7^th February 2021

 

Dear All,

The mud and floods seem to have dominated the week again. We actually started walking in wellies this week as there is so much water locally – I think we need Vermuyden back again!

 

 

Furtherway,Over

 

 

Tricky path

For our Thursday walk we decided to head for the Guided Busway as there is a solid track beside it thinking we would escape mud and water. This only half worked as there were at least 5 stretches of the path under quite deep water. We managed to battle through to the RSPB bus stop but every route off was flooded so we had to retrace our steps. The RSPB reserve itself was almost totally submerged – we have never seen it like that before.

 

 

Guided Busway

 

 

RSPB Fen Drayton

 

 

 

On the way back we viewed the aconites and snowdrops in Swavesey Manor gardens which are quite a display.

 

 

Swavesey Manor Garden

 

We tuned into a U3A lecture on “Can we Refreeze the Arctic?” by Dr Hugh Hunt. He presented data about global warming and two approaches to solving the problem: a) burning less fossil fuel and b) Geoengineering. As there is little evidence od a) happening he outlined some possibilities for b) including carbon capture (trees) and Solar Radiation Management including making the oceans more reflective with microbubbles and SPICE: Stratosphere Particle Injection for Climate Engineering. This involves spraying particles in the stratosphere from aerosols attached to tethered balloons to reflect the sun’s rays.

 

SPICE

 

“Biography” subject this week was Rev, Richard Relhan a little-known cleric and botanist (1754 -1823) he was born in Brighton, went to Westminster College and Trinity College, Cambridge but despite having a very rich step mother was himself permanently hard up. He became a clergyman in Kent then back in Cambridge and published the first flora of Cambridgeshire. He had 15 children but only 6 survived childhood. The scale of his debts got him dismissed from the chaplaincy of Kings College and his life spiralled down in long years of poverty.

 

Kate fortunately got an all clear from her mammogram and is still stripping and polishing the dining room chairs.

 

Seed potatoes are chitting, the Amaryllis is flowering, peas have been sown in gutters and carrots are emerging in pots.

 

 

Seed Potatoes

 

 

Amaryllis

 

 

We were pleased to receive the latest school photos this week.

 

 

 

As it rained most of Saturday, we ventured out to distribute parsnips (we have a glut) and got wet, apart from that it was a hard day watching cricket, football and rugby!

 

With love

Mike & Kate