Hardwick Friday 13th May 2016
Working to Helen M’s precise schedule, the Babes met in
the car park at Hardwick for the start of a very exacting schedule of coffee, nature
walks, picnic, house visiting, tea, evening meal and a lot of cake. Quickly admiring Alison’s new birthday
present.. a car(!)..we made the first of many trips through the office to
collect our badges. Maggie was placed on
badge monitor duty as Helen M is not to be trusted in such matters, as proved
later in the day. Maggie can now add ‘Badge Monitor’ to her
‘Super Domestic Goddess’ title.
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| I'm sure the toilet is marked just here! |
Word has it, that some Gelly Babes might be satisfied to
have a blog full of nature lists and a myriad of photos. But, following a relaxing
holiday, with her mojo (not her Adblue) tank, now fully charged, Helen J will
not allow such slipshod thinking (not on her shift anyway!).
As it was Jo’s special birthday, and as she didn’t have a
car for a present, she was allowed to make up as many lists as she liked. With the help and superlative wild plant
knowledge of Helen M and Lynn, she excelled herself in listing lots of plants
and then re-listing them at the end of the day to make sure none ended up on
the wrong list. But, sometimes the
plant-loving babes’ skill was lacking in absolute precision because the Romans definitely
named the following plants: ‘cioccolati hellebore’, ‘daisy alba’ and the
‘internet plant’. Fact: the Romans were
very advanced for their age. It is such a shame that cohesive devices, fronted adverbials
and modal verbs, to name a few, are the focus of the KS2 curriculum and not
Latin, otherwise we would have all known what we were talking about. But muddling our way through the day, is part
of the fun of our Gelly Babe trips.
So, after our first coffee and chat, the babes set off on
the first of their nature walks,
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| Just too rude to mention... |
but soon needed a break from all the thinking, writing and looking:
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And babes just wanna have fu-un...   |
As well as Chief List Maker, Jo is allowed to add Action
Babe to her list of titles.
As we know all Babes can multi-task: walking, talking,
list making and nature spotting all at once but they also love distractions and compliments . Greetings of
‘morning girls’ are most appreciative, which means we can now add Girlie Babes to
our other names of Gelly birder and Domestic Goddess. One man may not be right… but can all three
be wrong?
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| Where wood we bee without you? |
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| It's caption competition time.... |
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| Not so secret now, eh? |
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| Wild garlic soup anyone? |
The first of many lists:. Wild flower list on walk..
alcanet (borage
family)
arum lily/ lords n
ladies or the rude one
bluebell
bugle
celandine
dandelions
dog violet
forget-me-not
garlic mustard
lady smock
pink campion
queen anne's lace
(cow)
solomon's seal
speedwell
wild garlic (wild
plant of the day)
wood anenome
wood sorrell
yellow rattle
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| Lynn, making a fine entrance... |
After our second trip through reception we settle down
with our picnic, exchange rather a lot of birthday presents, eat cake and sing
a rousing canon of ‘Laugh Kookaburra’
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| “Will you love me in December as you do in May?” ― Jack Kerouac |
Of course we will, Jo, of course we will.
Trees and fungi list
bracket fungus
cherry
holly
hornbeam
pholita adiposa (yellow pimple one)
twisted hazel
yew
And, at the third count through reception, we head towards
the gardens
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| Sitting and 'aying' a moment whilst waiting for Pam
Continuing our plant identification, although stumped at the time, after a clever bit of research, Sherlock Mitchell has discovered that this plant is called Ribes Speciosm
|
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| but we know the Romans really called it Ostendere Arbor Fushcia |
But it was all too soon to say farewell to Lynn…
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| Look this way, girls |
Garden wild flower list
alpine strawberry
aquilegia
buttercup
chickweed
comfrey
cowslip
daisy
dock
greater celandine
hawkbit (is this on
the right list?)
honesty
oxslip
primrose
Ribes speciosum
saxifrage
shepherd's purse
snakes'head
frillaria
welsh poppy
whitebells
And not a moment too late for the House talk, but too
late to have a photo with all of us together
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| Pam makes her entrance |
After a careering talk by Mr Stubbs, the Babes move into
the Hall for Arbella’s story. What with Scotland and England divided, rumours
of treason, claims to the throne, palaces vs prisons, rather a lot of dates,
names and portraits .. it felt as though the referendum has been going on for
centuries.
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| Moving with the times.. the modern tapestry |
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| What a purler! |
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| Jo trying out her birthday outfit |
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| obviously about the Babes… |
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| but the special day belongs to Jo |
All too soon, we needed to say farewell to Pam so she
could go back to one of her many jobs.
But not before Jo shared her birthday cake..
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| How clever of Maggie to find enough badges to decorate the cake! |
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| A pity we forgot to collect the serviettes from the kitchens! |
And at the fourth count through reception for a well-deserved cup of tea and retail therapy the remaining Babes chew the cud before heading off to the Hardwick Inn for a lovely evening meal.
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| Arbella babe |
Creature list
bumble bee
cow
dog
donkey (ass of the
day)
horse
llama (GB first)
pony
shetland pony
spectacled fly
wood bees
(carpenter bees?)
Bird list
blackbird
bluetit
chaffinch
chiffchaff
coal tit
crow
dunnock
goldfinch
great tit
greater-spotted
woodpecker
house sparrow
jackdaw
long-tailed tit
magpie
nuthatch
peacock
pheasant
pied flycatcher (GB
first)
pied wagtail
robin
song thrush
swallow
wood pigeon
(23 in total, 48
this year gives us a running total of 83)
Martin Heidegger:
"the most thought- provoking thing in our thought
-provoking
time is that we are still not thinking".
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