Gelly Babes September Symposium

Rufford

29th September 2014

 

 

A full complement of babes today and once again Helen J's request for good weather was fulfilled, she certainly does have friends in all the right places.

Lynn and I arrived early and spent a happy hour drinking coffee and catching up until the flying shed arrived with the rest of the members of our happy band. First stop for a 'Banter of Gelly Chicks' was the wonderfully sunny courtyard for a picnic lunch and a good gossip.

  

Hard boiled egg anyone?

 

First Anniversary Apple Cake courtesy of Helen J

After making full use of the all the facilities on offer we set off for our leisurely stroll, starting with a bit of a history lesson in the ruins of the Abbey

Looking good for an old ruin!

 

All agreed that Bess of Hardwick was quite a woman and might even qualify as a babe (although Helen J seems to think she was a bird)

Don't try this at home!(Or anywhere else for that matter)

  A lovely leisurely stroll down to the old mill with a game of 'guess the celebrity I saw on holiday', not sure who wins out of Graham Norton, Chris Packham and Kevin off of Eggheads. We took full advantage of the facilities with a well earned cup of tea - well talking does create quite a thirst. Once again we were able to sit in the sunshine, this time looking out over the lake for a bit of light bird watching.

 Time for tea

 Cheers!

 Marvellous! The immortal words of Lynn 

Dab chick, Tufted duck or Golden eye? check the app!

Sitting ducks

The stroll continued around the lake and votes were taken for duck of the day and goose of the day. The duck category went to the tufted duck - sadly the little white crossbreed was disqualified and the winner of the goose category was the greylag which got the vote for being simple.

Goose of  the day

Geese of the day

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without a quick catch up on the state of everyone's dental health and the prize for dental story of the day went to Helen J.
Our walked continued through the sculpture gardens which added a bit of much needed culture to the day.

 

 Musical statues - and some not so musical

A spot of meditation - or possibly medication!

 

Caption competition - what is Lynn saying? my guess is:

'If you don't do as you are told Jo Kenworthy you will stand there until I tell you to move and you won't be allowed to look at the lovely sculptures! And if you don't stop smirking Maggie you will join her - yes I have got eyes in the back of my head'

 

 

Caption Competition 2: 'Honestly Jo they were out here - the others don't believe me!'

 

Sculpture of the day

After exploring the gardens we all felt the need for another cup of tea, so back to the courtyard to enjoy the beautiful early evening sunshine and birdsong and diaries out to plan our next jaunt, with a few chorus's of 'Tit Willow' to add to the atmosphere.

Todays birdlist:

Black Headed Gull, Blackbird, Canada Goose, Chaffinch, Coal tit (first 2014.. worth waiting until the end of the day for.. well done Lynn), Coot, Crow, Dove, Dunnock, Great Crested Grebe, Greylag goose (goose of the day), Goldfinch, Herring gull (a surprising first so late in the year for 2014) , House Martin, Little Grebe (first 2014), Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Robin, Sparrow, Starling, Swan, Tufted duck (duck of the day), Wood pigeon, Wren

Plus feral pigeon, domestic goose and little white duck, none of which are countable on official bird lists.   And.. lots of squirrels.

Total of 63 birds so far for 2014.

And last but not least swan of the day