Christmas and the End of 2017

Through the week before Christmas we quietly got on with our final preparations. I worked on making lots of mince pies.

Our Christmas Eve was spent at the community centre, where there was a sequence dance. We left just after 10.00 pm. Before light out we sat down and enjoyed a glass of cherry brandy.

The presents had been stacked in plastic crates, so they were delivered in them. Christmas Day began with our tradition of mince pies and a cup of tea followed by the unwrapping of presents. It was strange to be doing this on our own.

Then followed a walk to the church for a short service. This is something that does not seem to have happened for many years. This year it happened simply because Christmas Day fell on Sunday. In times past it was a tradition for mum to take the children to church on Christmas morning, particularly when we were in Great Horwood where after church Santa visited the children on the close.

With another break in tradition we had friends round for Christmas dinner. Paul and Mary drove us back from church and we enjoyed a few hours of happy time together. I had made a huge sacrifice in giving away one of my paintings. It was of a bridge on a  foggy day in Berwick upon Tweed. We had duck for dinner and later played a game of Blokus, which Mary won. They left at about 4.00 pm and we had our own time of playing board games and watching a film.

Boxing day was relatively quiet, apart from Joni and Fiona calling in for a brief chat.

Our family Christmas got fully underway on the 27th. First Tim, Isla, Izzie and double bass arrived. This was followed in a matter of minutes by Joni and Fiona. This was  followed, just a little later by Iona who had come alone on the coach (Tim did not have room in his car for Iona and a double bass).

Having settled in we had the fun of exchanging presents, eating our turkey dinner and playing various games. One game, at mum's request was the 'Caption Game'. Everyone suggested captions to a set of my photographs. No one won, but we had many witty captions, especially from Iona.

The one reason that we were very sure that Tim and family would come on the 27th was that Izzie was due to start rehearsals for the National Youth Orchestra on the 28th. After lunch the three of them, with double bass, set off to Nottingham University, where Izzie would be staying and rehearsing, until we are next due to see her, in concert at the Theatre in Nottingham. That evening those of us left sat to watch an animation about Raymond Brigg's parents and the  'Jonathan Creek' special.

On Thursday we woke to continuing fog and freezing conditions. We all stayed in late and then after breakfast we went for a walk along the Nottingham Canal at Cossall. These conditions are good for atmospheric photographs.

Tim and Isla, very kindly, took us for a curry at Weatherspoons before disappearing into the foggy night and that was Christmas over.

Today, Friday, we had a foggy journey into Long Eaton for shopping. Compared to our last trip it was a veritable Mary Celeste. Asda made it very obvious that Christmas was over. Apparently all that was Christmassy came down on Christmas Eve and now there were Easter eggs in a prominent position.

We have begun on some of our Christmas clearing and tomorrow it will be New Years Eve. For us the year should end with dancing at the community centre.

2016 has been a strange year for many reasons.People always say this at the end of every year and I guess we shall say it at the end of 2017, despite  the many blessings that I sure that we all will have.

Apparently my one follower has bemoaned my failure to keep up with my blogging. Here I will try to address my remiss.

Please understand that I have not neglected to communicate in writing and pictures. I have been pursuing two courses of action. Mainly, I have been posting fairly regularly on Facebook. (I hope that this has not been so frequent that readers have blocked me). I have also been keeping up with a series of books known as ‘2016 in Pictures’. For masochists, five volumes will be available by the start of the new year. Fortunately this will need a home visit. Once again the reader will only be able to see a few of the over 4,100 pictures taken, so far, this year. Admittedly, about a quarter of them were taken during the first two month when we were overseas.

I have blogged fairly steadily from the beginning of the year until mid-April. Then there was a gap before the next blog covering early to mid-June. Of the gap there is a difficulty in publishing photographs since some have been banned (Namely the wedding ones). Here are some of the missing items.

Walking during April was iffy and in the middle of it came the wedding of our son Joseph to Julia Worley. They have now become Mr and Mrs Worwood. It is these photographs that have to be private, but here is a photograph of the beautiful surrounding that it was held in. The registry office was in the grounds of a place called Cockington. Every effort was made to keep the oldie world charm.

There is a lovely story of determination and overcoming to be told but it is not mine to tell.

After the wedding we went to stay in a wonderful ‘Air B and B’ house. They were great hosts and charged a very reasonable price. In the morning we said goodbye to them and visited Oddicombe on our way from Torquay to home.

It took us two hours more than our usual run of five hours to get back home.

Just over a week later the walkings began, but the weather was still not very clement. We started with a visit to Willington Marina, which is quite local.

Next we had a trip out to Litchfield. It is a fascinating market city, with a lot of history. The cathedral is the only one in the country to boast three spires. It was the home of famous men. Erasmus Darwin lived there. He was a physician and natural philosopher and grandfather of Charles Darwin. His home was informative and worth the visit. Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield. He was the son of a bookseller. There is a claim to his home being a humble dwelling, but a visit to the house would reveal otherwise. Despite his non-love of books, Samuel would become known as the compiler of the first English dictionary.

Finding the Johnson house was something of a trial. A sign at the cathedral end of the cobbled street pointed to the house. However, having trudged through the rain to the end of the street, the sign to the said house pointed towards the cathedral. So back we went, looking more carefully, without success. That was when we decided to get indoors for lunch. Our order was placed, delivered and then the waitress came to ask how our food was. I hope to return to that MacDonald’s one day.

Eventually we found the house across the square. It turned out that the local youth take delight in re-positioning the signs.

The Old man of Calke

A week later we made a visit to Calke Abbey. This is a National Trust property which makes it free to us members. Having sat in the bird hide we had our first walk in the parkland before visiting the gardens.

In the gardens I took a photograph that would become one of my paintings.

On the following week we had an abortive mission to walk through Lathkill Dale. My memory, not being as good as it was, conned me into going into the totally opposite direction and finishing up near Elton.

On the Saturday we had the delightful task of visiting the colourful rhododendrons in the grounds of Nottingham University.

The next week was the visit to Northumberland which is well covered in a previous blog.

Our next two visits would be linked. Not only were they Wednesday outings being blessed by rain, there was also a historical connection. On the first Wednesday we decided to visit my brother’s widow, Veronica. After lunch she took us out for a walk in the Bosworth Field area. The following week, on a very wet day, we thought that an indoor trip to the Richard III exhibition would be in order. We have very rarely visited Leicester, other than to the National Space Centre and to pass through the bus station on our way to New Zealand. The park and ride works very well. In the city there is a charming area around the Cathedral and the Guildhall. I have to say that the cathedral folks can take pride in the way that they have presented it. The staff of the exhibition centre  also made it very interesting.

The following week followed the semi-historical theme as we visited Lincoln Castle and then the Rural Life Museum. The main point of the visit was to see the ‘Poppy Wave’. The large poppy installation at the Tower of London had been broken up and some of them had been brought to Lincoln Castle to be installed as an art work. It did not disappoint.

The next two visits were local. In fact we made two consequential visits to Attenborough. The first was with our Haven Eagles, over 50s group and the second was just after my 70^th birthday when I went to test out my new 500mm telephoto lens on the local bird life. 

At the end of the month it was my eldest son’s birthday which we spent with him at Stockwell Park near Leighton Buzzard.

After this we were up and out to our Derbyshire countryside.

Jacob's Ladder

These visits included the Monsall Trail and Lathkill Dale.In the dale we found 'Jacob's Ladder, which only grows in this area.

Monsall Dale

Lathkill Dale

One Saturday afternoon we went to Wollaton Hall where they had an exhibition to commemorate the demolition of Victoria Station (Nottingham). The clock tower still stands as part of the Victoria Shopping Centre.

Then we discovered ‘The Longshaw Estate’. The aim was to find a convenient car park for visiting the heather covered moorland. Firstly, I found the surprise view car park on the edge of Hathersage Moor. But, nearby, I spotted a car park and refreshment stop which was owned by the National Trust. Our first walk went along the Burbage Brook. Next time it was for the heathers and we just made it to the Hathersage Moor. On that occasion it was the height of the summer and the Padley Gorge ice-cream vans were fully occupied. A fellow walker commented that “half of Sheffield must be here today.” It was the same day that we went to Fox Houses Inn to have our anniversary meal.

At the end of the same month we went back to Longshaw Lodge and succeeded in going along Padley Gorge to Grindleford. It was a tough, never to be repeated walk.

Longshaw Heathers

There was a final visit, for the year to Longshaw Lodge, when we repeated the walk which we made when we first visited. It was a little muddier and the brook was flowing more powerfully.

Padley Gorge Walk

Burbage Brook

Thanks to some friends we had a wonderful find. In all our travels we had not come across Lumsdale Valley. It is hidden away near Matlock. The Bentley Brook flows from the north and runs down the valley. There used to be three ponds which were created by dams, making the water fall and drive machinery in different mills.

Away from the Peak District we had fun visiting the Scarecrow Festival at nearby Draycott. Pretty much the whole village had made an effort.

Another, very different place was the ‘Yorkshire Sculpture Park’. It is only an hour away and easy to find. It is set in acres of ground and has the works of many famous sculptors. One of the galleries is quite a walk from the main car park and involved a climb up a field full of cows.

Six days later we went to London. Our mission was to support Izzy as she went for an audition for the National Youth Orchestra. Early on a dark wet weekday morning we joined the congestion on the M1. The plan was for Tim to take Izzy and double base to Cockfosters Tube Station where we would meet them. It was quite nostalgic to be going by the gates of our training college and boarding the tube which we had used often in those days. The audition was at Imperial College. Tim met us after his meeting and we did the journey in reverse. Despite the little set backs at the audition Izzy gained a place in the orchestra and, by a strange coincidence will be boarding at Nottingham University in December and we shall see her at her first performance.

We made other visits to the Peak District. There was a further one to Monsal Head. This involved a walk over the fields from Ashford in the Water.

There was also a late visit to Curbar Edge, after the heather had died off. It is getting too much for us to make a walk of the distance we did and we shall have to be more circumspect next year.

Beauvale Priory

Haven Eagles at the
New Stapleford Community Centre

Through the year there were activities with our Haven Eagles people. We had a visit an event for older people, then to the tea rooms at Beauvale Priory, refreshments at Attenborough Nature Reserve and a Christmas trip to Trowell Garden Centre.

Haven Eagles at Trowell Garden Centre

Our church did a Christmas event for the people of Leicester House.

The Lake at Trentham Gardens

The final outings of the year included a visit to Trentham Gardens for Irene’s birthday. For the time of year there was a lot of colour in the gardens. The seed heads also made a great show. A neighbouring monkey made an appearance.

We visited two art galleries in Nottingham. Firstly we went to the Contemporary and were not really enthused by the elephant bits. The Nottingham Art Exchange was more interesting with a display of street art done by brave artists in the Middle East (notably Iran).

Calke Abbey was good for an autumn walk. The birds were busy in the hides. The garden was closed but it was an interesting walk around the park 
land where we spied a huge toadstool. We met an artist who had taken advantage of this unusually warm and sunny day. He will be visiting our Haven eagles group next year.

A little while after this visit we did a trip to Hardwick Hall. It began to rain as we entered the parkland, but had stopped by the time we parked. The gardens here were open and some of the dahlias were still in flower.

Most recently we visited Attenborough once more and I am pleased with some of my bird shots.

This week, following a morning of Christmas shopping in Nottingham, we had a walk along the Nottingham Canal. It was bright and wintry. There was a crust on the water that looked thick enough to walk on until we saw a coot swim through it.

Irene and I did our Christmas church activities including helping encourage people in Tescos give food for the food bank, going door to door with Celebrations and Christmas cards to invite people to our carol service,and standing with collecting boxes in Tescos again. There are a lot of generous people. One lady was moved by my hat which says ‘I believe in Father Christmas'.

This afternoon we have our carol service before a relatively quiet last week to Christmas.