WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY, 28th November 2016
BADMINTON at MATLOCK
Venue: The Arc, Bakewell Road, Matlock
Time & Date: 11am, Monday, 28th November
SatNav: DE4 3AZ
NEXT BADMINTON: 19TH DECEMBER 16 at 110am
Thereafter, check this blog
Right, I have had my cellulite around my tummy for far too long and I am getting really fed up with it. So, I am gonna do an exercise everyday until the 26th December before my Scotland holiday. C'mon Mala!
As I had to go into Chesterfield and Matlock today I asked Charles if we could do badminton instead of tennis today. He booked a court at the Arc for £6.75 and we have a spiffing time! Charles and I was rather chuffed with ourselves.
ZUMBA at YOULGRAVE
Venue: Youlgrave Village Hall, Holywell Lane, Youlgrave
Time & Date: 1:30 to 2:30pm, Tuesday, 22nd November
Break: none
SatNav: DE45 1UT
Zumba is a hypnotic fusion of Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow dance moves creating a one-of-a-kind fitness program that will blow you away. You don’t need to know any dance moves, David will take you through each of the simple steps and it's £3.50 per session or £18 for 6 sessions!
I've had a domestic issue and waiting for workmen to fix it, drats and double drats as I was really looking forward to my Zumba!
See you there?
DERBYSHIRE DALES RAMBLERS at DARLEY DALE
Meet: Whitworth Institute, Dale Road North, Darley Dale, Matlock
Time & Date: 10:30am, Wednesday 29th November
MapMyWalk Stats: 5.2 Miles > 3H 9M 25S taking thirty six minutes to do a mile
Steps: 17,437
SatNav: DE4 2EQ
DERBYSHIRE DALES GROUP OF THE RAMBLERS’ ASSOCIATION 10.30am. It's a leisurely or moderate 7 mile walk in the Derwent Valley area. If you are interested to join, please call Ken on 07736 783640. My artistic photography endevaours at Hale Dale Woods, an ancient and protected woodlands. Wonder how old the mushrooms are?
Been a while since I've done 7 miles, wish me luck! It turned out only to be 5.2 miles but I thoroughly enjoyed it, a new group of people, all 27 of us. I discovered parts of Darlet Dale that I never even knew existed such as the anciet Hale Dale Woods and Ladygrove Mills which incidentally is up for sale? Takes, anyone?
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-33838224.html
WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY, 21st November 2016
YOULGRAVE GROUP WALK at FRIDEN PEAK TRAIL
MapMyWalk App Stats: 3.25 Miles > 1H: 22M : 31S at 25:24 minutes per mile
Steps: 8,594
Time & Date: 10:30am, Tuesday, 22nd November
Break: none
SatNav: SK17
NEXT YOULGRAVE WALK: 13TH DECEMBER 16 at 10:30am
Thereafter, every 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the Month
Gee, after the torrential downpour yesterday I was rather pleased to go out for my usual walk with the Youlgrave Group. The cold and rain yesterday must have kept everyone away as there were only 7 of us today, and we all hurled back into our cars and headed for Friden Peak Trail.
It was a easy and leisurely walk past the DSF Refractories & Minerals works on the Peak Trail right up to the bridge and we walked back the same way. Hey, did you know that DSF is the largest shaped refractory manufacturer in the UK. You learn something new everyday, it is also recognised as one of the world's leading suppliers of bonded refractories for the glass industry. They supply to other heat containment industries, including iron and steel, cement and other rotary kilns, carbon black producers and petrochemical companies as well as non-ferrous metals, incinerators, brick and ceramic kilns. Not sure what all that means?
So proud to learn that the company was established over 120 years ago as the Derbyshire Silica Firebrick Company. In the early days, they were mining local mineral deposits to manufacture refractories for use in the production of town gas. Fascinating! Here are today's photos.
Please do come an join us the next time as it's our Xmas coffee, mince pies and stollen on the 13th of December. See you there?
CHARLES & MALA TENNIS
Time & Date: 8am, Thursday, 24th November
Venue: Youlgrave Tennis Court, Alport Lane Playing Fields
SatNav: DE45 1WN
NEXT TENNIS: 8am, Monday, 28th November
Thereafter, every week
Thank goodness, I cancelled tennis on Monday 21st due to the downpour and my other commitments too. Charles and I still determined to do this once a week and carry it through until next summer! If you wish you join us, just ping me a comment or contact me via my twitter feed https://twitter.com/Traffic_Song
Charles and I are really coming along in out tennis, his serves are getting mean and I am now able to return some of his wicked serves. I love my tennis, come and check it out?
XMAS MARKET at EARL STERNDALE
Venue: St Michael and All Angels Church
Time & Date: 3 to 5:30pm, Fridat, 25th November
SatNav: SK17 0BU
I popped into Hartington today after my walk as I had to go into the post office and get some bits and bobs, saw an ad in the newsagent for this event and will probably go and check it out. Activities include sales tables, tombola, raffle and refreshments. All proceeds from this event will go towards the upkeep of the Church. Do come along and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. So, look out for my update!
LIFEFORCE FARM & RURAL ACTIVITIES to PROMOTE RECOVERY
Venue: Beardwood Farm, Furness Vale, High Peak
Time & Date: 10am to 4:30pm (October 2016 to Sept 2017)
SatNav: SK23 7QF
As you know by now that I am always out and about in the SK17 region and I picked up this leaflet card from Buxton and this is a project for people that suffer from alcohol or substance abuse. If you are suffering on your own, why not come along and check out their activities, learn a new skill, improve your chances of getting a job, interact with others or maybe even volunteer? However, please call them first as they have a waiting list and they even provide transport to pick you up!
The farm offers gardening, animal care, fencing, dry stone walling, conservation, guided walks and survival skills! There's other stuff like nutrition, cooking, arts and crafts. Sounds fascinating, think I may have a busy Friday. It was excellent and I was tasked with sawing off a couple of trees in the woods management arena. Definately going back next week, the journey was only 40 minutes and we all had the most spectacular Chili Con Carne with Garlic Bread for lunch and a gorgeous sponge!
MOTOWN's 1960s & 1970s CLUB SOUL
Venue: Bakewell Town Hall, The Square
Time & Date: 8pm to 12am, Friday 25th November 2016
SatNav: DE45 1BT
Sue and I heaps of fun on the last one, so we are going again tonite! Party on down!
Week beginning 14th November 2016
CHARLES & MALA TENNIS
Time & Date: 8:30am, Monday, 14th November
Venue: Youlgrave Tennis Court, Alport Lane Playing Fields
SatNav: DE45 1WN
NEXT TENNIS: 21st NOVEMBER 16 at 8am
Thereafter, every week
Charles, my best friend and I have been playing tennis once a week since the summer, as I wanted some variety in my exercise routines as I was doing too much of walking. Charles beat me today! He played when he was a youngster and it appears all his skills are returning with a vengeance. He's got a really mean serve which slams down really low on the court and makes it impossible for me to return. Youlgrave Tennis Court is in such a pulchritudious setting, come and join us sometime for doubles?
BASLOW FLOWER CIRCLE
Time & Date: 1pm, Tuesday 15th November
Venue: Baslow Village Hall
SatNav: DE45 1SR
It's a Cheshire Christmas, demonstration by Ian Lloyd (National Demonstrator) with visitors welcome. It just so happens that I am going to the Cavendish Hotel for lunch today, so I'll miss the demo but will check it out laters in case they left the flower arrangement for all to see.
WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY, 7th November 2016
USA Elections Prediction 9th November 2016 at 8:16am
Check out my post on the 18th of October 2016 where I predicted a Trump Win
What did I tell ya!
Mr Trump, we all look forward to you draining that swamp in DC!
YOULGRAVE GROUP WALK
MapMyWalk App Stats: 4 Miles > 2H: 15M : 42S at 30:26 minutes per mile
Steps: 13,222
Time & Date: 10:30am, Tuesday, 8th November
Break: none
SatNav: DE45
NEXT YOULGRAVE WALK: 22ND NOVEMBER 16 at 10:30am
Thereafter, every 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the Month
Gosh, the 2 weeks soon flies by and here we are again at Youlgrave and today's walk is carved around appreciating the autumnal leaves and colours. We were 14 strong today and I am so pleased that people are supporting this group, it's great bunch of people with 3 of us from Biggin namely Peter our group leader and Claire my neighbour too.
We started our trek close to the exclusive property that is receiving a lot of attention from the media and will be featured on Kevin Cloud's Grand Design and apparently they were scheduled to be filming today but sadly they weren't there when we walkled passed. My goodness it's coming along leaps and bounds and it now has an aluminium corrugated roof which will be covered with grass and plants. Apologies, should have taken a photo of the CAD design featured outside the building.
Youlgrave has been getting a lot of attention lately as The Farmyard Inn was featured on the 31st October Four in a Bed television series, sadly they didn't and I recently visited the pub for Sunday lunch on had my Sunday lunch on the 30th October which I covered in my blog too.
Wonder, what's next? A new village soap ...
By the way, we had a special announcement from Linda today suggesting if anyone was up for coffee and mince pies at Lathkill Hotel on the 13th of December and it was an all round vote of yes. That's 2 elections today and we are all looking forward to that, it should be brilliant.
MATLOCK CAMERA CLUB INVITATION to an EVENING with BOB BRIND-SURCH
Time & Date: 7:15pm Wednesday, 9th November
Venue: Upstairs Meeting Room, Cromford Wharf Warehouse, Mill Road, Cromford (near Matlock)
SatNav: SK17 6HX
This sounds raher interesting, entitled "Moving beyond Auto Taking" back control of your Camera with admission only at £3.50. Do go and check it out, it could be an excellent evening.
DISCOVERING BUXTON
Venue: The Pavillion Gardens, Buxton
SatNav: SK17 6BE
I had an appointment in Buxton and was early, it was wet and cold so I decided to wander through onto the cafe via an entrance I've never been through and my goodnes what an amazing pathway to the cafe. I was confronted with the most elegant Victorian architecture that had to go through a myriad of changes over the years.
Then, as The Clubhouse Pub was still closed I decided to eat at the cafe and I was further overwhelmed by their food as I had the most amazing liver with mash for almost a decade, it was superby cooked in a red wine sauce. I shall most definately go back for another taster!
The Pavillion also had an exhibition of Peaky Artisans and here are all my photos.
BUXTON TALK on PUTTING PLANTS ON THE MAP
Time & Date: 7:30pm Saturday, 12th November
Venue: Buxton Methodist Church on The Market Place
SatNav: DE4 3RQ
The speaker, Nick Moyes will be speaking about the Flora of Derbyshire and it's entitled Putting Plants on the Map. This will be an enthusiasm-filled tour which looks behind the scenes at that botanical beauty - the county 'Flora'. How did they come about? What can they tell us? And what does it take to put all of Derbyshire'e rich and varied plant life onto the page? Illustrated with stunning plant photos and maps. There's a visitor fee of £3.
MATLOCK TALK on THE WALLED KITCHEN GARDEN at CLUMBER PARK
Time & Date: 2pm Sunday, 12th November
Venue: Temple Hotel Matlock Bath
SatNav: DE4 3PH
The North Derbyshire Cottage Garden Society introduces The Walled Kitchen Garden at Clumber Park. A talk by the Senior Gardener Shirley Roberts at 2pm, Temple Hotel, Matlock Bath and all visitors are welcome.
HARTINGTON MEMORIAL
Time & Date: 11am Sunday, 13th November
Venue: Hartington Village Memorial (opposite Newsagent)
SatNav: SK17 0AL
I am going for this event, see you there?
Here we are 4 hours laters in Biggin ...
BIGGIN MEMORIAL
Time & Date: 3pm Sunday, 13th November
Venue: Biggin Village Memorial (opposite Church)
SatNav: SK17 0DN
It was an excellent turnout from our tiny village of this Biggin SK17. I've never ever attended 2 memorials in one day. We have 3 soldiers in Biggin, one lives opposite to me. So, this one was particularly special for me and we all went onto the village hall for refreshments.
WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY, 24th October 2016
YOULGRAVE GROUP WALK at ROBINHOOD STRIDE
MapMyWalk App Stats: 2.4 Miles > 1H: 41M : 59S at 42:41 minutes per mile
Steps: 8,943
Time & Date: 10:30am, Tuesday, 25th October
Break: none
SatNav: DE45
NEXT YOULGRAVE WALK: 8TH NOVEMBER 16 at 10:30am
Thereafter, every 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the Month
After a long absence, it was wonderful to be back with the Youlgrave Group and my oh my, the group's grown in strength. Linda and Peter, our group leaders took us to Robinhood Stride today, excellent choice! My trip out from Biggin to Youlgrave Car Park was a tad misty which soon cleared after an hour into our walk. We were all in awe of the distant hills when we caught a picture postcard view of the layered autumnal landscape with the mist being at the top gradually lined with degrees of the trees changing colours, unfortunately it did not come through well on my Samsung Galaxy phone camera but here's my best shot of it.
As usual, we met at the Youlgrave Car Park next to the allotments and we were then carted and organised to go into various cars that were available as the parking was limited on Cliff Lane, where we started the walk. I really enjoyed seeing everyone again and there were a few of us from the Bakewell Walking for Health Group there too. Here's a shot of all of us:-
Then, it was onwards and upwards through the fields cutting across and later parallel to Cliff Lane and turned back round again towards the parked cars. I also asked Peter about a tree that was surrounded by some vertical stones which was a Victorian folly.
We also saw Stanton House in the distant too.
Check out the mushrooms that Peter foraged on our walk, can anyone help in naming them please?
CELEBRATION WALK along the beautiful CROMFORD CANAL TOW PATH
MapMyWalk App Stats: Miles > approximately 2H (my battery phone collapsed after break time)
Steps: 10,527
Time & Date: 10am, Wednesday, 26th October
Break: Cromford Wharf Cafe
SatNav: DE4 (Lea Bridge/High Peak Junction Car Park)
Whilst walking through the woods, I got chatting to Jeannette who mentioned a famous childrens author that lived on Castle Top Farm to the right of us as we walked through the woods. When we stopped by a stile, there were a few of us that gathered round Jeannette listening intently about Ms Uttley. She had quite the background with both her husband and son committed suicide,also apparently she had an incestous relationship with her son!
This is one of the reasons why I love the Derbyshire Dales Walking for Health Groups, as I can pick things up from the locals that know their areas intimately and I find their history fascinating. So yes, I am most certanly gonna get the biography on Ms Uttley.
She's famous for Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig which aree just two of the inspired characters created by Alison Uttley, she delighted millions and is still very popular even today! Alison goes down in history as a very talented and prolific writer, and she was still churning out stories in her late eighties. All right here in the pulchritudinous Peak District.
It was a pretty good turnout for our annual celebration walk and I opted for the Medium Progression Walk for 3
miles as I brought Charles along. It was amazing that I had to google as to where this car park was as once upon a time, I drove on this particular road at least twice a day! It just goes to show how a driver can take a place for granted and not be observant of its surroundings.
The entire troop broke away into 3 groups namely Entry Easy of 2.2 miles, Easy at 2.7 miles, Medium Progression Walk at 3 miles and finally a Long Progression one at 4.7 miles.
Can you spot the fisherman in the river, on the pho to my right?
My group set off towards Lea and walked through the stunning Bow Wood which eventually opens into open countryside, towards Wood End and Cromford Station. We then headed back along the pavement to Cromford Wharf and the cafe, to which we stopped at the most enlightening beauty spot right next to the canal and I could have easily sat there all morning and watch the world go by.
Here's the Medium Progression troop enjoying their coffee and my best friend Charles and he's seated to the table on the extreme right with Peter, our group leader and Jeannette.
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION at DERBY THEATRE
Time & Date: 2:30pm, Wednesday 26th October
Break: Theatre Bar & Cafe
SatNav: DE1 2NF (Park Underneath the Theatre)
These days with the likes of Netflix, I see an average of one film a day and I do get bored very quickly if the plot does not grab me in the first 30 minutes. There are only a few films I had watched in my life that has affected me in such a way that I can watch these films over and over again purely on the basis of their story line, Shawshank Redemption is one of those movies. The others that I love is The Lunchbox, Forest Gump, The Gambling Man and just a few more. So, when I saw the film being made into a play that was advertised in our local magazine called ArtsBeat, I just had to go ...
As you know from my blog, I don't believe in bad reviews especially in the Arts as it appeals to many different tastes. So all I am gonna say is that when the audience clapped for the final curtain, only a few people stood up to give them a standing ovation, and to me that said it all.
Personally, it's an incredibly hard act to follow the combined acting skill of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. Mostly for me, it was the warmth and the friendship that Freeman and Robbins had with that cool underplayed acting ability that made them one the greatest actors of all time, this was totally lacking in the play. The play also made me realise that you are either born with talent or without. However, I will say that there would have been far greater actors that could have pulled it off but not the current set that were chosen. The best performance on the play was the Prison Superintendent, he really got into the mindset of the role and he and he executed it superbly.
The lady that sat to my left never returned for the second half of the performance and the tickets were £25 on the fourth row. I think most of the audience were Shawshank hard-core fans.
BAKEWELL WALKING GROUP at CALVER (next to the Playing Fields)
MapMyWalk App Stats: Miles > H: M : S at : minutes per mile (tba)
Steps: tba
Time & Date: 10am, Thursday, 27th October
Break: tba
SatNav: S32 (Park Next to the Playing Fields)
Apologies, I am passing up on today's walk as I have some stuff to do and work. But hey, you go on and check them out and leave me your comments!
My Last Splinter Group Walk from YOULGRAVE
MapMyWalk App Stats: 4.5 Miles > 2H: 3M : 16S at 27:18 minutes per mile
Steps: 12,490
Time & Date: 10am, Sunday, 30th October
Break: Lathkill Hotel & Farm Yard Inn, Youlgrave
SatNav: DE45
I enjoyed the walk but not the breaks and the Farm Yard Inn was a tad below par as I can cook a far superior roast than what I had , I am sincerely sorry. The wine was equally degrading, it was the cheapest Pinot Grigio you could purchase from a Cash & Carry and I should know as I've frequented these warehouses myself when I was a business owner? All in all, I wanted to go home as soon as I sat at the table and I just tolerated it as far I as I could take it?
