8^th August 2021

 

Dear All,

Ben paid us a flying visit this week cycling up from Streatham on Monday in a new record time of 5 hours 55 minutes and returning on Wednesday in a slightly longer time of 8.5 hours due to a pannier malfunction and efforts to remedy it en route. He then left home at 3 am Thursday to fly to Cork to cycle round Southern Ireland. He has hired a bike which is not as good as his own and already had a puncture and encountered some challenging weather.

 

 

Time Traveller

 

While Ben was here, we had lunch at the Willingham Book Warren – a café set up in rooms lined with mostly second-hand books. It has an interesting atmosphere but sadly may be closing shortly.

 

The Book Warren

 

John Bell rang this week as I had sent him photos from the cousin’s reunion. He seems mentally alert but still falls asleep at the drop of a hat. His main topic of conversation was a new lawn mower which predictably was not up to scratch!

Our Thursday walk this week started at Babraham and took in Little and Great Abington, Hildersham and the old Roman Road from Wandlebury. The Roman Road now has a traffic ban and consequently was overgrown and resembled a flower meadow which was quite nice.

 

 

Little Abington

 

Orobanche, Broom rape

 

 

The Roman Road

In the evening we had a Village Produce Show Committee meeting as the Show is planned for the 21^st August. Normally we would have held 4 or 5 meetings by now which is complete overkill so the pandemic has yielded a few advantages! I was delegated to arrange a framed photo of the retiring British Legion member who used to present the cups, so on Friday Kate and I took a trip to St Ives to arrange the framing, visit the bank and buy a few things we didn’t know we needed!

Veg distribution has continued this week as beans, tomatoes, cues and courgettes are still flourishing.

News from Hove is promising on the house move front as the vendors of the house they have made an offer for have found somewhere else. Hopefully Mary-Ann, Andy and family are coming up next Friday. This is Amḗlie’s latest portrait.

 

 

With love

Mike & Kate