Sunday, 17 February 2019


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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