Winter Weather Wanderings and Wonderings.

Winter Weather

As we aren’t able to meet up again this month’s blog is a photographic record of the weather. A photograph (or several in some cases!) and a few words to record our experiences whilst we have been out and about taking our daily exercise - close to home of course.

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness “
John Steinbeck

Storm clouds over Carsington 

A brighter, healthi
Er twenty twenty one, but
Not just yet it seems!

Always looking for the silver lining 

Bob wants a proper frozen lake to skate on....like Betty

Another super sunset sky

Carsington 

I’ve sent a picture of the view from my bedroom window, taken this morning looking out into a temporary “lagoon“, created by the Environment Agency to remove the dredged silt from the nearby river which broke its banks and flooded the town 2yrs ago. When it was first created last spring it was full of wildlife, with swans, cormorants, egrets and hundreds of seagulls having a day out from the coast which is only a couple of miles away (as the gull flies). As the water slowly disappears, we’re left with sludge so no wildlife now. Eventually it’ll be handed back to the farmer. It’s been interesting to watch it all evolve

A lonely tree guards
a Swarkestone field in wintry
late afternoon light.

A frosty morning from our patio. 

Jack Frost crispy elm leaves

Sun going down on
The not so perfect vision
Of twenty twenty

We have been doing some lovely Winter walking, one of my favourites was on the 29th December where we parked in Bakewell, went across the trail through the golf course and Manners Wood and up onto the meadow at the top where there is a pond. Here I made friends with a very friendly chap, bit quiet but great fun.  He had his arms open for a hug but I kept my distance. Sun and snow, such a glorious combination. It was one of those walks where you felt very grateful to live in this area.

Orange path down to the cemetery 

Blue skies and scribble over the windmill ruin.

Brief moment in the snow

Happy Gelly Babes
Lovely, fun, chatty meet ups
Just around the corner!

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.....

Hard, frost-whitened glass.
Glistening sunlight
shoots shards in splintered rainbows.

Wingfield ruins through the binoculars.

I spy sunshine.

I’m supposed to be a sub-Saharan animal.

Wise people follow the post to the conjunction of planets

And in case any of you were wondering this is what Bob was referring to......

Charitable babes at Christmas

🎄 Charity, Cards and Christmas🎄

Instead of buying each other presents this year, we have chosen 

to donate our gifts to our own charities. All that was needed for the blog was a photo of a christmas card, a message to the babes and the charity we are each supporting this year. All three parts came in, exactly as requested, just not necessarily at the same time!

Despite, an instruction to not send an e-card, this bit was missing for our secret santa, so dinosaur IT skills put to the test!! 

😉

Added in order of receiving..... 

plus a special Christmas surprise from a dear Gelly friend. 

On the first day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

🎅

Jane 

Christmas Greetings from Wales.  With love, Jane xxxxx

My chosen charity is our local "Dog's Trust", 

as we no longer have our own four legged friend!

On the second day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

🤶

Pam 

Warmest wishes to all you GBs for the Festive Season and wishing us all the best vaccinations for 2021!

Thank you for being such a lovely, supportive bunch of old mates over the years but especially over the last year.

Card sold in aid of SHELTER "Huddle Up!"

Chosen Charity: The Jo Cox Foundation 

“We are far more united and have far more in common with 

each other than things that divide us.”  

 On the third day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

 🌟

Helen M

"Happy Christmas to my Gelly Friends and 

here's hoping for a vaccinated New Year for everyone"

Chosen Charity : Mind

On the fourth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

❄ 

Helen J 

A walk in the park

will be more more fun with friends

next year. Bring it on!

Season's greetings and

much love to you all in our 

strange new world bubble. 

 Helen xxx

Chosen Charity:  Moorfields Eye Hospital, for my sister. 

And the Co-Op stocking fillers for all children missing out this year 

(plus I needed a bit of retail therapy!) 

On the fifth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

  

🐑

Charlotte 

Chosen charity: Satyam's Education

On the sixth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

🦃

Jo 

To my wonderful friends the Gelly Babes. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy, peaceful, lockdown free New Year with lots of walking, talking, coffee and eating, meeting and bird spotting. Take care folks. Miss you all.

Lots of love from Jo xx

 

My charity donation went to the RSPB via The Big Give which not only added my Gift Aid but also doubled the donation which I thought was brilliant and felt extremely worthwhile.

 On the seventh day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

🐪

Alison  

Wishing you all a great Christmas and l hope a more sociable 2021

Love from

Alison

My chosen charity is Rainbows Hospice. One of Pete’s best friends died recently. Amongst many other things he was an ambassador for Rainbows, so I thought it would be a fitting choice … as well as a very worthy charity in its own right

On the eighth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

🎄

Maggie 

I chose to send a donation to this year’s BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal for St Martin-in-the-Fields where the money will go to support the homeless and vulnerable.

On the ninth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

👼

Julia 

Chosen Charity: Local foodbank.

On the tenth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

 

⛄

Lynn

To the lovely Gelly babes, with my grateful thanks for the love and support you’ve all demonstrated over these last years. Instead of puzzling over appropriate pressies for you, I’ve donated to Shelter and Ashgate Hospice. It was almost as much of a difficult decision as your presents, mind, hence the split! Looking forward to seeing you all soon, even if it’s just a chat on zoom. Happy Christmas to you all, with my love - Lynn

Chosen charities: Shelter and Ashgate Hospice

On the eleventh  day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

🎁

Our Secret Santa... Margaret P! 

Chosen charity: Veterans with dogs

On the twelfth day of Christmas a Gelly Babe sent to us:

An epiphany?

Oh, for heaven's sake! .....

🍹

Cheers everyone!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

November

Babes being Babes

Friday 13th November 2020

It may have been business as near usual for the Whitworth cafe, our original destination, but normal business for a group meet up was curtailed by the latest lockdown.  So to play absolutely safe, obeying all advice and the law, we stayed at home amusing ourselves with a Lockdown Two task.

Lockdown Task Two was to find a photo of when we were young.  After some scrabbling around in the spare room, looking under the bed, the wardrobe or even up in the loft, Babes as babes emerged. The challenge is to work out who is who. They are sort of in youngest to oldest order... but I could be wrong!

Babe #1

Sitting pretty in her pram, surrounded by her siblings and mother, 

this one clearly enjoys being  centre stage! Taken in Salisbury by Great Aunt Rose.

Babe #2

.  Sitting high. Maybe building a future for herself,  or has she just drunk a lot of juice 

and stacked the beakers up, neatly tidying up after herself?

Babe #3

Proof she exists.  An original babe. 

No air brushing then, but of course she doesn't need it!

Babe#4

These two have discovered something of interest in their new garden.  

The babe in the barrow, doesn't appear to be having 'wheelie' good fun.  

Babe #5

 

Clearly enjoying a ride on Morecambe beach with her nana. 

I won't give the date away, 'cos that would make it too easy but the sepia-look may! 

Babe #6

This one loves to keep herself occupied, even whilst having a photo taken.  

Looks like she's been disturbed whilst having fun playing in the garden.

 

Babe#7

Honest dad, I really don't know who has eaten all the chocolate!

Babe# 8

A flower fairy in the garden.  Isn't she 'posying' beautifully.  

Wonder how long the white gloves stayed clean? 

    

Babe #9

Scrambling around in the outdoors, an early indication of her hardy prowess.. and she's not even wearing any shoes! 

Babe #10

 

Taken on Aunt May's new kodak camera.  Aunt May was an original influencer and also taught this babe to knit and crochet.  This babe's hidden talents have resurfaced over the last few months! 

YOUR SECOND TASK!!!

So, who is who?  Send your answers secretly to me and I will reveal the winning line-up very soon!

👶

The Continuation of Covid Capers at Carsington

 Carsington Cafe

14th October 2020

With some of us unable to meet last week, a second October meet up was arranged.  Same setting, slightly different venue, slightly different babes, slightly different weather! We missed Helen who was braving the east coast, Jo doing a lot of cuddling, and Alison and Maggie has probably been called up to accompany an emergency humanities field trip... as if!

Staff at the restaurant were wonderful and allowed us one table outside and one inside, so we tried out both, because under the latest restrictions, we still can. 

 

Charlotte proved to be better at group selfies than Helen

We all had to sign in.  Some of us chose the NHS app; others, the old-fashioned way

I'm sure Lynn was sticking her tongue out concentrating!

Our outside chat was largely catching up on when we all thought we may have had Covid but none of us are sure but that darn flu has had several different lasting effects. 

Whilst the sun lasted, so did we, but then it went in and so did we!

Same view from inside and outside! 

Masks, wearing glasses and going back inside do not go well together.  Indoors was a bit foggy!

Julia asked a very interesting question and Charlotte answered.  We now know a lot about 'hosting' students from around the world and the peculiarities of managing this through a global pandemic! It was fascinating and hats off (not masks off) to you Charlotte, you've been very brave!

 

Charlotte in full flow! 

Pam discovered what a swiss ball is and perhaps in the future, we could all have a go on whoever has managed to pump theirs up!  Then as Charlotte was hot-lunching, she suddenly disappeared in whirl.  Hope you found your elegant scarf? 

So, we chatted about Les' extraordinary collection of vehicles and 'stuff'  and are secretly hoping for a ride in the fire engine before it gets sold!

With time pressing, because none of us could pinpoint the exact second we arrived in the car park, we battled with the queue at the pay-on-exit machine hoping that we weren't going to be charged a full day; we didn't!  

We blew kisses behind masks and reminded ourselves that we meet in Whitworth in November.

 Oh, we do love to be beside the seaside...

Saltburn looking good Helen M! 

Bird watching was abandoned in favour of chatting but we did add to last week's count of 21 with 

whooshy sparrows. 

buzzard

crow

which brings this year's total to a measly 48 with a running total of 103.  Maybe some winter visiting birds next. 

An addition later in the week... wonder who will notice?