23rd June 2019

Dear All,

This week we hosted the U3A “Just Vegetating” crowd for lunch and a look round the garden. 15 came and were very appreciative of the food.

The garden has responded to the recent rains and has been bountiful. We have picked two bucket full of Broad Beans, peas, cabbage, strawberries and raspberries as well as lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, calabrese and new potatoes.

Thursday’s walk was a contrast with last week; shirt sleeves, dry underfoot and larger numbers. We began at Barley and took in Barkway and Nuthampstead. The crops were mostly looking good including several with Phacelia margins to encourage insects.

Barley Fox & Hounds sign

Phacelia border

View towards Great Chishall

Kate has had another busy week on the Pastoral care front including attending a weekly “Anger Management” session with a lady who needs it – but applies everything to others! And on Friday we had baby Arthur all day as his mother is a little depressed and not coping very well. Fortunately he is very placid and easy to manage but this makes his mother think there is something wrong with him!

I was judging Stapleford Produce show on Saturday – this is rather small so not too arduous but getting there was fraught as the A 14 was closed as they were blowing up an old bridge. This also meant we have had a couple of noisy nights as traffic is being diverted through the village.

Stapleford Show

Bar Hill Bridge

Over Garden Club had an outing to Beth Chatto’s garden yesterday. Fortunately we did not join as we have been a few times before. An elderly lady fell and an ambulance was called as they suspected a broken hip. However the ambulance took over 4 hours to arrive so they all had a rather long day.

Our new cricket square mower was finally delivered this week – a snip at £2,950 second hand! – but it does do an excellent job.

Love

Mike & Kate