Festive Time 2022

🍹🎄Festive time & favourite tipples with Flock of Tits🎄🍹

It's officially a tradition, but with one change of task. So, the annual Christmas card  plus each babe's chosen charity remains steadfast. The third part is a quiz based on favourite tipples to see in the New Year. The quiz is at the bottom of the blog. Can you work out who drinks what? 

Send your answers to me by 1st January 2023.  

Answers revealed later in the New Year with a prize for the winner! 

Cards and messages are in the order received. I'm sure you will agree with me that we are supporting, often with great emotion, a wide range of charities with 'humanity' at its heart of all of them. 💝

🎄Alison🎄

To all the Gelly Babes. 

Wishing you a happy Christmas and a peaceful New year. 

With love from Alison

My chosen charity is guide dogs for the blind. We have an old friend whose eyesight was never great, but it has progressively worsened over the years, to the point where he is virtually blind. We go out for lunch with him every month. 

The photograph was taken at such a meeting on Wednesday of his beautiful guide dog Odin.

🎄Helen 🎄

My donation has gone to Mind once again in memory of my beautiful boy.

🎄Maggie🎄

To all the Gellybabes, 

Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a wonderful 2023

love from Maggie x

With so many crises at home and abroad I am going to donate to the British Red Cross again this year. A recent email said that with the rising cost of living they were getting more appeals for help than ever before.

🎄Helen J🎄

I have chosen to support the Guardian Appeals again this year, which covers three charities: UK for UNHCR to provide refugee families with Winter Survival Kits. Plus, closer to home: Citizens Advice  and Locality to help support local grassroot projects from food aid to warm rooms, money advice and mental health.

 🎄Lynn🎄

Christmas love to Our Gang from Lynn 😘

One of my charities this year is Christians Against Poverty because they actively lift people from financial disaster and stand alone, and all without preaching; wonderful organisation.  My other one is RNLI because I've been able to put Les's name on a new lifeboat soon to be launched in Anstruther, Fife. 

🎄Jane🎄

Wishing all the Babes a very happy Christmas and hopes for a peaceful 2023.

My chosen charity donation is Medicins Sans Frontiere (MSF)

🎄Pam🎄

Many, many warm seasonal wishes to all my GB chums.  I always enjoy our meet ups, blogs and coffee-chats... and my birdie education.  Thank you so much for being such good friends.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

I have always admired MSF's work across the world but I found this intervention in Ukraine particularly inspiring. 

🎄Julia🎄

Happy Christmas to you all!  Looking forward to meeting up in the new year.  

Much love, Julia xx

  

This year I have made a donation to the Tressel Trust who support a nationwide network of food banks and provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty.

🎄Charlotte🎄

Season's Greetings everyone.  Have a fun but relaxing Christmas.

Wishing you all a healthy New Year and Peace in the World.

Love Charlotte & Ian xxx

My chosen charity is, of course, Sofia & Satyam. Sofia in now in Year 11 and planning A levels (Art, History and Spanish) We are fundraising for her next study visa to enable this.

Satyam is in Year 10 and thoroughly  enjoying all aspects of school life. He is doing so well and is loved by both staff and students. He first started studying French in Year 9 and is now doing it at GCSE (predicted Grade 7!) We are fundraising for the cost of a school trip to France in October 2023 plus the special visa he needs.

🎄Jo🎄

Wishing all the Gelly babes a very jolly Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Love Jo xxx

My chosen charity is to Cancer Research in memory of my friend Ann, 

whose funeral I sadly attended last week. 

🎄Janice🎄

Merry Christmas to my fellow Gelly Babes, have a lovely Christmas & good wishes for 2023.

My chosen charity is UNHCR to support those who have had to leave their homes & have nowhere to call home this Christmas.

🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹

And here is the much anticipated Flock of Tits Festive Quiz 2022!

All you need to do is match the drink to the Gelly babe. Please send me your answers (A-K)via my WhatsApp by New Year's Day for a chance to win a prize. There will be no need to prove it over the New Year, but maybe someone will. 

Its now the first week of Jan and I've matched the tippler with the tipple. How well did you do? Winner to be announced at next meet up. 

A  Ardbeg single malt whisky - Helen J

B  Bombay sapphire (or Aldi's) G&T with ice and lemon - Helen M

C  Fettercairn single malt whisky - Pam

D  Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) - Janice

E  Lemon Blossom cocktail * - Maggie

F  Prosecco- any brand - Julia

G  Seval blanc white wine with Veuve Clicquot champagne - Charlotte

H  Sloe gin, home-made - Jane

I  Timothy Taylor's beer - Lynn

J  White port (or a cup of tea) - Alison

K  Wodkaleys (Baileys with vodka) - Jo

*  Lemon blossom cocktail (30ml each of limoncello, elderflower cordial, vodka, lemon juice, ice) 

Cheers!

🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹

Pre Christmas Brief Encounters

 Pre Christmas Brief Encounters at Carsington

8th December 2022

On a bright, crisp but very cold morning a select group of us gathered at Carsington Visitor Centre. Maggie was away in the big smoke, Charlotte and Helen J were under the weather and at the last minute Lynn couldn’t make it either. Plans for the day had been made but not everyone could stay for the proposed lunch so plans were very flexible.

We settled down for the obligatory long coffee session along with plenty of chat and catching up with everyone’s news. Other subjects covered at some length were the craziness of current DBS requirements for any one mad enough to want to work and the perils of cycling both for the crazy cyclists and us as extremely considerate drivers who never get irritated by those on two wheels - they should all be subjected to Janice’s training regime! Jo entertained us with Bob’s latest exploits, causing more havoc for her long suffering sister! There was also a competition to see who was wearing the most clothing layers - Julia won!

Our coffee cups empty we headed out into the freezing cold - Julia most definitely won the best scarf award! But Alison two coats also needs a commendation!

At this point I had to leave having double  booked myself but the remaining hardy souls headed out in search of the Great Northern Diver so thank you to Jo for the next bit…,

    These are some of the ones they didn’t get.

The reservoir is 55% full now ro having gone down to 40% during the drought so plenty more rain needed yet.

Jo and Julia had to leave too after the bird spotting session so the flock of tits was reduced to just three who enjoyed lunch in the sunshine

Quite a Crowd at Cromford

 Quite a Crowd at Cromford 

November 10th 2022

For the first time in a long time eight of us managed to gather at Cromford Wharf, lots of hugs and even a few very belated birthday gifts were shared…

Pam made a brief appearance and then had to make a dash back home as she had forgotten her purse but we gave her good send off and she did remember to come back.

The café had thoughtfully provided us with a lovely big table and a willing photographer so we settled down for a two hour coffee break. There was a lot to catch up on, lots of travel tales, family news, the odd bit of gossip and the agreement that at a certain age it was better to have a beau than a boyfriend. 

Eventually we decided that we had probably better go for a walk in order to justify our lunch.

We chose not to use this form of transport - although it might have been fun 

Tali had been waiting patiently in Lynn’s car and was very happy to join us for a walk, however…….

………..it wasn’t long before this happened!

We all became quite adept at avoiding the shake and the resulting splattering with stinking canal mud!

The skies remained a bit grey but the rain kept away and the conversations continued as we strolled along the towpath, Christmas plans were discussed and the fact that it seems to arrive before bonfire night was unanimously derided, wild swimming was dismissed by most of us as a ridiculous idea as was the idea of ever returning to a classroom again and it was decided that any one of us could have done a better job as Prime Minister than Liz Truss - if only we had been asked.

Jo sang the praises of the museum at the High Peak Junction and we resolved to visit next time - as long as it’s open.

Tali took several more dips along the way and then decided to roll on the gravel path to try and dry herself!

We walked on to Aqueduct Cottage which is looking wonderful as the renovations progress, keeping an eye open for the ghost of Ton Farnsworth, Jo’s ancestor - possibly.

The woodland garden behind the cottage is also looking beautiful 

The famous Cromford Wave

We headed back following the scent of the soup, bacon butties and the Keralan pasties at the café.

Tali was still contemplating another stinky dip and the thought of catching a swan was also very tempting but she managed to resist temptation.

We all headed off to the café to take up our positions at our nice big table again for lunch and more chat, a very successful day even though no one had been in charge!

Our bird list for the day:

Blackbird 

Black headed gulls

Canada Geese

Crow

Jackdaw

Little grebe

Mallard 

Moorhen

Sparrow hawk

Swan

Wren

2 posh  doves

Flock of tits (could this be our new name?)

Pesky wood pigeons

Super fast black bird pretending to be a bat or it might have been an escaped poo bag blowing in the wind

Spot the delightful dab chick

Slightly out of focus swan giving Tali the evil eye.

Harvest Time

Harvest Time

Star Date: 13/10/2022

 

Helen, Jo and Alison met under blue skies in warm sunshine at the Lime Kiln, Wirksworth at 11.02am ready for a walk in Stoneywood. Helen Mitchell was recovering from a concert with Roxy Music. Lynn is looking after family members after her daughter’s accident (hope your daughter is on the mend). Julia and Maggie away  and Janice in Spain. 

Helen led the way onwards and upwards (despite not knowing which way to go, she declared half way up the steep footpath). We were in search of the raven but no luck. We spotted a soaring kestrel. We arrived at the Stardisc and looked out over the ‘lagoon’ from the past.

 

Conversations included teeth fixing and expensive inserts (did you know you can include teeth inserts on a free holiday to Turkey?), COVID boosters and flu jabs, ailments and holidays 

Although surrounded by beautiful autumnal scenery our minds, I think, were set on Souper Surprise, open today for the first time this Autumn at the Maltings in town between 12 and 1pm. It was a much quicker decent! And so we arrived at the Maltings a little early and there was no queue….

We could hear music coming from St Mary’s Church and decided to investigate and see if Chris Dixon was playing.

We were surprised to find a homeless young man from Greece playing the keyboard. We enjoyed a mini recital of quite haunting tunes. His girlfriend was very proud of him. We were joined by Marie

Back to the Maltings and we were now in the queue…. And many of the tables were full. Helen and Alison managed to get a table and place their order. Jo was deep in conversation in the queue with Mrs Boam – mum of past pupils. Jonathan is a graphic designer …. Twin daughters Amy and  ? (can’tremember), and their grandchildren stories etc etc.

The soups were delicious broccoli and stilton or spicy pumpkin, followed by home-made cake and coffee. 

Pam arrived from ESOL teaching at 12.48 – just in time and enjoyed her soup and cake. An opportunity for Helen to show how organised she is – Pam was given her early birthday present.

 

Conversations and photos shared of babies – Ava, Arlo and Harry, weddings and field mushrooms! Helen and Pam were up for taking a few for a creamy mushroom soup. 

We had such a lovely morning and a good catch. Not mushroom for any more food. So a quick walk in the sunshine, back to the cars to continue with the day elsewhere.

Looking forward to the next meet up – Thursday November 10th 2022