Gelly Babes Birthday Bash

Chatsworth Café Crawl

May 20th 2014

 

 

A perfect May day.

After some initial confusion involving teeth, rampaging cows and lack of mobile phone signal, two Helens and Pam finally met up at Chatsworth garden centre. We enjoyed a very welcome pot of tea and caught up on all the news. Unfortunately all the tea drinking and catching up meant that we had very little time left for the walk which we had planned. We did manage to walk across the road to take in the views and Pam almost managed to take a photograph!

 

Pam proudly showing off her new camera and discovering that it actually works better with batteries!

 

Having aborted our plans for a walk we drove up to the farm shop to meet up with Jo and Lynn. It was lovely to see Lynn especially as it was her birthday and to enrol her officially as Gelly Babe! We were able to catch up with all her news and were especially interested to hear her views on living in Skegness. 

 Jo's very carefully chosen gift for Lynn

 

The second pot of tea of the day

 

We did eventually get thrown out of the café - we did start to get the hint when they started cleaning up around us! And we said our goodbyes to Lynn who was going off for a birthday meal with her family.

 

Wonderful view from the tea shop at Chatsworth Farm Shop

Three birthday girls - and Pam!

 

Helen's lovely birthday bush

The very carefully made plan was to go for a walk before our meal, however once again too much talk and tea meant that there really wasn't time. So we drove back to Beeley to the Devonshire Arms. Helen J got changed into evening attire just in case the Duke and Duchess dropped in! 

We did have time for Helen to give us all a demonstration of Nordic walking which made us all feel much healthier and the raucous laughter helped us work up an appetite for our meal.

 

That's the way to do it!

For some reason the landlord hid us away in the malt vault which meant that we weren't in danger of disturbing the regulars (or the Duke and Duchess for that matter - needless to say they didn't pop in for a pint)

The food was lovely and we had a delightful evening

 

 

Cheers!

 

Next time we really will do a walk - think we had better plan somewhere where there aren't any tea shops! 



Gelly Babes April Amble

Carsington Capers

April 29th 2014

 

 

This month we decided on an evening gathering which meant that Jo would be able to join us. Once again the weather was kind to us.

Helen M, Helen J and Maggie met at four o'clock at the Sheepwash car park but thanks to Maggie's earlier reconnaisance we were able to avoid paying for car parking and made judicious use of a nearby layby - as pensioners we really can't afford to squander money!

We walked to the first bird hide (thankfully nothing untoward was happening in there and we had it all to ourselves) The recently purchased binoculars of the novices were put to good use.

 

Signs of spring everywhere - and a very bewildered goose!

 

We then walked on towards the visitors centre and on the way we met a real proper expert bird watcher who helped us spot a red start. We knew he was a real proper expert as he was wearing camouflage clothing and a hat - please take note Mrs J!

 

Impossible to take her seriously dressed like this!

 

At the next hide we met up with Pam and Jo and our training continued. The redshank was bit of a highlight and there were some delightful little birds on the bird table just outside the hide. 

 

That will be an orange tit warbler!

 

We could all have happily sat in the hide for the rest of the evening but our leader dragged us off to continue our walk and then blamed the poor old fishermen for the lack of birds - but we really didn't do too badly and the goldfinch was a bit of a star! - here is the list:

 

Oyster Catcher

Red Start

Barnacle Goose

Pintail Duck

Great Crested Grebe

Reed Bunting

Tree Sparrow

Moorhen

Chaffinch

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Mallard

Magpie

Red Shank

Black headed Gull

Coot

House crow

Jackdaw

Tufted Duck

Collared dove

Cormorant (not Shag)

Wood Pigeon

Pied Wagtail

Robin

Blackbird

House Sparrow

Blue Tit
Goldfinch

Rook

Swallow

Wren

 

They have obviously spotted a very beautiful bird!

 

The evening was rounded off with a very pleasant meal at the Knockerdown Inn, prepared by an ex Gell pupil whose name I can't remember at the moment! And a lengthy discussion of the dental problems of a generation - amongst other things!

 

A very bad photograph of our last sighting of the evening - Jo wanted to add cock to the list but I have censored that addition.

 

 

 

Gelly Babes March Meander

Four Old Birds go Birding

 

March 11th 2014

 

Today the Gelly Babes are on a mission to become birdwatchers - under the expert tuition of Helen J.

We met at Attenborough Nature reserve and headed straight to the café for coffee and a good chat before we got down to the serious business of bird watching.  The weather was absolutely perfect again, a bit chilly in the wind but lovely sunshine and a real feeling of spring.

Helen had set homework for us and we had all come equipped with books and binoculars. Pam had even dressed for the occasion.

 There was lots to spot before we even set off

Pam looking like a real proper birder

(definitely not a twitcher!)

Helen in action - probably spotting a pintail!

 

We spent quite a long time in a hide (thankfully nothing untoward was happening in there!) where we learned that great tits often pretend to be chiff chaffs, thank goodness there was another birdwatcher on hand to clarify things for us.

 

The view from the hide

 

We headed back to the visitor centre for lunch - soup and pasties followed by cake. Fully fortified we set off for a longer walk, taking in the river.It really is a lovely spot and hard to believe it is only a few miles from the centre of Nottingham.

 

At one point on our walk Helen was accosted by a twitcher who was hunting for pintails - he had the audacity to doubt her knowledge - he was gently but firmly put in his place - Helen knows her pintails!

 

This is the list of birds that we spotted throughout the day:

Tufted Duck

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Mallard

Black Headed Gull

Coot

Red Crested Pochard (doesn't really count apparently)

Egyptian Goose

Great Crested Grebe

Long Tailed Tit

Shelduck

Moorhen

Lapwing

Grey Heron

Carrion Crow

Teal

Pintail

Goldeneye

Wigeon

Gadwall

Great Tit

Reed Bunting

Dunnock

Chaffinch

Robin

Green Finch

Tree Sparrow

Cormorant

Little Egret

Greylag Goose

Pheasnt

House Sparrow

Starling

 



and something small brown and unidentified which is lurking somewhere in this photograph and is probably very rare.

 

 







I can't believe how many birds we spotted thanks to our expert teacher - I just hope that I can remember at least some of them in the future and I am definitely going to get some decent binoculars but probably not Swarovski ones - I think the crystals might dazzle the birds.

 

 

Gelly Babes February Frolic

Eastwood Explorations

4th February 2014

 

Another bright sunny morning for our February outing. We met at the DH Lawrence Heritage centre in Eastwood and drove to Felley Mill for the start of our walk.

The first point of interest - a muddy track!

 

Spot the Fieldfare!

 

Our walk started at the site of the old Felley Mill (Strelley Mill in several of Lawrence's novels) which is now nothing more than a depressing patch of concrete. We then followed Weavers Lane up the hill past America Farm, a walk which Lawrence describes in The White Peacock. On over the motorway (which doesn't feature in any of Lawrence's writing) towards Annesley and then on to Kennel Lane which eventually gave us some lovely far reaching views. 

 

 

 The View with Crich Stand somewhere in the distance!

 

 Three Babes 'Sitting and Ayeing a Minute'

 

Some thoughts on the view from our muse for the day

 

Our walk continued back on down the hill to our starting point at Felley Mill.





 What remains of the Mill Pond

 

Back in the car (once Sherpa Jackson had removed all her layers!)we drove back to the Heritage Centre where we explored the exhibition

 

 Carrot soup anyone?

 Do my legs look long in this?

 

 Just checking your spelling Bert

 

 

 Mr Gove's vision for the future!

 

 Now we know why Mrs J chose teaching over being a miner

 

 

After our very thorough exploration of the exhibition we had a very interesting and entertaining lunch at the Heritage Centre before walking up to the Birth Place Museum



The thin blue line

 

The day concluded with our guided tour of the Victoria Street house where DH Lawrence was born, thankfully we have come a long way from the days when women were judged by how well they black leaded their ranges -although I am sure the Babes would be brilliant at it!

 

 
 

 

 

 





 



Gelly Babes January Jaunt

Shipley Saunter

7th January 2014

A leisurely amble today to start the new year. We met in the car park at Mapperley Reservoir, thankfully Helen J's order for good weather had worked and the sun was shining! Campervan coffee to start the day and we started the walk with a little gentle bird watching. As Helen J was the only one with binoculars (and knowledge)we have to take her word on what we spotted!

 

This is her list:

great crested grebe, cormorant (not shag!), goosander (not red breasted merganser), mallard, tufted duck, moorhen, coot, black-headed gull, wood pigeon, wren, robin, blackbird, redwing, blue tit, great tit, magpie, carrion crow, house sparrow, bullfinch, canada goose, chaffinch, mute swan ... and a grey squirrel

 

We all got very excited about the red breasted merganser but consultation of the twitcher's bible revealed that it was merely a goosander! Dishonest twitcher's would have claimed it as a sighting but we know better.



Best feet forward

Look - there's a tree!

 

Our walk took us along the edge of the reservoir and eventually up to the visitors centre where we availed ourselves of the facilities, even if we didn't need them. From there we followed the track down to Osbournes Pond.





By George I do believe that duck is attempting to fly!

 

No Maggie that is definitely not a Shag!

 

From there we walked up the hill to where Shipley Hall used to stand. And spent some time imagining what it must have been like - from the perspective of drunken colliers wives!(apparently the wives were drunk not the colliers, though they might have been too)

 

Did you know..........?

 

From the Hall site we walked down through the woods via the burial ground and back to the reservoir.

 

 



We drove to the Bottle Kiln where we had a lovely lunch followed by delicious coffee and a jolly good chat. Another lovely day with the Babes!

 

Very Interesting site about Mapperley

Some interesting bits about Shipley