16th June 2019

Dear All,

This week seems to have cured the drought! The rain has bucked up the garden but the pond is flooded and the flat roof has sprung a couple of small leaks.

We drove down to Hove on Tuesday afternoon after attending Ray Asplin’s funeral. Ray had lived in Over all his life so there was a healthy turn out for the occasion. Kate and I were entrusted with reading a poem. The journeys to and back from Hove were fairly easy despite the gloomy weather. The kittens are still high in the popularity stakes – especially with Amélie – Albert is still a little wary!

Rascal

On Thursday it was a question of “when the going gets tough the tough get going” only there were only 13 tough enough for the walk which began at Stretham in drizzle, and continued via the Old Pumping Station along the banks of the Great Ouse. A survey of waterproof clothing afterwards concluded that none were really 100% effective – and even those which kept out most of the rain built up sweat inside.

The Great Ouse

Stretham Old Pumping Station

I had another Over Show committee meeting in the evening which fortunately did not last as long as usual. The Garden Club have a trip to Beth Chatto’s next week but we are not planning to join.

We stocked up on tropical fish on Friday adding 8 Glowlight Tetras and a couple of Panda Cory Catfish.

Glowlight Tetras

Panda Cory Catfish

Cricket was on yesterday despite the wet week thanks to the heroic efforts of the grounds men! It was an exciting game with Wisbech which the opponents won with 2 balls to spare.

Ben took part in a swim down the River Arun yesterday 3.8 km starting at Littlehampton which he finished in 1 hour 10 minutes – good to see children emulating their parents!

2018 Race

Made it!

We have the annual gathering of the U3A Just Vegetating group next Tuesday for lunch and garden walk so that has involved a certain amount of preparation and tidying up this week.

We are off to Little Paxton this morning for a Moldova presentation.

Love

Mike & Kate