Farewell to 2020 ASAP!

So we came home and got this leaflet through the door highlighting the new rules for Tier 4 (which basically are the same as tier 3 but with no meeting in groups outside but lots of people seem to be ignoring that anyway sadly) We watched the Coronavirus news briefing today expecting tougher restrictions but nope and the schools are set to go back next week despite 981 people dying yesterday and over 50,000 people testing positive. There is a new variant in the UK that spreads quicker than the older version which is causing the surge in cases. Although we now have two vaccines being rolled out it is unlikely many people will be vaccinated quickly.

Someone was so tired from holiday that she dragged her bed into the middle of the room and slept for ages!

We also came home to Brooke and Brodies hoopers winnings...wow is all I can say!!! The prizes are beautiful! 

Christmas was very different this year. For the first time ever it was just me and Matt for a meal so we decided to have roast beef with trimmings, it was very tasty! We did go over to Matts folks for a walk but obviously no meeting inside. We did manage a zoom present opening session though!

Yearly sofa photo, first one without Bracken 😢

On our walk Bru found a tree his size!

And had sweet dreams of Santa Paws!

My friend got me a gorgeous painting of Bramble, my first sheltie so now I have the whole set!

Our new jumps! 

And I got this cool game from my sister!

I may have got a bit carried away doing baking!

Since Christmas we have been in the limbo where you don't really know what the day is and you just eat cheese 😂😂 It has been nice to relax and catch up with some friends too!

So from us and the furry ones we wish that your 2021 is a better year than 2020 and that some normality will resume at some point. For us I'm hoping it will be the addition of a four legged family member!!  Thanks for the couple of you that actually read this waffle!! 

Holiday before Tier 4 arrived!

 So we are still in the midst of dealing with Coronavirus in the UK, we went away on holiday while we were in tier 2 (meet groups outside but not go into other peoples houses, shops and hospitality open if covid compliant) and on the day we returned we were in tier 3 and then swiftly into tier 4 less than a week before Christmas. This meant no meeting indoors (Christmas day plans out of the window for many of people) no hospitality or non essential shops open, no meeting outside in groups and a stay at home order. Anyway, we were very please to make it away on holiday and back in time from the Lakes. We had a wonderful time and although the weather was terrible we had some amazing walks! Get ready for some photo spam!

This was our first day walk...we tootled down to Bassenthwaite lake and it was very windy as you can tell by their ears 😂

The next day we went to Buttermere which is one of our fav walks! The older two managed really well as it was a two hour walk (Brodie is 14 in Feb and Brooke is only 9 but struggles with long walks due to her shoulder) and they even had energy for playing in the lake at the end!

Lots of Herdwick sheep to stare at! 

Have to do the obligatory pose on the rock! ❤

Loch Ness Sparkle 😁

We went to Ravenglass one day and walked for a couple of hours round Muncaster castle. It was sooooo muddy!!! The way we were supposed to walk  to start with was cut off by high tide and so was the poo bin!

Poor Rupert got splattered with mud and was so cross about it!! If you look at his face he is covered in gloopy mud!

We did the walk back to front so finished by walking along the coast

As the Ravenglass walk was a couple of hours we stopped in Whitehaven on the way home and walked the older two for an hour and got some fish and chips!

Brooke was cross that we didn't share our dinner!

The sunset was beautiful

And the dogs enjoyed letting off steam!

We did a group walk from the cottage a few times, this is looking down onto Bassenthwaite lake

The cottage we were staying in was in the group of white buildings on the left of the photo

And we walked past this quirky house with lovely wooden sculptures!

Climbing above Thornthwaite and looking down onto Bassenthwaite

We had to walk through a ford which was quite high due to the rainfall!

One day we climbed Skiddaw, it was very cold and cloudy at the top but the views on the way up and down were absolutely stunning! You can see the gravel path we went up winding up the middle of the photo, just to the left of it was the original very steep path!

Looking over Keswick and Derwent water

Bru was sooooo thrilled to find a patch of snow that he had to roll in it! 

Spark had trouble controlling her whiskers!! 

We also did a walk from the cottage with younger two up to Whinlatter forest and went into a cafe for the only time on holiday! Dog friendly luckily so we could get out of the rain!

While we were on holiday we actually braved playing Scrabble and found we quite liked it!

We also spent a lot of time chilling out!

The view from the back of the cottage

And the view from the front!