I know it's been said a lot, by a lot of people, but hasn't this year gone quickly?!
2021 has merged into 2020 - it's hard to remember whether some things happened this year, or last year. Covid has reduced what we do, where we go, who we see, and everything has been quite same-y. I'm not complaining, just explaining.
We were able to see people, a little. We went to Hamlet (Ian McKellan) with our lovely exDIL and DGDs; we saw DD both with and without the DGC; DS1 popped over with his children. I saw my parents when they came to look after my uncle. Re-emerging covid, and my own health, prevented us going to visit them afterwards. We cancelled our boating holiday too.
The Girls
We lost a few Girls this year. Some were expected, others were not. It was sad because the allotmenteers had been through the upheaval of having to leave the allotment, and both sets had to learn to live as one flock. { Reminder: we had four girls stolen at the start of the first lockdown), and everyone had to learn to deal with integrating into a new large flock. Each individual had to fight for their place in the new pecking order, and it was really hard. Sylvia, my lovely baby Silver Laced Barrnevelder, died in an accident early on; Nora, who was blind in one eye and already ancient, was in frequent full on fights} We had got to a point where the new order had been established and peace had broken out.
During 2021, 6 girls died. 3 were due to "old age", and 3 were not.
Annie, a gorgeous independent soul and my choice for breeding, died from an egg laying problem. Only 5 years old.
Ping, our remaining Dorking (her sister, Pong, was one of the 4 that were stolen), died unexpectedly of a heart attack.
Big Bird, an old (very old by most standards, 7ish) oddity of a girl, died peacefully in her sleep.
Gloria, one of my loveliest old ladies just coming up to her 10th birthday. She had been brought back from the allotment years before to keep Poppy company after a fox attack wiped everyone else in the garden out.
Sunshine, a very young and friendly leghorn girl, no obvious cause
Nora, our ancient (well over 10 years) and blind-in-one-eye girl, died of old age.
Bird Flu again struck the country again, it seems to be an annual occurence. All birds are under Flockdown, and DH had built a netted "outside extension" for the Girls so they could still feel the grass under their feet for a few hours a day. The sad losses this year had one upside, which is that the whole Flockdown thing is easier to manage with a flock of 9 than it otherwjse would have been.
Apparently this year's bird flu is the worst ever, more transmissable, more deadly. It's been that sort of year, hasn't it?!
We didn't hatch, for the second year running, because we were already unsure how Covid might affect us. We already had to consider how to deal with the (originally) unmanageably large number of Girls in the event of Covid happening to both of us, and we felt adding to the flock would be irresponsible. I still maintain a list of what to do with each of our remaining Girls, which I email to my brother every time things change.
I'm expecting to lose a few more before long. We've got two lovelies that I'd describe as "ancient", and two which might be described as "old" (one of whom has never been in the most robust of heath, and whose eggs are lovely on the outside but often a mess inside). Even our youngest girl is now "middle aged" For the second winter we've had to buy eggs every week as we've had no youngsters to lay during winter, I'm very lucky that we have a reasonably local free range supplier who delivers.
I'd like to hatch in 2022, to add maybe 2 hens to the flock. I'd like to add more, of course, but if I do that then we'll be in a
similar position in a few years time: lots of ancient girls who either
don't lay, or lay decidedly dodgy eggs. I'll have to buy in fertilised eggs, as of course we no longer have any boys.
DH doesn't want to go back to keeping a permanent flock at the Allotment, but we've agreed we might keep any hatched cockerels and "excess girls" at the allotment from starting to crow until culling time.
The Omicron variant is everywere though, and maybe hatching won't be such a good idea anyway, so we'll have to wait and see.
I've already reverted to making sure the feeders are full, there are extra waterers in the run, and the batteries that operate the coop doors and the outside access door are all kept topped up. This is so that if we are both incapacitated for a few days, the Girls will be OK.
The Cats
Izzy continues, much to our surprise. She's been looking more rickety in the last couple of weeks, and she's had a couple of "where am I?" crying episodes. She's 18? 19? She's still eating, using the new cat tree, moving round the house during the day, going out in the garden, asking for cuddles. But she is definitely rickety. We have her next checkup booked for the first week in January, and I find myself wondering whether we should make it her last.
The kittens are continuing to grow. They are over 2 now, and are still kittens.
We had the poisoning scare earlier in the year, and still don't know what it was that they ate. I've started to wonder if it was something in the floor cleaner. Maybe they walked on a wet floor, and then licked themselves clean? I now keep the cats out of any wet areas when I wash the floors.
Shelby has become more tactile, and the two of them continue to play and sleep together. They also do a lot apart, and Lewis no longer has to keep Shelby in his sights. They are still "daddy's boy" and "daddy's girl". They like me well enough, but they loooooooove their Dadda.
I know we'd love whichever kittens we'd ended up with, but we really did hit the jackpot with these two. And we were so lucky to get them.
When 2021 started, I made myself an achievable commitment. I didn't write it down, which is a bit unfortunate as I now can't remember precisely what it was. It was either "I'll do 3 creative things a month", or "I'll do 1 creative thing every 3 weeks". Whichever it was, I've smashed it! If I hadn't been unwell, goodness knows what I would have achieved.
I don't know what commitments I'll make for 2022. I don't even know if I'll make any. I don't make resolutions, as they are usually destined to fail Often, committing to something acts as a complete demotivator for me, so I have to be careful.
Miss Teen
We didn't see Miss Teen after we returned her to her parents on Day 2 of the first Lockdown. We then saw very little of her in 2020, even as restrictions lifted. We were very lucky to see more of her in 2021, and this had the added benefit of helping her parents out.
Of course a planned theatre trip with Miss Teen, DD and DGD was postponed yet again, and has been rebooked for 2022. We've got a theatre trip booked with Miss Teen before that, and we're waiting to see if that goes ahead.
We're lucky that she loves coming to see us and coming to stay. I imagine that will wane soon, so we just enjoy it while we can.
Health
2021 has been a challenging year, both personally and for some of those we love. Their stories aren't mine to tell, but I wanted to make an aide memoire for myself for future reference: M; D and then the hospital induced hallucinations; M continued; M2; B; my saga; J&B; M2 continued.
Looking back at the situations now, I'm amazed at what went on and all we had to do,especially as so much of it was happening at once.
DH has been amazing with everything going on, both supporting me and in actively doing things to support the situations. And letting me offload.
My DB-I stepped up with both tangible help and moral support with the situations with our Uncle/Dad/Mum and that made those things a bit easier to deal with. All through 2021, even before the incidents, he's been there to help/support.
Miss Teen's Dad, who went above and beyond in helping with our Uncle's situation.
My Mum and Dad, who weren't in the best of health themselves, coming to stay with my Uncle to support him.
I'm sure we will laugh at the situations in years to come. We can already chuckle at some of the stories now, now that the situations are no longer life threatening.
My Uncle and I have talked a few times now about what happened. The hospital had let me in to see him because it was likely to be an "end of life" situation. We've talked before about the repetitive conversation I had with him during that 20? 40? minute visit "Where am I? You're in W-. How did I get here? The Air Ambulance brought you. Did it? I bet that was expensive! You were out on your bike near T-. You had a heart attack. Luckily, a passer by saw it and flagged down a police car. The policeman did CPR and saved you. The Air Amulance came, they restarted your heart, and brought you here. Where's my bike? Its safe. Where am I?....."
At Christmas, for the first time, he asked for more detailed information about what state he was in when they let me see him. He wanted to know whether he looked like he was at Death's door. It was interesting recollecting it this time. Because he's now so well, I was able to recall it and not feel all the horror and emotion that the recollections had previously raised. I'm glad I wrote so much of it down at the time, as I would have forgotten lots of details.
Covid
The media has gone on at length about the devastating effects the restrictions have had on mental health, and I can apreciate that in many situations this must have been horrendous. I know how fortunate we are.
DH and I are so very similar in some ways, at least that's what outsiders think. We are actually very opposite to each other in many ways. The similarities are there though, and have been a real help as a starting point for managing and getting on with things; the differences mean that the combination is better and stronger than we would have been as 2 individuals.
I'm not an overy sociable person and I'm good at being content with my own company. I think often about the people I care about. I need to know that people are there and that I could see each other if we wanted to, and that knowledge is often enough. I was surprised at how the accidental meeting with BFF-Y in the Farm Shop car park (middle of August) caught me off guard, and I suspect the reaction would have been the same if I'd bumped into either of my BFFs unexpectedly.
I've missed seeing BFF-S; we usually only see each other twice a year (both in December - Panto and New Years Eve) and it seems like forever since I've seen her. Whenever I see Victoria Coren on TV (usually Only Connect ) I think of S. We ( S I mean, not Victoria Coren, obvs) have emailed, and spoken on the phone, and that's been lovely. We've agreed to permanently switch to our New Years Eve meeting in the Spring/Summer , and I'm really looking forward to it.
Towards the middle of 2021, all was looking like it was going in the right direction. We started to see Miss Teen. I was able to catch up in person with BFF-Y. DH was able to start going to his hobby club. I'd started to elay filling the chicken feeders until they were almost empty, so the food was fresher.
Then Omicron appeared and took over very quicky. It seems unstoppable, and the only saving grace seems to be that most people have very mild attacks. It's 4x more transmissable than Delta. I remember when the news was that Delta was xx more transmissable than the original strain, so it's shocking to think of the potential of this latest version compared to the original.
I've gone back to changing clothes and showering if I've had to go into the hospital. Our Vet has gone back to people waiting in their cars in the car park.
It doesn't have the same symptoms, so many people don't realise they have it. The main symptoms now are the same as having a common or garden cold.
DH woke up the other night full of cold. We'd both taken a Covid test that morning anyway, but we did wonder if it might be Covid. He took a Covid test the following morning, and that was thankfully clear. (That was the day I decided to go back to making sure the feeders were full and there were plenty of waterers in the Run). The cold disappeared very quickly, so quickly that we wondered if the catarrh was cheese induced!
We are still seeing people, but are taking sensible precautions. No hello/goodbye hugs when my eldest brother and my uncle came over for Christmas, and no board games. I do lateral flow tests at least twice a week, even if I haven't been anywhere. If I'm meeting up with anyone, or if I have an appointment, I try and arrange it so I have a test that morning. At the moment I'll add in an extra test if necessary, if I've got consecutive days of coming into contact with someone other. I did a test on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, because my Uncle and my brother were coming over.
I wonder how in/accurately this period will be represented in future films and stories? The mass memory is already unreliable, with people forgetting what things were like in early 2020 as the virus emerged. The media, hungry only for shock! news! helps the collective amnesia. It's like Noneteen Eighty Four, but the Ministry of Truth doesn't need to bother to "rectify" past reports.... such a deluge of new stories and misinformation, most of us just can't be bothered to go and refresh ourselves on what actually happened last month.
Miss Teen told me a while ago, September I think, that Covid had been going on for 3 of her 13 years, and that was nearly a quarter of her life. She and her friends had been discussing this all day. I told her it had been 18 months, not 3 years.She was adamant that it was nearly 3 years, because Covid19 started in 2019 and it was now nearly 2022. I explained that it was called Covid-19 because it started at the end of 2019 in China; it didn't get to us until early 2020, so counting from Feb 2020 it was was 1 year and 7 months. Also, if she was counting to 2022, then she should be counted as 14 not 13. We argued some more about it, and I realised that the Ministry of Truth really doesn't have to do much to pull the wool!
At a funeral recently, someone asked me how things had been for us in 2021. I hadn't spent a huge amount of time with people and my gob-gatekeeper programme was rusty. "It's been alright", I said cheerfully "I don't really like people, so not having to see anyone has actually been a bit of a bonus". Upon seeing the questioners slightly taken aback face, I tried to explain "I like individuals, I just don't like people en masse. I'm not very sociable at the best of times, so Lockdown has taken the pressure off".
I do need to get back into the habit of gob-gatekeeping.
It's definitely been a funny old year.
The tree is still here, and the decorations are still up. I'll start dismantling tomorrow. The only thing I am going to do this evening, is put my lovely kitchen table back to being my cutting table. Then it'll be ready for when the mood takes me.
Happy New Year to you xx
