Penny Blogs - An insight into the things in life that make me smile

A week in history

September 12, 2022 by Penny Leave a Comment

The phrase “what a week” has never seemed more appropriate than when used for this last week.

This time last week my youngest daughter was just finishing her first settling session at the school pre-school. She was incredibly excited and feeling very grown up to be finally going to “school” like her older brother and sister. As her mum I was looking forward to her finally being in some form of childcare after all the chaos of the “covid years” (apologies to anyone taking offence at me referring to school as childcare here – as a school governor I know it is so, so much more than that!) and I was excited about the prospect of finally being able to get back to work properly – and also go to the loo without an audience and drink a cup of tea in peace and quiet.

That first settling in week is always a bit of a funny one as in my case she was only in for 80 minutes a day. Not enough time to drive home and back so after a celebratory alone coffee with my husband on the Monday the remaining mornings were planned to catch up on school governor business whilst taking full advantage of the tea making facilities in the school staff room.

Later on the Monday came the announcement of the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss – which was sadly no surprise for anyone who had been following the Conservative Leadership election over the summer. Tuesday saw her heading to Balmoral to be officially appointed by HM The Queen and replace Boris Johnson. A cause for celebration in one way, and at the same time incredibly worrying for what it would mean for the years ahead and the cost of living crisis that so many of us are now caught up in.

Normally the outgoing and incoming PM would head straight to Buckingham Palace for one to resign and the other to be asked to take over. It was therefore expected that we would have a new PM in place by Monday evening, but a week earlier the Palace had announced that The Queen was not going to make the journey from Scotland back to London as already planned and instead she would remain at Balmoral for the politicians to travel to her there.

Wednesday was Truss’ first appearance in the Commons for PMQ against the Labour Leader Kier Starmer and her confirmation that she wasn’t going to enforce a windfall tax on energy companies, but that the next day she would make a statement about how she planned to tackle the energy price rises. That evening the Privy Council was supposed to meet virtually to appoint new Ministers. The meeting was postponed as The Queen was said to be resting after a busy schedule on Tuesday and a statement was made by the Palace to that effect.

Thursday saw many of us tune into the news to see how she planned to do this. A cap of £2,500 for the average household will provide some relief in the short term, but with the PM’s initial statement many of us were left with more questions about how this would work and what it means for business and schools as well as our homes.

With any government announcement the details always follow. Some of them aren’t even thought through when a Minister gets up on their feet to make an announcement, so it came as no surprise that we were going to have to wait a bit, but none of us could have expected what happened next.

As we were sat there eating lunch and continuing to watch parliamentary coverage there seemed to be a bit of a commotion in the chamber. Notes were passed, whispered exchanged took place and people looked worried. A statement came out of Buckingham Palace to say that the Queen was unwell.

People here in the UK know that Bucking Palace never commented on The Queen’s health proactively. Statements might be made if she had to withdraw from an official function but this statement was incredibly unusual and we all knew it. News then came that the Queen’s children and her eldest grandson were travelling to Balmoral. We all knew that that meant instantly.

As this shocking news was digested by the nation the news organisations swung into action. Television schedules were pulled to swap over to rolling news. Presenters changed into black ties and dark suits and the mood changed. Rumours circulated about whether or not “London Bridge had fallen” and you could see it in the faces of everyone on the television that we all knew what was going to happen next.

As I sat in a school carpark listening to Radio 4 whilst my son was at a karate class the news came just after 6.30pm. Initially shared on Twitter as a sign of the year we were in.

The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.

This was followed by the playing of the National Anthem.

There was something haunting in those words. The instant reference to The King shook many of us. The National Anthem’s familiar sound making everyone stop. Tears came.

We all knew that this would happen one day, yet at the same time the Queen had seemed immortal. For seventy years she had been a continuous presence in all our lives and her image was literally everywhere. Even in a post-Covid nearly cashless society nearly all of us had a purse full of coins or notes bearing her image.

No one really one what would happen next. Many of us probably read about Operation London Bridge on the internet that afternoon, but few of us have lived through the death of a Monarch. None of us have lived through the death of a Monarch who had been on the throne for over 70 years.

As expected the tributes followed. News organisations have planned for the death of the Queen for years. They have plans to follow and lists of people to interview and topics to cover.

Sharing the news with the children was different from how it might have been had she died just a year or two earlier. 2022 was the year of her Platinum Jubilee. Children around the country had taken part in street parties and school celebrations for the Jubilee. They had watched concerts in her honour on television, primary school children had received a book all about her and we had all seen her invite Paddington to afternoon tea. They all knew the Queen and loved her. This was bit more than just a Monarch dying to them. She was like an honour fun grandma that they saw on the television and in books and newspapers and magazines.

Since The Queen’s death was announced I don’t think any of us realised just how busy things would become. I had absolutely no idea as to what the appointment of a new King would entail. I’d simply assumed there would be a Coronation in a year or so’s time and that otherwise it was just a formality that Charles became King and the Royal Family would go away and mourn in private before being seen at the State Funeral.

Instead our television screen and social media feeds have been filled with pomp and ceremony of a scale that has never been on television before. It is almost hard to keep track of everything that has happened involving our new King. Although Charles III title was automatically assumed on the death of his mother The Queen there was then on Saturday a televised meeting of the Accession Council at St James Palace and then a Proclamation outside the palace of the new King. This was followed by Proclamations across the country and in other Countries around the world who take King Charles III as their new head of state. In a world of mobile phones and instant internet access there is something beautifully paint about these traditions, but at the same time also incredibly moving.

The King is also required to travel around the country visiting Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as the new King all before the Queen’s State Funeral which is due to take place in a week’s time. That’s in-between meeting the Prime Minister, opposition leaders, other Ministers, Church Leaders and representatives of the Commonwealth and the countries where he is head of state.

Meanwhile the Queen has now started her final journey from Balmoral back to London, where her funeral will take place. She travelled to Edinburgh yesterday and the route was lined with members of the public wishing to pay their respects. The Public have also arrived with floral tributes at all the Royal Palaces and many have come to try to catch a sight of the new King. The scenes looked incredible over the weekend with so many families travelling.

Whatever your views on the Queen or the Royal Family you have to acknowledge that this is history. Living history. It’s incredible to live through it, and for our children to live through it too. It’s hard to believe that this time last week my head was just full of thoughts of first days at school and drinking tea in peace. What a week. A week in history.

Photo by Jack Lucas Smith on Unsplash.

Candy Cane Socks

January 11, 2022 by Penny Leave a Comment

I’m really trying in 2022 to keep track of all the various craft projects that I have in my stash and actually manage to finish. The first complete one of the year is something I actually started at the back end of 2021, but failed to finish in time for Christmas. I can’t exactly remember when I treated myself to this gorgeously festive Candy Cane 4-ply yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners, but it may well have been years ago.

It is years since I last knit any socks though and I was feeling a bit out of practice when I got my dpns out. I had previously got to the stage where I had one go to sock pattern that I know fitted my feet perfectly and I had an annotated paper copy in my knitting bag so that I could quickly knock up a pair without really having to think about it. In various house moves I’ve lost that pattern and I wish I could remember where it came from.

For these socks I was following the Candy Cane socks pattern that West Yorkshire Spinners released along with the yarn. It’s written by Winwick Mum who is a bit of a legend when it comes to sock knitting. I’m not sure I’ve followed any of her patterns before, but I’ve certainly seen her tutorials before and know how much everyone rates her.

I did have a couple of moments of confusion in this – especially when I started doing the heel flap backwards as I’d not quite understood the instructions – but overall I’m really pleased with how these turned out, especially after such a long gap since last knitting socks.

The only thing I think I need to improve on is tension on my dpns and not ending up with a ladder effect where you can see how the stitches were split across the needles. This had already improved by the second sock and I’m hoping that it will improve more in future pairs.

They might not have been finished by Christmas 2021, but I’m delighted to have finally got to grips with socks again. These definitely won’t be the only pair on my needles in 2022. And, in writing this blog post I’ve also realised that West Yorkshire Spinners also has a whole Christmas Collection of 4-ply yarn, with the Vintage Tinsel particularly nice. Maybe that can be a festive treat to myself at the end of the year if I manage to master my sock knitting this year.

Not one, but two finished crochet projects

April 16, 2021 by Penny Leave a Comment

If the last 12 months have taught me anything it is that I was incredibly well prepared when it came to having things to do in the event of lockdown during a global pandemic. I’ve not needed for a single item of craft materials at all. But, I didn’t factor into my plans having to home school two kids whilst looking after a toddler too!

When I see all these pictures of people’s amazing lockdown creations I have to remind myself that I may well have been able to do similar if I hadn’t been grappling with Year 6 English grammar and facilitating Year 3 science experiments! My ridiculous level of craft supplies did make me realise that I really need to finish some projects off before buying anything new, so that’s exactly what I’m planning to do in 2021 and just over three months into the year I’m rather proud of my efforts so far.

Anyone who used to follow me back when I was Mrs C will know that I am a crochet addict, and taught myself to crochet after falling in love with Lucy from Attic24’s amazing crochet blankets. Over the years I have bought myself three of her kits, but until recently two of them sat unfinished as I acknowledged that I’m absolutely useless at sewing in ends as I go along!

With the Hydrangea I’m not entirely sure when I actually started this blanket, but I do know that I was already working on it when I first met my husband nearly four years ago. It’s seem me through quite a lot over that time and in a way the idea of finishing it felt a little strange after it had been such a constant in my life. But finish it I did. I also challenged myself to start sewing in ends before I actually finished all the rows. For every colour stripe that I completed I made myself sew in 5 ends before starting the next. It sounds so simple, but was actually a real challenge. Once I started motoring though the last few stripes though the motivation to get it finished took over and it wasn’t long before I could actually move straight on to the edging and finish it all off. Quite an achievement.

The second blanket had been in my basket for even longer. Looking back I think the Moorland CAL started just after Christmas 2016. I bought myself a kit as a Christmas present and also bought my mum one at the same time. She was a relatively recent crochet convert and I thought it about time she tackle a big project. I managed to roughly keep up with the crochet along itself, but then the dreaded ends started haunting me and once I was left with nothing else to do but sew them in it just sat there on a chair for years. Literally. It’s moved house twice with me in its incomplete state and I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever manage to finish it.

Mind over matter finally kicked in and after several nights sewing in ends (although not as many as I feared!) I was able to start thinking about the edge. The only problem being that I couldn’t actually find the yarn I needed to do it. I was able to make a start based on extras I had in my yarn basket, but knew that somewhere I had kept all the officially Moorland leftover yarn for when the day came. The problem was I’d put it in a safe place before those two house moves!

I cracked on regardless though with what I had and was hoping that I would have enough, but quite soon disaster struck. A meter of blanket edging to go and only a couple of inches of yarn left. A plea for help on Instagram brought along a lovely lady that I’ve only ever spoke to via the platform and she so very kindly popped a bit of yarn in the post for me. Thank you so much!

With one yarn near disaster under my belt I was beginning to think about replanning the colours for the remaining rounds of the edging yet a sudden urge to look inside an old hamper on top of the fridge freezer in our garage revealed the safe place that I’d stashed the left over yarn in over four years earlier! To say I was relieved would be an understatement.

The edging consists of four rounds and I actually deviated from Lucy’s planned colours and swapped the grape for plum as the rich purple is the colour that I love most in all the beautiful moorland tones. If you’re unfamiliar with the blanket I should say that it works it way upwards from the greens, peaty browns and heather purples of the Yorkshire Moors and gradually works up to a blue sky. For anyone that loves the moors it really is a perfect reminder of them and one that I hope one day I will take with me when we eventually move back up to Yorkshire – planned for when the middle child finishes secondary school we hope.

To say I’m proud to have finished would be an understatement. I also weirdly feel relieved too. The two blankets feel like they have been hanging over me in a weird way for quite a long time too. I already miss not having a crochet project on the go and I’m having to try very hard to always have something crafty that I can quickly pick up and get on with when I want a moment’s calm. I won’t pretend I’m not itching to buy another Attic 24 kit and have my eye on the kit for her original Granny Stripe blanket. I’m just trying to make myself hold on until I’ve got a few more completed projects under my belt to justify it. Let’s hope I’m not making myself wait until the very end of the year or else it will become a Christmas present to myself!

Now I just need the weird April weather to calm down a bit so that it’s warm enough (and not snowing!) so I can take some decent photographs of both blankets. The colours of the Moorland in particular are so gorgeous, but you really need to see it all laid out to appreciate it properly rather than folded up.

And breathe…

March 27, 2021 by Penny Leave a Comment

Yesterday the kids broke up from school for Easter. Just getting my head properly round that statement is mentally exhausting. In one way it seems like they’ve only just gone back – and in a way the 8 March school return wasn’t very long ago – and yet in another way the Christmas holidays feel like they were a lifetime ago.

At Christmas we were so looking forward to some downtime as a family after a hectic term at school, but with actually getting Covid that just never happened. Instead we ended isolation and literally fell into homeschooling in a full lockdown the very next morning. What timing.

As a family we’re incredibly lucky. Both of us adults had full blown Covid, but were able to just look after ourselves at home. If the kids caught it (or more likely had it first and then gave it to us) none of them had any symptoms at all. None of us are suffering long term and my husband’s company paid him sick pay both whilst he was isolating and when he still didn’t feel well enough to go back for a few days afterwards. My self employed work has suffered, but that’s to be expected as there are only so many hours in each day and it’s impossible to fit in homeschooling and working whilst also juggling a toddler. I normally manage the latter two together, but all three is just too much.

The kids have loved going back too school, and despite not everything being back to normal they’re still so happy. It’s strange for me to no longer know everything that they’re up to school-wise, but they don’t seem to have any problems with that concept. The youngest is missing them during the school day, but also enjoying having my full attention again.

After over three months stuck at home I’m now very ready for all this to be over. Apart from school, essential shopping and walks round our local streets I’ve only been further afield once – a five minute drive to a National Trust site where we went for a walk and to fly the kite. It honestly felt as refreshing as a luxury holiday. We even treated ourselves to a coffee and a chocolate brownie. It was like a five star meal!

From Monday the rules change again and I can’t wait to be able to venture a little further afield for walks and maybe even meet up with some friends in the process. I’ve missed water so much and am so looking forward to returning to the tow paths of the local canals. If all goes according to plan we’ll even be able to visit attractions by the 12th April and as the kids have an INSET day that day I was thrilled to be able to book tickets for our most local model village. The kids are already incredibly excited. They’ve missed days out so much over the last year and after such a wash-out at Christmas I really hope Easter means we can finally spend some quality time together relaxing and just being a family without being dosed up on paracetamol and struggling to keep my eyes open!

The last week has seen people marking a year since the first lockdown started and I want to make the time to look back at everything we’ve been through in that last year. So much, both as individuals and as a family too. In a way we’ve done so much too, but then it also looks like time has stood still. It’s certainly been a year that none of us every expected to live through.

The one where I got Covid on Christmas Day!

January 22, 2021 by Penny Leave a Comment

2020 really was the year that kept giving.

There I was feeling all smug that my kids reached the end of term without anyone in either of their school bubbles having to isolate. Yes, there was the bit where we went from Tier 4 on Friday to Tier 3 on Saturday and then Tier 4 on Sunday, but I was already at peace with the idea that seeing any family on Christmas Day itself wouldn’t be sensible, so again it didn’t damped my festive enthusiasm too much.

By Christmas Eve I felt on top of the world. A long-overdue Zoom catch up with some friends was wonderful, and after that I decided to celebrate with a glass of wine. A rare occurrence these days. I went to bed and then had a weird night of tossing and turning and not being able to sleep properly. I woke up with a thumping headache and just assumed it was the effects of said glass of wine. I carried on as usual though with the youngest, who was incredibly excited about their first Christmas where they had a clue about what was going on.

By lunchtime the paracetamol had turned the headache into a dull thud and so I went of to collect the eldest two from their Dad’s before returning and starting the rest of Christmas celebrations here. By 3pm it was time to put dinner on and I was starting to feel rough. Really rough. Rough enough that I pretty much fell asleep on the sofa and B had to make Christmas dinner – which to be fair about he did really well, even if both of us did totally forget the stuffing until two days later!

A bit of food made me feel a little better and I perked up for a while, before slumping again as the evening wore on. That night in bed though I again couldn’t sleep, but this time though I was starting to feel all feverish. Alarm bells started ringing, but I could still smell and taste everything so I assumed it wasn’t Covid but something else. By the next morning though I felt no better at all and sensible me said it would be wise to get a test. Just in case.

So, Boxing Day 2020 saw me heading to Luton and the glamorous location of a dodgy looking tent in an equally dodgy looking car park under a fly-over. As I approached, had it not been for the presence of a security guard in hi-vis, I might have assumed I was there to take part in a drug deal.

Credit where it’s due though – the whole booking a test process and actually being tested was incredibly straightforward. I was in and out within ten minutes and could have booked a test for as soon as 30 minutes after logging on to the NHS website.

Thirty six hours later my results came through and I was genuinely shocked to see a text message containing a positive result. Back in December it still felt quite unusual to test positive and many people didn’t know anyone who had. I spent ages trying to work out where I might have picked it up. Apart from one supermarket trip (when I couldn’t get a click and collect slot) I hadn’t been anywhere else at all. Literally just walking local streets with the kids. It’s my assumption that one of more of the kids picked it up at school, didn’t have symptoms themselves and then passed it on to me. My husband came down with symptoms five days after me, suggesting that I gave it to him, so that rules out it having come from him at work.

As time went on and the January return to school loomed it turned out that I wasn’t the only parent from my children’s classes who had been ill over Christmas. Nearly a third of us had and only in one case had their children shown any symptoms. This “new” strain seems to not only pass more easily, but also not present many symptoms in kids at all.

It goes without saying that having worked all this out I really couldn’t see how re-opening schools was sensible at all. Where my kids are at school in Hertfordshire the Covid levels were higher than many of the London boroughs where they announced that schools would remain shut. It made no sense at all and frankly sounded dangerous.

As a school governor, and in particular one responsible for some of the most vulnerable children in our school, I am fully of the belief that school is normally the best and safest place for our children. This definitely wasn’t the case in early January though. We were bought some extra time as my children’s school refused to take them back initially as there was still Covid in our household at that point (my husband was in his 10 day self-isolation period still) and even though the kids had finished their ten day period, there was no guarantee that they were not symptom free and had it in the same timescales. My kids school had an INSET day on the Monday, meaning that children were only due to return on the Tuesday, but of course all that changed when the latest lockdown announcement came through late on Monday night.

I could probably write a whole essay on the way the Government has handled Covid, and in particular the fact that so many announcements, especially ones involving education, come out late at night, or at least after the end of the normal school day. It’s infuriating, rude and creates even more work for people in what should be their down-time.

Trying to recover properly from Covid whilst homeschooling has been a challenge, to put it mildly, but as we head towards the end of January I think I’m nearly back to normal. I do seem to have the insomnia part of long-Covid that many people have reported, but other than feeling very unfit and a bit tired (which could be attributed to home-schooling!) I’ve come out of the whole thing pretty unscathed. At its worst I was aching all over my body in strange ways. I constantly felt cold and also developed a hacking cough. It wasn’t really how I expected Covid to be and was pretty debilitating at times. Not at all easy with two adults ill and three kids in the house. Three kids that had been looking forward to a normal Christmas…

Maybe for Christmas 2021 we can make a better go of things?

It’s lockdown Jim, but not as we know it!

November 5, 2020 by Penny Leave a Comment

Here we go again. Lockdown Part 2. Or Lockdown 2.0 as some people seem to call it. Proof if ever it’s needed that we’re getting more adapt with technology naming conventions.

Whatever you call it, this lockdown is less than 12 hours old as I sit and write this, but the differences from the last lockdown are very obvious. My kids are still at school and as I dropped them off this morning and watched the usual gaggle of parents chatting on street corners it really didn’t feel any different to earlier in the week. A million miles away from back in March when we were all desperately swotting up on primary school grammar and realising that maths had somehow changed fundamentally since we were all at school.

Whatever your views on the decision to keep schools open, you can’t deny that it fundamentally changes things from last time. Yes, non-essential shops still have to close, but this time they are allowed to still open for click and collect orders. This is where the guidance from the Government seems to contradict itself. It tells us to stay at home other than for very specific reasons, yet I’m allowed to go over to the next town to collect an order from Hobbycraft to do some Christmas crafting. In the same way I can’t go into a clothes shop in person, but I can wander around a garden centre with the kids looking at the Christmas displays. As much as I can see how this is good for small local businesses, it also doesn’t quite seem right.

Let’s just think about it a bit more. I can’t visit the nearby outdoor Whipsnade Zoo to see their real reindeer, but I can see animated reindeer models decorated with tinsel indoors at the garden centre. How on earth is that logical in any way? Anyone who has been to Whipsnade will know that the site is made for people to social distance in it. Surely the Covid risk is far greater indoors than out? After all we’re being encouraged to exercise outdoors and parks and places like National Trust outdoor spaces are staying open.

I’m left thinking that this is going to be devastating for the hospitality industry with pubs and restaurants forced to close for a second time. Yet, at the same time, if this lockdown isn’t strict enough to make a difference then won’t it just prolong things until they can open again? If we’d not all been told to “Eat Out to Help Out” maybe we would have avoided this second lockdown and overall the effect on the hospitality industry would have been less. I can’t begin to think how stressful it must be for them thinking about how much Christmas trade they could miss if this extends beyond the initial 4 weeks.

I wish I had faith that what we’re going through is actually going to make a difference, but I’m yet to be convinced when the whole plan seems to be so full of holes.

Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash.