you guessed it, that unusuality is the reason behind the lengthy pause in blog posts.
Christmas and New Year passed in a bit of a haze for me. I wasn’t feeling right but didn’t know why. Then I returned to work on 3rd January – feeling like the festivities had just passed me by and here I was back again. Then about 5am on 4th January I woke up with my heart racing, feeling really not well, not understanding what was going on. Over the next few days I ruled out various heart problems and after a week or so I began to understand that what I was experiencing was not heart problems but chronic anxiety. It appeared my body and brain had got stuck in 'flight or fight' mode. Not nice.
It took me a good few weeks to get my head round all that, and actually accept and own what was happening. It’s really hard when you are in that place to ever see your way out. Good hours flipped with bad hours, good days flipped with bad days…my body and brain had said enough. You are overloaded. Slow down. Stop.
And so I did. With much help from family and friends I slowly worked my way through things. I meditated, became super mindful, ate well, exercised, relaxed and enlisted a psychologist to my cause. But beyond all this I taught myself all about what was going on and what was happening. I read some fascinating and insightful books (I have recommendations if anyone wants). I understood that what was happening was that I hadn’t been listening to my body and missed all the cues, so much so that my 300 million year old brain had taken over and made me stop. Simply overpowering myself with signals to make me slow down. Pretty scary.
So I embarked on a journey of self-discovery and re-imagining. Not one that’s by any means complete, but one that I can hopefully say now has the worst part well behind me. I’ve become better for it however – learning the importance of looking after myself better if I want to look after others. I’ve learned to remember and practise self-compassion, gratitude, kindness and love. I’ve learned that it’s OK to not always be OK. To go gently when I need and accept that. Live in the now and let things flow through. Be kind to myself. Smile, breathe and go more slowly.
And as I emerged in mid-March I entered a story that everyone knows well. I was emerging to a world about to enter lockdown due to Covid-19. I worried if my anxiety, would regress but so far it hasn’t. And generally all of this has treated us as a family very well. We are blessed with a lovely house and garden, and nice weather to help us enjoy it. But I shan’t labour that part. Suffice to say I am back and (hopefully) so is this Blog. The below is a potted history of the last few months…
Oh, and suffice to say, if anyone is ever experiencing anxiety and wants to talk about it…please get in touch if you want. I am more than happy to share my own experience.
A real life home-made gingerbread house for Xmas
Cousin-abatics
Xmas saw the arrival of my brother's drone
Oh yes...the girls won the annual Cranium...again
Xmas/New Year interlude in North Berwick
And a trip up the Law
We celebrated our 3rd family birthday in early January
And Grandad's 90th later that month
Grandma joined in too - fresh out of hospital
Niomi celebrated being 5
With an Elsa cake
And an Elsa party
Videoclip: Niomi's 5th family party
And we also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary
A winter weekend in North Berwick
The biggest and the smallest in the winter sun
And then lockdown began
But the sun came out
Videoclip: Garden helper
Emily learned to cook pizza
The daffodils brought Spring to the garden
The Easter Bunny came
Videoclip: Easter Egg hunt
We celebrated birthdays from a distance
The girls grew up 1
The girls grew up 2
Tin Anniversary - ten years since we met
Garden holiday - Camping, swimming pool and adventure
Sun and ice cream - how to pass the time in lockdown
