21st May 2017

Dear All,

It has been a busy week catching up with the garden, sorting photos, arranging a cricket team and a visit to a college garden.

On Monday I had a Garden Club talk at Ramsey. There were over 50 present and they were quite lively. On Tuesday I dismantled the seed propagator for the summer and the sand bed was full of ants which seem to be increasing each year. In the evening was a church business meeting where they agreed a £500 donation for Moldova.

Wednesday was meant to be our first chapel cricket match of the season and after spending considerable time assembling the team and confirming the opposition, it predictably broke the drought and it has been raining on and off ever since!

Our Thursday walk started at Clare in the Stour Valley. In Bulgaria each day’s walk was described as: Distance 15 km, climbing 500 m, descent 400 m. At Clare it was: Distance 14 km, climbing 10m, descent 10m! It was a return to mud underfoot but a pleasant walk and no rain while we were walking. We tried to prepare a cricket wicket in the evening but it was too wet and we did more harm than good.

 

     Clare  

                     

                          

  Belchamp St Paul church

 

 

Near Belchamp  

      

                                 

                                                                       River Stour

Friday evening I had arranged a garden visit to Murray Edwards College in Cambridge. This was opened in 1964 as “New College” but received a wad of cash from the Edwards family a few years back and was renamed including Murray from a distinguished head of college. It is the only college garden with a female head gardener and unique in encouraging visitors and students to take cuttings and sample edibles.

 

  Entrance to Murray Edwards                                   

The Dome

Jo Cobb head gardener                       

                                  

                                     

Pond

Yesterday it was the AGM of Street Pastors together with a talk on Homelessness. Last year there were 100 street patrols, 266 individuals were helped, 8500 glass bottles picked up, 300 bottles of water and 600 pairs of flip flops distributed. Nightlite was open 51 weeks, had 1200 visitors, helped 700 recover and gave practical assistance to 194.

The Homelessness talk was given by the Ely Dioses chaplain to the Homeless, John Canessa who amongst many other things chairs the “Cambridge Churches Homeless Project” who offer extra beds in churches in Cambridge during the 4 winter months. This uses 360 volunteers. The main challenges are that homelessness has doubled in 3 years, the police have withdrawn their Street Life Officers, affordable housing is scarce in Cambridge, begging earnings average £14 per hour and the growth in use of Spice (synthetic cannabis).

love

Mike & Kate