26th January 2014.

Dear All,

A couple of muddy walks this week as I did a recce with a couple of colleagues on Monday and the normal walk on Thursday. On Monday the walk started at Abbots Ripton home of the De Ramsey family. The family name is Fellowes and the author of Downton Abbey is part of thedynasty and lives nearby. They own 6,000 acres which is the whole of the village and some more. It was a decent walk with spectacular views to the north with nearly all the heavy land ploughed but not sown.

The Abbots Elms

 Abbots Ripton Estate

The second instalment of “Eat, Drink and be Healthy” covered food basics including food types, sources and uses. Sugar consumption is now 35-50 times it was a 100 years ago.

In the afternoon we attended the U3A film which was “The White Ribbon” It was filmed in black & white. The setting was the fictitious Protestant village of Eichwald,Germany, from July 1913 to 9 August 1914, where the local pastor, the doctor and the baron rule the roost over the area's women, children and peasant farmers. There are several strange unexplained violent incidents which perhaps explain the build up to the 1^st WW.

Kate is in decorating mood for Esther’s old room so we went to B&Q and Homebase on Wednesday for supplies. In the afternoon we attended the U3A Wednesday lecture entitled “Why aren’t we all fat?” by Stephen O’Rahilly who is a local expert. In our lifetime we drink 42 tons of water and eat 3 tons of fat, 3 tons of protein and 8 tons of carbohydrate. Your BMI is up to 75% genetic.

On Thursday we started at Dry Drayton in the rain and proceeded to Knapwell and Bar Hill discovering some mud but it could have been worse.

 Sticky Start

We drove down to Hove in the afternoon. The M25 was sluggish so we took 3 hours arriving about 7 pm. Ericsson are transferring much of their accounting to Dusseldorf and Andy has to go for at least a year so this will disrupt their life for a while.

On Friday we took Amélie to storytime at the Library then Arundel Wildlife Centre. It was well laid out with a range of ducks and other water birds. There was a small electric inflatable boat ride where we saw a couple of water voles.

 Library

Arundel Wildlife Centre

We left fairly early on Saturday and I watched Fulbourn 0 v 1 Over. Esther has arrived this lunchtime with a view to buying a Smart TV tomorrow.

Love

Mike & Kate

19th January 2014.

Dear All,

A few presentations this week: Kate gave a talk on “Smallpox in Bleak House” to the Dickens Society for which she has received generous accolades. I had a Garden Club appointment at Benington, near Stevenage on Wednesday then a “Rambling Year” presentation at the U3A Ramblers New Year Social on Friday.

On Monday I had a glimpse of why the NHS is not always as efficient as it should be. I was called back to see the specialist who looked at my lung scan results last August expecting another scan. However, when I eventually got to see him after the statutory 45 minutes wait he said: “I don’t know why they have called you in – I don’t want to see you again for 12 months!”

This week saw the start of the new U3A term and I have swapped “Just Vegetating” for “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy” which examines all the spurious claims of the food and medical industries. The first book on the reading list is “Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre. Later I joined some ex NIAB “wrinklies” for lunch while Kate went to the U3A film “The Godfather II!

Kate achieved another target on Wednesday by getting a walking boot on her recovering foot. We walked round the village OK but it was throbbing a bit afterwards.

The Thursday walk did not go according to plan. I arrived at Haddenham with my passenger June from Willingham, when she had a call from her son who has a Personality Disorder. He lives on a barge at Ely and frequently phones for up to 3 hours at a time to berate her about things. In the end I had to take her home in tears. He isn’t getting any better and she is not getting much help, the situation is worse because her husband is working in Bristol all week.

I didn’t get back to Haddenham until 11.30 but managed a short solo walk round the fen to Aldreth.

Aldreth Drove

“Biographies” this week was “Dickens part 2” delivered by a lady speaking at ninety miles per hour as a literature review rather than a biography.

Gardening muscles were stretched a little this week buying seed potatoes, onion, garlic and shallot sets and sowing peas and beans in modules in the greenhouse.

It was “Messy Church” again yesterday. Kate was IC food and I was in charge of making “Cress men”.

  

Messy Church

Love

Mike & Kate

12th January 2014.

 

Dear All,

 

Kate has been suffering from a heavy cold this week – which has perhaps helped take her mind off her foot? The foot is still improving and she managed to swim on Monday and catered for 40 at the chapel social last night.

I have spent quite a lot of time on the computer this week preparing presentations for the social last night and the walkers New Year party this coming Friday as well as the February Gardening Column.

I pruned the apple trees on Wednesday and planted some bulbs in pots in the greenhouse. The Thursday walk started at Arrington taking in Croydon and the Wimpole Park – a bit muddy but could have been much worse.

 

 Walking near or in Wimpole

 

Later in the day I met up with some old NIAB colleagues at Oakington Garden Centre. Also present was a man called Alan Shipp who is the holder of the national Hyacinth collection. He has about 1000 varieties and holds an open day at Waterbeach at the end of March each year.

The Social meal was excellent, menu: starters, pate or butternut squash soup, main, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes au gratin, red cabbage, peas and sweet corn, or chicken bake in mushroom sauce, choice of eight sweets, cheese and biscuits, tea or coffee, price £7. The review gets longer each year – 170 slides this year.

Over suffered a rare defeat yesterday 1 v 0 in the cup appearing rather rusty after several blank weeks.

 

Love

 

Mike & Kate

5th January 2014.

Dear All,

A Happy New Year to all our reader(s). Mary-Ann and Amélie stayed over until Monday so we took them to “Whale of a Time” the soft play area at Bar Hill and afterwards used the extra pairs of hands to help? start sorting the 2000 odd packets of seed donated by Suttons for Moldova. They left at 6.30pm so that Amélie would sleep in the car – and it worked.

We were invited to see in the New Year with John and Sally Lane in the new Eco house up the road. They are still getting used to temperature control but otherwise seem very happy with their new surroundings.

63 Willingham Road

New Years Day was wet and miserable here and I guess most other places so I was working on Powerpoints for the Chapel Social and the Ramblers New year party.

Fortunately Thursday was much better for the walk, but as we were close to the river at Anglesey Abbey for part of the journey, we found plenty of mud. In the afternoon we travelled to Hove to mind Amélie on Friday. Traffic was lighter than usual so we had a reasonable journey.

Near Anglesey Abbey

Friday was rather rough so we caught the bus to Brighton and visited “Waterworld” a pretty decent aquarium.

Brighton Pavillion

Aquarium Exhibit

Restless Sea

Melon eater

In the afternoon the wind was so strong it was difficult to push the pram into it and the sea was fairly spectacular.

We left early on Saturday and called in at Hutton as Esther had a couple of jobs that needed attention.

We were at Haddenham for lunch yesterday hence the delay in completing this letter.

Love

Mike & Kate

10th November 2013.

Dear All,

On Monday I managed to re roof our bike shed in advance of a wet week with the help of Mervyn. Mark Law donated some hefty 1” thick plywood which we could hardly lift and together with a new roll of felt and some batons we did a neat job – even if I say so myself!

In the evening it was Garden Club talk number 180 at Abington.

Our “Just Vegetating” talk this week was on “Salads – Fruit”, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers and Aubergines. Nearly full attendance and still seems to be going well. Kate’s recipe spot is especially popular with several contributions brought in to sample.

Afterwards the U3A film this week was “In Darkness” about Jews surviving extermination in Poland by hiding in the sewers. It was based on a true story set in Lvov and very well done, if fairly harrowing.

Wednesday was wet and horrible here so I spent the day preparing talks for next week when somehow I have collected four presentations – talk about not having time to go to work!

Our Thursday walk started at Sutton, Bedfordshire and took in Biggleswade, Potton and the RSPB wood at Sandy. The autumn colours were showing up well and it was the best day of the week weatherwise.

  

In the evening we went to Anglia Ruskin University to watch “The Spirit of 45” a Ken Loach film about the achievements of the post was Labour government in setting up the NHS and nationalised industries. Arguably that government achieved more than any other before or since.

Friday started badly when my overstocked woodshelf in the garage collapsed on to Kate’s car. Fortunately it did not do too much damage and resulted in an overdue sorting of the “useful” bits of wood that seem to accumulate.

Kate’s first batch of swabs have proved negative for MRSA and she had a second lot taken on Friday.

“Louis Braille” was the subject of this weeks biography session. He was blinded by a sharp instrument in his fathers saddle making workshop aged 3 and got the idea of the Braille system from an old soldier who told him about a system the artillery had for passing instructions for night time attacks by carving holes in blocks of wood.

I picked the last of the runner beans yesterday and dug the ground before travelling to Fulbourn to watch Over triumph 1 v 0 in a “full blooded encounter” which left the home side with 9 men at the final whistle!

We have a chapel lunch today to celebrate Norman’s 80 birthday. Needless to say Kate is in charge of refreshments and the numbers keep rising to stressful levels!

Love

Mike & Kate