letter 28th September 08

19 Willingham Road
Over
Cambridge
CB24 5PD

28th September 2008.

Dear All,

Fairly busy week including 2 days at work, 2 on the cricket square, preparing a quiz, packing for Moldova and a bit of gardening.
Work consisted of grading, recording and assessing onions from sets for an open day on the 2nd October. NIAB have another new director (my 7th!) this time a lady who was the site manager and very sensible. Her predecessor was probably a good scientist but poor manager of people and spent most of his time globe trotting so won’t be greatly missed although he did take an interest in the Moldova project.
The cricket square winter maintenance went well. We hired a trailer of equipment from the County CC donated by Channel 4 when they had the Test Match coverage. It is based at March so was a 45 minute journey to collect and return. We scarified the wicket twice, aerated with spikes, fertilized, reseeded and loamed from a spreader barrow. The one serious error we made was to let the parish council obtain the loam from their budget as when spread it proved to be full of small stones so I spent the best part of a day raking them off.

a) Trailer

b)Scarifier and aerator



Friday I took Janet Burr to the doctors as she has just had heart surgery and the wound was seeping, picked up windfall apples for Kate to juice, pricked out winter lettuce, planted more onions and planted out spring cabbage. In the evening we hosted a quiz for the Day care Centre at the chapel. Kate had composed most of the questions and I printed answer sheets, composed a PowerPoint file and acted as question master. The room was packed and we raised £255.
Saturday morning was spent packing the contents of the next lorry for Moldova at NIAB. This one is meant to be mainly for Educational purposes but we have accumulated an enormous quantity of clothes as well. The authorities in Moldova are becoming very fussy as to what they will accept even though they are short of everything so we have to be very careful that the lorry contents match the paperwork. The draft list has already been turned down twice in an attempt to protect their own non-existent industries.
The early mists we have had a couple of mornings this week showed up a prodigious quantity of spiders webs which looked very attractive.


Dewey spider’s webs


We have booked a week in Cornwall starting next Saturday so no letter next week. We have a late booking (-20%) with the Fosters and Kitsons at Gorran Haven near Mevagissey.

Love


Mike & Kate

Ben in Cameroon June 08

Ben went to Cameroon to visit a friend that he met on the trans Africa truck a few years ago. She is working at a Chimpanzee rescue centre looking after orphaned babies and hoping to release them into the wild. As you can see the chimps are human friendly.

a) acceptance as a close relative

b) looking to see if he had caught any fleas?

c) useful bonding technique

d) waitung for the ferry

e) downtown

Letter 21st September 08

19 Willingham Road
Over
Cambridge
CB24 5PD

21st September 2008.

Dear All,

Nice to see the sun at last and crack on with the garden. This week I have planted a new strawberry bed, dug a small extension pond (a fish free zone for tadpoles), harvested the last of the potatoes, planted over-wintered onion sets, garlic and shallots, sown winter lettuce and started digging for winter.
Serious work to be done on the cricket square so we have hired the county “winter maintenance trailer” for this Wednesday. As we haven’t done this before I went to Downham Market last Wednesday to see what is involved. There is a scarifier, two aerators, a loam barrow and mounted rake – it is like another world and will require a steep learning curve.
On Thursday I went on the RSPB conducted walk round the Fen Drayton Pits. These were created by gravel extraction and have been turned into a nature reserve. As it was a sunny day it was an enjoyable walk and although we did not see anything very rare it was good to have all the birds, butterflies, plants and dragon flies all accurately identified. They have a single bittern in residence and are hoping his booming will eventually attract a mate or two.

The most recent pit at Fen Drayton

Tuesday we had a Church meeting and Toni, an unmarried mother of two gave her testimony and applied for baptism and membership. She has had a tough time having been given away by her mother at 15, assaulted when young and raped to produce the first child.
It has been our Harvest Supper and Thanksgiving this weekend. The display in the chapel was very good and the speaker at the meal was a farmer from Perry who had the right blend of information and humour for the occasion. The meal went well despite several folk going down with S & D beforehand (not after!)

Part of the Harvest Display

Today the ex pastor of Needingworth, John-Mark Teeuwen has taken both services. He now works for UFM in Swindon. Our ex pastor Malcolm and wife Donna have also been in town today so there have been more pastors around than you could shake a stick at! Kate and I were invited to lunch with them at Kate and Gordon’s at Sutton.
Yesterday was also the CEEM BBQ at Moggerhanger. The weather was kind, the attendance quite good and a conducted tour of the house was thrown in.

Love


Mike & Kate

A picture of Five Arch bridge on the Cray River in South East London, where Mary and I completed another section of the London Loop on Saturday. The bridge's function is almost purely decorative as it spans a dam at the end of an ornamental lake which formed part of the estate through which the river flows.  Very nice walk - a lot of people about but few London Loop walkers. Are there any still doing it? We've only 19 miles to complete the task. I suppose the next challenge will be to walk around London in a circle of 25 mile radius i.e. outside the M25 and far enough away from it not to hear it.

Letter 14th September 08

19 Willingham Road
Over
Cambridge
CB24 5PD

14th September 2008.

Dear All,

On Monday I biked to Willingham to get a passport renewal form and fresh mug shots – these look more like Prisoner 452387 than usual! I also filled out an application for “U3A” or “The University of the Third Age” which is very active in Cambridge. I applied for 3 courses but unfortunately 2 are full so I have to think again. I have been accepted for “Antarctica in a Nutshell” at the British Antarctic Survey but it does not start until after Christmas.
I experimented with the “Daytime” blog site championed by Graham and posted last week’s letter and some photos. I will put this one on as well as emailing so see if you can pick it up. I will forward the address separately.
Tuesday we had a Sweet Corn open day at Cambridge. The crop looks very good despite the lack of sunshine but all the visitors reported poor sales because uptake is supposedly linked to BBQs. As we have eaten Sweet Corn nearly every night for 5 weeks without a BBQ I find it a bit hard to fathom.
Wednesday a couple of us drove down to Bosham near Chichester for a Salads open day on Thursday. The field was very wet and the host farmer had laid planks down every other plot to keep folk out of the mud. The weather was better than the forecast and the attendance was quite good. We stayed at the Travel Lodge near Fontwell Race course and when we dutifully ventured next door for the usual Little Chef breakfast we were met by a disgruntled gathering because the manageress had failed to turn up – so a petrol station drink it was, we know how to live high!
Friday I took Ken a local 80 year old to Addenbrookes for an eye and hearing aide test. He had especially arranged to go in because his electronic hearing aide was playing up and he wanted it mended and reset on the computer – but they did not have the part so it will be set by guess work and sent through the post – or he has to go in again. I marked out the cricket pitch for the last time for 2 colt’s matches on Saturday; they actually managed to play in sunshine.
Friday evening we attended the “Over Players” latest production “Something for Everyone” which was very funny.
Saturday I drafted next months Gardening column (I will send a copy to Jacky as requested – she knows how to get in an uncle’s will!), cut the grass and then we cycled to the Swavesey back road to pick blackberries. They were hanging like grapes but slightly past their best.


Cambridgeshire Blackberries

Today we have had our second “Tea and Talk” this time by Lynsey Gawn the offspring of 2 church members who in February became the youngest female to reach the South Pole. It was well attended with over 40 there. As this starts earlier than our normal evening service we have just come back from a walk round the Fen.
Star plants in the garden this week are the Morning Glory which have grown about 10 feet tall and had over 40 flowers on today and an Aubergine picked yesterday weighing 950g.




Morning Glory Aubergine
Love


Mike & Kate

Beaumont Cut September 08

Beaumont September 08

More Cousins 08

a) John and Muriel in regal pose

b) The medal rostrum - Weald Park 08

c) & d) Tea at Parkland Avenue

e) The class of 2008

Letter 7th September 08

19 Willingham Road
Over
Cambridge
CB24 5PD

7th September 2008.

Dear All,

Nearly everything has been cancelled due to wet weather this week so not much to report.
Our Home Group led a Family Service on “The Olympics” this morning so I have spent several hours downloading photos of “Team GB” and others of course, for Songpro backgrounds and a PowerPoint presentation. Also on a very wet day I scanned the photos from “Switzerland 1998” so these are now available electronically.
We have also been planning an open day and BBQ to mark the first year of CEEM, the amalgamation of “Footprints east” (Moldova) and “ARK” (Ukraine) to form a charitable company so that tax can be claimed back on all your generous donations!
I am attaching an invitation as you are all invited to Moggerhanger Hall on the 20th September should you be free. Moggerhanger is worth seeing in its own right as it won the prize for the best restored Georgian building.
I actually went shopping in Cambridge on Wednesday for the first time since Christmas and it has changed dramatically. Three of the shops I specifically aimed to visit: Gees Electronics, Heffers in the Grafton Centre and The Map Shop in Green Street had all closed. I guess my custom has not been sufficient to keep them going!
We picked Sweet Corn in the wet on Tuesday at work and I am scheduled to go in 3 days next week for a Sweet Corn open day at Cambridge and a salads day near Chichester in Sussex.
My cricket pitch preparing colleague left for his 3000 mile bike ride across the States on Monday and in his honour I cancelled the last league match of the season as it rained solidly on Thursday and Friday.
We also cancelled our proposed chapel outing to Walton-on-the Naze on Saturday as the once optimistic weather forecast changed to showers throughout the day. The seaside does not seem so appealing with grey skies and blustery wind. I guess Kate and I would have been happy to go and walk in these conditions but some souls are a bit more delicate. Dave and Jen were going to provide a BBQ at the farm and we had accumulated quite a lot of food so in the end we did the British thing and set up the BBQ in our garage – the only way you can guarantee a BBQ in English weather – about 20 came so it went quite well. Kate had got up at 6 am to go and feed her cells before the trip so it was a long day for her.
I did a bike ride to relieve my frustration and actually the weather was not too bad here but changed every 10 minutes.
The Family Service went well but several people were away so attendance was not great (a co-incidence I am sure!). This afternoon we had a spectacular storm which seemed to be more or less overhead; thunder, lightening and stair rod rain.
Love


Mike & Kate

Today was Charlie's first day at BIG school. He didn't seem particularly excited about it, not did he mooch abvout saying 'am I bovvered'. Here he is looking uncustomarily smart. His grandma is so proud.