daytime: July 2021

Sunday, 25 July 2021

25^th July 2021

Dear All,

I hope you have enjoyed/endured the heat wave this week and not been drowned in thunder storms after? We were a little apprehensive before the walk on Thursday as several dropped out due to the prospect of over heating but in the event, it was a bit cooler and our leader chose as much shade as possible. We met at Stoke-by-Clare, which is a pretty Suffolk village on the River Stour and took in Ovington, Ashen, Ridgewell and Baythorne End (a village which Esther might remember!). Wildlife highlights were a decent sized grass snake and a clutch of white butterflies drinking out of a muddy puddle.

The Lion, Stoke-by-Clare

Stoke-by-Clare High Street

Grass snake

White Butterflies

Baythorne End Park House

The week began with a Cemetery Trustees meeting – on site and the church AGM. The Cemetery actually looks quite good as we have a new chap for the maintenance with the trustworthy name of Jo Swindell! The AGM marked the end of my time as a deacon after 42 years. After a long period without church meetings this was a 2.5 hour marathon!

The garden continues to be productive and we have been distributing cucumbers and courgettes far and wide. Tomatoes and runner and French beans are building up and autumn raspberries are taking over from the summer ones. Following the Night cam photos of our garden wildlife we should not have been surprised that the badger attacked the sweet corn this week so that has been placed behind security fencing! Kate’s flower border is showing up well and the peanuts have started to flower. I have been filling the spaces of harvested crops with mustard, Phacelia and crimson clover.

Antirrhinums & Salpiglosis

Peanut

Badger handiwork

We had a Zoom session with Moldova yesterday as we are finding it increasingly difficult sending money to them due to money laundering precautions. Igor and Lucia in Chisinau have now had their first vaccinations and Igor is still working on-line organising lorry pick ups in the USA! A local farmer gave us a £500 donation towards CEEM this week. Terry who has travelled to Moldova with me in recent years has had his hands full helping a step son with a serious drug problem, including the excitement of his flat being used as a distribution centre!

The Cambridge News photo feature this week was “Plant Life” and I entered a tree trunk from the Havana Botanic Gardens.

Havana tree trunk

We are looking forward to a trip to London on Tuesday to meet up with as many cousins who are fit and able to make it to Harrow!

With love

Mike & Kate

Sunday, 18 July 2021

18^th July 2021

Dear All,

Try something new each week – this week was my debut at bread making, with expert tuition of course! It turned out surprisingly attractive and edible!

Virgin Bread

Another week of currant picking for Kate, this time black, pink and white. Strawberries have finished and the oldest bed rotovated in, cherries and raspberries have been cropping very well. I dug the Charlotte potatoes at the allotment and they have yielded well.

Black Currants

Pink Currants

Cherries

Charlotte

Last Sunday we walked through the orchard and up past the Mustill’s Lane allotments. Richard Fenwick had erected an owl box in his Christmas tree plantation and this year a pair of kestrels have hatched 3 offspring.

Kestrels

We led the Thursday walk this week starting in Over and following the River to St Ives. We had a large turn out (17) and the weather was good for walking. We caught the guided bus back to Swavesey and did a loop through their heritage orchard and the Over orchard again, before dining in Over Community Centre.

Walking Group

Geese on the River

Hay making near St Ives

Duncan and Sue Colqhoun have sold their house in Cottenham where they have lived for 35 years and are planning to move to Buckinghamshire where all three of their children are located. They invited us for lunch yesterday. The present house has a large plot of land and a tennis court and was on the market for £900,000, the one they are buying was built in the 1500s is much smaller and roughly the same price!

Covid has been affecting the local schools and both Swavesey junior and senior schools have had class lockdowns. Lorna, the lady in Swavesey that Kate has been collecting medications for and running to hospital has succumbed and is currently in Hinchingbrooke hospital.

The steroids may be helping Kate’s pain relief but also affecting her sleep pattern so she is wide awake at 6am and left for Tesco’s at 6.45am an Friday when evidently it is quite quiet!

My sister Mary has been arranging a cousin’s reunion for a couple of weeks’ time for those still fit and able to meet in Harrow!

The photo feature in the CN this week was “Dance” and I thought I won’t bother – never having captured Esther in full ballet mode! then I remembered foreign trips to Bulgaria and Ecuador where there were demonstrations of local expertise and the Ecuador photo was published.

Youthful Dancers in Ecuador

When Kate and I purchased new bikes in April we were invited to bring them back in a few weeks for a free service to adjust cables etc. We took then back to St Ives yesterday am and I naively thought they would service on the spot having booked them in, but they said no it would be next week. As I spluttered, they said they would try and fix them on the day which they duly did so we had a return journey just before closing time.

Brace yourselves for a scorching week until thunderstorms in time for the cricket on Saturday!

With love

Mike & Kate

Sunday, 11 July 2021

11^th July 2021

Dear All,

Days don’t get much more exciting than Monday when we went to Bluntisham tip in the morning and Milton tip in the afternoon! You still have to book a slot at the tips and Bluntisham is our nearest and best site, but when we arrived, they were not taking paint despite their web site saying that they do – hence the second visit, but strictly you are not allowed two visits within 7 days so we had to get special permission for the afternoon visit – I told you it was exciting! The garage now looks much emptier if not tidier!

Emptier, if not pristine garage

We entertained three people for lunch on Wednesday, the first time for several months. The guest list was Norman Ingle, Jenny and Tony Miles – combined ages about 240 years! But it seemed to go well and as we currently have a cucumber glut everyone had a docky bag to go home with!

Our walk on Thursday started at Ridgewell beyond Haverhill and took in Stambourne and Toppesfield. It was a new route that Philip Shaw was leading and turned out to be a fairly testing 9.2 miles involving some not very well travelled paths with long grass. The scenery was not spectacular but the crops were good and more varied than last week. The pub had invested in some imaginative space age bubbles for social distancing.

The White Hors,e Ridgewell

Barley crop

Floral headland

The cricket club invested heavily in a reconditioned Lloyds mower towards the end of the 2019 season. It does a fantastic job but turns out to be highly strung, as after very little work it is in for repairs with an estimate of £696! Anyone would think it was a dog attracting vet bills!

It has been a mega harvesting week in the garden and allotment: cucumbers, tomatoes, French beans, beetroot, calabrese, potatoes and salad onions while Kate has continued with strawberries and raspberries and picked 13 punnets of red currants.

Cucumbers

Red Currants

I watched Over being thrashed by Histon at cricket yesterday -but it’s only a game! A phrase we might be using again after the football tonight!

The Cambridge News photo page this week featured “Events” and my submission was Hampden Court Flower Show.

Hampden Court Flower Show

With love

Mike & Kate

Sunday, 4 July 2021

4^th July 2021

Dear All,

Rumour has it that “Footballs Coming Home!” well possibly, and certainly watching England last night was more relaxing than the usual nervy 90 minutes! But there is still those pesky Italians!

We had a new shower fitted this week as the old one in the bathroom developed a split in the control box, which not only sprayed you with ice cold water, but also upset the electrics and tripped the fuses.

It has been hedge trimming week both here and at the allotment. Next door planted a hedge between us and it has shot up to about 8 feet. As husband Dave has departed daughter Caroline has been attempting to top it back a little. It is not a great benefit to the crops within a couple of metres and I have had to sink a barrier to restrict the roots.

Trimmed Hedge

French beans started this week and the summer cabbage look good. The allotment is full with potatoes, squash, Sweet Corn and winter brassicas and so far, so good. Kate is still battling bindweed on her patch but is picking fresh flowers every day.

First French beans

Our Thursday walk this week was a new one for us starting at Great Offley between Hitchin and Luton on the edge of the Chilterns – 42 miles away for us. There were more climbs than us Fen folk are used to, but it was an excellent walk in ideal conditions. The crops were good but strange in that apart from grass with a multitude of lambs to begin with we walked for 3.5 hours and only saw cereal crops – no beans, OSR, peas or any other break crop. Also, quite a few of the wheat crops were sown with mixed varieties. It was a Red Kite hotspot and at one site we saw 7 at once. Our leader lives in Hitchin and is responsible for maintenance in St Mary’s the largest church in the town and took us up the tower for a panoramic view of Hitchin and a close up of the bells.