goldfinch on sunflower weeds

Project 52 2020 week 48 – goldfinch

This week’s been a quiet one – when is lockdown 2.0 not! Covid cases are flattening or slightly going down thankfully, and we’ve now heard what tiers we’ll be in after lockdown ends. We’re going up to tier 2 but 2 minutes away, Warwickshire is tier 3 – so not sure how that works given our nearest post office and village shop is there. As well as N’s tennis. The latter will be opening up and there are exemptions for travelling into tier 3 for under 18s for grassroot sports, so he’ll be able to play and do matches – the postponed ones from lockdown are now end of January and early February, so hopefully cases will continue to go down and not shoot up after Christmas.

Although they’ve now said 3 households can meet for Christmas indoors, and pretty much it’s a free for all on rules for 5 days, we’ve not discussed what we’ll be doing. I had presumed we’d have my brother over, but he’s in tier 3 (although just over the border from us and his part of the county is similar levels to us) and it just feels weird to be inviting people into home for hours at a time. If cases continue to go down by Christmas I think I’ll feel surer about it. I’m not sure what the inlaws are doing. Maybe we should be putting the marquee up on the farm and having an outdoor’s lunch with more of us!

On Sunday it was usual weekend things. A bit of cooking, jigsaw, reading, and trying to watch a Christmas movie while N wanted to play Farming Simulator.

Monday back to school and work. A quieter week again, although a few planning meetings to prep for next year.

Tuesday was more of the same, but it was a really gloomy day. I had to move an uplighter into the kitchen until nearly lunchtime when it brightened up a bit. I didn’t want to put on all the kitchen lights. N had a great time at school as it was a hockey day. He’s been doing dividing fractions the last couple of weeks in maths – something I don’t remember ever being taught at school. But he seems happy enough doing them.

On Wednesday it was another dreary dull day.. N’s still not enjoying drama although they’re practising for their Grinch Christmas play. I had a headache all day, and even a little nap at lunchtime didn’t help.

Thursday was another foggy and frosty day. It does mean I get some lovely photos if I go out in the morning. I did a fun bloggers quiz in the evening. I’d not twigged it was Christmas themed and our band of random bloggers put together in a team were a bit pants at the questions. Me in particular. Now we need a non Christmas quiz so I can redeem myself. It was a lot of fun though.

Friday was frosty again. School have announced that they’re moving the remaining inset days we usually have at the end of the summer term, to the end of the Christmas holidays. Hopefully it’ll give people a bit more time after mixing with households before coming back to school. It’s a great idea, although N will just have to fend for himself given I’ll be back working for those days.

We had a takeaway fish and chips again. Bizarrely they’ve had a refit but removed the plastic dividers from the counter, and none of them are wearing masks although customers obviously are. I do like how friendly the girl is in there – I’ve been going to our previous chippy for years but they’ve never chatted to me (it’s bigger, and busier though). This place we’ve been 3 times, and she’s already chatting like she knows me!

On Saturday I’d intended to write some Christmas cards, but in the end just wrote the one I needed to write, to post with my best friend’s and her children’s Christmas gifts. They’re all wrapped and packed up, along with some more jigsaw puzzles I’ve sold. About 12 puzzles down, another 30 to go. I think my friend might go a little loopy as for her daughter, I’ve added quite a few of the really girlie toys and collectables that came in the Blog On goody bag, as well as the main present I’d bought. But hey, her daughter will probably love the little girlie items. Maybe I should have added the knights and pirates colouring books I found under the bed with old party bag gifts that were unused to balance them out.

This week’s Project 52 photo is of a goldfinch I was watched eat from the weeds in our garden. We’ve had a lot of starlings recently so I don’t want to encourage them, but need to start putting bird seed out in the feeders again for the finches and blue tits that are around.

goldfinch on sunflower weeds

New posts this week:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Love it? Share it

Similar Posts

10 Comments

  1. Just catching up on the last few weeks of comments and it’s sad reading about hopes of cases going down, given the new variant and the numbers sky rocketing again. Hope you managed to sort out Christmas and I hope even more that 2021 will see us finally getting on top of the virus. :/

  2. I’m glad to be out of the Uk these tiers and rules are too complicated for me. I write and send christmas cards every year, i rarely get many back but i enjoy doing it

  3. I’ve only written a few Christmas cards this year too, I just seriously cannot be bothered. I speak to everyone I would send them to anyway! Awww a Grinch Christmas play, I bet it will be awesome! Liv always disliked the primary school plays too, it was written all over her face too! 😉
    Whatever you decide to do for Christmas, I hope you have a fab time! Sim x

  4. Wonderful image of the goldfinch! The tier-system is confusing enough, and I don’t know what we’re doing exactly for Christmas. It’s lovely that the staff from the chippie are so friendly. I haven’t sent a single card this year, not sure I will, might only put some cards through the letterboxes of the neighbours.

  5. This tier system is getting confusing. Great that N can play his matches. Outdoor lunch sounds great, you can have a lot of family members over and it would be safer. Grinch Christmas play sounds exciting, but i guess spending too much time on it would be exhausting. OoOoO Fish and chips, the workers should be wearing masks, although it can get suffocating working in the kitchen for so long. Good that the gifts are done with. Pretty goldfinch

  6. Christmas does seem to be a bit of a free-for-all with the rules – we’ve decided not to meet up with family indoors over the Christmas period though. Glad N’s tennis lessons are able to resume. Good idea to have the inset days at the end of the Christmas period to help give more time after households mixing over Christmas. Lovely photo of the goldfinch. #project366

  7. I am not sure what we are going to do for Christmas as we have three sets of grandparents. Although I do like the idea of having a meal outside. I struggle to find motivation when the weather is bad and it gets dark so early. I’ve not even thought about Christmas cards yet- eeek! Love the picture

  8. The outdoor lunch idea sounds lovely! It is hard making a decision isn’t it, my parents live very close by and my brother too, so it will be us and them on the day hopefully. All we can do is take things a day at a time as they change so frequently.

  9. Ahh! We’re all in tier 3 up here but it was expected, I just everyone sticks to the rules so hopefully cases can drop a little before everyone mixes at Christmas. We have said we’re not mixing, having anyone visit or visit anyone. My dad being ill has scared us all. An outdoor lunch sounds like a good idea.
    The chip shop sounds fab! It is nice when the people are chatty and welcoming.
    I had all the intentions of writing Christmas cards tonight but they weren’t delivered with my grocery shop. lol I’ll pick up some next week.
    What a fantastic photo x

Comments are closed.