How do you describe the weather
this April? Perhaps you could say it was unseasonably cold, sometimes very grey
and miserable, odd blue skies and wet at the wrong times.
For us at ‘The Oaks’ it had a
very exciting start. It was Wednesday 1st April. It was seven in the
morning. I opened my eyes and looked into Irene’s. I thought why are you not
getting up to brew (mash) the tea. It was her turn. She said, ‘Is it Tuesday?’
The phone rang. It was Joni ringing to tell us that Ian and Zoe were at the
front door waiting to come in. So, dressing gowns were hurriedly thrown on and
down we went to meet our guests who were just at the end of their 24,000 mile
trip. What excitement as we opened the door to a bubbly 10 old Zoe and her,
slightly quieter, father. Instantly Zoe was on the go and started by finding a
piece to my impossipuzzle. This cost me £1.
We had not expected them to leave their Heathrow hotel at 5.00 am and drive straight to us. However, by degrees we had
breakfast, got dressed and made plans for the day.
Our first stop was the Denby
pottery factory. Zoe thoroughly enjoyed the factory tour and was the only
visitor who had a correct answer to how long it took to make a mug. Next we all
made a clay frog. Zoe painted a dish for herself and I painted a dish for
Emily. We left them to be fired, went back home and out to Trowell Garden
Centre for lunch. The food was enjoyable. Zoe was impressed by the fish in the
aquariums.
So far the rain had kept off. We
drove to Wollaton Hall. The climbing frame looked appealing but we went up to
the hall itself. The hall had been used as the set to a Batman movie. Zoe
enjoyed dressing up and posing with the cardboard cut-outs. The rain came as we
left the hall so it was straight home for our evening meal and an early night
for our guests.
The next day also started with
something of a shock. Once more our next set of guests took us by surprise.
Tim, Isla, Iona and Izzie turned up in time for breakfast. Zoe had already
started on the pancakes. All three girls busied themselves in the kitchen
and quickly a few pancakes became enough to feed us all. Joni and Fiona turned
up and the party left Irene and me behind and set off to Nottingham to do the
‘Robin Hood’ bit.
Later,after a cold sit in the park when
the girls chased one another up the hill we made our way to the Vivo Italian
restaurant to have a meal together. This was very pleasant and good value. I
succeeded in my ambition to eat there.
Friday was a very wet, miserable
day so together with Joni and Fiona we took our Kiwi guests to the ‘Space
Centre’ at Leicester. Zoe enjoyed making snot (non-Newtonian liquid) and the
‘Grossology’ lecture on life in a spaceship.
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| Battling gravity |
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| Snot / Non-Newtonian Liquid |
For lunch we went to MacDonald’s
in Leicester before taking Zoe and Ian to Joni and Fiona’s house. Zoe entertained
us with a quiz before we went home. This was the last night that Zoe and Ian
stayed with us. In the morning we did the Easter traditions, which was our
giving of eggs and the Clarke’s tradition of the egg hunt, organised by Zoe.
They left for London via Denby Pottery to collect the fired dishes. It was an
all too short visit.
The following week continued cold
and wet. The highlight of it was a visit to the skip at Ilkeston on Saturday
morning.
There was a committee meeting on
Tuesday 15th. This meant that we would need to go shopping on
Wednesday morning. Part of our shopping was two decking planks which we carried
home through the open car window. I had no intention of pushing the windscreen
out again. I am now waiting for the blackbird and sparrow eggs to hatch before
I begin the noisy work on the decking. Instead I have begun on sanding and
white painting the downstairs varnished doors.
In the afternoon we went in to
Nottingham. The exhibition at the Contemporary was not as inspiring as previous
ones had been. But after our lunch sitting eating and drinking stuff from
Greggs we found our way to ‘Castle Fine Arts’ and we were drawn to the vivid
paintings by Bob Dillon. The assistant was pleased to show us around.
Apparently Bob Dillon had kept a sketch book during his tours; someone looked
at it and said that he should make larger paintings from them. These are the
paintings that were on display at around £3000.
We then popped over to ‘The
Works’ where I purchased my largest canvas yet. It now sits on the easel
awaiting inspiration.
The following day I was at the
Haven Centre. I took my camera to take a picture of the blackbird that was
sitting on a nest not far away at the other side of the glass.
The next day I put in the last
piece of the ‘Impossipuzzle’. As Isla says it was not really an
‘Impossipuzzle’.
The next week we had two outings.
The first was on Tuesday afternoon when we joined a group to be escorted
around Stapleford by two county archaeologists. I went to one or two places
that I had not visited before. The most significant piece of information was
that ‘staple’ meant ‘post’. Hence the town name means ‘ford marked by a post’.
The question is ‘where was the ford?’ Place name and other evidence show the
position of the medieval village with the mill at the end of a lane next to the
river. From the mill there is a clear view to Sandiacre church. Speculation is
that the ford crossed the river to link the village centres which were close to
the churches.
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| Cemetery Entrance |
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| Our guide near the site of the pinfold |
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| Previous course of the Erewash |
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| Saxon Cross |
On Wednesday the weather was
again pleasant so we had an additional walk which was along the canal at
Cossall. Work had been carried out to clear the path and canal surrounds. The
may blossoms were amazing and reflected well in the still water of the canal.
Two days later we set off to
Brighton for a visit with Joe and Julia. The weather on the first day was not
too spectacular so I avoided taking my camera into the park. We had picked Joe
up at the university and walked through Preston Park with him to spend a
pleasant evening with them both before going back to drive off to our room at
Hickstead ‘Travelodge’. Both nights we slept soundly on the comfortable bed,
undisturbed by any noise at all.
The following day started off damp
but became sunny and quite pleasant. The four of us spent the afternoon
enjoying a walk around ‘Nyman’s’ Gardens' which included a house. It is a big
area with plenty to see and good views across the ‘Downs’.
In the evening we enjoyed a
vegetarian Chinese take away and another game of ‘Carcasson’ before going off
to our final night at the ‘Travelodge’.
We woke on Sunday morning to
another damp day and set off back to Brighton for another meeting with Joe.
Once more the weather was inclement and so I did not carry my camera.
After
breakfast at the ‘Rotunda’ café in the park we walked to the rock garden. I
took some pictures on my phone.
Then, having said goodbye to Joe, we drove to
Rottingdean to have short walk by the sea. This time I did have my camera.
Having paid our respects to the ‘English Channel’ we made our way home;
stopping for lunch at ‘Cobham Services’ and a milkshake at ‘Northampton
Services’. A good end to a great weekend.
To end the walking month, on a changeable, cold day we went the reservoir at Moorgreen. The object was to view the bluebells. It was four years and one day ago that we last visited the place. Then we were accompanied by Joni and the sun was so much brighter and warmer.
The last significant event of the month was to attend the general election hustings on that same evening. I have to say the choice between the candidates, as people, was hard. They were all sincere. They all scored and lost the same number of points. The results, next week, will be very interesting.
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).
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.
