5^th June 2016.

Dear All,

On Wednesday Kate and I had a “Quality Time” day out walking the Colchester Heritage Trail. It started at Hollytrees Museum then to the Castle, Dutch Quarter, Quaker Alley, St Martin’s, Town Hall, Fire Office, St Peter’s, Jumbo Water Tower, Balkerne Gateway, Roman Wall, St Mary’s, Sir Isaac’s walk, St Botolph’s, East Hill, Minories and back to Hollytrees. Although it was my nearest town growing up, I had not explored it in detail and there is, of course, more history than you can shake a stick at. We started to walk to the Hythe while we were en route, but it was too far and eventually we gave up and drove there after completing the tour.

Castle

15^th Century Building

St Botolph’s ruins

The Hythe Docks

We had serious rain on Tuesday, which we needed, but it did not dry out all week. It cheered the garden and allotment up but made wicket preparation very tricky. I stripped the shelving and propagator out of the greenhouse during the downpour and planted peppers in the cleared area. Meanwhile the allotment has been filled with squash and the garden with sweet corn –so no spare land at present!

Kate and I led the walk at Radwinter on Thursday. It was an interesting walk but several of the paths were not very clear with chest high damp foliage. The rain had made bare land very sticky and the path crossed a field with a large bull who fortunately chose to run away.

Radwinter

Bull & Harem

Challenging Undergrowth

We visited one of the church members in Addenbrookes on Friday; Jan Few is a large man who has had a hip replacement. A lung collapsed while he was under anaesthetic so he was relieved to fell as well as he did.

Love

Mike & Kate