5th April 2009.

Dear All,

Kate had the day off on Monday so we visited Ickworth House, a National Trust property near Bury St Edmunds. It was the ancestral seat of the Hervey family (as in Lady Victoria Hervey – socialite and reality TV contestant) The house has a distinctive central Rotunda and was built in 18th century by the prince-bishop Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth earl of Bristol. It is interesting to compare the wording on a column in the grounds, which makes him out to be a saint with NT poster inside which more realistically describes him as a freethinking womaniser and gambler. All the generations between Frederick and now, seem to have enjoyed exotic lifestyles until Lady Victoria’s father, the seventh marquess, dissipated a fortune on drugs, fast cars and rent boys, leading to an early death, and the sale of Ickworth to the National Trust.



Ickworth Rotunda



Recent additions

There are numerous walks in the grounds and we chose the perimeter route which is 7 miles. It was peak lambing season with new born popping out all over the place. The house is reasonably interesting as the earl was an art collector and several paintings have survived the family’s declining fortunes. The gardens, however, were dull as they major on a national box hedge collection!
On Tuesday a group came up from Thornhill Baptist in Southampton. We knew they were working in Moldova but we had not met them before. They had contacted us for advice about seeds so we offered them some of our 1.3 tonnes. We were expecting a party of 2 but 6 turned up so we had a good discussion and it seems that they are doing more or less the same as us in a different area.
We are currently experiencing difficulty in getting the maize and grass seed we planned to use on our experimental field in Burlacu into the country. It is currently stuck in Romania having missed the arranged pick up by the group from CEEM who are in Moldova at present.
On Wednesday I planted a veg garden for Toni, a single mum in the village. As she has two lively boys I am not sure that all the plantings will live to maturity, but I guess they have two chances.
I was on duty at Wisley on Thursday judging leeks. The M25 reflected the economic downturn and we did not stop on either journey. The spring trees at Wisley were fantastic: azaleas, rhododendrons, prunus and magnolias. The leeks were a bit dull by comparison.




Wisley Spring trees

On Friday John and I took the new NIAB Director out for lunch to maintain the Institute’s interest and support for the Moldovan Agricultural project – the Trust currently donates £3K pa. It seemed to go alright.
In the evening we were the organisers of the NIAB annual quiz as we made the mistake of winning last time. It was well supported and there were enough cries of anguish to convince us that it was sufficiently challenging.
Plenty of gardening between the above with the first tomatoes planted out in the GH yesterday.

Love


Mike & Kate