daytime: July 2019

Sunday, 28 July 2019

28th July 2019

Dear All,

After swimming Monday, Kate and I travelled down to Hutton for serious gardening, mainly in the form of weeding and trimming back overgrown bushes. You could certainly see the difference at the end of the day – the garden looked considerably larger.

The Hutton Chainsaw Massacre!

On Wednesday Ian Gordon and I met up with Ben at Lords to witness the first day of the inaugural Test Match against Ireland. It was rather warm and an incident packed day with England all out for 85 before lunch. It was a bit like watching Over 2^nd XI bat! We met up with Colin Day thanks to Mary-Ann reading his Facebook intention and passing the message to Ben.

Lords

Ian & Ben gently roasting!

Our esteemed walk leader cancelled the Thursday walk having studied the weather forecast for the day. The previous time we walked in a heat wave we were lined up for a serious talk at the start and advised to drink plenty of water, take frequent stops and not walk too fast – then he set off at full steam at his usual pace! Instead I went to the funeral of James French the son of ex NIAB colleagues who had sadly committed suicide. The funeral was at the new Crematorium at Great Chesterford and was packed, one third of the attendees seated, one third standing at the back and one third outside – and it was very hot – not just because it was a crematorium!

We prepared a cricket pitch on Friday only to have the match rained off again yesterday. It seems to have been a dry summer with most of the rain reserved for Saturdays.

Yesterday was our annual chapel outing to the seaside, this time to Walton-on-the Naze instead of the usual Hunstanton. The weather forecast was not too encouraging and it rained most of the way down and most of the way back but was not too bad there. David had kindly arranged the hire of the Martello Road church hall that we had used before on our previous visit in 2009 and we met up with Dave and Jen at the Naze tower just before departing. The weather had been good enough to allow a stroll to the end of the pier and beach games.

Walton Pier

George & Merv

Beach Game

Spectators

When we arrived home Ben was here having biked up for the evening wedding reception of one of his school contemporaries. It had taken him quite a long time as he needed running repairs on the way.

We are off to Ian Gordon’s 80^th celebrations at Granchester Red Lion this lunch time

Love

Mike & Kate

Sunday, 21 July 2019

21st July 2019

Dear All,

For some reason the swimming pool was very quiet on Monday and Kate and I had it nearly to ourselves for the first 30 minutes – and it is much more enjoyable if you are not weaving in and out and avoiding bow waves. It was the last week of mid-week cricket matches this week as the youth leagues finish with the school term. I prepared three wickets on Monday and from now on it should only be one for Saturday games, however they are expecting excitement from the World Cup victory (?) and arranging another Kwik Cricket tournament next Tuesday.

We were down at Hove on Tuesday/Wednesday as Mary-Ann has started work again at the Archaeology Dept. and we looked after Albert and collected Amélie from school. Wednesday was warm enough to visit the paddling pool and have lunch at Fat Boy Slim’s café on the sea front. The kittens are still the centre of Amélie’s life although they have to share the limelight with the tropical fish she had for her birthday. Andy has been in the US all week.

Mud Cocktails

Tarzan of the Paddling Pool

Kitten Therapy

Our Thursday walk started at Wicken and bordered Soham and Burwell. It was a new route which did not include much of Wicken Fen. One of our number developed a balance problem after 5 miles or so and had to be helped along a narrow rough stretch between a dyke and fence. We met a large herd of Konik ponies with foals and both Kate and I got bitten by horseflies.

Near Soham

Konik Ponies

The lady next to the cemetery allotments died earlier this year and the hedge between us became very overgrown so we purchased a cordless hedge trimmer yesterday to remedy the problem.

Over beat Cambourne yesterday chasing 196 and racing to finish before the rain.

We are planning to sort Esther’s garden on Monday and I am meeting up with Ben to attend the Test match v Ireland on Wednesday, sadly he has had yet another bike stolen this week.

Love

Mike & Kate

Sunday, 14 July 2019

14^th July 2019

Dear All,

We had a gathering of the clans yesterday to mark Kate’s brother Philip’s 60^th birthday and his daughter Natasha’s 21^st and graduation. We met at Stamford “Cosy Club” which was large and noisy and the hosts were over 30 minutes late and some of the guests (Irish!) over an hour late so it made for a long evening. Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert came up Friday evening and Esther and Emma Saturday lunch time and all stayed last night. It was also the Over Carnival fund raising picnic yesterday with some stalls and bouncy castles etc. in addition we had been invited to a birthday party and a wedding – it never rains but it pours!

Philip, Lenin (Natasha’s boyfriend) & Natasha

Amelie & Albert at the Picnic

On Monday four of us travelled to Chelmsford to watch Essex dominate Yorkshire. The sun shone for most of the day and it was a good day out.

Essex batting

We had a company come and give us a quote for re felting the flat roof recently and we accepted the quote last week anticipating a delay while they booked a date. However on Wednesday they phoned to ask whether they could come that day as the A14 was blocked and they couldn’t get to their planned destination. We agreed so it was largely completed that day. Later I had a saga replacing our car radio. I went to Halfords in Cambridge and the first three models that I chose were not in stock, so I purchased the fourth anticipating that it would be fitted as promised in their advert, however they did not have anyone available to carry this out. I thought I could do this myself and they looked up their computer to assure me that I did not need any adaptors or extra wires. When I tried the fitting it was not straightforward, so I took it to the local garage – who told me I did need adaptors and I would have to go back to Halfords. They advised that the Huntingdon branch was more clued up than the Cambridge one so I drove there having to follow a tractor all the way from Willingham to St Ives then hitting a gridlock at St Ives. The Huntingdon branch was indeed better than Cambridge and sorted the problem albeit after a 30 minute wait

Flat roof

On Thursday our walk stated at Guilden Morden and was largely sunny and warm. Highlight was stumbling across a nest of newly hatched partridge chicks which blended in with the vegetation remarkably well.

Guilden Morden Pump

Partridge chick

The garden is still producing well with apricots ripening and French Beans beginning. I have also harvested garlic and shallots this week.

Shallots

Apricots

Love Mike & Kate

Sunday, 7 July 2019

7^th July 2019

Dear All,

We were on the streets again last night – hence the delay in publication! It was unusual to be on two weekends running. It was fairly busy as there was a musical festival on Parkers Piece but not too many serious incidents: a young woman with three children under 6 who had lost her phone and identity and a German lad who was so drunk he didn’t understand my German!

Earlier at Men’s breakfast we had a man who worked for Smith, Klein, Glaxo and was responsible for breathing aids and respirators – he was excellent.

It has been a busy week for cricket pitch preparation with games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and a youth tournament today. Ironically it rained Saturday afternoon so the match was abandoned – the first rain we have had for a couple of weeks. I was called into action for the first time on Wednesday and took 2 wickets and had 2 catches dropped off my bowling – must be close to being Over’s oldest ever wicket taker!

We had the annual allotment swap inspection with the Fenwick’s on Tuesday. They have 7 allotments on a different site to ours some of which are down to hay and Christmas trees.