29th March 2020

Dear All,

Lockdown week 2 – I hope you are all coping? The weather this week has helped as it has been good for walking and gardening despite a series of frosts most nights.

On Monday we planted late potatoes in the allotment and at Ken Elsoms then walked round Over Fen.

Germination Cabinet

Celeriac

Overwintered Alliums

Tuesday, I tried an experimental posting of seed to Moldova then broke up the wooden bench I made with Dad several moons ago as it had rotted beyond repair. We then walked down Furtherford and Middle Way before planting peas from gutters. Mervyn collected spare lettuce plants and Adrian celeriac – both at suitable social distancing!

Wednesday, we walked along the flood bank to the river (past the tree where Tarzan demonstrated how he climbs trees!). We were due at the solicitors to update our Wills in the afternoon but that was cancelled and we were asked to draft it and send a copy on-line. The solicitor is evidently going to charge £450 for approving what we have written! Green bin collection has been suspended locally so I had a bonfire to burn all the tree pruning’s and non-compostable waste.

Fen End pond

 

Furtherford

As is traditional we had a more ambitious walk on Thursday starting at Hayley Wood and taking in East Hatley. It was good for exercise and isolation as we saw very few other walkers. The flowers were exceptional with violets, primroses, wood anemones, the most celandines I have ever seen and even the first bluebells.

Hayley Wood

 

Celandines

Hatley Park Gatehouse

I had a message that an old NIAB colleague Bryan Withers had died. He was based at Kirton in Lincolnshire and expert on all things Brassica. He had polio as a child which deformed his chest and recently, he had severe breathing difficulties. His wife has been told that he almost certainly will have to be cremated and attendance at the funeral would be restricted or banned completely.

Friday, we broke the walking routine and I spent the morning digging and rotovating Adrian’s garden. He is a professional gardener but gets too tired to keep on top of his own plot. Kate braved Tesco’s and was not impressed by their safe distancing or health practiced so she will not be going again for some time.

The couple that we share lifts with for our normal Thursday walking both succumbed to coronavirus but with only relatively mild symptoms and seemed to have recovered. We had not travelled with them for 3 weeks due to colds, but they had taken part in one of Philip’s “additional walks” with 12 others.

Yesterday we walked to the Guided Bus way and back through the Mustill’s Lane allotments where Glynis and Richard were busy and we collected a helping of rhubarb as mine died over winter.

David is encouraging everyone to join ZOOM so we will see how useful that will prove. Each Deacon has been allocated 6 or 7 families to check (by phone or email) on a rotating basis. Peter Nunn phone last night to check on our health, evidently, he has done the round of cousins Guernsey is the place to be only one case so far!

Keep well.

With love

Mike & Kate

22nd March 2020

Dear All,

Things are certainly moving quickly – 2 weeks ago life seemed fairly normal, last week most things were happening now no church services today, no football, no U3A no walking group and panic buying. We have operated reverse panic buying by not shopping at all. Actually, Monday was still fairly normal as we went swimming, shopped for paint (as yet unused), held an Events committee meeting and attended the dentist.

We celebrated my birthday on Tuesday by having coffee at the Willingham “Book Warren” an enterprising couple have set up a café in the Industrial site lined with second hand books.

Further plans to celebrate with a weekend meal for friends was initially reduced to a takeaway then cancelled completely. Thanks for your telephone messages, cards and presents. Unfortunately, I also celebrated by collecting the heaviest cold I have suffered for several years and have been dripping ever since – hopefully not practice for corona virus!

Philip went ahead with a walk on Thursday but we did not attend, they did not use the pub and walked a few feet apart! We intended doing a local walk but as I was incapacitated Kate circumnavigated the fens on her own. We did manage a joint walk on Friday.

Over, Mill Pits

We finished cataloguing the seed from Mr Fothergill’s this week: 3010 packets and 632 different varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Moldova has cancelled all flights from countries with incidence of virus so we will not be going in May – what becomes of the seed remains to be seen. My contact with the embassy was met with the usual straight bat “You need a Phytosanitary Certificate for each lot” and with 632 lots that is not going to happen.

Fortunately, we have been able to garden most days so that is looking shipshape and I even got around to applying lawn sand to the grass as there are several patches of moss.

The Magnolias at the front have looked splendid this year. We took delivery of a batch of frogspawn yesterday so spring is springing!

In the absence of church gatherings David has recorded sermons on the chapel web site – a Brave New World.

With love

Mike & Kate

15th March 2020

Dear All,

Well we are living in interesting times! U3A cancelled all meeting indoors and outdoors on Thursday. Needless to say our walks leader Philip is still contemplating whether to comply. Church has stopped all meetings involving food, started collecting names of attendees and deciding whether all meetings will go ahead. Over football was cancelled as the opposition requested it and to make it worse Kate has decided that the freed up time should be spent decorating!

It is not all bad news as we managed to get a plumber this week to fix an overflow problem – he is the third one we have tried after six messages.

On Monday I was down at Wisley to assess onions from storage. It was a good time to go as the Magnolias and Azaleias were beginning to show on Battlesdon Hill and there were huge sweeps of crocuses. Needless to say the M25 was not flowing freely so we barely made it in time. Kate meanwhile attended the U3A film which this week was a Hitchcock thriller “Shadow of a Doubt“.

 

Onion Storage

Wednesday was the best weather we have enjoyed so far and I managed to plant early potatoes and onion sets and round up digging after leeks and parsnips. In the evening I was at Whittlesford Garden Club – my 8^th talk in the last 7 weeks.

Thursday saw us at Therfield above Royston. It was a good walk but very up and down with some severe wind gusts. Violets were the flowers of the day.

 

Overlooking Royston

Violets

Yesterday John Lane and I attended a cricket pitch maintenance course at Cambourne. You can always teach old dogs new tricks! In the afternoon Dave and I went to watch Comberton v Hemingford – one of the few surviving fixtures.

With love

Mike & Kate

8th March 2020

Dear All,

It was a Hove visit again this week and we took Albert to Brighton on Wednesday to explore. There is always something new to discover in Brighton, this time we visited St Bartholomew’s the tallest (to the roof) church in Europe complete with a solid silver altar. We then visited a new park (to us) and found a street market.  We were back in Hove for lunch in a café run by one of Amelie’s school friends’ parents and got into conversation with a couple of elderly gents one of whom turned out to be Michael Jayston an actor who has appeared on “Only Fools and Horses”, and “Dr Who”.

 

St Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton

The Silver Altar

 

In the Levels park

 

Street Art

On Monday we assembled 5 for swimming then we were sorting seed again. In the evening I was speaking at Willingham Garden Club arriving home for the second half of a Deacon’s meeting.

Thursday’s walk started at Chippenham near Newmarket where the soil is sandy so less mud than usual.

Chippenham Fen

 

Landwade church

Landwade bridge over the moat

In “Biographies” we were introduced to a double bill of “William Morgan” and “John Williams” both were Welsh 16^th century clerics who studied at St John’s college, Cambridge. Morgan translated the Bible into Welsh and Williams became political advisor to James I.

 

                        William Morgan                                 John Williams

We fetched Ben from Huntingdon Station on Friday night as he is up to run the Cambridge Half Marathon this weekend.

The garden dried enough to plant out Peas and sow Broad beans and to give the grass the first trim of the year.

With love

Mike & Kate

1^st March 2020

Dear All,

Well, Friday was a good day, first Kate got an “all clear” from her latest mammogram, then a walk colleague came to help me sort the seed from Mr Fothergill’s then we completed our last Street Patrol - at least for a while, as we are taking a break after more than 5 years. It was payday Friday so the streets were fairly busy and we had enough incidents to stop us getting bored! We had donned an extra layer of clothing heeding the weather forecast, but actually it was not too cold and stayed dry throughout.

We have been sorting the seed by crop and variety and so far have 200 vegetable varieties and 970 packets without starting on the flowers.

Just beginning

On Tuesday we attended the U3A film which was “The Touch” directed by Ingmar Bergman – his first in English. It was absorbing but fairly unbelievable.

I had another Garden Club talk on Wednesday this time at Baldock. Kate came with me to share the driving and it was a large group of over 70. I had another photo published in the centrefold of the Cambridge News this week of Willy Lott’s cottage at Flatford which still resembles “The Haywain” without the Haywain!

 

 

As published (part)                                                     The Original

Walking this week was a case of: when the going gets tough – quite a lot of the tough stay at home! We met at Cottenham and Cottenham Fen is not the most attractive spot in the world on a nice day so when it is snowing and blowing with mud underfoot it is a teeth gritter. However, the sun came out half way round and we finished on an entirely different day.

Assembling in a snowshower

Traditional Fenland Flytipping

 

Between Rampton & Cottenham

Rampton

“Biographies” topic this week was “Johannes Kepler” of astronomy fame. He was a remarkable scientist in demonstrating the planets circulating the sun rather than the earth but was a very difficult personality, falling out with everyone he met or worked with.

Joannes Kepler

All local football matches were cancelled yesterday due to waterlogged pitches. Esther and Emma flew to Tenerife yesterday staying in a hotel close to the one that is quarantined!

With love

Mike & Kate