9th May 2015.

Dear All,

As we are off to Wales early tomorrow this is just a brief note on Saturday night. We celebrated Kate’s birthday on Monday by reccying a walk at Stoke-by-Clare. It was a beautiful day and a fine walk so what more could she have wished for?!

Our lodger finally left yesterday having been allocated a council flat in Cambridge. It was in a bit of a state so Kate and Rebecca spent several days cleaning and painting while I was in Moldova and I helped on Tuesday. The result is now quite respectable apart from a leak in the bathroom from upstairs shower. She has benefitted from our neighbours demise and had her pick of the furniture as the house is currently being cleared. The result was that on Friday it needed two journeys with a packed van to move all her clobber. It is amazing how much stuff she had collected since moving in last July. She is what Alexander McCall Smith would call a “Traditionally Built Lady” and while packing her car for the move slipped horizontally between front and back seats and got wedged. Kate had gone to pack other goods and I discovered her in fits of laughter quite unable to move. We will not forget her in a hurry!

My children will probably remember Eileen King; she died last week after a long battle with cancer and her funeral was held on Wednesday. She was a very popular and positive individual so there was a large gathering to see her off.

There was a good turnout of 39 for the actual walk from Stoke-by-Clare. We led the so called shorter walk which ended up at 9.2 miles and the weather was not so nice as Monday but still reasonable.

Stoke-by-Clare

Later that night we prepared the cricket pitch for the first Saturday home match as well as two junior games during the week.

On Friday I had arranged a chapel visit to Queens College gardens and buildings. The head gardener is an ex NIAB man. It has some seriously old buildings and he has done a good job with the gardens.

Mathematical Bridge

Presidents Lodge

Historic Sun & Moon Dial

It was the Street Pastors AGM and lunch at Great Shelford today so it was good to meet some of the other volunteers.

This weekend Esther has flown to Bulgaria to help design a user friendly garden for those with physical and learning difficulties, Mary-Ann, Andy and Amélie have been in Lanzarote for over a week and Ben is in Skopjie for a marathon. As there have been riots there we hope he can run fast enough!

Love

Mike & Kate