I have set my TV screensaver to scroll through my favourite photos from 2022 and Joey loves watching them. I found him doing just that the other evening and when he commented on how much we’d done last year I thought it was high time I got myself into gear and wrote a review of our doings. Unfortunately, apart from the odd recipe and occasional post my blog has taken a bit of a back seat.
It has been a year packed with holidays, activities and events. There have also been quite a few learning curves.
In March Amanda and I took our, now annual, birthday trip. We booked a room at a little pub in Bradford on Avon, where we spent six days and five nights soaking up culture, nature, and glorious weather. Read more here.
March was also the beginning of The Subtlety Sister’s Stupendously Splendid Steampunking Summer. I know March isn’t summer but the clocks go forward so, technically speaking, it is summertime. Anyway, March is when Amanda invited me to the Newark Steampunk Festival and Ball. Which was the start of our adventures. It also marked my first learning curve; I needed a ball gown and if I wanted something to equal Amanda’s I was going to have to make it myself! See how I did here. Since making that first outfit I have gone on to make several others, including matching spats for over my boots and boned corsets/basques. After making all my steampunk outfits I have stopped being reticent about using the sewing machine and have taken to making the odd everyday outfit. Something which has surprised most folk who know me and when folk compliment me on my outfits; Amanda always points out “and to think I always had to repair her tights when we were kids because she got needle rash!”
In the midst of all our Steampunking we did manage to fit in a wartime weekend at Papplewick. As it was a bit of history we took Harry and Joey along for the day, although they didn’t get dressed up this time they are already planning for 2023, especially if we can have another posh picnic. We also took the two of them along to the Whitby Goth Weekend at the end of October but this time they got into the spirit of things with Harry dressing up as a Doctor of the Plague and Joey as an undead pirate.
2022 was a year for new babies.
Should have been 2022 but arriving on 28th December 2021 we welcomed Shawna’s second and our great grandson number two, Vinnie, brother to Hudson.
Then July heralded the arrival of great grandson number three, Jude, Cyd’s first.
It was also the year of the puppies.
Iris, the sweetest black Labrador pup joined us in January. Alfie took to her immediately, which is a good thing since she was to spend weekends at our house with Lils, Harry and Joey whilst Netti worked nights. In fact, as she got older and more boisterous he enjoyed romping about with her to the point you would never believe he was 11 years old. They became almost inseparable, until we had to if we wanted to avoid a litter of Irish Setterdors or Labrettas!
The next puppy to briefly join the clan was an English Bulldog called Bonnie who literally bulldozed through everything. She was eventually returned to her original owner but not before winning a few hearts along the way.
Six months later Kate and Harvey introduced us to Krystal,an American Bulldog, who became firm puppy friends with Iris on a two week holiday in Wales. Alfie now had two girls to watch over. Although he never quite had the same relationship with Krystal since he didn’t see her as often.
As our home schoolers are now well into their key stage three work education continued with a lot more workbook based learning with Paul concentrating on the academic side whilst I saw to the more pastoral side of things by organising activity days and day trips. All the kids love a trip to the park or, on bad weather days, Airhaus or Jump Inc, where they can get a bit of physical exercise and expend some energy. We have also had trips to the beach, been on long walks, visited museums, been pumpkin picking and axe throwing.
One of the boy’s favourite activities, however, was making their own replica weapons in one to one woodworking sessions with Paul. During these sessions they learned about sketching out their ideas, producing detailed and scale drawings and making a template; sourcing, costing and purchasing their materials; using the appropriate tools for the job safely and adding the finishing touches. So impressed was their cousin Thomas that during a recent visit Paul helped him to make his own replica hunting knife.
Lils, on the other hand, decided a while back that she would like to enrol on a catering course since she likes to cook; she does make some fantastic cakes. With this in mind Paul coached her in maths whilst I took on the English and were rewarded for our efforts when she was accepted into college at 14 and subsequently sailed through all her assessments to the point they are entering her for her maths GCSE a year early.
Paul and I didn’t get away much although we started with all good intentions. He had spent the winter months refitting the camper so in April we took a short break up at Barnard Castle to try the new layout and the big awning before our main holiday in June. This turned out to be a very eventful family holiday on Shell Island on the edges of Snowdonia. Read about it here. Since that holiday the camper has been off the road awaiting it’s fate: to fix or sell?
We have had quite a productive year down t’allotment, although I didn’t get down as much as I would have liked with all the dressmaking. In April we harvested our first “crop” of asparagus, 3 spears in total and a good haul of rhubarb. We spent most of April preparing beds, clearing weeds and chopping down the rampant brambles. Paul also made some raised beds to see if they would be more manageable.
All was going great guns until the middle of May when Suzy and Jess returned from their visit to Bozzie’s with half a dozen chickens in tow. Paul was given two days notice of their arrival in which so we had a frenzied couple of days constructing somewhere for them to live. It’s a good job the weather was fine. We fell in love with our chicks from the minute they arrived; especially the runt, Sandra Dee; as did Alfie whilst they spent the first night in our stable. Read about it here. A few weeks later we discovered that three of our “ladies” were in fact cockerels which, sadly, we had to deal with when they started fighting each other and attacking everyone. As a result of this loss we ended up with four more hens and by the middle of July we were rewarded with our first egg. Since then we have been overrun with fresh eggs, enough to give the odd half dozen to the rest of the family. Early summer saw everything coming along nicely, the pear tree was loaded, the new apple tree had fruit on it and we even had two teeny tiny bunches of grapes on the grapevine. We had more tomatoes than we could stuff into a chutney, and we were eating gooseberry fool for weeks. Then, of course, we had the drought. It was too hot and; with the inevitable hosepipe ban; the ground was so dry it was too hard to dig so everything went to pot. Except for weeds. Paul and Suzy were only nipping down to look after the chickens and collect the eggs each day. With the onset of avian flu and all the DEFRA regulations and the short cold days of midwinter Paul put a hen house in our stable and brought the ladies home for the duration. Make that 4 cockerels; we discovered that Sandra Dee is, in fact, Stuart, when he started crowing the other day!
Back in February I had become the proud owner of a wormery; partly because I wanted to reduce the stuff I put in my dustbin and partly so I could produce my own compost for next years seed planting. I have tended to my worms on quite an irregular basis, which just goes to show how resilient they are, but when I do I talk to them like old friends whilst I aerate their trays of rotting veg and shredded paper. I now have a large bag full of beautiful compost which I can mix in with the cheap bought stuff ready for the new planting season. And although I know all this stuff would have rotted down wherever it was it is also quite gratifying to think that I have kept a years worth of kitchen waste and paper from going to landfill or incineration. Read more here.
On the Domestic Goddess front we have taken a different direction in our cooking with the addition of a Ninja Foodi multi function cooker and a dual air fryer. The Ninja was initially bought to replace my treasured crockpot when I managed to blow the bottom out of the pot whilst sautéing. However, very little slow cooking has been done since I have found the joys of air frying, combi-steaming and pressure cooking. Yet another learning curve in finding out what works and what doesn’t. I have cooked some fantastic meals in the Ninja but I have also had a few disasters along the way. I have to say though, it does do a cracking roast pork joint complete with crispy crackling. I even pressure cooked my Christmas pudding and baked my cake in it. Apart from Christmas dinner and the odd batch bake we have not used the big oven since getting the Ninja and we’ve hardly used the gas hob either, only for boiling the kettle or using the wok; the one thing quicker than the Ninja; for a stir fry. Indeed, half the hob is now covered with a chopping board with the Ninja sitting on top.
Late November and throughout December we had a whirl of Christmas festivities from torchlight parades in Haworth to seeing the lights and riding the carousel in Sheffield to Jude’s first visit to see Santa at Cannon Hall to axe throwing and face painting at the Viking Yule at Leeds Royal Armouries Museum and Vinnie’s first birthday party. We were supposed to end the year quietly but, as usual, the family decided otherwise and we ended up with a houseful.
As Joey said whist watching the slide show, let’s hope we have as much fun this year.