20th March 2017
Cromford
Today marked the celebration of International day of
Happiness and what better way to spend it than with other babes. With attempts to wave winter away thwarted,
the babes had to settle for some mini-wet-walks sandwiched between sustenance
and rather a lot of newsworthy news.
Walk number one, to satisfy the wee one, took place
exactly on time starting at Cromford Wharf.
With Betty sporting a rather fancy fleece lined jacket, Maggie and the
Helens set off in clothing to match the mood of the day. Maggie, fresh from Crufts, had waggy tales of
her own to tell and we all agreed that Betty would probably end up being a
YouTube star for all the wrong reasons!
Sadly no photos as it was just too darned wet!
Our first coffee of the day at the Wharf café saw us sighing with Alison, sporting a light
ski tan, at the endless holiday possibilities to which Bubbles is invited. But, please take note of Alison’s advice: make sure you don't take out Bubbles' passport in error,
or you could be done for identity fraud ...
How many stamps will Bubbles achieve on her eastern tour with Jo?
However,
Helen J not to be outdone just yet, and whilst already booked up for this year,
somehow came away from a chance meeting in the café and ended up with
a trip to Italy in the offing. The cheek
of it and she conveniently forgot to mention that she would only go if the babes came with
her.
With the weather not brightening up at all, we ventured out on walk number two and marvelled at how lovely the views were even in the rain. With a little bit of flower spotting, dog’s violet being Betty’s favourite, we managed to get to the High Peak Junction before a quick turn around, as lunch was beckoning.
Somehow Lynn managed to book a table at Parkery’s Eatery (what a mouthful), timing it perfectly so that we missed out ..
on a right royal do...
But, whilst waiting for our lunch, Maggie brazenly announced a
good way to get Senior Citizen discounts…’ just pretend to be older’…
Which
clearly wouldn’t work on the Helens….
Note: Picture enlarged using the mobile phone magnifier,
for those who haven't got their glasses on!
And, with impeccable timing, Pam arrived.
Not at all excited about her Very Recent news!
We mostly listened to Pam outlining how she and others have managed to pull off this great feat and quietly wondered whether we would see Pam more or less from September and decided it would be ‘more-or-less’ the same.
Halo, halo, halo...six glam babes in the café..
After a fantastic leek soup with garlicky croutons, plans
are definitely in the pipeline for another meet up here, with some tempted by
the toppling tower of afternoon tea, but this isn’t every babe’s cuppa tea. Even
the thought of it made us attempt another jaunt to ‘walk off those futuristic
calories’ but not before frisking Lynn who had looked rather lovingly at the cutlery far too many times.
So walk number three started again back at the Wharf with only a slight delay whilst waiting
for Lynn to stop chatting to everyone she knows in Cromford.
It’s silhouette competition time!
‘If you are going to march properly, Pam,
take
your hands out of your pocket!’
But,
this time, even though the rain had virtually stopped, it was just one bridge too far
and time preyed on those who needed to leave. So, with a quick ‘about turn’ we
retreated back to… guess where? And anyway,
even Betty was experiencing a bit of deja-vu-vu-vu…
So with cheerios to Lynn and Helen M, a very creative
decision was made: we walked in the other direction!
Should have walked this way earlier…
the sun was out all the time!
It was at this precise point, that Pam revealed her
latest venture. Combining her teaching
skills, film knowledge and community mindedness, Pam ‘s home is now her new business
centre. With offers of excellent value-for-money lessons, constant coffee and a
very warm home, there is a bit of a concern about her strategic planning but as long
as someone doesn’t trip on the stair carpet she’ll be fine.. or fined! For some
reason, Pam rejected suggestions of what to call her new enterprise: Aiming
High at Alton View (bit too like a mission statement), Pam’s Galactics (HJ’s
reference at SLT calendar meetings… true), ‘Pam’ll push you real good’ (oh,
really!!)
Ending up at the Arkwright Mill, we played ‘spot the’ and
‘try to remember the’ ex-pupils and then the conversation took a bit of a nose
dive as we talked about rumours of dodgy activities by various teachers (none,
at Gell we hasten to add!!) But the view
out of the window was good, even if the coffee was not up to standard (Never ‘eard
of a cortado before, Miss, would you like a filter instead?).
Birds for the day:
canada geese
coot
great tit
grey wagtail*
jackdaw*
magpie
mallard
moorhen
pied wagtail
robin
song thrush (heard)
treecreeper*
tufted duck
wood pigeon
