30th December 2012.

Dear All,

I hope you all enjoyed Christmas, we did despite a certain amount of ill health. Ben took 5.5 hours to bike up but 7 hours for the return journey on Friday due to head winds. Esther, Mary-Ann and Amélie left on Thursday to prepare a party for Esther’s friend’s children on Friday, but Esther was revisited by violent sickness so the party was cancelled and they returned on Friday. Amélie has a chesty cough but remains fairly cheerful. Andy returned to work on Thursday but came back on Saturday so we have nearly a full compliment again which is, of course, no hardship. Meanwhile Kate has a sore throat and cold symptoms.

The river and local pits at Swavesey and Fen Drayton are exceptionally flooded. We tried to walk there on Boxing Day but both car parks were cut off and only a short stroll and long paddle were possible.

Overcote

Fen Drayton Pits

Swavesey Pits

We  led a U3A walk on Thursday starting at Dalham and it rained all morning only clearing up as we drove home. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable outing and 17 turned up.

There was an Open House at the Manse on Friday evening to show off recent redecoration. Last night there was a similar event at one of our walkers homes in Shelford. He is called Dr Brian Cox (but not that one!) and his wife is a JP.

Esther gave a report on her trip to Bulgaria in this mornings service as the church and individuals had contributed towards the  expenses.

So Happy New Year to you all. Hope it goes well.

Love

Mike & Kate

23rd December 2012

23rd December 2012.

Dear All,

As an appetizer for Christmas I managed to dine out 5 days this week. Monday was the NIAB retirees (wrinklies) lunch at the Royal Cambridge hotel. It was good to see old colleagues, but the meal was comfortably the worst of the week – and the most expensive. On Tuesday Kate and I did a reccy for a walk on the 27^th starting at Dalham near Newmarket. Sheikh Mohammed of racing fame, brought Dalham Hall for £45m on 2009. It was a good circular walk taking in Gazeley, with ancient wooden pews and a 14^th century font in the church and Moulton with a medieval pack horse bridge.

Moulton Packhorse bridge     

                       

Dalham cottages

Wednesday was Carol Kitson’s birthday so 6 of us ate Chinese at Longstanton Black Bull. Thursday was the U3A walking group Christmas walk and meal in Cambridge. We started with a walk round some unfamiliar and recently developed areas of Cambridge, stopping for mulled wine and mince pies at a member’s house. We then continued along the Backs to “La Mimosa” and Italian restaurant by the river. They coped very well with 51 of us and the food was very good.

New Microsoft Research building 

                            The Belvedere, Cambridge

On Friday I collected the usual car load of Brussels sprouts from Biggleswade (50 stems and 2 nets). It was like driving through “the Drowned World” as every field had either a pond or a lake. The rest of Friday and Saturday morning was spent distributing his bounty – more satisfying than Christmas cards for people you see regularly.

Friday evening Jim & Janet Burr held an open house to celebrate their birthdays. The balance between walking and eating is a bit delicate at present!

Hopefully Ben (on his bike), Mary-Ann and Amélie should arrive sometime today. Esther and Andy both have to work tomorrow so should arrive after that.

Best wishes to everyone, especially those we will not see over the holiday.

Love

Mike & Kate

16th December 2012

16th December 2012.

Dear All,

Kate and I have been to Derbyshire for a couple of days this week to reccy a walk for a U3A trip next March and deliver Christmas presents. It was very cold but the combination of mist and frost produced some beautiful scenery. The March trip is staying at Hathersage but we are stopping at Wirksworth on the way up so Kate has been invited to lead a walk on home territory.

On Wednesday we started at the railway station where a conservation group have taken over the line and done a magnificent job renovating engines and coaches. We were given a long talk by an enthusiastic local so we were rather late setting out on the walk and consequently finished in the dark. We had a meal at Ash Farm but as the house at Bolehill is rather cluttered and dominated by a far from docile dog “Rex” we stayed at the village pub “The Malt Shovel” which was basic but cheap. We checked out some alternative routes on the Thursday including walking one of the large disused limestone quarries.

  Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Brother-in-law, John Bailey stayed on Monday night as he was visiting some local farms next day. His mother died recently so the family are currently trying to sell her house in Swindon.

The U3A film on Tuesday was “Le Havre” about an illegal immigrant which was well done and amusing.

I fetched a Christmas tree from Richard Fenwick’s plantation yesterday – still the best value around at £1 per foot!

It was Christmas “Messy Church” in the afternoon. Attendance was a bit down but still enough to be enjoyable and worthwhile.

Kate reported that her car was smelling of burnt coffee so we opened the bonnet to check the oil and water etc. The cause was soon identified as some animal: mouse, rat, bird, squirrel? had built a large nest, mainly from onion skins on the cylinder head. How and when this had happened, and who was the culprit remains a mystery.

Kate’s Engine

Love

Mike & Kate

9th December 2012

9th December 2012.

Dear All,

It has been a family week as it was our turn to baby mind on Wednesday and then the plan was to help Esther to look after Amélie on Friday and Saturday while Mary-Ann and Andy attended a Festival. However Mary-Ann was not well and eventually stayed at Esther’s as well. Amélie was also below par teething and uncertain tummy so the best laid plans.......

On Wednesday we visited the park at Petworth House in Sussex (the house was closed). It is a large park with some very old trees. The weather was bracing having woken up to a “white over” that morning with the first snow of the winter.

 

    

Petworth Park

Thursday was busy with the walk starting at Shepreth taking in Fowlmere, Melbourn and Meldreth. I had another scan in the afternoon (no results yet) and a Garden Club talk in the evening- also at Fowlmere. They had Bob Flowerdew the previous month (the last time I followed him he was paid 15 times what I was! – they wouldn’t reveal what he received this time but had declined Monty Don as he wanted £5,000)

When we returned from the walk we discovered a considerable mess as a set of shelves had come loose in the dining room dumping a serious number of CDs, DVDs and cassettes onto the floor.

    Melbourn

                                                                 near Shepreth

The biography this week was “Iris Murdoch” whose life story hardly matched the pure surroundings of our venue at the Friends Meeting House!

We have heard from both Marie Benedix and Bernarda Milnoviae from Croatia this week. Some of you might remember either or both of them. Marie from Sweden stayed with us while working as a student at NIAB and also with M & G for a while. She is now in Denver, Colorado working as a marketing consultant. Bernarda also worked at NIAB for a while and we met up with her and Drazan when we visited Croatia. They moved to Canada for a while but are now back in Zagreb.

Marie & Trevor

Love

Mike & Kate

2^nd December 2012.

Dear All,

This week has revolved around the talks I had to deliver. It started on Sunday with the children’s talk on “Sheep”. If you want an entertaining few moments Google “Sheep, Stuck, photos” – there are pages of sheep with their heads stuck in objects, on roofs and stranded on rocky ledges.

On Monday I drove down to Stow-on-the-Wold to address the Vegetable Consultants Association (VCA) at their annual conference. I was booked to do their after dinner talk on “The History of NIAB” but charged with remembering that some would be “tired and emotional” so keep it light. Actually I enjoyed preparing for this as there was quite a lot I did not know about the agriculture at the time it was set up in 1919 when seed was poor quality and new varieties were not being introduced or looked after – everyone just nicked other peoples varieties and reselected or renamed them resulting in vast arrays of synonyms.

Stow-in-the-Wold

Meanwhile they rang me on the previous Friday evening to say that their speaker on “Organics” had dropped out – could I stand in. It solved what to do on a wet cold Saturday morning!

Then Friday it was my turn to present a Biography. I chose “Henry J Heinz and his 57 varieties” He was growing vegetables aged 6, selling round the village aged 8, had his own horse and cart aged 12 and rising at 3 am to travel to Pittsburg to sell to shops and offices aged 14. His first processed product was horseradish and there were more than 57 varieties when the slogan was introduced and 1350 by the time it was back pedalled. He was a strong supporter of the Sunday School movement all his life and Heinz currently sell 650m bottles of Tomato Ketchup pa and last year turned over $11.6 billion with 35,000 employees.

 

                   Henry  Heinz     

                             

The Pittsburg Factory

The walk on Thursday was another sticky one starting at Balsham taking in West Wickham and West Wratting. There was a high percentage of fields to cross with a particularly adhesive brand of clay underfoot.

The U3A film this week was “Charlie Wilson’s War” based on a true story of a US Senators involvement with Afghanistan when the Russians were the invaders.

Advent Service tonight at the Anglican Church – time marches on!

Love

Mike & Kate

25th November 2012

25th November 2012.

Dear All,

Our Thursday walk was memorable this week. We started in Godmanchester and proceeded via Hemingford, St Ives and Houghton. After heavy rain during the week we were soon in ankle deep water and had to re route a couple of times before eventually having to wade through knee deep water. We split into two groups and our section ended up damp and weary after 12 miles.

 Near St Ives

I had a Garden Club talk on Tuesday evening so had to miss a 50^th wedding anniversary of one of our walking colleagues at The Fire Engine House at Ely. Kate went and as usual the meal was excellent.

I was at Wisley again on Wednesday planning next years’ trials. RHS income is down due to the weather and maybe the recession? so budgets are under scrutiny.

The biography subject this week was Sir Joseph Lister father of antiseptic surgery. He studied what Louis Pasteur was finding about spoilage in wine and applied it to medicine. He was brought up in the “quiet Essex village of Upton” which is now the site of Upton Park, West Ham’s football ground!

Esther came up on Friday night and Kate accompanied her to a Craft Fair in Cambridge Guildhall. I watched half of Over v Chatteris in chilly drizzle before attending the third session of “Messy Church” There was a good attendance again which is very encouraging.

Messy Church

 I have somehow ended up with four talks to do this week so have had to spend some time preparing!

Love

Mike & Kate

18th November 2012.

Dear All,

It was our week for Amélie minding and it coincided with a Workshop at Wisley on Tuesday so Kate came with me and had two days in Godalming. The Workshop covered items on "Sustainable Growing Media" and "Biosecurity and Quarantine for Pests & Diseases" the latter was quite depressing with the number of problems that have entered or are queuing up to enter the country. It also covered the recent outbreaks of “Ash Dieback” and “Sudden Oak Death” which are rather alarming.

On Wednesday the sun shone and we took Amélie to Winkworth Arboretum. The trees were at their most colourful and we were all impressed. Amélie is walking strongly now and covered most of the area on foot.

Winkworth Arboretum

I went with Kate to “The Dickens Society” meeting on Monday. They were discussing “Pickwick Papers”. There was an interesting talk on the various illustrators but the remaining discussions were rather rarified from folk, who albeit experts, were a tad precious.

On Thursday it began foggy and only lifted briefly at lunchtime, so our walk round Ely was a bit gloomy. We could supposedly see the cathedral from every point on the walk but in practice we did not see it at all. However the lunch in “The Cutter” was very good.

The biography this week was “Richard Trevithick” a Cornish mining engineer who initially designed stem driven pumps to drain the mines and later invented steam driven carriages. He was a fiery character and ran out of money a few times and spent several years in South America helping drain silver mines.

      The Zimmertones                                              

   Lucy & Barry

We had a Music Night at chapel last night as part of the 275^th celebrations. It featured a quartet “The Footlight” led by Hilary Allen and a harpist, Lucy Bunce accompanied by her father. The quartet finished the evening as aged “The Zimmertones” with grey wigs and walking sticks, zimmerframes etc.

I have struggled a bit with a sore back this week and following my kidney scan was summoned to the surgery as although the kidneys were clear they spotted a small nodule on my lung. I and the doctors don’t seem to know what the implications are but I have to go for another scan sometime.

Love

Mike & Kate

11th November 2012.

Dear All,

We were in London yesterday for the annual Conference of CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) an organisation which supports people who have been persecuted for their faith. It was held in the “Emanuel Centre” at Westminster. We arrived late as the Premier Travel coach we travelled on broke down at Wanstead so we completed the journey by tube. There were harrowing tales of people who are in prison or house arrest but the stories which made the biggest impression were from those who were actually there: a Sri Lankan lady whose husband had been killed in front of her eyes, an Iranian girl who had been imprisoned and an Iranian pastor who was imprisoned and sentenced to death. 54,000 people wrote to embassies to protest, a 24 hour prayer vigil was held and he was released the same day.

Emanuel Centre

It was Gordon Foster’s 60^th birthday this week and he held a party at an Indian restaurant in Peterborough on Tuesday evening. His boss Denis part owns the restaurant so he gets a good deal.

The Tuesday film was “The Burmese Harp” a Japanese story about a regiment being trapped in Burma at the end of the war. Their Captain was a trained musician and trained them to sing, a sanitised version of events but well done anyway.

Kate and I led the so called “Short Walk” on Thursday. It was actually measured at 9.66 miles but as the long walk was 12 miles we had a following of 21 compared to 11 on the long walk. The sun shone and the leaves and berries were very vivid.

  

            Near Anglesey Abbey  

                                  

Little Wilbraham River

Our biography topic was “Eleanor of Aquitaine” a tough old bird who lived until 82, mothered 10 children, married 2 kings and produced 2 more.

Kate and I went to an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum entitled “The Search for Immortailty” featuring Chinese burial relics from 200 BC which were not unearthed until the 1990s.

   

 Exhibits from China

We took Ben to Luton Airport on Monday and he should return today, as should Esther – perhaps they will meet? Erratum from last week for “Glasgow” read “Derby” – we haven’t had a report from the cousin’s weekend as yet.

Love

Mike & Kate