April - Part 1

I can say that there were odd times to work on the allotment and get potato planting underway. But the weather continued to be generally grim.

Despite this we were determined to continue with our weekly walks. On the second of the month we chanced our arm with a visit to another section of the Monsall Trail. Earlier our next door neighbours, the Luckcocks, had given us a book showing walks starting at various railway stations in the Peak District. Walk number one was to start at Bakewell Station, head east and then turn left over some fields in the direction of Chatsworth House.

Two things went wrong. The first was that we turned left too soon in Bakewell and found ourselves in the car park at the Bakewell Showground. In someways this was fortunate; not the least being that the car park payment machine was out of order so we had FREE PARKING. The cafe at the showground was open with tasty, affordable food and drink. There was also a convenient convenience at the start of the walk.

The Monsall Trail was well sign posted and this led to the final plus being that we would be start at an end of the trail. I will explain this later.

To get to the end of the trail meant a walk down Coombs road for about 1/3 of mile parallel to the trail. The picture shows the murkiness that we would experience throughout the walk.

From the relatively level road there was a slight incline up to the trail which was suitably sign posted.

We would later find that this was not the only end of the trail. The beauty of Derbyshire trails is that they are level as they were originally railway tracks. They also, pretty much, all weather trails, which is more could be said about the path across the field. The original walk was abandoned and we plodded on further.

Quite soon we reached the old Bakewell station.

Our reading told us that the stations were so ornate because they needed to placate the duke over whose land the railway passed. This also explained some of the unnecessary cutting which were designed as a screen.

As we walked I became aware that there seemed to be a lack of places to sit and have lunch. But around the next corner was a grassy space with picnic tables. From where we sat having lunch we could see what appeared to be industrial buildings and so had to find out what they were. Lo and behold we had arrived at Old Hassop Station which certainly is a magnificent building.

For us this became significant as we recalled that last year we had walked from this station to Monsall Head and later on walked from Monsall Head to Millers Dale. A look at the map showed us that we had now completed all but a mile and a half of the whole trail. A plan formed.

Instead of going back to the end of the trail we left it at the old Bakewell station and walked down into the town. This walk took us to the river which is a lovely place and has two interesting bridges.

The first is the old stone bridge.

This second is the steel girder bridge which is interesting because it has become repository of padlocks attacked to the wires running across.

Sadly, on the 8th April, our friend Alan died.

On the 9th we could not immediately carry out our Monsall Trail plan and so we made the best of the time we had by visiting quite a little known pond. Strangely this was only about 10 minutes from us and it turned out to be lovely place to be. Martin's Pond is to be found by driving along the A609 towards Wollaton Hall. The road becomes Russell Road and to the left is Russell Drive. The pond entrance is where the drive turns sharp right. As always, I look for reflections and colour. The blossoms are quite splendid.

A path leads off the main pond. Having walked around Martin's Pond following the path leads to another pond. The walk becomes a figure of eight.

The following Tuesday was our tea and talk with the ladies of Leicester House. Irene's theme was 'The Two Easter Gardens'. The first being Gethsemene and the second Jesus' tomb.

We all enjoyed the tasty Easter cakes.

At last came the chance to finish off the Monsall Trail. We followed the A6 out of Bakewell until we came to the car park at Wye Dale. The sun was shining, it was holiday time and the car park was full, but we managed. It was a lovely walk along the river to the start of the trail; which was also called 'The End of the Trail'. So where is the beginning?

The route took us through two quite short tunnels and then in to the main Chee Tor tunnel which had to be lit.

Passing by the fantastic lime kilns which used to worked by a man and a boy we eventually came to Millers Dale. Our trek along the Monsall Trail was complete.

Jenny told me that earlier in the week they had done the whole trail in one go. Good for them.

July

July was a big month for taking photographs. On the first day I was commissioned to photograph the neighbours dog before it was disposed of.

Two days later we made another visit to Sawley Marina. This time we set off in the opposite direction along the Trent in the direction of Shardlow.

At one point across the river was an amazing bridge built solely for pedestrians. Towards the end of the walk we went through a field of waving grass and came to a pub which had a enormous collection of mugs.

After lunch we went to visit Melbourne Hall Gardens. Last year we took a walk from there and the hall was covered in a huge tent as restoration work took place.

The gardens are large and include stables, paddocks and a tennis court. It is occupied and we spied children of the owner playing on their private lawn. The gardens are fascinating with various areas, ponds and lots of colour.

On Saturday we visited Nan in her nursing home and took her outside to see the new baby.

For some unknown reason we took the bus into Nottingham. I think that we had decided to visit the castle. To be honest it does not look much like a castle. The gardens are colourful and there was evidence of the recent 'Armed Forces Day'.

From the castle walls we could see Trent Bridge cricket ground. This was the first day of the 2013 test match and the flood lights were already on.

We could also see one of the oldest buildings in the city.

We walked down to a pub called 'Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem'. Reputedly the oldest in Britain. It is partly built into rock on which the castle is built. It would have been a good place for a full meal, but not for the snack that we wanted and so we went into the city.

On the 14th it was a good allotment day when the fruits of our labours were ready to pick. It was a brilliant year for fruit.

Back in the garden the new summer house had been decorated and for many weeks we were able to eat in it.

Then followed a very different day. Lawence drove me up to York. The object was to visit the National Railway Museum. The museum was hosting 'The Great Gathering'. They were celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the achievement of the, still standing, record for the fastest steam engine, namely, 'Mallard'. It and other A4 engines from around the world had been gathered in one place. It was very busy, but it was a fantastic occasion.

On the 20th we held a party for family and friends. There were no presents and no speeches and no point to it.

A guest enjoying a joke

Our next outing was to Hassop Station. From there we walked along the abandoned railway track through the recently opened railway tunnels as far as Monsal Head.

Once again we commented on this
year's proliferation of wild flowers

 On the following Saturday, having visited Nan in her home, we were invited for coffee at Irene's brother Martin's house where we spent a good time with him, his wife Penny and daughter Scarlet. 

We held a 'Flowers' 'Tea and Talk' at Leicester House. For some reason I took my Fez and for some reason Paul thought that he could do a Tommy Trinder impersonation.

The reason I had my fez was that I wore my flower shirt. Oh! the fez was a plant pot.

The month ended with a very expensive drain repair. This involved a father and son team threading a resin soaked fibre glass tube from our neighbours drain into the garage. So far we have no rat sounds under the floor. Job well done.

March Winds (Strike ‘Winds’ Replace with ‘Snow’)

March did get off to the promise of a bright Spring. Our first journey was to Nan and there we met with Damaris, little Iris and their dog. It was a real pleasure to meet them.

On the way home the sky was blue and the condensation from the cooling towers rose almost vertically in intertwined spirals.

But then it happened. On the 11^th the ground received it’s covering of snow and the spring flowers tried, bravely, to keep their blossoms in the air.

The snow was fairly short lived and by the time we went to visit our friends, Jim and Janette it had pretty much gone. Jim is a great keyboard aficionado and Janette enjoys her gadget. So, while Janette and I played with her iPad Jim gave Irene further keyboard instruction.

Actually the snow was still in small piles. Janette and Jim were having slabs laid and as we reversed out we were aware of being lifted up and feeling a lot of crunching which turned out to be the effect of going over a pile of frozen snow.

Mostly, our visits were going to be indoors. On Sunday after church Irene and I set off to yet another model railway exhibition. This was the Nottingham one. Normally it is held at the Harvey Haddon Leisure Centre. However, during refurbishment it was held at the neighbouring Oak Hill school campus. This is quite a new building and the exhibition was held in three separate parts. Having had our sandwiches in the car we paid our entry fee, we were fitted with red wrist-bands and sent through the icy rain to the first building. I am always amazed at the infinite care and patience shown by true railway modellers.

There was only one model that I had seen before. The new venture in modelling seems to be Czechoslovakian railways. Apparently the engines and rolling stock are readily available as they were all made identically in Russia and simply had different liveries painted on. One model particularly caught our eye. It was a vast ‘n’ gauge. I asked the three men standing behind if they were part of a club. Two of them pointed to one man and told me that ‘it was his’. I asked him how long he had been working on it. He explained that he had been forced to take early retirement and had decided to take up railway modelling all of two years ago. What an achievement. You simply could not count the number of people or even the road vehicles adorning his baseboard.

I had planned that we met up with other friends called Paul and Mary to go on a photo-shoot. As the weather continued bitterly cold we decided to just spend time at their home. After one of their very tasty and generous lunches Paul and I did some quick flash photography. My aim was to show Paul the benefit of using ‘RAW’ files. We both used flash of the same subject at the same ISO setting. My next problem was to download the files from the cards to ‘Adobe Elements’. There has to be a way of telling these machines to use ‘Adobe’ rather than ‘iPhoto’.

With the files loaded it was possible to do the manual processing of the RAW images to jpegs. Here was the surprise. The images from the Nikon were generally brighter than the ones from the Canon. Plus, there was practically no difference between the Nikon’s camera processed jpegs and the manually processed ones. Whereas the different quality of the Canon’s images was significant. I am glad I went for Nikon.

Keeping to the subject of products, I felt obliged to post a picture of the packaging that came with a single cartridge of Canon ink from Amazon. The picture that I used did not do justice as the ink cartridge only occupied less than a quarter of the space in the box. I have received similar cartridges in packages that could be put through the letter box.

On Friday 22^nd Irene and I put on a ‘Tea and Talk’ for the residents of Leicester House. We began with egg decorating which they all thoroughly enjoyed. As part of the talk Irene was going to invite the residents and the guests to roll an egg. However one of the dear folk did not wait to hear the word, ‘gently’ and with gusto … No harm was done.

Tim was with us from Friday for a few days. He made it just before the snow of the afternoon. The following morning he decided to go down to the leisure centre for a sauna. I drove him down and took what I think are some of the best images of the season.

By Sunday more snow had fallen and was thick on ground. It looked as if it might take about half an hour to clear the car and the drive so Irene and I abandoned our attempt to go to church and instead walked with Tim to the leisure centre. People were enjoying the opportunity to sledge down the gentle slopes and I was impressed by the traffic light bravely trying shine through snow filled eyes with long icicles hanging below pointing in the direction of the traffic flow.

The much looked forward too replacement of the garage started on Wednesday when members of the New Stapleford Community Association gathered to empty the Association's garage of its contents.  After they departed I was left in the bitter cold to direct traffic into suitable safe spaces. Then came the demolition guys who made short work of the old building.

So far so good. I had expected the new building to arrive between 7.00 and 7.30 am. It arrived at the latter time. Having asked the men to make sure that garage was sufficiently far from the hall to be able to open the side door I was told that the new door could not be opened. I said, ‘Take the garage away then.’ I was then told that they could come back later to cut an opening in the overhanging facia. I said, ‘Take it away then.’ (I had a feeling that later could mean …) The boss said he could cut it roughly and tidy up later. Acceptable-just. Then came the killer blow. The delivered garage would not fit the base.

At this point my two friends/fellow committee members appeared. After tea and discussions the builders disappeared. Our estimate for work on the base stands at £850. We are not best pleased.

To back track. While waiting for the builders I took shots of the slowly disappearing snow and the blackbird which is busily removing our loft installation, making a mess and trying to build a nest.

We decided to use what was left of the day to go in search of camellias in the camellia house at Wollaton Park. This meant a stop-over at Wollaton for the ‘Cheese Cake Shop’ and hot chocolate.

At the park younger and older deer were roaming separately and then together. 

The camellia house was sparsely populated.

At the lake the reeds made a golden splash in the sun and in the reeds the moor hens made a splash as they vied for mating territory.

The following day (Good Friday) meant that the churches were supposed to be taking part in the annual ‘March of Witness’. But, due to legal reasons was reduced to a freezing cold service around the ‘Cross’ in the town square and an informal saunter to the ‘Baptist Church’ for hot cross buns and a drink.

David Mansfield
Leader of the Haven Church

On Saturday we made our trip to Milton Keynes. Nan was in good form and we enjoyed a game of ‘Scrabble’. We left earlier than usual to visit Tim, but Nan hardly noticed as she sped out of her room to feed a pair of dogs that were sitting in the lounge.

We had lunch with Tim who was on his own and then we set off back through heavy, but broken blizzards.

Joni and Fiona joined us for dinner. We played a game of Utopia, watched some television, ate some chocolate, drank some wine and went to bed.

Sunday followed our traditional plan. Irene went down stairs and out into the freezing morning air to pull some flowers out of the snow. Having set the table we had our morning tea before going back down to start on the chocolate from her Irene’s beautifully prepared table.

Irene and I went off to church and returned for or boiled eggs. Joni and Fiona once more joined us for the evening which went as the previous night except that we played ‘Ticket to Ride’ and the young people left us at the end of the evening.

It is now 1^st April and there are still a few pieces of frozen snow to be seen.