Sunday, 31 July 2016

31st July 2016

Dear All,

We have greatly enjoyed entertaining Mary-Ann, Amélie and Albert until Friday, Andy having flown to Dublin on Sunday. They have visited St Ives, Milton Country Park and Ely but seemed to enjoy feeding the ducks in the river, helping harvest vegetables and playing on the Green just as much.  Amélie is quite tall for her age and Albert good natured and blessed with a healthy appetite.


Duck feeding at Overcote


Amélie & Ely Cathedral


Bert watching duck feeding


Ely Maltings

Unfortunately I had to be out two days on RHS business. It was Wisley on Monday judging 42 beetroot entries and checking progress of Sweet Corn and Sweet Pepper trials. On Wednesday it was judging the summer cabbage at Spalding, this time with the Panel. As I am chairman this year I could not back out. The journeys to both venues were not too bad – school holidays make a lot of difference and Wisley have some attractive ornamental trials in the same field this year including Agapanthus and Zantedeschia (coloured arum lilies).


Wisley Beetroot trial


Wisley New Varieties trial

I travelled down with Colin Randal from Thompson & Morgan Seeds and he needed to call in on Tozers Seeds at Cobham after to pick up some of their new kale plants for their press open day.
Vegetables have benefited from the wet June so we are harvesting runner beans, French beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and courgettes a plenty and this week pulled the spring planted onions.
Both cricket teams won yesterday – a rare occurrence this year!

Love


Mike & Kate

Sunday, 24 July 2016

24th July 2016

Dear All,

Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert arrived late Friday evening. Andy has to go to Dublin later today and the rest are staying until Friday. Yesterday I was judging Linton Show and I met up with the others at Linton Zoo. The show was reasonable quality, especially the fruit but the vegetable entries were less than usual.
The zoo was very hot and the lions and tigers wisely chose to sleep, but the giant tortoises in which they specialise, were perhaps a bit more active than usual!


Linton Show


Winning Exhibit (Red currants)



Amelie & Postman Pat

Three cricket matches on the Green this week so a bit of preparation after the Carnival last weekend. The chapel team have had a reduced season due to opposition backing out but we has a match v Huntingdon District Council on Wednesday. Just as we arrived the heavens opened with a tremendous downpour including a carpet of hailstones. As it has been so dry beforehand it soon drained away and we were able to play. We needed 4 runs off the last two balls and our batsman managed to miss them both!

I had to go to Spalding again on Wednesday to record the RHS cabbage trial and on Tuesday Merv and I finished strimming the church graveyard.

Our Thursday walking outing started at Chrishall and took in Elmdon and Strethall. The designated leader, Peter McGill, had reccied the previous week but for some reason set out in the wrong direction and to quote him “did not step on one yard that he had reccied”. Consequently a short 7.5 miles ended up as 9.9 miles with an unhealthy percentage on roads. I think he will be delisted as a leader!


North of Elmdon

I had a Garden Club talk at Offord in the evening. Walking and cricket pitch repairing are not ideal preparation on a warm muggy evening, but luckily they were a friendly crowd.

I have had to build mesh screens for both greenhouses as we have a set of blackbirds in the garden that have taken a shine to the tomatoes as they ripen.

Kate has been busy collecting provisions for the Ely Food Bank recently as for the first time they have run out of goods.


Love


Mike & Kate

Sunday, 17 July 2016

17th July 2016

Dear All,

It was Over Carnival day yesterday and we have just returned from picking up the post celebration litter. The sun shone so that always helps with this event. The parade was led by a pack of Harley Davidson motor bikes this year (deliberately!), we had the usual chapel stand but this year were granted one of the carnival tents which was bigger and stronger than our usual gazebo. We had lego and colouring (free), a countries quiz and a game both 10p each, so we were easily the best value on site! Kate shared the tea stand with the WI which was an experience in itself!


Harley Parade


Chapel tent


Alternative entertainment


Litter pickers

I had to go to Spalding on Tuesday to record a RHS cabbage trial. Unfortunately it has suffered from flooding, hail and pigeons so is not as good as last year’s cauliflowers.


Summer cabbage trial

I started strimming round the graves in the cemetery on Wednesday, we have the grass cut by a contractor but several of the graves are long since neglected so need an annual trim.

Our weekly walk started at Wrestlingworth, near Biggleswade and took in Eyeworth and Tadlow. It was warm and humid so plenty of sweating.


Wrestlingworth, The Chequers


Break in Tadlow graveyard

Only the one attempted murder in our street this week so quite dull really!
Love


Mike & Kate

Sunday, 10 July 2016

10th July 2016

Dear All,

Kate and I met up with Esther at Hampden Court Flower Show on Wednesday. I had four free tickets from RHS as they messed up Chelsea tickets. Pat Howard also came with us. It is not the easiest venue to get to as the year we drove there was a huge traffic jam and the train journey involves several changes, but unlike Chelsea you can always find space once you arrive. The weather was hot and the gardens interesting, but the star item was probably the Floral Marquee which is huge with displays of every kind of flower and foliage. We sat in on a couple of talks by Christine Walkden and Alys Fowler which were more useful for the rest they provided than their content. The “Concept Gardens” were mostly strange and if I was expecting to see vegetables then I would have been disappointed!







  
On Thursday the walk was also in good weather starting at Ardeley which is well off the beaten track below Buntingford, reached by some rather narrow lanes. The walk included a long stretch of Roman road and several shaded lanes. In the evening one of the walkers (Ian Gordon who you may have met at my 70th) had a spare ticket for the ladies cricket T20 International v Pakistan at Chelmsford. It was very enjoyable, if a bit one sided as England were much bigger, stronger and fitter. The standard of fielding was fantastic – perhaps because I have been used to Over’s efforts!



Ardeley Village Green

On Saturday we held our first “Lego Event” at the chapel. The Kingfisher church that John Law attends have been staging these for a year or so and lent us a vast pile of bricks, wheels etc. and Kate was in charge of bacon rolls. The attendance was moderate but it was a start and it will be punted at the Carnival next Saturday.
It was Street Pastor duty again last night. Kate was in Nightlite and I was on patrol. The atmosphere was fairly merry from the start as there is a 3 day fair on Parkers Piece and some had been indulging long term. The stand out incident arose when the security folk from Revolution, the next door night club delivered a scantily clad young girl to Nightlite, that they had found collapsed in the toilets. She had no documents, money or phone. They eventually extracted her name and found out that she was Polish and had just flown in from the USA.
The new security guy at Nightlite is Czech and very resourceful. He looked her up on Facebook and got a list and photos of her friends, lo and behold he then recognised one of them walking down the street!
His day job is security at Waitrose and had been entertaining the cafe staff with stories of the lengths some people go to steal and shop lift from the store – Kate now knows all the wrinkles!
Amélie was 5 on Tuesday and was blessed by the teachers going on strike so she had the day off school. I guess she will expect this every year just as she believes there is always a Carnival on Over Green – at least when she visits!

Love


Mike & Kate

Sunday, 3 July 2016

3rd July 2016

Dear All,

Kate and I were at Hutton on Tuesday to do a few jobs for Esther. It is amazing how much you can fit in a day if you try as we cut the grass, trimmed the hedge, tidied the greenhouse, weeded the front garden and a couple of back borders, laid a few paving slabs, weeded a couple of raised beds, cemented loose bricks on the front wall, cleaned and tried to fix a leaking gutter. Esther was at work all day so we did not actually meet up. She had entertained Mary-Ann, Amélie and Albert at the weekend as Andy participated in the London to Brighton 100 Km walk finishing joint 1st and raising a decent sum for charity.
In the evening we went to Warboys for a talk by Dan Strange, deputy of Oak Hall about “Christianity and Culture” which was very good.
 On Wednesday it was wet nearly all day as opposed to the usual tropical evening downpour! Preparing cricket pitches has been a challenge but somehow we got through June without cancelling a Saturday match. Both Over teams are having moderate seasons – I think we should be looking for an Icelandic manager!
The Thursday walk started at Cowlinge in Suffolk south of Newmarket. It was dry overhead but there was plenty of moisture around.


Near Cowlinge


Ford at Wickhambrook

 Bee orchid






Plenty of gardening this week including harvesting overwintered onions and planting spring heading cauliflowers. Raspberries, cherries and red currants are all beginning to crop, especially the currants, Kate picked two tubs full without making any impression.


Autumn Onions

We had an interesting speaker at Men’s breakfast yesterday called Jonathan Gibson. He grew up in Huddersfield in a poor neighbourhood with a shared outdoor privie 60 yards down the road. He got into banking then retrained as a scientist and worked for Anglian Water developing microorganisms to treat toxic substances in sewage, then when AW changed direction invested his pay off into a kitchen fitting business.
Ben is safely back from Fiji and Venuatu, he seems to have had a good time but we haven’t heard too many details yet.

Love


Mike & Kate