Summer at Calke Abbey - 24th - 26th July

 Planning an MNTV weekend takes time, energy and patience and this years Summer at Calke Abbey was no different. The weekend was booked in by March and with our 40th Anniversary Party on the horizon I wanted to get that out of the way before concentrating on Calke Abbey. 40th out of the way and Jenny and I got our heads together to formulate a plan….its now Thursday 23rd July and you find me on a train bound for Manchester, with my cool bag, filled with goodies, by my feet as due to a last minute cancellation by Jenny, I'm leading this weekend solo…with, I'm hoping, help from the rest of the group. With everything, I hope, under control, I'm going to kick back and enjoy the English scenery and I'll come back to you later.

Friday has arrived and after a quick trip to Quarry Bank Mill for a look in the garden I was picked up by Andy and Clare. There was quite a bit of luggage to go with me as some of the provisions were at Jennys. We managed to squeeze it all in and headed for Uttoxeter to pick up the shopping, I did think I might have to call on reinforcements to pick Me or some of the shopping up but Andy managed to fill every space including Mine and Clares footwells with food….it’s only 40 mins down the road. Upon arrival we found Sarah and Neil already there and enjoying the sunshine. We unpacked the food and my luggage from Andy’s car which left them to go to their accommodation in Ticknall and Me to sort out where the food went. Prior to the weekend it had been decided we would go to the local watering hole for our tea but with Jack and Tim not arriving til 7pmish it was decided we would get take away Pizza. Sarah found a lovely little pizzeria in Ashby-de-la-Zouch that did takeaway so she and I put in the order and headed over to pick it up. Whilst we were away Jack and Tim arrived after travelling together from Manchester along with Andy and Clare who had walked from their cottage in Ticknall. That evening we dined on Pizza and Salad on the outdoor furniture provided. After swapping stories and discussing the arrangements for the weekend we headed to bed.

Dinner outside - J Lyons

 

Saturday has arrived and the sunshine is still with us. We were up and breakfasted by 9.30 ready for a pick up by the Rangers, however it was at this stage we discovered that the fridge wasn’t working, the light was on but no cold air was in it, so we loaded up a bag of food that we thought would be best in the fridge and Sarah and Andy drove to Ticknell to put the food in Andy’s fridge and then onto the worksite. Ranger Emily drove the rest of us to the worksite in Calkes Minibus and Ranger Alice drove in the pickup behind us. They had been told by Vicky that we could be left to our own devices — a huge compliment from Vicky, Thank You! Sarah and Andy joined us at this point. The task was Ragwort pulling, there was a fairly large area to clear. We walked the first field and didn’t find any there so we carried on to the other areas and started pulling them out with some difficulty. The ground was very hard and pulling it out was not as easy as I thought it would be and I couldn’t get my head around the equipment we’d been provided with. At coffee time we went back to the minibus that Emily and Alice had left us with and got our bags out. We enjoyed Jenny’s Chocolate Brownies, Lemon Drizzle Cake and Ally’s Carrot Cake, I wouldn’t like to say whose won!

Our Worksite - A Hardy

With the bus and bags so far from where we were working we decided to take them with us, closer to where we were working. The sun beat down all day and when it came to lunch time we found a big tree that provided shade to sit under. Neil decided to stay where he was as he had found a tree to sit under on the other side of the field. We managed to get quite a bit cleared and the sun was still beating down. We finished our day at 3pm and with the food needed for that nights meal not at Base Sarah drove Andy and Clare home to pick up the food and the rest of us got a lift in the minibus. Upon arrival back at Base we went in different directions, Tim went for a walk around the Estate, Sarah, Jack, Niel and Myself went to our respective beds and had a rest from the sun and also showered. I took Myself off downstairs to start the preparations for dinner before long I was joined by others, most of whom sat outside partaking in some libation. We dined on Tomato Macaroni Cheeses with Garlic Bread and Salad finished off with Chocolate Cheesecake, Pomegranate and Raspberry Cheesecake with Berries and Cream. After dinner we were back outside to enjoy the last of the sunshine before heading for bed.

The Stables - T Leadbetter

Calke Church - T Leadbetter

The Hall with yellowing grass due to the hot weather - T Leadbetter

Sunday dawned cooler but bright with the possible chance of some rain. We breakfasted on cereal and bacon butties. We were picked up by the Rangers and again taken to the worksite….the same one as yesterday. However with the workday due to finish at 1pm we decided to concentrate on a smaller area of ragwort so that we could clear an area rather than leaving Ragwort still standing in many areas. We toiled away, chatting to each other as we went. Despite the light shower of rain we had made good progress by cake time and by 12.15 we had cleared the area Result!

Our day 2 worksite - S Hopes

We all then moved our bags to the minibus and took our ragwort forks into a feild close by that we had been asked to clear, as we waded through the long grass I was sceptical that there were any ragwort in this field, as it happened we found about 10 plants so it was another excellent result. At 1pm Rangers Emily and Alice came to pick us up and we were able to tell them that we had cleared two distinct areas. They were very pleased with our work. Upon arrival back at the basecamp we packed up our sleeping bags, divvied out the leftover food, changed out of our sweaty clothes, had lunch and headed for home. It was a great weekend and we missed you all. I hope to see more of you at our Winter in Wales Weekend on 13th - 15th November.