Darley Dale Delights

 A nip in the air and a nip elsewhere!

12th April 2019

 

Meeting up 'fashionably late' was the order of the day for some of us.  Whilst Lynn, Maggie and Alison adhered to the schedule, Helen J and Pam arrived just in time for Lynn to order her second coffee at the Terrace Café in the Whitworth Centre.  It was a little nippy for sitting outside but maybe a little bit breezy inside, unless Maggie was practising flicking her hair to show off her latest shampoo.

 

Looking lush, Maggie. xx

 

Talk of the table was definitely about pets!  And whilst we were all excited about meeting the latest GB puppy; family cats, budgies and guinea pigs et al, triggered a few cherished stories and a lot of laughter, but obviously we didn't laugh about the pet pigeon which got its head jammed in the door, or the budgie which crashed into window, or a different budgie which fell off its perch. Note: only two out of these three survived!

 

Whilst in the Whitworth Centre we chatted about how the building and park had been gifted to the good folk of Darley Dale to be enjoyed by many for years to come.  Such wonderful generosity: an indoor swimming pool, hall, library, billiards room, £10 annual payment to the local school (probably bought a whole teacher back-in -the-day!) ......and so much more

 

 

renamed Babe Whitworth, another historical woman sharing our values

 

 

It was soon time for Alison's much planned walk to take place but such are the vagaries of planning ahead, a little GB  adjustment was made. Pam would go off with Lynn for a puppy cuddle, whilst the rest of us set off  with a view to meeting Pam coming towards us from Caudwell Mill at some point...... hmmm.  

 

A nearby care home resident chooses careful method of escape ....

 

A nip in the air; the sun has fallen out of the sky.

 

 

Maggie, Alison and Helen set off to find the route beside the railway track.

 

Signalling that the route starts somewhere over here

 

 

 

 Not the most glamorous of walks but definitely a bit historical. Here are some of the prettier views.....

 

 

 

 

Our talk turned to matters of the environment and how to save the planet. Keeping our hair clean  (bottle, soap bar or not all) provided quite a lot of anguish, as did learning that brown paper packaging can be more harmful than plastic! Oh dear, back to the 'small print'....

So, we did what we could for the immediate future and rescued a tired looking bee

 

from the path of the next cyclist ....

 

 

some graphics of the bee's route post-rest! 

 

Conscious of the time, we cracked on at a good pace, wondering when we would meet Pam. 

 

A tempting path, but we need to meet Pam.

 

Surely Pam will be round the corner?

 

And before we knew it, we were right by the bridges near Caudwell Mill

 

Mr and Mrs Mandarin Duck

Carefree and single grey heron

 

Still no sign of Pam.  Time to check What's App...

 

1231 Pam: Hi.  Where are you now?  What's the ETA Caudwell Mill? 

1233 Us:  We are here by your car. Heading towards café... birding

1235 Pam: Ok.. meet you in the café I am on the path by the river, must have missed you...

Us.... Pam was tempted by the tempting path.  Aww, she's such a free spirit ....

 

So, we order our lunch and wait.  And arriving 'fashionably late', first Pam and then Helen M.  A lovely lunch overlooking the meadows where we spied our first swallow of the summer and then a few more, and then a few more.... summer must be a-comin' in.  As Friday 12th April may have been a significant day in the calendar, we briefly worried about life outside the EU, naughty driving habits, the state of our health and our veggie patches (not a euphemism!) before turning towards more important gossipy matters involving a forthcoming baby and a wedding. 

 

It was soon time for Pam to leave us again and we wished her well with her next adventure in Ilkeston. Whilst continuing our walk was our intention, a lift with Helen M to meet the puppy was a bit more tempting and, without breaking any speed limits, we arrived at Lynn's new house.

 

 

Garden view of a lovely pair of....

 

And here's what we had all been waiting for.  Talitha who just loves...

 

Nipping cuffs

 

Nipping laces

 

having a tickle

 

jumping around a bit

 

showing off her golden eyelashes.

 

It was good to see Lynn too in her lovely new home, but Talitha definitely stole everyone's hearts for today.  Awww...

 

Our bird count today was:

 

blackbird

blue tit

canada geese

chaffinch* first this year

coot

crow

goldfinch

great tit

grey heron

long tailed tit

mallard

mandarin duck* first this year

pied wagtail

robin

swallow (bird of the day)

wood pigeon

16 for the day. 44 for the year.  Still at 98 for our ongoing list.

 

 

 

Bubbles goes to Naples

Bubbles Goes to Naples

March 2019

It has been a very busy month for all the Babes and for Bubbles in particular - no sooner had she returned from Fuerteventura than she was off for a short break to Naples, here is her photo diary of her adventures

 

Arriving at the hotel at Manchester airport on a cold and chilly evening it is jolly good to be well provided with nice warm drinks - I hope the weather will be better when we get to Naples

What a lovely comfy bed - all set for an early night as I know Mike and Helen will be up at silly o'clock to make sure that we don't miss our flight

Look where they have made me sit to travel - I'm used to much better than this - I get much better treatment on an Emirates flight

So here we are in Naples and I have to say I am not very impressed - they seem to be knocking most of it down - these are not the sort of ruins I was expecting!

 

This is a very, very big and Castle and it isn't in ruins - very impressive

 

The sign is pointing to the Museum of Torture - I do hope that we aren't going there

 

And here we are in Pompeii - its a beautiful day but I can't believe that Vesuvius is shrouded in cloud - Mike and Helen do have a habit of promising that I will see things and then they just don't appear!

 

And this is really not what I was expecting to find in Pompeii

Pompeii is very big and we have done a lot of walking - at last we are able to sit down for lunch and a much needed drink

Just having another rest and wondering what the Romans used to store in these

 

It really is a beautiful day today, I think I might just stay here and sunbathe but I'm guessing Mike and Helen won't let me

Now I know what this - I've seen these in the Peak District 

Pompeii is making me feel very small and insignificant.

After a very tiring day at Pompeii it is good to relax on the roof terrace at the hotel

Here we are at a monastery up on the top of a big hill in Naples - we came up here on a funicular railway which was fun but Someone forgot to take a photo of me enjoying the ride! I think this was one of the monks who lived here.

It is a very big place and lots to explore

 

If it wasn't cloudy we would have a wonderful view of Vesuvius from here!

 

There are lots of narrow busy streets in Naples - I hope we don't get lost or run over by a moped or kidnapped by the Mafia......

 

Now this is the real reason for coming to Naples - proper pizza

And here is the pizza place where we ate - apparently Bill Clinton stopped here for pizza!

At last - I finally manage to see Mount Vesuvius!

Bubbles in Fuertaventura

Snowdrops and Raindrops

Snowdrops and Raindrops

Carsington and Hopton Hall

9th February 2019

 

 

Despite my best efforts to undermine the carefully laid plans of Helen J we managed to assemble at the Sheepwash car park at Carsington at 9.30am.

We were missing Pam who chose a days supply work over a rainy day with her chums! Julia was having fun in France and Bob and Betty were not allowed to join us today.

 

The brave and hardy few searching for the elusive goldcrest

 

The weather was definitely not on our side and we soon took refuge in the bird hide with our flasks

 

Despite the grim outlook there were quite a few birds to be spotted although only the very hardy were prepared to open the windows to get a clear view. The pretty little reed buntings were a delight and have to be bird of the day - closely followed by the flock of lapwings apparently the collective name for them is a deceit of lapwings but surely they deserve better!

 

The second hide we visited was a bit like being in a ship - there were waves on the reservoir but thankfully the tide was out so no danger of seasickness.

 

Back out into the elements and the search for the goldcrest continued - a greenpost was about as close as we got to spotting one even though we were on our best bird spotting behaviour  - well most of the time.

 

Feeling somewhat wet and bedraggled we made our way back to the car park and headed off to Hopton Hall to rendezvous with Charlotte. We were greeted by some very jolly chaps who were probably amazed to have so many customers on such a grim day. Lynn had to curb her large equipment envy and we  dragged her away from the temptations of the very big shed and headed to the sanctuary of the café for coffee and warmth. Charlotte arrived to join us trying very hard to hide her relief at having missed the wet bird hunt.

 

Revived by coffee we set off...

 

Always on the look out for a good angle

 

The rain stopped - temporarily!

 

The stars of the show

 

 

 

Thankfully they were animal graves!

 

Well, well, well - how many retired teachers does it take to work out how deep a well is - the answer seemed to be something between not as deep as Alison is tall and 3000 feet - perhaps a more scientific approach is needed than dropping a stone and counting!

 

The rose garden will be lovely come the summer but we used our imaginations and admired the lovely wall.

 

We were very impressed with the moss eyelash extensions.....

 

........and the moss hair extensions

 

By this point we couldn't have been much better if we had thrown ourselves in the lake!

 

If only all the birds we spotted were as well behaved as this one.

 

Not the sort of gardening equipment that Lynn lusts after.

 

Finally back to the café for lunch and we were sent to sit in the 'bar' in case we were too rowdy for the handful of other brave souls having a civilised lunch - we did mange to terrify a very nice young man who came to chat with Charlotte though and we did finally manage to dry out. The soup was jolly good and look out for the two soups soup bowl idea on Dragons Den - the perfect solution to soup envy!

 

A bit of history

 

A jolly good warning sign

 

Having all warmed up the idea of heading off to look for more birds seemed like a good idea until we got outside and put our sooty waterproofs back on so we decided to call it a day and despite the awful weather it had been a very good one.

 

Bird List for today

 

Considering the weather, it was a good haul today of 33.  New for this year are marked *.  Bird of the day has to be the reed bunting.  Flock of the day is the lapwing. Still at 98 for our running total since records began.

 

black headed gull

blackbird

blue tit

canada goose*

chaffinch

common gull*

coot

cormorant

crow

gadwall*

great crested grebe*

great tit

great black-backed gull*

great spotted woodpecker*

jackdaw

jay

lapwing*

lesser black backed gull*

little grebe*

long tailed tit*

mallard

mute swan*

pheasant*

pied wagtail*

redshank*

reed bunting*

robin

teal*

treecreeper*

tufted duck

wigeon*

willow tit*

wood pigeon

 

And there he is!