March Blog

March still continues cold.

The first day was Sunday and the highlight was a visit from Jan, Lawrence and Jennifer

On Wednesday we braved the cold to have a walk in Wollaton Park. There was some warmth in the sun on arrival but a bitter wind got up. There were next to no camellias in their house.

The next day we had a special visit of the mayor to our ‘Haven Eagles’ group.

I was able to give the car a good clean and polish and Saturday. And on Sunday we determinedly pressed on to complete the Picasso jigsaw.

 On Wednesday we took the Leicester House ladies to the Haven café and they thoroughly enjoyed it. When we got back workmen were on the roof. A small job of stopping birds entering the loft space to steal my insulation, replacing fascia and a damaged tile became a major job. But the whole roof is now as good as new (probably better) and the guttering runs well and does not leak.

The work was completed on the following day while we were walking around the gardens at Matlock Bath and visiting the lead mining museum. It was fascinating. The café turned out to be a lady at the reception desk putting on a kettle and (because of the danger of lead poisoning) having a ‘Twix Bar’ instead of cake.

 There was a big ‘Health Fayre’ event in the Community Centre which we attended with the ‘Eagles’ on Thursday afternoon.

Dr Doddy

 The sun shone on Wednesday. Although it was cold we decided that the walking season had begun. Going via Wilkos in Ilkeston we headed for the village of Hartington. It is a very pretty village with a duck pond. It was difficult to find a parking space. But we did and then found a café for our coffee and Bakewell tart. We did not have time to visit the cheese shop where Chiltern cheese originates. (After the walk we needed to be back to meet the people who were buying our freezer.)

The walk started at the car park next to the Hartington signal box. It was only a short walk alongside field were the first of the lambs were on show. At the end of the two miles we came to the Parsley Hay refreshment stop. As expected, it was closed. However, the picnic tables were available to sit and have food, before using the toilets before the walk back.

The sale of the freezer went well.

The whole country was excited about the partial eclipse on Friday. The midlands were about the only area to be completely cloud free and allow us to view the phenomena on my improvised screen.

There was a different type of excitement about Saturday. The morning was clear and we were able to continue painting the fences until the preservative ran out. It was at this point we remembered what it was that we should have collected at B and Q. But the real fun was to be had with Paul. We went to the Nottingham Model Railway Society’s annual exhibit. The car park was very full, but inside it was not overcrowded with more exhibits than I saw a previous year. Paul and I were particularly impressed by the mechanism to tilt a truck of coal into a hopper.

The day went on as we returned Paul home and Mary had prepared the four of a us a delicious three course meal.

Back home we over indulged ourselves with chocolate washed down with a glass of beer.

Our Sunday was the usual church service. The sun was bright and warm so we just had to set off to B and Q to buy the preservative and complete the fence.

Joni and Fiona came for a meal on Wednesday night and it was our opportunity to give them a engagement present as well as Fiona's birthday present.

The final walk of the month was to do a further stretch of the Tissington Trail. We arrived in Tissington just as the waitress from the café arrived. I asked her about parking and was told that nobody checks the spaces marked ‘Parking for Two Hours Only’. We followed her to the café for our usual coffee and cake. It was nice bur pricey.

The walk to the toilet at the start of the trail was quite short. We completed the three mile walk to the car park at Alsop in just over an hour. It was when we arrived there that I realised we should have driven from the toilet to this car park and walked the three miles back to the Tissington toilets. A lesson learned, but we did complete the six miles without much of a problem.

The main feature of this walk was the sound of sheep bleating and crows cawing. We spotted at least three rabbits ripped to pieces in a cutting. The foxes must have been busy. We were also impressed by the care that the authority has taken to provide a safe and pleasant walking route.

Today March is ending as it typically was; cold and wet, but with wind driven rain. Welcome to the UK Zoe and Ian.