26th July 2015

26th July 2015.

Dear All,

It was Hove week this week and we left earlier than usual on Tuesday and called in at Wakehurst, near Haywards Heath. It is a large garden of 500 acres run by Kew and houses the Millennium Seed Bank. It has a collection of different gardens separated by some very healthy trees overlooked by a fine 16^th century mansion.

Wakehurst Mansion & Pond

Walled Garden

Millennium Seed Bank

On Wednesday we caught the bus into Brighton and visited the museum which has some magnificent pottery and china including a chamber pot with a model of Napoleon in the bottom so that you could insult him at each visit. The museum was also hosting the Natural History Photographic competition winners and some of these were truly excellent.

Flying Machine

Napoleon Pot

Ice cream time

Two animal stories this week. I was working in the garden on Friday and when I looked up there was a half grown muntjac fawn about 3 yards away. Instead of bolting it was quite curious and I managed to collect my camera and take a few shots. Later it was sheltering in the greenhouse, then yesterday it reappeared again. Whether this is good or bad news remains to be seen.

Friend or Foe?

Secondly all our tropical fish have been wiped out over two days. We have had a tank for nearly 44 years and this is the first time this has happened. I am not sure why.

We are in charge of the “Eco House” up the road this week as John and Sally are on a cruise. The main duty is locking up the chickens at night but last time they were away their freezer packed up with dire consequences.

Apricot season has begun and the tree has excelled this year.

Cricket was off yesterday due to the rain on Friday, which was nearly all day but greatly needed.

Having gained planning permission to replace the pews in the chapel after about 7 years waiting new chairs have arriv4d so we have a serious work session arranged this week to start the changeover.

Love

Mike & Kate

19th July 2015.

Dear All,

It was Over Carnival yesterday so a fairly busy day with Kate in charge of refreshments in the Pavilion and the usual chapel stand with quiz, game and craft. Esther, Mary-Ann, Andy and Amélie all came to help or participate and the sun shone all day so there was a good turnout. Our former lodger Cathy came to help with the refreshments a) she got lost getting here having lived in Over for 10 months! b) she was rashly assigned to the cash point and was largely the reason for increased profits as she was extremely approximate with the change. We picked up litter this morning but it was not too bad.

Quiz

Game

Crowds

Refreshments

Joy rider

Entertainment

Litter pickers

I called in at NIAB on Tuesday and found them in the middle of another round of redundancies “not because we are cash strapped but we need to change direction to more profitable areas”. That does not particularly cheer those affected.

Our Thursday walk started at Godmanchester and was reasonably familiar taking in Houghton, St Ives and Hemmingford – 11.4 miles but it was dry and not too hot.

Houghton Mill

Hemmingford

Harvesting continues at a pace with runner beans and tomatoes starting and French beans, cucumbers, lettuce, beetroot carrots, onions, shallots and garlic all producing well. On the fruit side of things raspberries and cherries have replaced strawberries and currants.

Our visitors all left this afternoon, Esther via Addenbookes to visit a work colleague. No news from China so hopefully Ben is having a good time?

Love

Mike & Kate

12th July 2015

12th July 2015.

Dear All,

On Friday Kate and I had a day out visiting Naseby Battlefield and the nearby Coton Manor Gardens near Kettering. There is not a great deal to see at Naseby but it was interesting to see the terrain they fought over in what was a decisive battle in the Civil War. The gardens were well worth visiting with terraced beds, woods and water.

Naseby Battlefield

Coton Manor Gardens

Thursday’s walk was a circular route around Ely and although largely familiar we did find some areas we had not seen before.

Ely

Red currant picking entered the second week but has finally finished for this year but raspberries are beginning now and the dwarf cherry tree has excelled this year.

Otherwise we have been preparing for next Saturday’s carnival, preparing wickets and generally keeping on top of watering and weeding.

I went to a NIAB “Wrinklies” lunch at Girton on Tuesday watching the differing rates that people age!

Ben flew to China on Friday for a 17 day visit.

Love

Mike & Kate

5th July 2015

5th July 2015.

Dear All,

We were on duty in the “Street Pastors” cafe last night so did not get to bed until 4.45 am - hence the belated epistle this week. It was a fairly lively evening in “Nightlife” with numerous hen parties, celebrating students and general revellers. The usual street folk and intoxicated youths were augmented by foreign students at language schools to learn English. As several of these are non drinking Muslims they are a welcome change when they drop in for a chat to improve their language skills. We had one serious casualty from South Carolina dripping with blood as he had been beaten up and a couple of heavily intoxicated girls who, atypically were not very grateful for help received. In addition, our 6’5” Nigerian security guard was suffering from a migraine so was packed off home. We were asked out for lunch at Merv & Pat’s today for which we were very grateful.

Monday was exercise day as we followed our normal swim with a 8.5 mile recce then cricket pitch repairs and an evening meal at Girton with some of the walking group. In fact we had 5 matches on the Green in 8 days so no respite for the groundsman in the testing weather!

On Tuesday evening we went to Warboys to hear a talk by Garry Williams from the John Owen Centre at the London Theological Seminary and Wednesday I painted the bottom shed with Cuprinol which proved an extremely warm job.

The chapel cricket team were out against St Neots Evangelical Church in the evening and we won fairly easily.

We led the walk we had recced on Thursday starting at Stow cum Quy and crossing Quy Fen to Clayhythe, Waterbeach and back along Bottisham Lode via the Cambridge Polo ground – which we had no idea existed and the disused Coprolite Pits.

Quy Fen Coprolite Pit

Overgrown section of the Walk!

We attended another session of Street Pastor training on Friday night which was better than some and in the night were woken by overhead thunder and lightning followed by 1.5” of very welcome rain.

We have been picking red currants most days this week – I have never seen such a heavy crop.

It has been Amélie’s 4^th birthday today. Esther went down to help with the celebrations with a “Creepy Crawlies” theme.

Love

Mike & Kate