21st December 2008

21st December 2008.

Dear All,

Long day on Saturday, gardening and sorting “Songpro” in the morning, watched the first half of the Over v Eaton Socon match before setting out for Beaumont. We attended the Stable carol service well led by Sue before going on to Colin and Ben’s birthday party at the Chester Camp in Jaywick. Mary and Graham also put in an appearance so it was good to see a good slice of the family before Christmas.

Stars of the show


Couldn’t talk too much at the party due to the decibel level but I guess that was to be expected! Highlight was meeting an interesting lady from the Foreign Office, Russian section who has been to Moldova and visits Russia twice a year.
We did not stay too long as we had to travel back afterwards eventually arriving home about midnight.
Family service this morning then we were invited out for lunch, candlelight carol service tonight and we have John and Sally Lane and Duncan and Sue Colquhoun coming for tea.
Our Thursday ramble was a 10 miler starting at Barley via Reed and Barkway, again it was up and down with interesting scenery, more trees than usual. We watched a DVD for the first time in ages “It’s a wonderful Life” – they don’t make them like that any longer.
I have sorted the Cuba photos and sent CDs to all those from the trip who requested them, we have been in email contact with several of the party since we returned.
It has been dry enough to do some digging this week and I have dug some late planted potatoes intended for Christmas – not a great yield but fresh.
Are we ready for Christmas? well obviously not but the cards have all been sent, presents purchased or ordered and some have arrived. Kate has finished work for the duration – just a bit of cooking, sprouts to be collected and distributed and a few quizzes to prepare!

Love

Mike & Kate

Letter 15th December 2008

15th December 2008.

Dear All,

No letter yesterday as we were at the christening of Kate’s sister’s first grandchild Emma Louise Digeorgio at Terling near Chelmsford. Mandy and Natasha came down to stay the weekend from Derbyshire. Esther, Mary-Ann and Ben all dutifully turned up as well so it was a sort of “Smithside” pre Christmas get together.

Natasha, Emma & Esther

The service itself was not a great advert for Christianity, conducted by a nervous Anglican vicar who read from various books from different places in the church. His normal congregation is 12 and there was food in the United Reform church opposite – normal congregation 10. We went back to Esther’s afterwards to collect presents for Derbyshire and to monitor the house training of her new feline pets.
Monday we covered gold mining in Geodyssey as our lecturer spent many years as geologist at gold mines in Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Tuesday at work we were reporting on our “Low Input and Sustainable” trials. This has replaced organics in things DEFRA is prepared to fund and is aimed at developing a trials system that would identify varieties that would do well under less intensive farming methods i.e. lower inputs of particularly nitrogen fertilizer but also less pesticide, fungicide and herbicide.
On Wednesday I wrote up a report on the visits we made in Cuba (available on request!). Our ramble on Thursday was further south than usual starting at Arkesden and progressing via Wicken Bonhunt, Rickling and Hill Green. The route was more hilly than Cambridge folk are used to and very sticky underfoot.


17th century chapel at Wicken

On Friday I attended a seminar on “Tropical Legumes” at work delivered by a visiting Indian at 2 million words per minute in an indistinct accent. This was followed by the NIAB Christmas lunch which was “in house” and prepared very well.
Saturday was cold and wet, Kate took Mandy and Natasha to “Jack and the Beanstalk” in Cambridge while I fetched the Christmas tree, delivered our allocation of the Over churches Christmas card, wrote next months Gardening Column and made a few cards for work.

Love

Mike & Kate

letter 7th December 08

7th December 2008.

Dear All,

We arrived back from Cuba at 4.30 pm yesterday having travelled through the night. The freezing temperatures were the first shock having got used to 25 to 30°C for a couple of weeks and we were straight out to the Over Day Care Centre helpers Christmas meal (our help was doing a couple of quizzes) – the imminence of Christmas was the second shock.
Everything about Cuba was very interesting: the politics, history, economy, architecture, scenery, agriculture, birds, plants, music, environmental issues etc. and we were fortunate to see it in the way we did in a small study group. We have only been on a group tour once before (to India) and you wonder beforehand what the group dynamics will be like. In fact, there were some fascinating characters which added to the holiday: age range from 20 to 75, a few members of the communist party and most very pro Cuba and interested in environmental issues.

The Malecon

The Capitole, Havana

We started with four days in Havana then travelled south to Trinidad (the town not the island) for four days and returned via Santa Clara (one day) to Havana for another four days.
Havana has some tremendous buildings from the Spanish occupation but most are crumbling and in need of attention. The economy is creaking following the break up of the Soviet block but after severe hardships in the 90s they are gradually recovering.
Older folk who remember what it was like before the revolution are still behind the government but younger ones are becoming more restless. Castro seems to have cunningly deified Che to shift the spotlight and most places have wall to wall Guevara posters, statues, slogans and souvenirs.
People had told us that you would not travel to Cuba for the food and that is probably true, but it was not too bad: rice and black beans are the staples usually with pork, sometimes chicken or fish. Food variety was a bit limited partly due to the recent hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Music is endemic and it was not possible to have a meal without live musical accompaniment. The biggest surprise for me was the extent of waste land most of which had formerly grown sugar cane. I expected with food in short supply they would cultivate every inch but because fuel and fertilizers are scarce this is not the case.

An Organoponica

Trinidad Beach

Our itinery included: walking tours of old Havana, Trinidad and Santa Clara
A medicinal herb production site
Two large “organoponicas” - urban vegetable production enterprises
A meeting of the CDR Committee for the Defence of the Revolution
Two vegetable markets
A community food preservation project
An old sugar mill
A mountain jungle walk
One afternoon on the beach!
A mountain eco university site
Two swims in mountain pools
The Che Guevara mausoleum
A scale model of Havana used for city planning
Havana Botanical gardens – 600 ha
A solar energy project
A highland eco research centre
A river regeneration site
The National Institute of Agricultural Science
In addition we visited the museum of the Revolution, the Cuban art museum, the Trinidad Romantic museum, a Cuban cinema, the Revolution Park, the Malecon (seafront), American Embassy, John Lennon statue and a few other things which I won’t bore you with (but could if you insist!) All in all a busy schedule but very informative.
I have pruned the photos from 700 to 500! and aim eventually post them on Flickr.



Guess who?

Love

Mike & Kate