Awful weather in Allestree

 

Following a last minute cancellation of a Gelly Babe trip last week where Alison was the only one guaranteed to make an appearance, a new date gathered four of us together: both Helens, Alison and Jo, plus Betty, of course.

 

Helen J, having just had a fabulous Nordic walk in Allestree in glorious sunshine, was dismayed when Alison pulled up in her car and brought with her the summer rain! Hot on her wheels, Helen and Betty arrived.  Whilst waiting for Jo, whose avid following of the satnav led her up the wrong path, we had to take our first shelter … a few droplets at this stage.  A very excitable Betty noisily announced her arrival thus guiding Jo to the right place.

 

Whilst Allestree Park is a local ‘go-to’ place for pokemon hunting, the gamers were outwitted by the Elite Four who captured the celebrity Cloughie Coach.  But the Babes, not knowing quite what to do with their find (or is it fiend?), released him back into the wild woods and settled for a coffee with chips(!)…

...where we are definitely in our comfort zone.

 

After a quick travelogue taking in Costa del Hornsea, Costa Rica and  Costa Lotta Wedding Weeks, we set off engrossed in Helen M’s latest house view-buy-sell-by escapade and await the next instalment with bated breath. There’s no shilly-shallying with some Babes.

Helen M, still optimistic the sun will stay out.

 

And, perfectly timed, we hit the woods

 

Himalayan balsam; the friar’s favourite

 

 

Betty the rat-catcher

 

Mite there be galls here?

 

Jo spots another pokemon character

 

Despite Helen J’s attempts to keep everyone dry, the Babes have to emerge at some point, so it’s hoods up time

 

Braving the weather

 

 

 

And keeping our eyes peeled for errant golf balls, we head across the golf course

 

Betty kindly tidying up the 9^th hole

 

Encouraged by plans to re-introduce highland cattle for grazing and the development of  meadow pastures, we take the path across the fields. By now, with wet hair but spirits not dampened, we can’t resist a walk around the lake for a bit of bird-spotting even if we can’t properly identify them all.

 

So, it must be a Pokemon bird…

 

Appropriately named ...

 

 

Although disappointed not to have seen the resident or even heard the green woodpeckers, we managed 15 birds. * marked as this year’s first sighting, bringing us to 52 for the year, and one off our total target! 

 

blackbird

black-headed gull

canada geese

coot

crow

golden-eye

greylag*

little grebe

magpie

mallard

moorhen

robin

swallow

wood pigeon

wren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June Jolly

June 24th 2016

Trailing Round Teversal

 

Thankfully the monsoon season seems to have ended and we gathered at the visitor centre at Teversal in the June sunshine - OK so not quite up to Sardinian standards but at least it was dry.

Bacon butties and the vegetarian option of egg butties were the order of the day and all accompanied by cries of astonishment at the price and at the tale of 'goings on' which the nice gentleman volunteer treated us to.

 

Betty's new best friend

 

The atmosphere was a bit subdued as we were all still reeling from the results of the referendum but Lynn soon arrived to cheer us all up and fortified by all the additives in the dog sausage she had just eaten Betty showed her excitement at meeting Lynn for the first time. (Betty had eaten the dog sausage - not Lynn!)

 

All set for a wheel nice day

 

A text message from Pam to let us know she wouldn't be along until later led to a quick rethink of plans and ever flexible (some of us  more flexible than others!) we set off for walk number one up to Teversal village.
 

No comment!

 

Jo and Betty lead the way whilst Helen M stays behind to do the dirty work.

 

We walked up through the lovely old Teversal village - a perfect little place - apart from no tea room, no pub and no village shop! And probably no doctors, no library and no bus service but lots of peace and quiet

 

The driveway to Teversal Manor which is widely considered to be the  fictional Wragby Hall in DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.

 

I think I've seen a ghost - no just one of the ladies of the village.

 

We wandered round the lovely old church of St Katherine, with it's amazing Norman doorway and found two gravestones with the date 1681. Happily we were able to go inside as two village ladies were making their daily visit, they made us very welcome and were full of information and for even more information and the legend of St Katherine go to:

 

http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/tts/tts1904/summer/teversal1.htm

 

Maggie looking a little cross?

 

The organist entertains.....

 

 looks a bit ropey to me!

 

 

We left the church and headed off down the fields, hoping that Jo's weather forecast of rain at four was incorrect.

 

The four o'clock clouds are gathering

Best foot forwards girls!

 

Betty found a wee stream...

 

Teversal pastures - a wonderful meadow full of wild flowers

 

We walked back along the trail to the visitor centre to make our rendezvous with Pam, Lynn had to leave before Pam arrived and is now convinced that Pam is avoiding her! Thankfully Jo's weather forecast was wrong and the grey clouds didn't trouble us and Pam arrived safely.

Very rare black bunny, indigenous to Teversal - spotted whilst we were waiting for Pam

 We drove to the other car park to make our ascent to the highest point in Nottinghamshire and the miner - not the hostelry which some babes had been anticipating!

 

 

 

Crich stand in the distance

 

Prize available for anyone who can spot Lincoln Cathedral

 

It must be over there....

No, it's over there....

 

And Pam is looking for the silver lining

 

With such a wonderful view we all got out our pencils to attempt to capture the moment

 

 

 

Helen tried very hard to keep things in proportion - not an easy

task!

 

Study those proportions

 

Pam doing it her way!

 

Clutching our masterpieces we headed back down the hill where we said goodbye to Jo and the rest of us headed for the Carnarvon Arms for drinks and food.

The journey home was not straightforward for all of us and here is the account of the excitement from the woman who scoffed at satnav!

'Alison and Maggie set off with me not far behind  and just as we were in the middle of nowhere we were familiar with, a policeman redirected us away from 'an incident', so we got hopelessly lost!!  Fortunately, once the satnav realised that I was not going to turn around and annoy the policemen, I was able to lead Alison and Maggie out of the mess and eventually onto the A38... a somewhat circuitous route but we made it.'

 

And last but not least the  bird list for the day:

 

blackbird

buzzard

chiffchaff

crow

goldfinch

house sparrow

kestrel*

pied wagtail

robin

starling*

swallow

swift**

wood pigeon

 

Although only 13 birds for the day, surprisingly two recorded firsts for the year * and a first ever GB spotting of a swift (circling around the miner, surely captured in someone’s  sketch!). A grand total of 51 for the year and now 84 for our running total.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jo’s big birthday bash!

Hardwick Friday 13^th May 2016

Working to Helen M’s precise schedule, the Babes met in the car park at Hardwick for the start of a very exacting schedule of coffee, nature walks, picnic, house visiting, tea, evening meal and a lot of cake.  Quickly admiring Alison’s new birthday present.. a car(!)..we made the first of many trips through the office to collect our badges.  Maggie was placed on badge monitor duty as Helen M is not to be trusted in such matters, as proved later in the day.   Maggie can now add ‘Badge Monitor’ to her ‘Super Domestic Goddess’ title.

I'm sure the toilet is marked just here!

Word has it, that some Gelly Babes might be satisfied to have a blog full of nature lists and a myriad of photos. But, following a relaxing holiday, with her mojo (not her Adblue) tank, now fully charged, Helen J will not allow such slipshod thinking (not on her shift anyway!). 

As it was Jo’s special birthday, and as she didn’t have a car for a present, she was allowed to make up as many lists as she liked.  With the help and superlative wild plant knowledge of Helen M and Lynn, she excelled herself in listing lots of plants and then re-listing them at the end of the day to make sure none ended up on the wrong list.  But, sometimes the plant-loving babes’ skill was lacking in absolute precision because the Romans definitely named the following plants: ‘cioccolati hellebore’, ‘daisy alba’ and the ‘internet plant’.  Fact: the Romans were very advanced for their age. It is such a shame that cohesive devices, fronted adverbials and modal verbs, to name a few, are the focus of the KS2 curriculum and not Latin, otherwise we would have all known what we were talking about.  But muddling our way through the day, is part of the fun of our Gelly Babe trips.

 

So, after our first coffee and chat, the babes set off on the first of their nature walks,

Just too rude to mention...

 

but soon needed a break from all the thinking, writing and looking:

 

And babes just wanna have fu-un...

Alison not making any allowances for Jo's age...

The Swinging Sixties...

Action woman 

As well as Chief List Maker, Jo is allowed to add Action Babe to her list of titles. 

As we know all Babes can multi-task: walking, talking, list making and nature spotting all at once but they also love distractions and compliments .  Greetings of ‘morning girls’ are most appreciative, which means we can now add Girlie Babes to our other names of Gelly birder and Domestic Goddess.  One man may not be right… but can all three be wrong? 

 

Bumbling along, but with time ticking away, we spot many things on our walk:

Where wood we bee without you?

It's caption competition time....

Not so secret now, eh?

Wild garlic soup  anyone?

 

 

The first of many lists:.  Wild flower list on walk..

alcanet (borage family)

arum lily/ lords n ladies or the rude one

bluebell

bugle

celandine

dandelions

dog violet

forget-me-not

garlic mustard

lady smock

pink campion

queen anne's lace (cow)

solomon's seal

speedwell

wild garlic (wild plant of the day)

wood anenome

wood sorrell

yellow rattle

 

 And look who we also spot

Lynn, making a fine entrance...

 

After our second trip through reception we settle down with our picnic, exchange rather a lot of birthday presents, eat cake and sing a rousing canon of ‘Laugh Kookaburra’

 

“Will you love me in December as you do in May?”
― Jack Kerouac

Of course we will, Jo, of course we will.

 

Trees and fungi list

bracket fungus

cherry

holly

hornbeam

pholita adiposa (yellow pimple one)

twisted hazel

yew

And, at the third count through reception, we head towards the gardens

Sitting and 'aying' a moment whilst waiting for Pam

Continuing our plant identification, although stumped at the time, after a clever bit of research, Sherlock Mitchell has discovered that this plant is called Ribes Speciosm

 



but we know the Romans really called it Ostendere Arbor Fushcia



 

But it was all too soon to say farewell to Lynn…

Look this way, girls

 

Garden wild flower list

alpine strawberry

aquilegia

buttercup

chickweed

comfrey

cowslip

daisy

dock

greater celandine

hawkbit (is this on the right list?)

honesty

oxslip

primrose

Ribes speciosum

saxifrage

shepherd's purse

snakes'head frillaria

welsh poppy

whitebells

 

And not a moment too late for the House talk, but too late to have a photo with all of us together

Pam makes her entrance

 

After a careering talk by Mr Stubbs, the Babes move into the Hall for Arbella’s story. What with Scotland and England divided, rumours of treason, claims to the throne, palaces vs prisons, rather a lot of dates, names and portraits .. it felt as though the referendum has been going on for centuries.

 

Moving with the times.. the modern tapestry

What a purler!

 

Jo trying out her birthday outfit

 

obviously  about the Babes…

but the special day belongs to Jo
 

 

All too soon, we needed to say farewell to Pam so she could go back to one of her many jobs.  But not before Jo shared her birthday cake..

 

How clever of Maggie to find enough badges to decorate the cake!

 

A pity we forgot to collect the serviettes from the kitchens!
 

And at the fourth count through reception for a well-deserved cup of tea and retail therapy the remaining Babes chew the cud before heading off to the Hardwick Inn for a lovely evening meal.

 

Arbella babe

 

Creature list

bumble bee

cow

dog

donkey (ass of the day)

horse

llama  (GB first)

pony

shetland pony

spectacled fly

wood bees (carpenter bees?)

 

Bird list

blackbird

bluetit

chaffinch

chiffchaff

coal tit

crow

dunnock

goldfinch

great tit

greater-spotted woodpecker

house sparrow

jackdaw

long-tailed tit

magpie

nuthatch

peacock

pheasant

pied flycatcher (GB first)

pied wagtail

robin

song thrush

swallow

wood pigeon

(23 in total, 48 this year gives us a running total of 83)

 

 

Martin Heidegger:

"the most thought- provoking thing in our thought -provoking

time is that we are still not thinking".