25^th October 2020

 

Dear All,

So, clocks have gone back and Christmas 2 months from today – winter draws on! It has been a good week financially for CEEM as I finally managed to sort the Stewardship anonymous donation of £1000 and the chapel harvest offering for Moldova came to £1,803.

As part of the chapel web site upgrade the Deacons have all been photographed by Maya our Bulgarian professional camera lady and Kate and I had additional glamour shots gazing into each other’s eyes!

We had an email from Malcolm Firth in Latvia, their Covid death score is still only in double figures with fairly severe lockdown restrictions.

The U3A “Origins of Christianity” course is covering the OT so far with critical assessments of the authorship and dating of most of the books. The “Biographies” subject this week was “Princess Alice of Battenberg” mother of Prince Philip and great granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She had a very colourful life having been born deaf she married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, had four daughters the Philip. The daughters all married Germans she had four sons-in-law fighting for Germany and Philip in the English navy. She sheltered a Jewish family during the war. She stood out at the Coronation wearing a nun’s habit amongst all the glamourous outfits. She suffered from schizophrenia and was confined to a sanitorium in Switzerland. Later she founded a Greek Orthodox nursing order and ended her days in Buckingham Palace.

 

 

Princess Alice of Battenberg

Our “socially distanced” walk this week started at Little Walden near Saffron Walden. The plan was to walk to Great Chesterford but we encountered a “Private No Entry” stretch so diverted to Ashdon. It was a pleasant day with no rain, some sunshine and excellent views. We saw the first fieldfares of the season and several skylarks eventually coving nearly 10 miles.

 

The Crown, Little Walden

 

 

Little Walden

 

 

 

Views between Little Walden & Ashdon

 

Disused Railway carriage, Ashdon

 

I played Table Tennis again this week at St Ivo and managed to win 3 v 2 after 3 set points in game 5!

Over won 4 v 0 yesterday but Dave and I went to watch the top of the table clash Cherry Hinton 2 v 3 Eynesbury.

With love

Mike & Kate

 

18^th October 2020

 

Dear All,

Both Kate and I have been to the dentists “Repair Shop” this week, not quite as magical as the TV programme but hopefully as effective! We fared better than Rachel our South African friend from chapel as she too had an appointment to remove a tooth on Tuesday and they only managed to remove half of it – the second instalment will be at Addenbrookes. We entertained Arthur and Grace while she was receiving attention.

My computer has also been receiving treatment this week as the memory was getting full and has now been increased fourfold. I was a little taken aback by how much I missed it while it was away for 2 days!

Thursday’s walk started at Balsham and took in West Wratting, Weston Green and West Wickham. It was a day of sunshine and showers; I think I took my coat on and off at least 5 times and we had to cross several muddy fields.

 

 

Balsham Bandstand

 

 

Legal grouping!

 

 

Another ploughed field

 

Balsham Water Tower

 

Kate helped with the Squash harvest on Monday – only 50 this year but still very colourful. I have since dug the land as well as Elsom’s garden which I tend.

 

 

Squash Harvest

 

One of the graves in the cemetery has been covered with fungi this week.

 

 

The “Biographies” ZOOM was more fraught this week as the speaker’s internet connection crashed as he was about to begin so 20 folks were left twiddling their thumbs while the leader frantically loaded a reserve presentation – when the original came back on line of course.

Albert seems to have settled at school already and was “Star Pupil” this week, it is all downhill from now on!

 

 

Star Pupil

I played Table Tennis with Dave Harrower at St Ivo on Friday afternoon; it was the first time for some time so I can blame that for coming a respectable second.

We watched Over beat Comberton 2 v 1 yesterday on an all-weather pitch at Cambourne.

 

With love

Mike & Kate

 

 

11^th October 2020

 

Dear All,

I am not sure what the collective noun for ZOOMs is – a Boom of Zooms, a Plethora of Zooms, a Zoom Collective? But I think I qualify this week as I have had seven sessions:

1.      Sunday, usual church discussion and news update

2.      Monday, Deacons meeting

3.      Wednesday, practice for U3A “Biographies” for 80-year-old lady leading this week

4.      Wednesday, First U3A class “Christian Origins and the early Church”.

5.      Thursday. CEEM/Moldova chat and update with Terry.

6.      Friday, First U3A “Biographies” session

7.      Friday, Family chat – the highlight of course!

 

The “Biographies” topic this week was “Josiah Wedgwood” of pottery fame. He was a great experimenter and developed glazing techniques and colours as well as methods of improving clay quality and once made a 956-piece tea set for Catherine the Great. He was also an enlightened employer and contributed to halting the slave trade by issuing a famous medallion.

 

 

Wedgwood & some of his Pottery

 

 

Anti-Slavery Medallion

 

The Wednesday “Christian Origins” class is taken by an Australian historian who is not a Christian so comes from an interesting direction.

Kate and I had flu jabs on Monday in St Ives so had a browse round the town and it was market day. We did not suffer any after effects (which we are owning up to!).

Derrick Medlock has been in residence next door but one, for a week and came for coffee on Tuesday. His partner Joyce had been on their regular run to Calais for rabbit medicine which is a fraction of the price in France, so she was isolating at home in Nottinghamshire. They still have approx. 200 rabbits and they have to be inoculated on a regular basis.

Our Thursday walk started at Wrestlingworth and took in Sutton and Biggleswade. It was not the most interesting walk and we got rather wet from a sudden downpour at mid-day.

 

Storm clouds over The Chequers, Wrestlingworth

 

 

Sutton Packhorse Bridge

 

 

Damp Kate

 

Kate took Laura to Hinchingbrooke Hospital on Wednesday. She lives in Swavesey and started attending to chapel after her son came to Lego events. She is very poorly with amongst other ailments a very enlarged spleen and is due for an operation this week.

I have been digging between showers mainly incorporating mustard which I sowed after potatoes for green manure and ground cover. Kate has been pruning and one look at the fig tree reminds me not to let het loose with hair trimming instruments!

 

 

Mustard incorporation

 

 

Exercise!

 

 

Supervisor!

I went to watch Over v Cherry Hinton yesterday and the rain was so violent that the referee called the players off after 43 minutes then abandoned the game as the ground was water logged. It was the hardest rain I have seen for some time but very local.

With love

Mike & Kate

 

4^th October 2020

 

Dear All,

We were fortunate to choose last week rather than this for Derbyshire as there has been decidedly less sunshine and more dampness this week. We did manage to sort the cricket square on Monday: aeration, scarifying, reseeding fertilising then covering with loam. We did not give it such a heavy dressing this year as it has been so lightly used.

 

 

Scarifyer

 

Aerator

 

 

Top Dresser

In June we received an anonymous £1000 donation for CEEM on a charity cheque which I sent to HSBC straight away. I then received a missed phone call message from the bank in St Neots asking me to ring them. However, due to the excitement of lockdown I tried every day for a week, holding on for 30 minutes twice, but failed to get through. When a statement came the amount had not been added, so my colleague Terry who lives closer to St Neots than me said he would go into the bank so sort it out. He got rather busy and delayed his visit and when he did go in forgot to ask. Eventually he returned and the bank clerk he saw said he could not find the cheque and knew nothing about it. I therefore wrote to the bank and received a phone call to say that they had the cheque but it had been damaged in a flood but was still legible! They explained that it was not an ordinary cheque but a charity token which needed an accompanying form filled in. The form when downloaded proved to be a 3-page document, which I have now completed and sent to “Stewardship” for redemption. Fingers crossed that this is successful.

It has been a bit wet for serious gardening this week but I managed to plant Elephant Garlic, remove the asparagus fern, harvest fennel and do a little digging.

 

 

Fennel

 

We walked with U3A again this week but were split into groups of less than 6. We missed the rain starting at Hildersham taking in Abington, Hadstock and Linton ending with a picnic rather than a pub.

 

River Granta at Hildersham

 

 

Hadstock

 

Quince tree

 

 

Linton Water Tower

 

U3A classes begin again next week and “Biographies” will be via ZOOM. This will be a challenge with a group closer to 80 than 70 and as a joint leader this time I have been helping to train our elderly participants.

The lockdown seems to have affected the fitness of Over FC as they currently have 7 players out with injuries! However, they managed a very credible 1 v 1 draw with Cambridge University Press yesterday.

 

With love

Mike & Kate