13^th August 2017

Dear All,

It was a busy day yesterday as we came off Street Pastors at 4 am and had to be up to stage entries for the Over Produce Show early in the morning. The show is under new management as the old boys from the British Legion who have been running it since the days of Cain & Abel are getting long in the tooth and handed it over to a new committee mainly from the Garden Club. The new committee are details people and have held 5 committee meetings with and average of 4 – 5 pages of minutes! Still they have done a good job and the number of participants rose from 20 to 50 with nearly 400 entries and made over £660. I was expecting to judge again but they were keen to get as many entries as possible. I managed 5 x 1sts, 3 x 2nds and 5 x 3rds and was second (by 2 points) in the Veg and 3^rd overall. The Veg winner is very good, growing in drain pipes etc and the overall winner was a lady who submitted 70 entries!.

Friday night’s patrol was not too busy which was good, as we were in charge for the first time. The streets were not too crowded with just one serious incident as a lad was thrown out of “Fez” for fighting with a doorman and unceremonially deposited on the pavement where he cracked his head. As he was unresponsive we were not sure whether he was concussed or just inebbriated and ordered medical check up as a precaution. As it happened the police turned up before the ambulance and took over. Apart from this incident we had plenty of chats with Streetlife folk and revellers giving away several bottles of water and pairs of flip flops.

We have been “hot bedding” this week as after Ben left on Sunday he was replaced by two Bulgarians who are friends of friends and were over for a wedding and stayed for two nights and were then replaced by Mandy & Natasha down from Wirksworth for a night.

On Wednesday night we had a trip to the Arts Theatre in Cambridge with Bob & Carol to se “The Play That Goes Wrong” – it was very funny and would highly recommend it if you have the chance.

My cricket pitch colleague, John Lane and I travelled to Wisbech on Tuesday to look at a replacement mower – unfortunately it was no better than the one we already have. The man who cuts the outfield has been on holiday for 2 weeks and had arranged for a replacement to stand in while he was away. Sadly he ended up in Addenbrookes and after 2 wet and warm weeks the grass was seriously long so the cricket team all turned up with small mowers to cut the whole out field – it was a sight to behold. Virtue was rewarded as for the first time this year both teams won on the same day!

Our Thursday walk started at Broughton this week which is north of here near Kings Ripton not far from Huntingdon. After a wet and miserable day on Wednesday we were relieved that it stayed fine and was a decent walk. Hopefully the weather has turned now for harvest as some wheat crops are starting to look a bit sad.

The Crown, Broughton

Old Farm House, Broughton

Break Time

Gardening continues: Kate has planted a new strawberry bed, we have harvested spuds and I have planted lettuce, fennel and sown crimson clover and mustard for green manure.

Tom Webster phoned from Scotland while I have been writing this. He is 94 now and stil manages to be cheerful and keeps exercising his dog 2 or 3 times a day and goes out for meals several times in a week as well.

Love

Mike & Kate