25th April 2017
With weather forecasts set for a continuation of winter,
intrepid explorers Alison, Maggie and Helen J arrived at Allestree Nature
Reserve bang on time. We were sadly missing Pam, Jo, Helen M and Charlotte, who had
the cutest reason for not being able to attend….
Woodstock looking after poorly lamb…
In glorious sunshine, but with a biting wind, we soon
headed off to the comfort of the bar.
‘Why am I surrounded by all these men?’
We
learned that there is not much history to the house itself other than the
building was once owned by several wealthy landowners and it was rebuilt at one
point to become a Grade II listed building. Courtesy of a bit of scaffolding it
is now not listing but it is on the Heritage At Risk Register… probably the
equivalent of Ofsted for buildings. But it was with incredible foresight, that the
original landowner bought enough land to ensure a future playground for
grown-ups
The trophy hunters… Ding! Dong!
When the last owner was killed by lightning strike in the
grounds, the hall was sold to Derby City Council for a mere £23,000. It is just
such a pity that the babes hadn’t even been a twinkle in their parents’ eyes at
the time, because it would have made a marvellous retirement home for us
all. Although, we would have had to cope
with a right hoi-polloi of Nordic walkers and dog walkers on our doorstep.
With glorious views of a rabbit, we caught up with Maggie’s latest breakfast
outing to Tebay Services and Alison’s views on young, alpine chamber-boys,
whose advantage of a private education appears to be lashings of confidence. Their
only disappointment seemed to be that they were expecting to be catering for a
rather famous comedian, but we are sure that Pete didn’t disappoint. Thoughts also turned to our own levels of
fitness and we were not sure whether it is our age, but high level mountain-walking
does seem to be a bit more daunting than it used to be. Unless of course, you chair-lift up and ski down.
Keen to prove to ourselves that we were reasonably fit for a
quick walk around Derby’s largest nature reserve, we set off under blue skies, keeping
an eye on the threatening clouds to the east. Skies are wonderful things to
behold, unless of course, one is stranded with a broken-down hire car on the
top of Mount Teide as night time approached. Clearly the latest holiday car
adventure from yours truly, but towing trucks lit up in glory do not mix with
stargazers anxiously attempting to identify every galaxy before the moon made a
full appearance.
Stargazing could become a potential GB activity, but that is
for the future as we had more pressing identifications to make. Whilst being reasonably
confident about our bird knowledge, we felt a little lost without Jo, Lynn and
Helen M’s plant expertise, but we had a good crack at it.
Bluebells in the wood
Dandelions in the field
Red campion in the hedgerows
But only one oak leaf...
We also saw celandine, a few nettles and an escaped
narcissi, but we are not sure whether that counts or not.
Whilst crossing the road from the woods to the fields, we
played ‘guess which footballer lives here’ but sadly there were no viewings of
Cloughie Jnr this time; he’s probably found a new place to play pokemon.
Views across the fields in Quarndon were stunning
As were the views in the edge of the field…
With time pressing we tested our ability to gear up to the next level and set off at a brisker pace back down through the woods
More bluebells…..
But just as we got out into the open we were caught in a bit
of wintry weather pretending to be cherry blossom and it was cold. We felt
lucky it wasn’t lightning.
Tee, hee!
Lunch was a full-on-flavour soup of garlic, mushroom and
white wine complete with garlicky croutons and iced buns plus a croque-madame
for Lynn with lashings of award winning lemon oil. Sorry Lynn… was it the award winning lemon
oil you wanted on your garnish? And a few minutes later, with full apologies
from the chef, the hot-not-cross buns arrived.
A belated birthday gift for Maggie ….
Behold a thing of beauty….
What was that about a small, aged, rust bucket?
She can’t resist another peek…
Whilst Lynn is waiting for the tooth fairy to arrive
tonight, Helen’s ongoing saga with her dentists and now depleting bank balance
continued to amuse. There will be
another instalment soon, one is sure of it….
A bit of forgetfulness also seems par for the course with
getting older. But the best tip of the
day is: take photos of the inside of your cupboards and stick the photo on the
outside! Being a super domestic goddess,
Maggie will, of course, have beautifully neat photos to reflect the state of
her cupboards, whilst some of us…. Ooops, there is a downside to this tip!
When talking about how we all ended up at Gell, and with her
‘salad days’ not yet over, Lynn won the
award for the most interesting story of her career. However, it was all too
soon before we need to say cheerio to Lynn. Hugs later, the rest of us strolled
down the lane for a bit of animal therapy.
The horse whisperer gets to work…
Two legs good...
Four legs.. a bit better...
Bird list for the day…
Blackbird
blue tit
buzzard*
canada goose
chiffchaff*
crow
dunnock
great tit
jackdaw
magpie
mallard
pied wagtail
robin
swallow*
wood pigeon
15 for the day… and considering how cold it was, not
bad. Starred are the new for this
year. And in the drive back down, Helen
J saw a greater spotted woodpecker, a
lapwing and a pheasant. But, unfortunately no garganey….as Maggie had used up
our allocation of rarely seen birds in Leighton Moss!
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