15th December 2013.

Dear All,

Kate has an appointment on Tuesday to check progress and hopefully remove the support bandaging. Her foot is still throbbing but of course she does not complain.

I was at Wisley again on Monday as part of a delegation meeting the management to point out the shortcomings of recent trials. I could have done without it but it was a fairly constructive meeting so hopefully things will improve. Kate wanted to attend “The Dickens Fellowship” meeting in the evening so I took her in. They are reading “Bleak House” and discussing it in fine detail. As I hadn’t read it only seen the TV film, I felt a bit like an atheist at a prayer meeting! I came away with split opinions a) admiration at the detailed knowledge of some people and b) this would make a great “Beyond the Fringe” skit on people who are slightly up themselves! Kate wanted to be there as she is speaking next month on “Small pox in Dickens time”

We had the last session of “Just Vegetating” on Tuesday covering “Varieties”, a quiz and of course food. We had some very flattering comments on the feedback forms and a gift token for £25 so it seems to have gone down pretty well.

In the evening I was on a “Gardeners Question Time” panel with Peter Jackson the Horticultural manager of Scotsdale’s Garden Centre. There were meant to be 3 or 4 of us but only 2 made it, fortunately Peter knows everything so it is not so demanding. It was at Needingworth which for some reason has the largest membership of any GC club round here.

On Wednesday it was Over Pantomime “Ebenezer”. There were some strong performances and a few less so but it is always enjoyable.

Out Thursday walk started at Cowlinge south of Newmarket. It was sticky underfoot but not too bad.

Cowlinge

In the afternoon we visited Kate & Gordon to inspect their new house in Haddenham. It is on a much more humble scale than Sutton but has “potential”

 32 Duck Lane, Haddenham

The last Biography session of the year involved everyone (who remembered) taking a reading or poem about “Winter or Christmas” also a quiz and eats. I took Kate to Tescos later – a bit of a challenge in a wheelchair.

On Saturday I delivered my quota of church Christmas cards, split a tooth (again), started digging in the mustard as green manure and watched Over score 5 before half time.

I hope your Christmas preparations are all in an advanced state of readiness? Ours aren’t!

Love

Mike & Kate