Sunday, 25 March 2012

25th March 2012

19 Willingham Road
Over
Cambridge
CB24 5PD

25th March 2012.

Dear All,

We had a great week in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria as you have all doubtless read in your postcards. We arrived in drizzle and left in snow otherwise it was more or less wall to wall sunshine, far warmer than Italy last year so we tended to have packed the wrong clothes. There was plenty of snow – still a couple of feet on the highland but beginning to melt in the valleys. We had three days of valley or gentle slope walking and three of ski lifts or gondolas to the top of mountains followed by walking downhill.
Travelling was a bit complex with the return journey consisting of taxi, two Austrian trains, trolley bus, plane, shuttle bus, 3 UK trains, bus, then collect our car from Harrow to drive home.
As usual the Travel Agent (Graham) was faultless with transport, accommodation, routes all immaculately planned.


4 feet of snow















Knollhof Hotel


Gondola to Dachsteingletsher





View from the Gondola



View at the top










In the Ice cave



Descent from Turlwand





Descent from Hochwurzen



Sun worshippers





Local transport

As the fine weather continued here it has been a good week in the garden – but I won’t go into details for fear of boring my readers!
I have received two more donations of seed for Moldova making four in total, fortunately John has managed to negotiate a charity baggage allowance of an additional 20kg FOC with Austrian Airlines – all we need now is a sherpa to carry it!
Our local walk started in Great Chesterford on Thursday and as the going was firm and sunny and the countryside undulating it was very enjoyable.
Kate and I travelled to Hutton yesterday to meet Mandy and Natasha then later Ben before attending Esther’s concert at the Brentwood Centre. Five choirs combined to produce 200 singers and an orchestra of 75 for “Te Deum” by Berlioz – any questions? Please address Esther.
love
Mike & Kate

Sunday, 11 March 2012

11th March 2012





11th March 2012.

Dear All,

We didn’t travel very far this Monday as I had an X-Ray on my foot at Hinchingbrooke but we managed to explore Huntingdon, Houghton Garden Centre and Houghton village.


Huntingdon Centre









Catkins



The Cromwell museum











Catkins cu


Huntingdon bridge










Houghton centre






The Tuesday film was “The Big Sleep” starring Humphrey Bogart, a 1946 B&W adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel. It was excellent and cracked along at an impressive pace.


Kate and I attended a seminar at Eden chapel, Cambridge on Wednesday on “The Doctrine of God” by Mike Reeves from UCCF. It was a bit heavy! In the afternoon my Art Appreciation class resumed after a months absence studying Caravaggio and El Greco.
The Thursday walk started at Godmanchester and circled via the Hemingfords, St Ives and Houghton. It was 11 miles but not too bad as it was flat and there were no ploughed fields to traverse.


Heminford Abbots








Hemingford Grey

The change back to cooler weather slowed down gardening activities apart from digging so I have been working on updating one of my Garden Club talks and preparing some talks for Moldova.
We did a recce round Over Fen yesterday as we are leading a church walk today. There were swans, a new badger set and new born calves as well as plenty of other birds.
I watched Over held to a 1 v 1 draw by Cottenham yesterday – the first points they have dropped since the new manager took over.
No letter next week as we are due to fly out to Austria with Graham and Mary tomorrow.


love

Mike & Kate

Sunday, 4 March 2012

4th March 2012







4th March 2012.

Dear All,

On Monday we visited Bishops Stortford. We took the town trail in the morning and I gave a talk to the U3A Plants Group in the afternoon. I had never been in the centre of the town before and the most noticeable feature were the number of old coaching inns from the time it was on the route from London to Cambridge.


Bishops Stortford The Black Lion




The Boars Head


The Corn Exchange






The George



The Stag






Carved Pew


The Tuesday film was “La Terra Trema” a Viconti film from 1948 about exploitation of fishermen in Sicily. It was largely acted by the locals and not professional actors and commissioned by the Communist Party.
The Home Group meeting was a birthday do for Norman Ingle was has the distinction of being born on the 29th February so has therefore only had 17 birthdays in 68 years. Question “How many Norman’s were registered in 2005?” Answer: 2.
I have planted or sown early potatoes, broad beans, beetroot, carrots, shallots, onion sets, garlic, lettuce and cabbage this week and purchased a greengage tree, a red gooseberry and some yellow raspberry canes.
Our walk on Thursday started at Much Hadham and circled round the River Ash valley. It was sunny and firm underfoot and an excellent walk albeit 11 miles long.


Much Hadham




Ash valley

The ACC course in the evening takes a bit of concentration as it is 2.5 hours long.
The Twisses (opposite) came for coffee on Friday and we were in Whittlesey last night for an area officers meal.


love

Mike & Kate