17th
February 2019
Dear
All,
On Monday we started at Addenbrooke’s where Kate had
a breast cancer check which thankfully has proved negative. We visited Ken
Elsom again while we were there then caught a bus to the Botanic Gardens as I
needed to gather some information on Henslow their founder. The gardens looked
magnificent with carpets of snowdrops, the winter garden full of colour and the
Alpine house packed with spring flowers. They have recently built a raised path
so that you can view the systematic beds more clearly.
Snowdrops at Station
Road entrance
The Winter Garden
New Raised Path
In the evening I had the first garden club talk of
the year at Downham Market which is an hour away but a large group with about
70 present.
Tuesday morning I pruned the autumn raspberries and
planted a few potatoes in pots in the greenhouse before attending the 5th
instalment of “Wicken Fen”. This was the first of three lectures on “The Flora
& Fauna”. There are actually over 9,000 different species of plants and
animals there 70% of which are insects. This week was mainly on plants.
On Wednesday we potted about in the garden wiring up
the new rambling rose, digging borders and collecting vegetables from the
allotment. We also booked a walking holiday in Romania for early May.
The weather on Thursday was sunny throughout for our
walk which started at Ardeley near Stevenage. The pub was part of a community
farm with shop, camp site , walks and animals.
Blue Sky near Ardeley
On Friday it was my turn to present a biography and
this year my choice was “John Steven Henslow”: brilliant academic, professor of
mineralogy, botany, founder of Cambridge Botanic gardens, mentor of Darwin,
vicar of Hicham, founder of Ipswich museum and instigator of coprolite mining
for fertilizers. I am available to bore you at length should you wish!
John Steven Henslow
I managed two matches this weekend as Comberton were
playing Linton under floodlights at Cambourne on Friday and Over beat Cottenham
3v0 in a feisty local derby yesterday.
We are expecting Mary-Ann, Andy and family tonight
for half term week.
Love
Mike & Kate
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