22nd November 2009

22nd November 2009.

Dear All,

It was good to see most of you at David’s Septuagintual anniversary. The links between Frinton and old age will be even more strongly reinforced from now on.
I have spent half of this week at Peterborough for the biennial Onion & Carrot Conference which is held at the showground. There were 14 speakers on onions Wednesday and 9 on carrots on Thursday. You forget how much concentration it takes to sit through solid days of presentations. Wednesday was especially stretching as 6 of the speakers were foreign with varying grasps of English. NIAB had a display in the exhibition hall and I attended the conference dinner with our new lady director to help present a trophy, as an onion won the NIAB cup for the best new variety (of all crops in trial) for the first time. The guest speaker was Greg Wallace of Masterchef fame. We had the joy of sitting at the same table as he entertained everyone within shouting distance with his cockney wit and charm.

Nigel Kingston & Tina Barsby


Greg Wallace

Our college visit on Monday was to Girton which is deceptively large both the accommodation and the grounds. There is an ancient orchard with heritage varieties, a Fellows garden in which only they can tread and a large lake from which they dug the gravel to construct the original buildings.


Girton College

Girton Lake

Kate and I have been demolishing the shed at the bottom of the garden as it was decaying beyond sensible repair and have ordered a replacement. We now have quite a large heap of timber to saw up. Kate has been struggling with a cold and had Saturday afternoon disrupted by taking Toni and her two moderately behaved boys to Chesterton Hospital as she (Toni) has a severe chest infection. My ankle is much better but not yet 100%.
There are several interesting exhibits in the garden this week as we have harvested sweet potatoes, fennel, chilli peppers and peanuts.


Sweet Potatoes

Fennel

Chili Peppers

Peanuts

Love

Mike & Kate