29th August 2010

29th August 2010.

Dear All,

I had another exciting day at the Test Match yesterday at Lords. At Trent Bridge I saw 15 wickets in a day and yesterday 17 wickets and the end of a world record Test 8th wicket stand of 332 runs. We also managed 7.5 hours without weather interruption which was a bonus for last week.

Lords Cricket Ground

On Tuesday we held another NIAB open day near Bures this time demonstrating this years array of onion varieties in situ before harvest. It did rain a few times but not too seriously and we had a decent crowd of 50 or so.


Onions at Bures

We have had a few problems with storage of items donated for Moldova, so had decided not to plan a lorry this year but a school in St Neots cleared out about 50 tables in reasonable order so they have been in temporary storage at Eaton Socon on the A1. This space is now needed so we had to clear them out but fortunately found some space at the farm in Willingham where I gave a talk on their farm open day last month. On Wednesday we hired a truck and moved them over.

In over 2 years we have only had one Thursday walk where it has rained throughout and that was when Kate joined us for a local walk round Willingham Fen. Well now we have had two as this weeks stroll from Brandon to Thetford was wet for the duration. Ironically Kate had planned to join us but hearing the rain drops in the night decided that it would be more fun to go to work!

Santon Downham in Thetford Forest



Little Ouse near Thetford

The garden continues to perform well with buckets of beans, bowls full of tomatoes, plenty of blackberries and raspberries and sweet corn also in full stream.

No news from Ben in Africa but he is hopefully back this week.

Love

Mike & Kate

22nd August 2010

22nd August 2010.

Dear All,

It was our annual chapel outing to the seaside yesterday, this time returning to Hunstanton. It was dull when we arrived but we hire a church hall close to the front as a base for coffee and lunch and it did not actually rain. It is a tradition to walk along the front in the morning, have a fish and chip lunch and then the men have a pitch and putt competition in the afternoon, - and this year was traditional! The sun came out briefly in the afternoon and it was fairly breezy. On the way home there was a tremendous downpour – the sort where the wipers cannot keep up and the road is completely covered with water. This lasted 15 minutes and by the time we reached Kings Lynn there had been no rain and the sun was out.
Kate and Gordon hosted a BBQ at Sutton on the way home; extra folk joined us and that went very well.

Not so Sunny Hunny!


BBQ at Sutton

The cricket pitch has miraculously changed from brown to green in the last fortnight and the contractors have attempted to fill the drainage channels on the Green for the 5th time. This has meant rolling the whole field yet again.
We held a courgette open day at NIAB on Wednesday and managed to coincide with a damp morning, but it suited the plants.

Courgette punters

Our walk on Thursday started in Ridgewell south of Haverhill and was a circuit including Stambourne and Great Yeldham. These are all places that I have driven through many times between Cambridge and Beaumont but not stopped to explore.

Near Stambourne

The college visit was to Trinity Hall, another very old establishment with some attractive buildings and on Tuesday 10 of us braved the weather to watch the Shakespeare in the open air. This time it was “As You Like It” at Trinity College (not Hall) and there was a decent crowd despite rain just before the performance. The actors did remarkably well rolling round on damp grass and carrying on regardless.


Trinity Hall

Love

Mike & Kate

15th August 2010

15th August 2010.

Dear All,

I think we can recommend the Brecon Beacons, not only the scenery and walking but the weather was much kinder than expected for Wales. We stopped in Ross-on-Wye for lunch on the way down and they were holding a carnival. When we arrived at Brecon they were holding their agricultural show and Jazz weekend so it was almost impossible to park.
We stayed at Defynnog near Sennybridge in a small barn conversion and managed a walk almost every day.

Our House/Barn
On Sunday we attended Kensington Baptist chapel where a smallish congregation have raised £250K to match the sum granted by the Welsh Assembly to rebuild a large stone building with serious roof problems. We had lunch at the Jazz Festival then climbed Fan Frynch which was a long valley walk with a steepish climb to the top where it was boggy and difficult going.
On Monday we visited the Mountain Centre then walked across the moor to Mynydd Illtud. After we drove down to Methyr Tydfil in the only serious rain of the week to pick up Esther.
We travelled further west on Tuesday to the Black Mountain and climbed up to Llyn y Fan Fach reservoir followed by a long wait at the Red Kite feeding station. I think the large crowd deterred them coming too close but we saw plenty flying overhead both then and throughout the week.


Llyn y Fan Fach Reservoir
Wednesday we climbed Bryn, a round topped hill east of Brecon, with excellent views of Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Beacons. We then explored Crickhowell a pretty small town east of Brecon then climbed the Table Top mountain with a distinctive flat top.

Table Top Mountain
We rang the changes a bit on Thursday and visited Brecon Museum then hired a canoe for 3 hours on the Brecon Canal followed by a visit to Brecon Cathedral.

Brecon Canal
Friday was the highlight climbing Corn Du and Pen y Fan which at 886m is the highest hill/mountain in southern Britain. As we did not feel too bad we went on to Ystradfellde Waterfalls where we anticipated a gentle stroll round four waterfalls. In fact it was quite a hard slog so we ended up walking 6 hours that day.

View from Pen y Fan
The journey back was not too bad – just the usual delays on the M25 as we dropped Esther in Hutton having inspected her livestock, them home by 4.15pm in time to watch the end of the cricket.
Love

Mike & Kate

1st August 2010

Dear All,

Kate and I have been helping with a Holiday Club from Monday to Wednesday this week. The theme was "Pirates" and based on Paul's letter to the Philippians. It went quite well with 23 children attending, not as many as in the past but better than recent efforts.

Holiday Club

Christ's College was our venue for the the gardens course this week. This was Darwin's college so there was a shrine to him and a newly planted garden of the plants he encountered on his voyage round South America.

Darwin's Garden

Young Darwin

Wednesday we lost only our second Chapel cricket match of the season but it was exciting with Anglian Water winning with only 3 balls to spare.

We completed the third section of the "Stour Valley Way" on Thursday frpm Stoke by Clare to Long Melford. It was a long section of 12.8 miles and I was struggling with an upset stomach - not ideal! The scenery was excellent with undulating corn fields - very Constableish, but we did not see much of the river on this section.

Stour Valley near Cavendish

On Friday I had a last minute chance to go to Trent Bridge with Ray for the Test Match. 15 wickets and only 170 runs does not sound exciting but it was good to see excellent bowling and fielding. Trent Bridge has a smart new stand and floodlights since I was there and is my favorite ground.

Trent Bridge New Stand



Trent Embankment

The garden is fairly productive at present with planty of beans, cucmbers, tomatoes, beetroot etc. and the water melons are swelling.

We hope to be off to the Brecon beacons next saturday so no bulletin next week.

love

Mike & Kate