29th December 2019

Dear All,

After our swim on Monday it was serious sprout distribution – 55 stops this year. Ben arrived on Tuesday having biked 85 miles in just under 7 hours taking a slightly longer route via Biggleswade. We had Michael ex Zimbabwe court translator now carer for lunch so only 4 of us – a far cry from the days of 26!

Carol Service choir (after intense practice)

On Boxing Day we were invited to the Howards mid-morning then Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert arrived about 7 pm and Esther and Emma 9.30 pm.

Friday was a bit like Christmas Day with games and presents after Mary-Ann and Andy had walked to St Ives and back and Ben had run a few miles round the villages.

Friday lunch

On Saturday we went to Old Hurst where an enterprising farmer has a farm shop and butchery backed by the attraction of a tropical house with crocodiles and snakes plus Meercats, Wallabies and storks outside

Old Hurst livestock

. In the afternoon Amélie helped us choose some more tropical fish from the garden centre ay Coton where we were entertained by a trio of singing reindeer!

What is Christmas without a few singing Reindeer?

Ben has just left at 9.30 am for his return journey and the others plan to depart after lunch.

With love

Mike & Kate

22nd December 2019

Dear All,

We have managed two Christmas lunches this week and both were decent quality for mass catering. On Monday it was the ex NIAB employees at the Hallmark Hotel at Bar Hill and on Thursday the walking group at The Crown Little Walden. Both suffered reduced numbers through illness which seems especially rife this year. The walking lunch had to be earned of course with a challenging walk via Saffron Walden with mince pies and mulled wine at a member’s house. The walk outside of town was slippery and hard going with hardly a field without a lake on it.

Near Little Walden

 

Saffron Walden

 

The Class of 2019

Kate and I did a little more shopping in Cambridge on Tuesday and on Wednesday I managed to book our next flight to Moldova and collected a Christmas tree from Fenwick’s bargain allotment – still £2 per foot. I also completed an eight page security check for the CEEM account at HSBC – a few hours of my life that I won’t be getting back!

I collected my usual haul of Brussels sprouts on Friday this time grown in Kent via a farm shop in Hilgay. The size is good but they have a few more black spots than usual and the price had increased by 50%. I started delivering yesterday to locations outside of Over and plan to distribute locally tomorrow (58 on the current list).

Sprout trees

Additional sprouts

We watched Shelford 3 v 1 Eynesbury yesterday with one goal being scored from 70 yards.

Happy Christmas to all readers especially those we will not be seeing over the period.

With love

Mike & Kate

16th December 2019

Dear All,

Can’t think what happened last weekend to prevent me writing – must be old age creeping in!

There again I think it is coming back to me gradually under the code of E E D D.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the wedding and Kate and I both enjoyed it very much. There was a very good atmosphere, everyone had good words to say about both Esther and Emma and they had put enormous thought into activities to keep the young and not so young amused. Enough said as most of you were there so a few pictures ahead of what might be a tidal wave to follow! It was also nice to stay over and share breakfast with so many next day to unwind gradually.

Last week was the end of the U3A term so we concluded “Just Vegetating” with “Oriental Vegetables” and the class donated £162 towards CEEM.

Kate went carol singing in the Grand Arcade, Cambridge on Wednesday evening with the Fitzwilliam College choir and they raised over £1000 for “Winter Comfort” which supports homeless folk in Cambridge.

I have been busy trapping mice which are chomping through my broad beans in the garden – tally three so far.

Thursday was a full day as we led the walk in the morning beginning at Castle Camps near Haverill and took in Steventon End and Shudy Camps. It was not the best of conditions as wet for most of the walk and they specialise in super sticky brand of mud. We managed to avoid crossing any cultivated fields but even the paths were slippery.

Cooper’s Farm Machinery dump

Damp break

In the afternoon we had flu jabs before voting then in the evening it was Over Pantomime – Aladdin this year.

Our final session of “Biographies” features Christmas and Winter readings, a quiz and eats.

The A14 continues to exercise everyone who dares to enter, cross or journey down it – both our journeys at the weekend required some patience!

With love

Mike & Kate

8th December 2019

Dear All,

We were on street patrol again last night and it was reasonably challenging. It did not start well as the guy who was on last week forgot to pass on the church keys so we had to go via Waterbeach to collect them. Then the security company who provide the bouncer for the café said they could not guarantee that he would turn up so the café was cancelled. However, the police did turn up for a briefing which has not happened very often recently. It was a fairly busy night with many office Christmas parties in town, then it started to pour with rain about midnight. As usual the last 2-hour shift after 2 am was most demanding. We were called to Vinyl, the most recently renovated club where a girl out with the Cambridge United staff Christmas do, was convulsed and not responding well. It took nearly an hour and a half and she was still not fit for a taxi so her friend’s father was roused from his bed to collect her at 3.30am. We were just returning to base to clock off when we were called to the taxi rank where a lad of Portuguese extraction was having palpitations and behaving oddly. His mates were in a club that was staying open until 6 am. We eventually wound up at 4 am and bed at 5 am – hence the delay in producing todays epistle!

The penultimate session of “Just Vegetating” was “Minor Crops b” – Artichokes, Cardoons, Sweet Potatoes, Okra etc. One more session to go.

On Tuesday I had a visit from a man keen to sell improvements in the solar panels. It did not start well as the man on the phone who arranged the visit claimed their rep had another visit in the village, the efficiency would be improved by 33% and it would cost around £500. In fact there was no other visit nearby, the efficiency would be improved by 25% and would cost £6000!

We visited a couple of garden centres on Wednesday to implement a little Christmas shopping and purchase some autumn fruiting raspberry canes.

Our Thursday outing began in Godmanchester and skirted Huntingdon and crossed Hinchingbrooke Park – so no ploughed fields this week!

Hinchingbrooke Park

 

River Ouse at Huntingdon

Godmanchester

It was my turn to present a biography this week and I had chosen “Jack London”. It did not start well as there was no one to let us ibn the Friends Meeting House where we hold the course and we had to decamp to one of the member’s home which was not idea for a PowerPoint presentation – but it seemed to go well. Jack London only lived to 40 but packed an enormous amount in that time including being an Oyster pirate, seal hunting, bumming rides on trains, a spell in prison for vagrancy, an adventure gold mining in the Klondike, covering two wars as a journalist and sailing half way round the world. He wrote 23 novels, 46 short stories, 3 autobiographies, 50 non fiction essays, 3 plays and 113 poems.

 Jack London aged 17

Yesterday was along day starting with a Men’s Breakfast and taking in Over 1 v 1 Great Shelford before bed at 5 am.

With love

Mike & Kate

1^st December 2019

Dear All,

It was “Minor Vegetables a” this week at “Just Vegetating” the likes of Scorzonera, Salsify and Hamburg Parsley. I always define them as things you are more likely to find on an allotment than in Tescos but some of them are gradually creeping in. The pool was thankfully back to its normal temperature this week after a couple of chilly sessions.

We have completed two decent walks this week as on Tuesday we were reccying for one we are leading in two weeks time starting from Castle Camps near Haverill. We managed to plot a course avoiding the worst of the muddy fields but some of the paths were very slippery and the grass fields were heavily poached by cattle.

On Thursday we started at Orwell and took in Whaddon and Wimpole Hall where they are spending a deal of money relocating the car park to cater for their 390,000 visitors a year. En route we encountered a field silage clamp and the tractor tyres leading up to the clamp told their own story. We also encountered something that I have never seen before in the form of Slime Mould. It is a primitive saprophytic fungus which uses grass for support and is capable of moving.

Silage Clamp mud

 

Slime Mould

Wimpole Hall from the Avenue

“Biographies” this week featured “Marco Polo”. The remarkable thing about his travels were that it was so long ago – he travelled the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295 and also that it was recorded in a book. When he returned, he was in the Venetian army fighting their traditional enemy the Genoese. He was captured and imprisoned and passed the time telling stories of his travels. It so happened there was a scribe also incarcerated with him and he wrote the stories down. No one knows how true the stories are!

Banks have been playing up this week. The chapel account at Barclays lost personal details of the signatories and Bob and I had to fill in a sizeable form and actually go to ST Ives with photographic evidence to prove who we were – a couple hours of my life that I won’t get back! Then HSBC the holder of the CEEM account have embarked on a “Safeguard Review” which involved an 8-page document and some probing questions. I haven’t quite finished that yet.

Over’s match at Hemingford was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch so we went to West Wratting to watch a cup semi final v Cambridge University Press. Coming back the road to Bar Hill was closed – a regular feature of the A14 upgrade and we had a 10-mile detour to cover the last mile!

In the evening it was the Christmas market on the Green together with the turning on of the Christmas lights - it is getting close!

Christmas Lights on Over Green

Our Neighbour’s efforts

With love

Mike & Kate