Five go to Finniston Farm

The title of this one is a bit of a misnomer as The Five don’t actually go to Finniston Farm, they all bypass it, even Timmy. It’s just glamorous mum and dotty dad who call there. 

One week to go until the WEST Somerset trip and things were hotting up. Not the weather, although admittedly it was warmish for Rotherham. In my mind we would be going. I was only checking the Covid for Rotherham figures once or twice a day, and they were coming down, slowly. I had brought my giant case down to the study in preparation. Both Ian and I would be sharing it as we needed to leave loads of room for the laden down Allum’s. I was trolling the internet for walks and such like in the WEST Somerset area, and researching pubs and restaurants that would be open despite the plague. It transpires that St Pancras well (snooker table available) is very close to the Coleridge Way, a WEST Somerset long distance footpath of 51 miles which crosses the holy trinity of hill ranges, the Quantock’s, the Brandon’s and Exmoor. Also that the Royal Oak in Luxborough is only open Wednesday  to Sunday at the moment, and The WEST Somerset railway may never open again (😢).

The week of the holiday dragged on slowly, although we did manage to squeeze the odd exciting thing in.

Socially distanced (from the rest of the family!!) week in a Warwickshire windmill (with four beds and four baths!!)

Trip to Warwick Castle

Socially distanced visit to good friends and their family in a gorgeous Hull garden, with home grown, picked that morning, veg, home brewed beer, and god knows how many bottles of wine. (Except the poor driver who had coke)

Baking of a Hobbit Hole cake (patent pending)

Trip to the pub ( under the pseudonym Misty Black)

Trip to the swabbers

The last photo gave us all a firm confirmation that the lurgy we got after returning from plague ridden Northern Italy on a plane and bus with people coughing and spluttering all the way was indeed the dreaded Covid-19.

Two interminable days at work were followed by a Wednesday off which saw me clean, iron, mow several lawns, cook, and PACK! (Yayyyy)

Before we go I need to tell everyone about my new found love for Astronomy. In the beginning, when lockdown first occurred and no-one could go out except for their once daily exercise, someone, somewhere told us about the ISS and starlink. For several nights in a row we all trooped into the garden to stare at the night sky in hope of spotting one or the other. Then, one clear and warm evening, we spotted the International Space Station. It’s not like an ordinary star, it’s a bright light that hurtles across the sky. At that time you could even see its Star Wars like shape. I started following Virtual Astro on Twitter. He (or she) gives you info on when and where to spot things in the sky. For many nights VA told us that the starlink would be seen in the northern quadrant. Alas, nothing to be seen in Rotherham before 10.30. Before we knew it both were gone, way above the earths atmosphere. But wait, Comet Neowise was here. VA told us where and when to look once again. Once again no joy on Moorgate. Then, my particular favourite, the rare as hens teeth Noctilucent Cloud. One night, as I was turning in, I looked out of the window and saw a fantastic light show over Rawmarsh. Next morning VA told me about noctilucent clouds. Every night since I have been searching for the elusive NC’s, to no avail. Ian laughs but when we get down to the Well I’ll be out every night looking heavenward for the holy trinity. (Comet Neowise having faded away already till 8068).

Here’s what we may see in the dark sky area. All photos are from real people, well almost all.

 Comet Neowise from someone’s garden

Comet again

Starlink

ISS

ISS from a window in Canklow

Early on in the week Boris declared that everyone had to wear a mask in shops from Friday. Fine. I bought one for me and one for Ian (The rest can sort themselves out). As you can see they are the first state of  fashion.

On the Thursday  before we were due to travel a couple of things happened. Blackburn became an ‘area of intervention’, which appears just to mean that the gyms have to stay closed. This is going to stem the exponential growth of the virus there. Worryingly, Rotherham became an ‘area of concern’. I couldn’t find out what this means. Is it better or worse than an intervention? Will I be able to go to the gym? Will I be able to ever leave Rotherham again? I don’t suppose I’ll wake up in the morning to find myself locked in the house, so I WILL be going to WEST Somerset. Anyway, here are the latest figures.

Also on Thursday, boxes arrived. Many, many boxes.

In a blink of an eye Ian had built a table and chairs. Good job.

10pm and no lockdown announcement came. 8am on a bright and sunny Friday morning and no lockdown announcement came. After weeks of worry we Would  be going to WEST Somerset. Today! 

Well, not actually today. Today we would be going to Finniston Farm, aka Susan’s house, to drop off mum and Monty. 

After a laze and a coffee we arose excited for the week ahead. All the essentials were packed.

Lashings of ginger beer

I put the last minute touches to the Misty Paraphanalia Document and departure instructions for Chris and Kathy, just in case they managed to escape Rotherham tomorrow, and we loaded up the car. 

Obviously we couldn’t ‘load’ up the car as we needed loads of room for mum and Monty on the way there, and the laden down Allum’s on the way back.

Job done I made some porridge and sat down to eat it. I actually sat at the new table, but because of Ian’s paranoia we are not actually allowed to put food on the table, so I took a secret photo. Last one you’ll ever see after he reads this blog and reads me the riot act

Then it was time. I’m not sure I’ve ever been as excited about a holiday as I am about this one. It feels like years since we went or did anything (except for all the things we’ve done that I mentioned in the blog). We waved goodbye to kath, who was in a meeting so ignored us, and drove down to Whiston. There we picked up mum, Monty, and another bucketload of stuff. 

Laden down

We all climbed in and we were off. But wait. We were not off. Ian had pushed a button to update all the car systems which disabled everything. We had to wait until it finished. Then we were off, leaving plague ridden Rotherham behind. 

We stopped off at Hopwood and gave Monty a walk, and grabbed a Starbucks coffee. How exciting! We also wore our masks.

Hopwood is good for dogs

When we arrived at the farm Sofia was there, much to grandmas delight

Then a trip to see the shepherds huts

They are really nice, with fabulous views.

Susan cooked us all a fabulous curry, although the way I chopped the onions really made it. Then we were off to bed on the futon. Tomorrow we find out if the little ones can escape Rotherham, and we arrive in West Somerset.