28th October 2018

Dear All,

A quieter week once Monday was over as on that day we had the usual “Just Vegetating” followed by a dash to Bishops Stortford U3A to address one of their garden groups. It was bad planning caused by “JV” changing from Tuesday to Mondays. The “JV” topic this week was “Brassicas” and Kate introduced Kale crisps, Cauliflower rice, Cabbage with carrots and Cumin, mustard seed and lentil pie with mashed cauliflower.

On Tuesday we recced the Thursday walk which we were due to lead starting at Nuthampstead and taking in Barkway and Reed. There was a large turnout on Thursday with 19 on our walk which was 8 miles and 23 on the longer one. Nuthampstead was on the short list for the third London airport when Stanstead was selected and hosted a substantial American airbase in WWII. Barkway was on the old stage coach route from Cambridge to London and has some very attractive old houses and two large estates: Cokenach which stages celebrity cricket matches and Newsells which houses a stud farm.

 Barkway

Barkway

Inquisitive Charolais

Our “Biography” subject this week was Lady Rhondda, born Margaret Haig Thomas, a Welsh suffragette and leading female business woman in Victorian and Edwardian times. She was the only child of  David Alfred Thomas who was a successful industrialist in coal, steel and shipping and as Margaret was an only child her father treated her like a son and trained her up to take over the businesses. When David died she inherited the entire business which employed 60,000 men and was worth £80m. She married a Baron but was not allowed to sit in the House of Lords so became a keen supported of women’s rights. She was returning from the USA having visited one of the company’s American steel works on the “Lusitania” in 1915 when it was torpedoed and sank in 18 minutes. She was in the sea for 3 hours but survived. She was a great supporter of writers and founded the “Time and Tide” magazine which published just about every known writer of that age. Quite a CV – so how come no one in the group had heard of her?

Lady Rhondda

There was time for some gardening this week finally finishing the runner beans and beginning digging in earnest.  Watching football yesterday necessitated an extra layer or two as the temperature was on the chilly side!

Love

Mike & Kate