Share with us what you have been occupied with or your interests and hobbies, particulalry over the last 12 months during our Covid 19 Experience.
(no politics)

Photos would be good to see also.

I would love to see this forums go back to what it was, so varied and interesting topics also we had some laughs. A particular favourite of mine was Metal Detecting , used to love looking at the finds of Explorer and others. It’s something that must still be going on during lockdown. Recently a guy in Leicester out with his detector found what is thought a fragment if King Charles the first Crown. How fantastic and thrilling .

In the 1st lockdown I was drawn back to wiki after many years of being absent. Sadly it isn't as busy as it once was but hey-ho.
When the 1st lockdown ended I started walking again. Used to mainly go to Wales once every couple of weeks or so but this time I only walked in Wirral and didn't realise how many good walks are to be had just on our own doorstep. The range of walks would be between 4 and 10 miles, 4 or 5 times a week.
Sadly I have exhausted Wirral walks and long to go back to Wales.
At the moment I am back in work so the walks are on the back burner for now.

How about you Granny? What has kept you occupied?

Family history research - whatever I can find online without having to part with any money! I'm having a look at maternal lines as well as paternal, so am ending up with a whole grove of trees which can be confusing. I'm mostly British (Devon/Cornwall, Mid-Welsh, NE Scots and one person from Ireland) with a sniff of Scandinavian on my father's side, way back.

I do patchwork - I have a bed-topper partly made at the moment - then there's reading, baking and gardening in season.

I took up bird watching, only the garden and the trees at the back, I got a pocket bird watch book bought for me a few years back, so I made a bird table to encourage the birds, they are so funny, the starlings queuing to take a bird bath, the robin waiting for his mealworms in my shed doorway, and all the other visitors some are so selective with which seed they eat, just waiting for a lodger in the nesting box.

Cools, I have just read about the fragment of crown. It would appear to be a real possibility. Nice payout if it's genuine. Fascinating and there must be so much more under the soil in this land.

Mikeeb, there must be many more walks you can find, but not so many in these times of muddy paths. I went around Royden before Christmas. Nice day but like sinking sands under foot. Not very pleasant as most of the time was dodging or striding over and through puddles and mud !

Greenwood, I too have been doing more family history, but over the years much of it is complete as far as I can go. It can get very confusing and losing track of where your up to at any given moment , is infuriating. There is still a lot to be put online, though. How far back have you managed to get ?

Casper, the little birds . We have to look after them and it's about to get colder so they'll need as much food as you can give. Hungry little things. I've stopped feeding mine on milder days because last year when I had loads of them (springtime) this winter they seem not to have bothered much, not even the tits and the fat balls. Plus. there's a black cat that sits in wait and it managed to catch quite a few last summer.
Did you do the RSPB bird watch last weekend ?

As for myself, like Greenwood, family history and what it opens up , such as periods in history. That's when I get sidetracked and go off and read up on the civil war or the plague, or whatever it directs me to.
As well as that, I have begun to revisit my dolls house. (daughters actually but it's still living here) It's a Tudor one and although over the last 30 yrs collecting bits and bobs Tudor style has been great fun, Tudor dolls house dolls were difficult. Some extremely expensive . You may ask why didn;t I make them.... well, I'm rubbish at sewing and they're so small I wouldn't make them a success. Anyway, this week I;ve managed to find two. One lady and a Merchant who will be her husband, so waiting for them to arrive in the post now.
I have made a sac cloth servant, who lives in the attic. She meddles with magic at tnight time, but nobody has found out yet ! On her table she has an oil lamp, a glass ball and a jar of tadpoles Her magic chair is stacked with books , candle and a skull. On the floor is her witches hat. She threw it off in a temper after a spell went wrong !

Yes took part in the birdwatch granny, as you say there doesn't appear to be a lot of activity lately. the tits fly down get something and fly straight back to the tree, non of the usual birds seem to hang around, but we have a sparrowhawk hanging around, he flies in low at the back of the fence and sits on the fence post waiting for his victim, I wish I could do more for the ground feeders, but if we put stuff out it encourages the pigeons.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention my doll's house! It's in the corner of the living room on a table, and has a split personality. I built it from a plain kit and decorated it. When you open up the front, the right hand side is traditional Victorian/Edwardian doll's house and the left is a hotch-potch of late medieval/early Tudor. The downside of that is that there are two bedrooms and kitchens, but no living room! There's a slightly anachronistic bathroom and a craft room in the roofspace too.

I like watching the garden birds; apart from various tits and finches I have a gang of sparrows who are very entertaining with their twittering squabbles.

As for family history, someone from a different branch of the family took my paternal line back to someone born in 1717. On my father's maternal line I've got back to about the same time. I've only gone back to the early 1800s on my mother's side, as there are a few Jones and Davies people and I've stalled a bit due to the common names - might have another go at that! I'm on a limited budget so am wary of paying out for membership of Ancestry, or for a load of certificates etc that might not tell me what I need to know.

Poor old pigeons, nobody loves a pigeon ! They get hungry too and their little eyes are so cute.
Similar problems here with ruddy magpies. They eat everything in sight, and being big, they manage to frighten the little birds away.

@ Greenwood, It's so easy to make an error in the family history stakes. Like you, I won't pay for Ancestry, it's a rediculous price . As a family, we had a lot of memorabilia of one sort or another,from a couple of sides, and many tales due to the fact that brothers and sisters married sisters and brothers in the very early 1900's. So quite lucky in that respect, and it certainly helped by giving a head start. Back to the mid 1700's on both of those, but one of Dad's side is tricky and I can't get past 1800 unless using a bit of guess work, and that I won't do. It leads off to many areas of wrong info .
The Americans seem to have an ability to do that and then post it as 'gospel' on the internet sites which can be so misleading. Because we are a tiny island in comparison, they think we all live in the same street !

My dolls house is only one up one down, wth 2 attic rooms in the loft. A landing and a scullery (as I call it ) sneaked in behind the stairs. I have more pics but will post them when 'she and he' arrive. She looks quite pretty, he looks an ugly old git, who managed to get a young wife. We shall see !!

...and I can't sleep (again) Anyone else having trouble sleeping ?

We have the magpies as well and a couple of resident wood pigeons and collared doves, don't mind them, but if we put a lot of stuff out the ferrel pigeons take over, so don't want to encourage them, sleeping zzzzz no not good, increased toilet trips in the night then can't drop off again,



:

Similar, Casper. However, I won't reduce my fluid intake as the brain might dehydrate.

I've been furloughed since March, so have had plenty of time to do stuff. but I found that I procrastinate much more than I would like.

During the first lockdown, apart from the usual DIY/decorating/out in the garden stuff (we have too many cats round here, so don't get many birds), I created a budget, mini music studio and have created some music that is completely different to what I normally create. I was trying to create that epic, orchestral, movie trailer style sound. Mainly just to see if I could. Nothing good or special, but it kept me amused and my brain active.

I also sorted out all my old techie gear, and converted an old PC into an emulation setup for the big TV.

Finally have been building up my board games collection for when I can finally meet up with friends again.

But for this lockdown I have done nothing, mainly because I got COVID just before the lockdown started and haven't felt the same since (fatigue, aches and pains, and headaches) which undoubtedly has caused some level of depression. And I'm having to home school 2 of my grandkids, which takes a significant portion of my day now. Let's just say I have a new found respect for teachers.

That, adding all the other usual household duties, all on top of the exhaustion, I'm going to bed at 7pm at the moment. No time for any hobbies or pastimes.

Hopefully when they are back at school, I will have a bit more time/energy.

I am looking forward to the better weather.

Good idea for a thread Granny!

Like some others, I don’t come here as often as I used to, for much the same reasons as cools pointed out, but drop in from time to time.

The pandemic has allowed me far more time to get going again on my model railway, which was moribund for many years prior to the outbreak. It has proved to be a real tonic for me, building my own little world, one where nothing nasty happens, unlike the big world outside.

The layout is ‘based on’ the Chester-Birkenhead railway, but in an alternative reality shift wasn’t built where it actually was, but a little bit to the west. So my main station is called ‘Dacre Hill’, and it will have a branch line to ‘Rock Park’ (not started that bit yet), and assumes that the Rock Ferry ferry service retained much more importance that what actually happened. Time-wise, it’s set in the 1960s of my yoof.

Dacre Hill is based on some features of the real railway – for example the station building has a similarity to the station building at Rock Ferry or Birkenhead Town, and ‘Rock Park’ when it built, will take inspiration from Birkenhead Woodside, only half the size to fit the space available. I’ve built it in computer form – just need to get on with it for real.

Anyway, it’s keeping me sane. Some photos of the layout (with photoshoppery for skies/steam) and the ‘artist’s impression’ for ‘Rock Park’:

Wow! I like that Billy, attention to detail and patience, love this type of thing, dioramas depicting battles or events, welldone.

Very kind - thanks Casper - much appreciated!

At least you got positive things done in the first lockdown, Rhoobarb . Maybe all you can do now is keep the grandchildren happy.. but that's fairly rewarding too. Good luck. X

Hi Billy, what an impressive layout you have, and I'm pleased it has kept you occupied.
Only last week. Pinz sent me some photos of his railway set-up, one of his interests also, which has kept him busy through the dark months.

Hoping you are ok, and nice to have you join in.

I will keep watching this topic, but will refrain from any more responses as a couple of members seems to think that I am guilty of Wiki turning to dust.
So I wish you well and maybe some more photos .

All the best , Billy .
Granny. X

You haven't put a spell on it have you granny?

Hi Granny – bless you for those kind words, all helps to keep my enthusiasm going.

Ah – Pinz! It’s been quite a while since I last spoke with him – miss his wit and knowledge on the history threads here, hope everything is well with him. I knew he was a railway modeller, but I have never seen his creation – probably an interesting set-up knowing him!

I am aware of the dust creation accusation, but completely disagree with the viewpoint put across – Wiki is what we all make of it, and while I’ve never been a prolific poster, I’ve never, ever felt intimidated in posting anything.

Indeed, the fact that you started this thread shows an invitation to contribute – I wouldn’t have posted anything if you hadn’t created the thread and invited contributions (although I generally only post if I've got something I think is interesting to say). You and the other ‘prolific posters’ on here are the life-blood of WikiWirral – I think it would have dipped far deeper long ago without you all, so I thank you all for that.

Anyway, I don't want to get political, and that’s very much off topic for this thread, but please don’t sit back.
Keep calm (take a deep breath) and carry on…

I used to love visiting the hobby shops, with the grandkids, all the model kits of aeroplanes, cars, railways, military subjects, some built and on display, sadly they all seemed to have disappeared, Billy you have awoken an interest in me, I might buy a plastic kit paints and glue to while away the time.

Ooh, I do like a good model railway! Such precision and attention to detail. 1/12 scale (dolls house) is about as small as my fingers can manage though, not to mention the space issues. The arrangement of timbers in my loft doesn't lend itself to conversion of the space; the expenditure involved would be better used on other boring but necessary things.
Edit: If, when we're allowed to travel again, anyone's heading north, there's a big garden centre (Houghton Hall, if it's survived lockdown) just off Jn 4 of the M6 N of Carlisle. It has a model railway shop and a big miniatures display with lots of room set-ups that's well worth seeing - decent cafe too.

Cheers Granny, it is rewarding to teach the kids, but it comes with a lot of stresses and headaches too. Not something I would pick as a hobby or pastime to unwind.

I really love the time and attention to detail put into those model railways. I always tell myself I would love to try one, if I had the time.........and the money........and the space.........and the patience. So I can certainly appreciate it when I see a nice setup.

I wouldn't mind a visit to that huge one in Germany, it looks amazing.

Hi Mike,Look on the website for Fillyaboots they may have some walks that you’d be interested in

Thanks Lincle but it seems that website is for organised group walks which is not what I am really after.
Also it is aimed at people in their 20's and 30's, and me being middle aged, I wouldn't fit in, haha!

Hi Mike, Its a very deceiving site theres plenty of walkers well over the age limit & yes the walks are organised but plenty of strays who do their own thing with just one or two others.At the moment theyre limited to Wirral . Depends on what you call middle aged .

A young middle aged pup at 48.
Am I the youngest on this site, haha!

Now when I was your age enjoy every minute of it mikeeb, take care.

Haha! Cheers Casper.

It so happened that during covid I was left alone with my wife. We were given these ping-pong balls for one of our anniversaries, and we decided that the day had come when we could use them. We bought a table and began to play from time to time - now this is our common hobby which we enjoy playing in the weekend.

We do also like go cycling because this is a great way to stay fit and to spend some time outside the house