I expect that I am not the only one to have had a brilliant wedding weekend.
Joni arrived in the area sometime in the early hours. We were to see him later. See blog http://fiona-becomingagrownup.blogspot.com/. The first task of my day was to start on decorating the New Stapleford Community Centre (newscomcen.co.uk) ready for the evening 'Red, White and Blue' dance. Just before the magic hour of 11:00 (when most of the world would be glued to their TVs) I set off to pick up my new pair of glasses. It was a case of 'park where you want'. By 11:04 I was back to see the main event. It was certainly a spectacle. (Pun intended).
The afternoon was taken up by completing the hall decorations. We already had strings of union flags, to which I added streamers of the usual colours. I purchased the crepe paper in Rymans earlier. I let the helpful assistant guess which colours I needed.
The evening was very well attended with the majority of dancers suitable attired. Some of us had the privilege of receiving an appropriate bowler. I even sported a white carnation supplies by nan and Irene had a blue sash from the same source.
The Dutch buffet was enjoyed by all.
I thought that evening went well. I hope that everyone else enjoyed themselves.
Saturday - Moorgreen Reservoir
By Saturday morning Joni was home. While he slept mum and I popped off to Ilkeston. Her hope was to buy some wedding souvenirs. Mine was to trade two analogue train controllers for some more digital decoder chips. I got £30 for the controllers and purchased two more chips and a turnout. (See note on DCC below.) Before lunch I was able install a chip in one more engine. Joni was quite impressed by how easy the controller was to use. He enjoyed adding two engines together as a consist in order to haul a large train up the incline.
In the afternoon the three of us set off to explore pastures new and not too far away at a place called Moorgreen reservoir. Our neighbour, Jenny, told us about the bluebells that were growing there. This was not one of our best arranged walks. We found the reservoir and something of a place to park, but it was not clear as to where the footpath started so we drove off in an attempt to get closer to the woods. We found a parking spot and a marked footpath, but decided to stray from it into the woods itself. Firstly we came across a profusion of wild garlic. We noted that this plant seems to be taking over from the bluebells. We were to note this on our visit to Dale Abbey on the following day.
Joni and Mum enter the woods via the wild garlic
The light in the woods was certainly of the 'green wood' variety.
The dark woods opened up to larger road ways were logging was taking place. However we were not finding the promised bluebells so back to the car, back to our first parking spot and at last we found the path alongside the reservoir. The reservoir is private property (a fishery) and so we had limited views of the water, but we did find bluebells.
At one point Joni thought that it would fun to get in the way of my shot.
The mixture of blue and white was special.
We finished off Saturday evening with a game of Rumicubs. This a game that Joni excels at, usually, but mum won twice to my once and Joni's ....... We all sat and enjoyed our beer and chocolate while we watched 'Dagenham'. It was a film worth watching.
Sunday Dale, Dung and Digital
As usual the young can't hack it and need more time in bed and so mum and I set out for the dung heap. In a very un-church-like way we set off for the Bessell Lane allotment site where there is free manure available between 10:00 and 11:00. We collected our four bags and delivered them to our own plot and returned home for 11:00. Our next adventure was to be Dale Abbey. This a favourite spot of ours and another great bluebell viewing area.
I decided to take the minimum of camera equipment. I used the telephoto for all shots without the use of a tripod. The trick is to take only those photographs that the equipment is capable of.
This is the remaining wall of the abbey viewed at a distance.
On our way through Hermits Wood Mum and Joni spied a rabbit. For some reason it was a long time before I could see it. Mum grabbed the camera and this is her shot of the rabbit moving.
Here is my effort. It really is camouflaged.
The bluebell wood
We decided to walk down to the abbey wall itself. This took us past the church. All Saints Church must be the smallest church in the country. The attached house is far larger.
On the way through the village I spied these magnificent lilac blossoms
And finally to the Abbey. In the picture Joni is looking over the wall into the garden of the private house in which the abbey stood.
After a final go with the DCC railway we had tea and Joni set off ready to leave for Scotland the following morning.
A Note on Digital Command Control
A new era (for me) in railway modelling has just begun. Today I successfully installed a decoder chip into one of my locomotives and it runs under full control together with an un-chipped loco running under analogue.
The adventure began last week when I was able get hold of a very reasonably priced digital command control. A few weeks earlier I saw the price of a different manufacturer's unit and threw in the towel.
I did have one failure with the first decoder that installed, but today I replaced it and the new one is now up and running.
To do the conversion every other control unit has to be removed and under board wiring carried out so that every centimetre of track carries 12 volts. This is supplied by the unit and the rewiring is almost complete.
The principle is very much like remote control except that the rails that carry the current also carry the messages that tell each engine what to do. This means that more than one engine can run on the same section of track possibly going at different speeds and even in different directions. It is possible to couple two engines and run them as a single until in cases of pulling heavy loads or climbing inclines.
All the functions are carried out from one box and the sole power source is the transformer to the controller. All that is needed is to set the points to run the engine on whatever route is chosen.
It is so brilliantly simple.
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