The April meeting welcomed more new members to the group, so we are now full. If anyone else is interested, please contact me with your name and I will put you on the waiting list.
Members again enjoyed tasting three recipes, two savoury and one sweet, that can all be made easily and for either main meals or accompaniments.
There will be no meeting in May as it is a Bank Holiday so the next meeting will be on Monday 22nd June, at 10.30 am.
See you all there
Anne
Last month, members enjoyed a beautiful day out at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. It has a large hall full of interesting paintings and objects. The volunteers really know their information and obviously enjoy sharing with visitors. It is well worth a visit.
We also enjoyed a walk around the extensive gardens and had the Stables to ourselves to eat our packed lunches. The Hall is not open on Monday and Tuesday apart from booked groups so we were well looked after.
There is no meeting in May as it is the Bank Holiday and June’s meeting is a trip to St Ann’s Allotments in Nottingham. Please let us have your name if you are interested.
Anne Wilkinson
Ashover
Our April walk started from Ogston Reservoir, not far from Brackenfield and Wessington, on the way to Matlock. After a very muddy walk last month, we had near perfect conditions on a sunny day. This walk may prove to be our most strenuous of the year, and after passing the sailing club we climbed quite steeply, until we were overlooking the Amber valley. Our coffee stop overlooked the abandoned workings of Milltown Quarry, one of a number in the Peak District, and we decided that it was probably millstone grit, rather than the limestone found to the south. Further on, we had a go at ‘guess the house price’ again, after our efforts last year near Grindleford and Hathersage, and research later found that we were quite close with our estimates.
We passed very few other walkers, so had to resort to a selfie for our usual group photo. We also noted that we hadn’t seen any sheep or cattle anywhere, although we did see occasional building work. A quiz question on a sign post, about the link between Ogston sailing club and Sydney Harbour Bridge found us resorting to the power of AI at the end of our walk.
Many thanks to Kevin Varey for researching this walk, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Our next walk will be on Monday 18th May; new members are always welcome, just use the tab on our website page.
John Tedstone
National Trust Group visit to Upton House near Banbury on Tuesday 21st April.
On a sunny if slightly chilly morning, the group left Hucknall Market Place for our journey down to Upton House.
Arriving just after 10.30 we had a brief talk given by the volunteers at Upton before collecting our timed entry tickets to the House.
The House was used as a country retreat for Viscount Bearsted’s family in the 1930’s before being gifted to the National Trust some years later. The House is now home to some of the best collections of paintings and porcelain in Britain with a total of over three thousand items on display.
The terraced gardens on the Estate were very colourful and proved very popular.
A number of lovely walks were available in the grounds along with a large restaurant, gift shop and second hand book shop and plant shop.
All in all a lovely venue.
In May we visit Croome on our third visit of the year.
Barrie
Our Dance On group is a hit!
After only 1 month our new interest group is thriving. We meet in different local venues to dance the evening away to Motown and soul music played by DJ’s using vinyl records and turntables. There are now 3 events per month.
We haven’t quite danced till dawn yet, but we’re getting close. It’s a very enjoyable evening out with a group of u3a members.
