2^nd October 2016

Dear All,

It has been a fairly busy week culminating in Harvest Festival this weekend. On Monday, after swimming Kate and I did a recce for Thursday’s walk that we were due to lead from Abbots Ripton. We also have the Day Centre Quiz next Friday so Kate has compiled the questions and I have been computerising them.

This week we hired the Cricket Association trailer of equipment to carry out the winter maintenance on the square. I cut the pitches on Tuesday then on Wednesday it was scarifying, fertilizing, reseeding and applying 50 bags of Ongar Loam. There were three of us but it takes a bit of time and the equipment is showing signs of ageing so there were a few breakdowns. In the afternoon Kate and I travelled down to London for a theatre trip in the evening using tickets paid for by my children for my 70^th. We saw “The Entertainer” with Kenneth Branagh in the lead role at the Garrick Theatre.

Before the performance we had explored round Kings Cross a little: Camley Street Park, Regents Canal, Old St Pancras church and the new Francis Crick building. Later we took the tube to Charing Cross and had a quick visit to the National Portrait Gallery before meeting up with Ben for a meal before the show. Ben has achieved a promotion at Kings but still putting in long hours. We got home at midnight and were up for walking next morning.

Regent’s Canal

The Hardy Tree, St Pancras churchyard

Francis Crick Building

The walk was not in spectacular scenery but the views northwards were panoramic and decidedly autumnal.

Abbots Ripton, The Abbots Elm

The rest of the week centred round collecting material for the Harvest Festival. I took Jim Burr for a ride to Biggleswade to collect a few extra vegetables on Friday morning then Kate and I were on a St John’s ambulance First Aid course at Cherry Hinton in the afternoon.

We had a men’s breakfast yesterday with a heavy metal guitarist as speaker. I watched football in the afternoon, and we had the Harvest Supper in the evening.

Esther is in Lisbon this weekend, part work, part holiday and we are due in Hove again next week.

Love

Mike & Kate