29th October 2017

Dear All,

Yesterday Kate and I drove up to Burston, north of Diss, Norfolk for a Commemoration event for Don Pollard, his obituary was in the Guardian on the 1^st September. He was married to Joy Larkcom who I have helped with the revision of some of her gardening books. We visited them when they moved to Cork in 2007 and went to Cuba with them in 2008. Don was at one time chairman of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers Union and the driving force behind legislation to control gangmasters. He was also an active member of CND and repeatedly arrested for protesting at Lakenheath and Molesworth. The funeral had been held in Ireland but over 150 turned up at the Burston Strike school, which is famous as the scene of the longest running strike in British history and is now a museum and Union HQ (it’s all in Wikipedia!)

On Monday we were down at Hutton tidying up for Esther. She had experience a tough weekend with Kian – one of her Respite care lads as he had screamed for several hours of the night.

“Just Vegetating” this week was “Brassicas” with recipes for Kale crisps, Cauliflower rice, Cabbage stir-fry and Cauliflower curry.

Wednesday saw me at the dentist having a chipped tooth patched up – seems a frequent occupation these days! Then serious digging at the allotment as a green manure crop of mustard was dug in.

Thursday’s walk was local starting at Elsworth and circling Cambourne and Knapwell Woods. Cambourne has been designed more sympathetically than most new settlements with plenty of trees and green corridors.

Elsworth

Cambourne

Knapwell Woods

The “Biographies” topic this week was “Isaac Singer”, he was a Polish born Jew who escaped to the USA and wrote over 20 novels and many short stories eventually winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.

The vegetable patch has cropped very well this year, we are still picking tomatoes and peppers and also have decent fennel, celeriac, parsnips, cabbage, sprouts, leeks and kale.

Celeriac

Fennel

Mustard pre Digging in

Pepper harvest

Love

Mike & Kate

22nd October 2017

Dear All,

Highlight of this week was the annual Quiz as part of the chapel’s support for the Day care centre. I think this was the 8^th we have presented, Kate thinks up all the questions and I am quizmaster. There were about 70 participants at £6 per head plus a raffle so it raises a little cash which they need as they are losing a substantial local government grant.

As usual there were 8 rounds of 10 questions plus two marathon rounds of 20 questions, one in each half of the quiz. I know you will be itching to try some of the questions so here goes:

Round 1. Window Shopping Q8 Which coffee chain has most shops in the UK? a. Caffe Nero, b. Starbucks, c. Costa? (answers at the end of the letter)

Round 2. Link Words Q5 Which word links: Bran………….washer

Round 3. Here Today Gone Tomorrow Q1 What was the nickname for Teddy boys crepe soled shoes?

Round 4. Firsts Q8 Who was the first Roman Emperor?

Marathon round A. Addresses Q4 Who lives at 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield?

Round 5. Well Travelled Q5 Where in Britain was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 2017?

Round 6. Body Parts (thanks to Esther) Q3 A useless actor and a bit or twine?

Round 7. A Bit Dated Q10 How many years since the death of Elvis?

Round 8. Pot Luck Q10 What is Britain’s fastest land animal?

Marathon round B was pictures of food plants so you are spared that one!

We covered “Alliums” in “Just Vegetating” this week with emphasis on Onions and Leeks.

On Wednesday there was a ceremony at the graveyard to inter the ashes of Lily and Michael Firth who died within 100 days of each other.

Firth Clan plus

The Thursday walk started at Litlington NW of Royston and took in Guilden Morden, Steeple Morden and Abington Pigotts. It had rained the night before and was the first really sticky walk of the season. Needless to say it involved crossing at least 5 ploughed or cultivated fields.

Near Litlington

Abington Pigotts

Tough going

“Biographies” topic this week was “William Wilberforce” who I guess you will know all about? After I met up with a couple of ex NIAB colleagues Paul Nelson and John Beckett, the latter of whom I had not seen for 40 years.

Mary-Ann seems to be finding her way round Stockholm a little and has discovered a library with English books and English story time and an English speaking playschool as well as exploring several parks. The temperature was down to 4°C. Their address should anyone need it is: c/o Maim, Folkingagatan 59, 11622 Stockholm, Sweden.

Love

Mike & Kate

Quiz answers:

Round 1 Costa 2000, Starbucks 792, Nero 620

Round 2 Dish

Round 3 Brothel Creepers

Round 4 Augustus

Marathon A The Simpsons

Round 5 The Lake District

Round 6 Hamstring

Round 7 40 years

Round 8 The Hare

Never mind I expect you would have got the other 111 questions correct!

15th October 2017

Dear All,

It has been a fairly busy week with U3A term starting, Street Pastors and cricket business plus autumn gardening.

On Monday after swimming there was time for some gardening sowing broad beans and Kate into serious apple juice production. In the evening I had a Garden Club talk (my 226^th) the other side of Bury St Edmunds at Thurston.

“Baby Pumpkin”

On Tuesday “Just Vegetating” began again. We have a new class of 22 with a waiting list this time. They seem a lively group with plenty of questions. We then had to attend a funeral for David Miles-Dinham the leader of our Biography group – you often learn a lot about someone at their funeral and this was a good example. In the evening we had a church group meeting here.

Wednesday was the annual “Put the cricket square to bed” day. As usual this involved cutting, scarifying, fertilizing, reseeding, top dressing with 50 bags of loam and levelling. This year we assembled a team of 4 workers which made it easier.

On Thursday we were leading a walk starting at Tempsford on the A1 north of Biggleswade. It was an attractive walk following the Great Ouse and its tributaries for a distance, and the sun shone for most of the time. It was a good illustration of the invasive nature of Himalayan Balsam as it present for large sections of the walk.

Ouse near Tempsford

Himalayan Balsam

Old Lock Keepers cottage

We then had to rush off to Royston as we were addressing the WI on “Street Pastors” standing in for our local leader Mark Strivens. It was an interesting experience – like going back a few decades but they listened well and asked several questions. They were most concerned about the recommended levels of alcohol intake – probably worrying how they affect their personal intake!

“Biographies” began again on Friday and the topic was “Thomas Blood” who is most famous for nearly managing to steal the Crown Jewels. He had a very colourful career changing sides in the Civil War and leading several insurrections. He was almost certainly a spy and probably a double agent with the Dutch. I started digging the allotment in the afternoon then we were on duty with Street Pastors in the evening. It was a very busy night – probably the busiest we have had. The first part was dealing with students, all girls who had exceeded their capacity but all had friends to help them get back to college. Each time we took a break we were called out again on the radio to prostrate individuals and were busy all night. The worst cases were a huge, heavy guy who had been ejected from “Novi” and was prostrate on the pavement. He was completely incoherent but we eventually managed to “walk” him to Parker’s Piece and seat him on a bench where he was violently sick. He was unable to tell us where he lived and he was not ill enough for A & E. We left him to sleep on the bench assuming he would come to no harm and checked him at the end of the night when he was fast asleep – not a great result but we had run out of options. We staggered back to base at 4am only to find two “chubby” girls in the road outside one completely collapsed. The other had phoned for medical assistance. We managed to get the prostrate one off the road but she was completely unresponsive. Kate then noticed blood on the other one, then razor blades – she had been self-harming and her arm a mess. When the medics arrived so did the police. An ambulance was eventually called to take them away. We eventually got away at 4.30am.

The Stockholm folk have been exploring the city and adjusting to coffee at £6 a cup!

Love

Mike & Kate

8th October 2017

Dear All,

We have just had a memorable weeks walking in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. This was with our U3A Rambling group, organised by Philip Shaw. We had a party of 30 and stayed at Hurst Green, near Clitheroe. On the way up we broke the journey at Haworth, home of the Brontes and took the “Bronte Walk” and tour of the old Parsonage which is now a museum. Being U3A the walk had to include poetry readings and Kate was selected to perform having the most northern accent!

Bronte Sisters!

There was a choice of two walks most days, a longer and shorter route. We opted for the longer on Monday but it was very hard work: steep climbs, soggy underfoot and strong winds. We managed 13 miles that day but opted for shorter distances thereafter. We started from Newton on Monday and climbed up Dunsop Fell, then back along the valley to Dunsop Bridge, returning to Newton along the river Hodder.

The Cast

Dunsop Valley

On Tuesday we climbed Pendle Hill, about 2000ft with strong winds but spectacular views from the top. Unfortunately one of our party went lame (knee) at the top and had to be helped down including a section of piggy back from me!

Pendle Hill

View from the Top

Wednesday was the wettest day and we did a local “Tolkien Walk”. There is a large Catholic boarding school in Hurst Green called Stonyhurst College and Tolkien wrote most of “Lord of the Rings” there. The walk follows three rivers: the Hodder, Calder and Ribble. We explored Clitheroe Castle and museum in the afternoon, the town has an interesting history and once had 13 cotton mills. We ate out that night and it rained continuously flooding the road in places and we had an interesting drive back in low cloud and water spray.

Cromwell’s Bridge on River Hodder

On Thursday we travelled to Chipping and walked to the Beacon Fell Country Park. After the previous night’s downpour it was extremely soggy underfoot but a pleasant walk. Overall the week was enjoyable but the weather and topography made for challenging walking. In addition, we have never climbed so many styles in a week – kissing gates have not reached Lancashire yet! It is an area we did not know before we went and we were impressed by the scenery.

Fell Foot near Chipping

When we got back on Friday afternoon our garden was dry enough to plant over wintered onions and shallots – quite a contrast.

Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert flew to Stockholm yesterday so we will be missing them for a while. They arrived safely, they like their flat but Albert already has his first Scandinavian cold.

Love

Mike & Kate