10th June 2018

Dear All,

It has been a week of catching up in the garden and sadly deaths – three friends passed on last week. Colin King was a fellow football and cricketer who contacted motor neuron disease, Valerie McGill had been a member of the U3A walking group and Tom Webster was my old boss at NIAB. Tom had lost a leg after a skiing accident and then gangrene 4 or 5 years ago then had to have the other leg removed last month and did not recover enough to leave hospital.

The garden was almost unrecognisable after our week in Italy as everything seemed to have doubled in size – including the weeds. It is now paying dividends with new potatoes, broad beans, peas, lettuce and strawberries all on stream.

On Thursday we walked the third section of the “Stour Valley Path” from Nayland to Henny near Sudbury taking in Wormingford, Bures and Lamarsh. You do not see much of the river on this section but some splendid rural countryside and crops. The wheat looked really good: standing, uniform and not much blackgrass.

Near Wormingford

Near Bures

 Bures

The Stour at Bures

North of Bures

Near Lamarsh

Henny

Henny

Henny Swan

Ben flew to America on Thursday starting at Denver and heading north, Esther is speaking at a conference in Belfast starting tomorrow and with Mary-Ann, Andy and family back in Stockholm we seem to have the globe covered this week!

Love
Mike & Kate