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.

January Round-Up Blog

What a difference this January has been to last year. This time last year we were enjoying night time temperatures of 25°C and it was mainly dry. This year we have experienced snow covered, almost Arctic conditions. However, the snow did not really get going until the middle of the month and had gone by the end.

On the 3^rd we were able to make a first visit of the year to the allotment. The main purpose was to take up the overflowing waste food bucket and Irene wanted to spread a bit of compost bin. This came as something of a surprise for the poor frog nestling in the warm, rotting pile of organic matter.

The following day had some blue in the sky and we were tempted to trek over Stapleford Hill. It was not until we reached the bottom of the other side of the hill that we encountered any difficulties. During our last 15 years of exploring the area the bridge has crossed such a small amount of water and usually none at all. Today was different. Once over the muddy bridge we arrived at a field which was pure mud and the pathway only usable by the most adventurous. 

The Mud

The Hemlock Stone

So, we retraced our steps, went below the Hemlock Stone and crossed into the walled gardens. We are so pleased that the local authority is still committed to developing the area. One day I passed through and spoke to the gardeners who were planting a beech hedge and clearing up ready for the service around the Holocaust memorial.

Walled Garden showing the Holocaust Memorial

We went through to Bramcote Park and the interesting trees that grow there.

On the 9^th we were to go further afield and ended up at Breedon on the Hill. The church is visible from the A42 and on this day the contrast between sunlit and shaded parts was very marked and we enjoyed a time on top of the hill with mainly blue sky, but interesting clouds, giving some fascinating lighting for photography. 

The Priory Church of
St Mary and St Hardulph

Our lunch was to be down in the village at the Priory Garden Centre.

I can’t remember when the snow actually began, but our friend Jan announced it Facebook on 13^th Jan and my pictures show snow in the garden on Monday. It was to get worse during the week and many of our events in the community centre were cancelled.

Despite the snow we needed a trip out and used the need to purchase seed and seed potatoes as an excuse. Irene was successful in purchasing what she needed from Wilkos in Ilkeston, but I was less successful in finding the variety I needed, even having gone as far as Shipley Garden Centre where I purchased them last year. However, we did enjoy our lunch in their restaurant. The snow on the garden ornaments made for interesting pictures; especially the crystals and ice covered cob webs. 

Gnomes and Buddhas at
Shipley Garden Centre

On the way home we pulled up into a side road to admire the snow covered fields and trees and, of course, do more photography. Irene particularly enjoyed using the camera to photograph the snow laden branches in the hedge row.

On the 19^th there was more snow.

Once more we braved the weather to take the compost to the allotment. On the way we passed one snowman and wondered why he was the only one we had seen. The depth of snow was very evident and the compost had to be left in the greenhouse. Our neighbour’s ducks were particularly quiet.

Two day later, despite the snow, which was now getting less heavy, we made a sortie into Derby. It has become our practice to drive to Spondon and catch a bus in. Not being patient, I decided to get on the first bus in. Mistake. This bus was to do several detours though housing estates. It was a white-knuckle ride as the driver slalomed on the snow covered streets through vehicle parked at random intervals.

 It was lunch when we arrived and we made our way through the snow into the Westfield Shopping Centre to arrive at ‘Subway’. The shopping centre is more modern than those in Nottingham and a Kiwi or an Aussie would be at home there. From the shopping centre we followed the well sign-posted trail to the ‘Cathedral Quarter’.

Our first visit was to the museum and art galleries. I was pleasantly surprised. Although not a new building, the curating of it was very imaginative. Even the stairway had an inviting message. 

There were some old-fashioned galleries, but even then some paintings had been put in frames which protruded from the wall by varying distances. The 1001 pieces gallery was fascinating and the natural history section had specially designed display cases.

From the museum we went to the cathedral. http://www.derbycathedral.org/ Once again this was surprising. It lacked the old style stained glass, but was well decorated with very bright colours. The chapel in the cellar was worth the visit.

The Cathedral of All Saints

I made yet another mistake. The bus was labelled ‘Burrowash and Spondon’. Despite Irene’s protests we boarded it. It did not go through the estates, but it did turn too far north. I checked with the driver, who confirmed that it would go to ‘The Whitehouse’. What he did not tell us that it would be going north to Ockbrook, along the north estates of Spondon, down to Burrowash and would be returning to Derby before passing the stop we needed. However, he was kind enough to let us stay on past the stop and leave us opposite our car.

The 26^th turned out to be the last day of snow for us. We drove into town to buy fresh fruit and veg and I used the time to photograph our town under snow.

From Stapleford we drove off to see our friend Margaret in Stanton Hall nursing home. This was quite a treacherous drive through snow covered country lanes. Once more I had my camera and walked out to take photographs in this quite pretty village.

On the next to last day of the month the sky was blue and a walk was called for; but not too long. Attenborough was to be the destination. First I called in to Wickes to buy brackets for the latest D.I.Y. job before driving on to the car park. We arrived to find a lorry and equipment to spread gravel on the flooded footpaths and notices showing which footpaths were open. It was lunch time. We went over to the centre to purchase refreshments and found that it was possible to sit out on the balcony area. Irene spied a variety of geese we had not seen before and I met a friend who worked at the centre who told us that they were Egyptian geese.

Egyptian Goose

The footpath to the river seemed to be the best way to go. On the way we called into the ‘King Fisher’ hide. Below us was a large bird table. A squirrel had wrapped itself around one of the feeders. Blue tits and robins kept flying in. But below the squirrel was where most action was. There was a pair of mallards, a pair of pheasants, one of them being a vividly coloured male. But, surprisingly, a family of rats boldly mixed in, helping themselves to the falling food.

The main path along the river was closed while dumpers carried gravel to build up the path. The Trent was so full that it was flowing up the Erewash, trees were well submerged and, although we could just make out the far bank, the river was stretching well beyond that.

The far bank of the river is visible but
there appears to be water
beyond right up to the village

When we got home we still had an afternoon and spent it, as we have been doing during the month, working on the railway. I have installed a football field and team. Irene has added a lot to the farm garden and spent some time fixing ivy to some of the other houses.

The Flying Scotsman crossing the canal

Mum's garden.
The compost heap is just to the left, out of shot