25^th February 2018

Dear All,

Quite a lot of family action this week with Albert’s op., Esther’s accident, meeting up with Mary, Graham, Jen and David and the cousin’s weekend.

Most of you will know that Albert came through his operation on Monday OK but subsequently had a blockage on Wednesday and Mary-Ann had to take him back to A&E on the bus as they are currently without a car. She was feeling under the weather herself so had a trying week. He seems to be recovering now and they have a check tomorrow. On the same day Esther rand to say that “a youth” had driven into the back of her while she was stationary – she was unhurt but the bumper was damaged but hopefully not the ramp and pulley she has fitted to accommodate wheelchairs.

Kate and I met with Mary, Graham, Jen and David at Saffron Walden on Wednesday for a Weatherspoon’s meal and stroll round town. We had arranged to meet at 12 noon and were surprised to discover Graham already tucking in. Being down to his last few coppers he has worked out that their breakfasts represent the best value for money and they stop swerving them at 12! Saffron Walden is an interesting place to explore and we followed one of the town trails. David was bothered by his chest and had to drop out.

Saffron Walden Town Hall

The Arsenal Defence

I am due to go to Moldova again on 10^th April, this time with Terry Rugg an IT expert from Buckden. We met up on Monday to discuss and plan. John will not be joining us from Turkey but plans to go later in the year.

I went back to NIAB on Tuesday to meet old colleagues but also to deliver some Gromwell seed that was collected for us in Moldova – it has taken some time for the commercial company involved in a joint venture with NIAB to come up with the agreed payment but this has now happened. I went on the “Silk Road” course and this week it was the journeys of the Polo family which really started the trade routes. Marco’s father and uncle Niccolo and Maffio made a six year journey from Constantinople to Dadu (Beijing) starting in 1259 but it does not get much recognition because it was not written up. Unlike Marco’s journey with his father and uncle again leaving in 1271 when Marco was only 17. When they got to China Kubla Khan would not give them permission to leave so they spent 17 years there and the whole journey took 25 years.

I had another Garden Club talk in the evening this time at Orwell. On Wednesday evening I attended Over Garden Club expecting to hear the head gardener of Wolfson College who is a former NIAB colleague, instead there had been a last minute swap and the RSPB warden of the Ouse Washes updated us on the Reed Bed developments in Over Fen as recently featured on “Countryfile” When it is finished it should be 700 ha and the largest of its kind in Europe.

Walking on Thursday did not get off to a good start as roadworks in Cottenham meant that it took 42 minutes to drive from Willingham to Cottenham. We were leading one of the walks and managed to arrive only a few minutes after the scheduled start at Stow cum Quy. The walk started very cold but the sun came out again (as on the previous two Thursdays) and it was a decent walk as we managed to avoid the muddiest places by the river. Highlight was finding a pen of cranes in the middle of the fen as well as several banks of snowdrops. John Lane came for dinner having recently returned from two months in Australia, Thailand and Dubai.

Quy pond

Snowdrops

Quy Avenue

“Biographies” subject this week was “Elon Musk” a very colourful South African born Canadian American business magnate, investor, engineer and inventor currently the 53^rd richest man in the world. He is obsessed with settling on Mars to save mankind and invested huge sums in rockets to get there.

We had a men’s breakfast yesterday with the speaker David Mann who had spent his life as a medical missionary in Africa most recent in Madagascar for 20 years setting up a hospital which served and area half the size of Wales. This was followed in the pm with a Lego session for which Kate was chief cook. I watched a tense top of the table clash between Gt Shelford and West Wrating which ended 1 v 1.

Kate is going to help Mary-Ann tomorrow as Andy has to return to Stockholm so the plan is that I take her to Hutton lunchtime so that she can travel back to Hove with them in their hired car – the train journey on a Sunday would involve 5 changes!

Love

Mike & Kate

18^th February 2018

Dear All,

It was a long day yesterday as we began with a walk recce for a route we are leading on Thursday, then I planted a few things in pots in the greenhouse followed by watching football in the afternoon (while Kate continued painting), then Street Pastors in the evening/night. It was a fairly quiet night with just a couple of fights and no serious vomitting!

We have just returned from Addenbrookes visiting Mervyn Howard who was admitted with what turned out to be pneumonia on Tuesday night. He was severely dehydrated and in a bad way earlier in the week but is rallying pumped full of antibiotics.

We were in Hove on Monday and Tuesday helping while Albert had his pre op which was a bit of an anti-climax – mainly weighing and chat, in preparation for the next stage tomorrow. We walked to the beach on Monday and it was distinctly bracing leading up to a wet and windy Tuesday. Mary-Ann was under the weather when we left but Amélie starred by clearing up after we had left. It was a difficult return journey taking 3.5 hours instead of 2.25 due to constipation on the M25 and Bar Hill suffering gridlock due to the A14 improvements. I had a Garden Club talk at Harston in the evening.

Hove Beach

Amelie looking for treasure

Albert pre op

I missed “The Silk Road”  due to the Hove trip and “Biographies” due to the funeral of an ex NIAB colleague Liz Shelbourne.

We walked from Great Chishill on Thursday and were again blessed with sunshine (on the righteous?) but slippery underfoot. Highlight was encountering a herd of 42 Fallow Deer.

Great Chishill pond

Chrishall

Looking back to Chrishall church

Fallow Deer

Love

Mike & Kate

11^th February 2018

Dear All,

Not too much to report this week. This has been our last week looking after the hens at no. 63 trying to keep them above the mud and interested in eating a new delivery of wheat. I know chickens are not blessed with much brain but these I think would fail their exams at every level!

We managed a little gardening this week – Kate has been pruning and I have sown peas in gutters for transplanting and pricked out a few seed samples.

The “Silk Road” concentrated on the goods that travelled the road: from China, silk, laquer ware, ceramics, paper, gunpowder; to China, horses, amber, gold and silver, glass, dyes, fur, grapes, frankincense and chariots.

Decorating is still ongoing and this necessitated another trip to B & Q to replenish resources on Wednesday. Upstairs is almost complete – just the stairs and downstairs to go!

We had to miss the walk on Thursday as we had been invited to give a talk on Street Pastors to a lunch club at March. They were quite appreciative but not too many volunteer recruits I fear! On the way back we stopped at Delfland Nurseries at Doddington and purchased a bowl of primulas as illustrated.

The “Biography” subject this week was “Karen Blixen” author and subject of “Out of Africa”. She spent 20 years as a cattle and coffee farmer in Kenya and was a very accomplished author and artist.

Karen Blixen

Ben has been in America all week including Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Esther has been troubled by asthma and Albert has completed a week at nursery and seems to be growing into the experience. He has the next stage of his operation on the 19^th and Mary-Ann and the children are travelling over today for his pre op tomorrow. Kate and I are due to go down to help tomorrow and Andy travels over on Thursday.

Love

Mike & Kate

4^th February 2018

Dear All,

It has been a fairly routine week plus painting! After swimming on Monday I tried to sort some of the church events we had planned the previous week: a museum visit, the Botanic Gardens and RSPB at Fen Drayton. None of them was straightforward so progress was slow. The museum is closed for cleaning, the Botanic Gardens charge the normal entrance fee (£6 or £5.50) plus £10 per head for an evening tour and the RSPB visit comes under different management from the one we are used to dealing with. My printer started chewing up the paper last week so I purchased a new one this time a Canon Pixma TS5050, going up market a little and it seems pretty good so far (as long as we can afford the ink cartridges!). As things worked out I had a stock of ink for the old printer so if anyone has an Epsom which takes BB-T2996 cartridges let me know.

This week’s “Silk Road” was better concentrating on the Chinese end and illustrated with a few photos. I had to rush from that to the U3A Garden group as they had requested a talk on “Oriental Vegetables”. On the way back I called at Oakington Garden Center to stock up on seed potatoes and onion sets plus a few extra raspberry canes. In groups that evening we talked about “Families” so perhaps your ears were burning? – actually they didn’t get round to us this week!

I continued my battle with HSBC this week trying to find out how much we have in the CEEM account: “we cannot tell you unless you quote your overdraft limit from the last statement”, “but I haven’t got a statement – that is the point” etc.

On Thursday we started walking from Brockley Green near Haverhill and took in part of the “Stour Valley Path”, it was again sunny overhead and slippery underfoot. I attempted the longer walk this week so did not move far in the evening!

Roost End

River Stour

“Biographies” topic this week was “Max Perutz” born an Austrian Jew who ended up at Cambridge and won the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of haemoglobin. He started the Molecular Biology unit on the Addenbrooke’s site together with three other Nobel laureates: Sanger, Crick and Kendrew and since three others have won Nobel prizes: Brenner, Klug and Milstein. Kate of course knew three of these when she worked in the Immunology labs!

Max Perutz

Yesterday we had a “Christians Against Poverty” (CAP) seminar at church. They do a remarkable job lifting people out of debt and poverty running Debt Centres, Job Clubs, Release Groups for those with addictions and Life Skills training, It is a much bigger organisation than I imagined with a turnover of £11 million last year and after starting in 1996 is now run out of 600 churches in the UK.

The afternoon match was West Wratting 2 v 1 Cambridge University Press!

Albert started nursery this week with mum in attendance so was a bit clingy but by the second session had settled better and has already found a mate – and it’s clearly affecting his appetite!.

 

Love

Mike & Kate