Gulls on the wing in Roundhay show off natural energy …..

Gulls on the wing

Gulls on the wing in Roundhay today gave a sense of action and energy to the lakes. This was not a Britain hibernating !

Randonnée de Noël 17 décembre- Photos of the French walk now live

Randonnée de Noël – en français

Randonnée de Noël – en français
Pour les débutants et pour les experts.
Samedi 17 décembre 14.00 – 16.30
This will be a very informal walk where we will all have a go at speaking a bit of French and listening to some as well. If you are a beginner in French then this is for you but expert or a native speaker of French you are most welcome as well.
itinéraire
14.05 –Rendez- vous Duffield railway Station (car parking, bus and train connection) )
Marcher pendant environ 4-5 km en cherchant la fontaine secrète de Noël (du vin chaud).
16.15 – retour à Duffield
16.30 – Détente dans un pub pour ceux qui souhaitent rester.

Travel
Train: Depart Derby 13.50 arrive Duffield 13.57
Bus: Bus 6.3 from Bay 22 Derby Bus stauoion 13.35 – arrives 13.55
Cycle: 25 mins from Derby City centre
Car: Some on-street parking in Duffield and limited parking spaces at station £2 per day

Extra details
• We ask a £5 donation for the Railway Children Charity and for the De Ferrers Secret Fountain
• The walk will take us over farm land so please wear suitable shoes/ boots.
• The atmosphere will be French but the weather on the day will be English so please come prepared with warm waterproof clothing!
• It is not a requirement to come in festive dress and adornments (but it will help!)
• There will be activities in French along the way .
• Well behaved dogs welcome.

To confirm that you are coming please contact alastairclark@yahoo.com or if you are in a French Class in Derby City please tell your teacher.

Firey autumnal sunset from Alport

From Alport Heights we walked back towards Wirksworth as the sun slipped down in the sky . It flashed us a last dramatic goodbye through a copse on a far hill. Pure visual poetry.

Tree identification made simple

I have just come across this very clear and well set out web site offering help on tree identification. I once did a course on winter tree identification (no leaves makes you really think!) but as a refresher I think this is to to be really clear and easy to use.

countrysideinterpretation

Picture worth 1000 words – hidden Derbyshire valley

Last bloom of summer in Derbyshire

This shot was taken at a secluded lane tucked in the hills on the side of the Ecclesbourne Valley in Derbyshire. If a picture is worth a 1000 words so I had better stop writing now!

Audio Post Top Tips from Alport Heights

This audio was posted to the blog live from Alport Heights in Derbyshire. You will her, Ruth, Jeff. Jeremy and Chris giving their ‘top tips’ for map reading. They were all participants on a two session Map reading course I ran based at the Derbyshire Ecocentre.

Any readers of this blog are welcome to offer a comment or to add their own top tip.

Here is a very short quiz on the elements of the day’s activity

Middleton Moor Maps

Had a great day today teaching at Derbyshire Ecocentre on a course called Improve your map reading. In the classroom session we had a go at drawing a ‘map’ of the room we were meeting in. The result was that 100% of the class ‘orientated’ the map as they drew it. In order words the drawing aligned exactly to the features in the room. We discussed how this probably meant that it will be easier to read a map when it is aligned to the terrain – or orientated.

We then discovered that these maps had been draw at different scales – anything from 1: 32 to 1:102. We recognised that the higher the number in a map scale scale the smaller the area of the map!

After all this sitting down and chatting we booted up and Andrea, Ruth, Christine, Jeff and Jeremy set off for Middleton Moor. There was plenty of feature noting, and route finding including a section where we found the route without any line features to follow.

Lots of good feedback but next week we meet again and the skills will really be put to the test!

An English rose – or is it?

After the flurry of Welsh references I tried hard to bring this blog back across Offa’s Dyke to England. I found an English Rose> But of course it was the Welshman, Henry Tudor, who combined the red and white roses to unify the country after the Wars of the Roses – so really the Welsh theme lives on!

Dewi Sant – mynydd oddi ar y tir y mynyddoedd bendigedig.

Un Gŵyl Dewi cennin ddiwrnod yr yw’r llun yn unig i ddangos. Dylem ddathlu’r wlad gyda mynyddoedd gwych cymaint.

(Isn’t Google clever!)