Little Lockdown Lessons 6

Embracing What We’ve Learnt

We’ve already heard so many stories from Lockdown. We’ve learnt how vital communities can be in times of crisis, and how traffic-free streets can lead to wildlife emerging and audible bird song in the air. We’ve discovered how technology can keep us close together, even when we’re far apart, and time outdoors is so precious when you only get one chance each day.

However, with many of us suddenly finding ourselves with more time on our hands than we ever expected in our lifetimes, we turned to other forms of learning to keep ourselves occupied.

Even here at Treasure Trails, the hobbies we embraced and the way we filled our time was very different from each other! Here’s what some of us, whether Trail Writers or team members a TT Towers, have learnt and embraced during Lockdown.

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Some of us Embraced New Skills and Technology

Our Trail Writer for Derbyshire spent Lockdown cultivating a new skill and hobby – photography! He told us:

” I had some limitations, particularly in the early stages of Lockdown, because I couldn’t go far from our front door to take photos – so one of the things I learnt was how to do macro-photography. “

 

Peter wasn’t the only one embracing a new medium, as Claire – our Trail Writer for Cheshire and North Wales – got to grips with unfamiliar technology.

“I rediscovered my Laughter Therapy training and produced an interactive, online Zoom session (also new for Lockdown) for my library colleagues. I used the original training but as a strategy for coping Covid anxiety or just life in general. ”

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Others were Creative Away from Screens

 

Jacqui, the Trail Packing Queen at TT Towers, taught herself how to make jewellery during her time stuck indoors. She collected shells, stones and sea glass at the beach during her daily walks to turn into gorgeous pieces when she got home. It was all a bit of trial and error, but we think they look great!

 

 

Kylie, our Trail Maintenance Guru at TT Towers, also embraced her creative side. She turned to the internet to get her hands on a paint by numbers kit and tried her hand at a cute diamond art creation of her two furry companions. Kylie said she would spend an hour a day, away from screens, focusing on a new section of her artistic projects – which both took longer than she anticipated!

 

 

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Puzzle Time: Colouring Adventure!

 

Inspired by Kylie @TT Towers’ colour by numbers artwork, we’ve dug up a colouring adventure for you to solve, so get those coloured pencils, crayons or felt tips ready!

It’s not that simple though, so pay attention! Here’s what you need to do:

Part One:

First – download the #ColouringAdventure Puzzle.

Next – get colouring! Use the colour blobs in each shape as your colour guide.

 

Part Two:

Then, if you’ve been diligent with your colouring skills, your efforts will reveal a clue to a location in the UK.

Once you’ve worked out where it is, hop onto Google Maps, visit this location and zoom in to find an ‘island of adventure’.

Follow the line which runs SSE in the water from this location and use Google Streetview to explore the blue Streetview dots in the wide lower area at the end of the line. You’ll have to search around a bit and try a few different spots until you see the answer to this question:

What can you not do overhead?

The competition is now closed. Thanks for your entries, and congratulations to Margaret White – our winner this time! Margaret has won a Treasure Trails Voucher.

Desperate the know the answer? You can download it here.

 

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We Reignited Old Passions

Sandi, one of our Trail Writers in the South East, spent a lot of Lockdown making time for old hobbies and brushing up some skills. She told us:

“I took to walking a great deal, a minimum of eight miles per day, exploring the local countryside with our black lab (who was in seventh heaven)! It was so nice to have near to no traffic and fresher air, whilst it lasted.

After many, many years of scarcely touching a keyboard, I decided early in Lockdown to devote an hour each day reacquainting myself with the ‘ivories’ by learning some new pieces. First up was Bohemian Rhapsody, something I’d always wanted to learn, but never got around to. I’m in the habit now, so try to spend at least half an hour each day on the piano.”  

 

 

When our Trail Writer Claire wasn’t having a much-needed laugh and exploring Zoom, she had her head buried in a book:

“Much to my delight, I finally managed to engage with some leisure reading. A few old friends and some new authors as well. The King’s Watch series by Mark Hayden was especially enjoyable. Who doesn’t enjoy a magical take set in our society?”

 

 

Rachel, our Resident Wordsmith at TT Towers also made time for a book or two, but she had a bit of a rocky start getting there and found relief in an unexpected place:

“At the start of Lockdown and furlough, after processing the general worries and anxieties, one thought popped into my mind: I’ll have so much time for reading! It didn’t quite go to plan though. I’m a total bookworm and often read a few books a month, but it’s been years since I read at home – normally I find the time during my commute, or sit in cafes and outdoor spaces. Despite all the spare time on my hands, I just couldn’t get into the zone to read while sitting on the sofa – and I don’t have a garden to make the most of.

However, relief from my reader’s block came from an unexpected place – non-fiction. For some, this may not seem unusual, but I have eight non-fiction books on my shelves vs around 300 fiction books, so it took me by surprise! I found the short chapters and less-immersive stories a lot easier to focus on, and I could read in smaller chunks too. I learnt so much, and I’ll definitely keep growing my non-fiction collection (I’ve just started on The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England). Not all was lost on the fiction front, though. As soon as we were allowed to sit outside, I found a nice, quiet spot in the old churchyard – my favourite place in the village – and read to my heart’s content. I still try to go there every lunch break, weather dependent. “

 

 

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We Enjoyed Time with Family

 

Jane and Neil, our Trail Writers in Yorkshire, reflected a few weeks ago on their virtual time spent with family and friends across the globe, and their thoughts were echoed by Sandi, who said:

“I also ‘virtually’ caught up with lots of friends I hadn’t been in touch with for a while, and it was quite a treat spending quality time with my husband and daughter (not sure if Georgia, my teenage daughter was so enamoured with being stuck at home with just her Mum and Dad, although she put a brave face on it!). ”

But family life for Aaron, General Manager at TT Towers, changed drastically when he found he would have to start teaching his 5-year-old son at home.

“Our son’s teacher would send daily tasks to do, which we always used as the foundation. But I especially, found that he switched off due to my ‘teaching-technique’. So, we looked at how we could apply some of the literacy, maths or exercise classes into something more dynamic. 

We would often incorporate learning into walks; counting, reading instructions, etc., but in the home and garden, we would apply this to games. We built an awesome assault course, and our son would have to stop when a word written in chalk approached him as he tiptoed along the beam of wood (with crocodiles below, of course). The ‘secret’ word (which were key words supplied by his teacher), had to be said aloud until he was able to pass.”

 

 

“We also had to explain (as we still do), the benefits of learning and the opportunities it opens up, from being able to read a book on his own, to being able to get the job he would like when he is older, or travel the world and speak the local language.

Boxes of coppers were counted out into piles and then our boys would earn money through experiencing some jobs which people have as their careers; from cooking to building to cleaning the windows. They, of course, loved it all.”

 

 

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New Bundles of Joy were Introduced

 

Jane and Neil had their hands full with the latest furry editions to their family – two rescue cats – and embraced their new working-from-home lifestyle.

“After adopting one rescue cat from Yorkshire Cat Rescue in January 2020, Lockdown was a great opportunity to spend lots of time with her (Chi Chi) while working from home. It was Chi Chi, back at the start of Lockdown, that prompted our ‘Work from Home Employee of the Month’ competition!”

 

 

“We then realised that she was so used to us being around all day that she might feel a little lost once we started to go out Trail Writing for a whole day again. Working from home also meant that we were fortunate enough to be in the situation where we could adopt a second kitten, Moki (nickname Little Man) this time from RSPCA Doncaster. Chi Chi and Moki are now best buddies and playmates, and endless fun to watch!”

 

 

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And Some of Us Learnt All About Their Ancestors

 

Kathy, one of our Trail Writers for London and the South East, undertook an enormous quest during Lockdown to discover her roots and grow her family tree. She told us:

“I’ve been wanting to document all the family names, places and occupations for the ancestors of both myself and my husband, right back to around 1800, further if possible. That means pursuing dozens and dozens of branches of the tree and trying to solve quite a few mysteries along the way. There’s still a very long way to go and plenty of gaps to fill.

However, the process has led me to some lovely virtual meetings with hitherto unknown third and fourth cousins. We’ve discovered Victorian photographs showing our shared great-great-great-grandparents, and all learned some aspects of the families which we did not know, fascinating facts and devastating tragedies.

There’s a distant half-cousin in Australia I never knew existed, who I’m now chatting to online as we attempt to work out a ‘mystery from history’ we’d both spotted. We’ll probably never know the truth about what happened, but we’re having great fun speculating all the same!”

 

 

“As well as constructing the tree and delving deep into the past, this activity has led to some very enriching experiences with my parents and in-laws as they share stories from their own lifetimes. I have started gathering their anecdotes into chapters to put into a book next year and have raided the old photo albums, demanding a ‘who’s who’ from grandma while she’s still here to put names to faces. My folks have loved this little trip down memory lane, and it’s given them something to think about and discuss with my aunts and uncles. In due course, I plan to put everything I learn about my family history into books to hand down to my daughters, nephews and nieces. 

Since we’ve been able to travel further afield, Geoff and I have also had the chance to visit some of the places that appear in our ancestors’ censuses and birth records. Several churchyards have now been combed for family headstones, and we have tracked down farms where ancestors lived and toiled. It’s been amazing to build such a vivid picture of where we came from, and it’s brought me closer to my family both near and far. If it weren’t for Lockdown, I think I would have put this all off ‘for a rainy day’ and maybe have missed out altogether. “

 

 

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Share your story 

We’d love to see how you spent your time during Lockdown, what you’ve learnt and what you’ve embraced – no matter how big or small. Please head over to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to show us what you’ve been up to!