30th March 2014

30th March 2014.

Dear All,

This has been a “Hove Week” and as U3A classes have finished for Easter we left fairly early on Tuesday and had a good run down and were able to pick up Mary-Ann from work and Amélie from nursery.

On Wednesday we visited the Lancing College chapel – a very imposing building, then went on to Coombe Valley Farm to see new born lambs and calves. The farm has hundreds of sheep as well as a herd of Sussex cattle. As they charge £4 entrance fee and £2.50 if you want a tractor and trailer ride round the farm I believe they are probably making more from the public than the livestock. However Amélie approved as she got to stroke lambs and feed them hay - which they may not have wanted.

Lancing College Chapel

Sussex Cattle

A few Sheep

Would be Shepherd?

Woolly Matress

Feeding Time

Devils Dyke

Afterwards we drove up to Devils Dyke on the top of the Downs for a walk with splendid views.

Our Thursday walk started at Elton near Peterborough and took in Fotheringhay where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned and finally beheaded and Richard III was born. The houses are most stone built and similar to the Cotswolds.

Elton Mill

Elton Village

Otherwise it has been mostly gardening – planting maincrop spuds, preparing the runner bean trench etc. and starting cricket pitch attention.

We were invited out to lunch with neighbours (the Twiss’s) opposite yesterday and then I watched Over put in a nervous performance having gone back to the top of the league, equalising in the last minute to draw 3 v 3 with Cambridge City Reserves.

Ben heading for the line in the Brentwood half Marathon

Finishing 315th out of 2425

love

Mike & Kate

23rd March 2014.

Dear All,

We had a challenging few days in the Lake District. We travelled up on Sunday and stopped at Ilkley for a walk across the Moor and Sunday lunch. We then continued to the new Brimstone Hotel at Elterwater in Langdale. The hotel has been built on a timeshare site to a very high spec.: a fire in each room, together with bath, 7ft square bed, en suite wet room, balcony and some with a mezzanine level. The reading room was supplied with free wine, beer, soft drinks, scones, sandwiches etc. in addition there was a heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. Fortunately our leader who is a member of the timeshare was able to negotiate a less than 50% introductory offer.

Ilkley Moor

 The Brimstone

There were two walks arranged each day, on Monday the longer walk climbed out of Langdale to Grasmere then to Loughrigg Fell, Skelwith Bridge and back along the river to Elterwater.

 Grasmere

68^th Birthday Pose

The weather on both the first two days was excellent but this did not last until Tuesday when we awoke to persistent rain which reduced the takers for the longer walk! However Kate and I decided to try it – which could have been a mistake? We again climbed out of Langdale heading towards the Langdale Pikes. At higher altitudes the wind got stronger with the odd hail shower alternating with the rain so it became a feat of endurance. It was not safe to climb the Pikes so we headed across Blea Crags to Stickle Tarn then down to Dungeon Ghyll for lunch, before walking back to Elterwater in the afternoon. It was a good test of people and equipment – we were fairly damp and cold only not to be allowed into our rooms on our return as the Duke of Gloucester was opening the Brimstone!

Under the Pikes

Wednesday was much more enjoyable as Hatty, one of our members, is an expert on the area and took us to Tilberthwaite and explained the history of copper mining in the Coniston area. Kate survived the first three days well but suffered on the last day as there was a long stretch on hard paths and roads.

Near Coniston

Tilberthwaite

I have loaded the full set of photos onto “Dropbox” should you be interested.

On Friday it was our last “Biography” session – Richard Wagner followed by an end of term lunch.

I drove to Cottenham on Saturday to watch football and my car would not start for the return journey – probably flat battery as I did not drive to Langdale. I had to be towed home in lashing rain and poor visibility. This was awkward as we were due to drive down to Hutton to say goodbye to Esther who has gone to Bulgaria to train and supervise some OTs and meet Ben who ran in the Brentwood Half Marathon today. We used Kate’s car and guess what it refused to start for the return journey!

Ben ran a creditable 1 hr 38 mins which was good considering his training has been hampered by worked horrendously long hours. The start was near Sawyers Church who cancelled their morning meeting and gave out free food and drinks to the masses.

It was good to meet up with Mary, Graham, David & Jen the week before for a meal at Weeley, walk at the Naze and tea and new house viewing at Beaumont.

Naze Walkers

Glebe Annex

Love

Mike & Kate

9th March 2014.

Dear All,

We were on duty in Hove on Wednesday but Tuesday was complicated by having a Garden Club talk at Blunham near Sandy which did not finish until 9 pm. We thought it would be an easy adaption to take the A1 instead of the M11 but unfortunately the A1 was closed for a couple of junctions for repairs so we had to divert to the M1 and eventually arrived at 11.45 pm. However we had a very enjoyable day on Wednesday visiting an open farm near Lewes with lambs, calves, llamas, pigs and a multitude of chicken breeds as well as a bale play area. In the afternoon we explored Lewes castle which pleased Amélie as she especially enjoys climbing steps at present.

Lamb Feeding

Headless Chicken?

Pig Feeding

Bale Jumping

Lewes Castle

We studied “Health Foods” in the Tuesday course and “Inigo Jones” in Biographies on Friday. Inigo was a self taught, pioneer architect before Christopher Wren and some of his buildings e.g. The Queens House at Greenwich still survive.

Our walk on Thursday started at Toppesfield near Haverill and was much less muddy than of late.

Boggy Patch

The Land Time Forgot

It has been good to see some sunshine this week and begin a little gardening mainly grass cutting, digging and weeding.

We have both been fighting a nasty coughing virus all week but have hopefully seen off the worst of the symptoms.

The Day Centre Quiz last week raised a record £545 which made it all worthwhile.

Love

Mike & Kate

2^nd March 2014.

Dear All,

We had a record turn out for the Day Centre Quiz this week with about 75 folk and 13 teams. This is part of the chapel’s fund raising support for the Day Centre who are currently saving for a new minibus. As usual, Kate had thought up most of the questions and I was a rather hoarse question master as there is not sound amplification system. It seemed to go quite well, not least because the usual winners were not in the first three!

The “Northern Walkers” sub group had a meal out at the Old Crown in Girton on Monday night. You can never predict what pub food will be from visit to visit but this was excellent.

“Eat, Drink and be Healthy” covered essential fatty acids, diet and cancer and inflammatory processes this week – not necessarily all cheerful topics. The U3A film was “Cabaret” which was much more cheerful.

The glass I ordered to replace the gale damage to the green house was ready for collection on Wednesday so I had a constructive session of reglazing – always a challenge with the largest sheets 106 x 75 cm.

The Thursday walk started at the “Lazy Otter” at Chittering and was largely on the banks of the Little Ouse through Streatham and Little Thetford with a few choice areas of mud but manageable. I think we must be adapting to mud a little now – perhaps the webbed feet help?

Little Ouse Bank

Streatham Old Pumping Station

Rare picture of Author!

Could become Wet & Muddy later!

New Chittering Solar Farm

The “Biography” topic this week was “Sir Joseph Banks” who was botanist on Capt Cook’s first voyage to Tahiti and Australia founding Botany Bay and having over 80 species named after him.

I have managed a little gardening this week mainly emptying one of the compost bins and sowing tomatoes, peas, broad beans and herbs in the greenhouse. The cricket pitch has been cut but remains rather soggy – so no play for the foreseeable future!

Over returned to winning ways beating Brampton 5 v 0 yesterday and in the evening Over hosted the Area Grace Baptist Association meal. There were only about 40 present but this was the 8^th meal at chapel so far this year and Kate has been involved with most of them.

Mary-Ann and Amélie are in Germany this weekend visiting Andy so we hope that goes well.

Love Mike & Kate