31st October 2021

 

Dear All,

Not too much to report this week, mainly digging and U3A activities. Spent much of Monday and Tuesday digging in the ton of muck at the allotment and odd bits here and that is largely done now when the conditions were good.

 

 

Allotment Digging

 

U3A History covered the 5^th to 7^th centuries when the powerful English/Saxon families began to dominate areas/regions of England and demand tributes from the lower classes and kingdoms such as Mercia emerged. The lecturer is well informed but not the most dynamic communicator maybe because it is on Zoom.

 

 

History Map

 

Later I tuned into the Wednesday lecture which was on Joseph Needham who was a British biochemist, historian and Chinese expert known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology. He was famous for the " Needham Question", which is: why had China and India been overtaken by the West in science and technology, despite their earlier successes?

 

On Thursday our walk started at Burrough Green south of Newmarket and touched Great Bradley, the Stour Valley Path and Stetchworth. It was sunny all trip which made a deal of difference. Being close to Newmarket it was serious horse country touching several stud farms as well as four woods.

 

 

Future Grand National winners?

 

 

Ford near source of the River Stour

 

 

Ten Wood

 

 

 

Autumn Colours

The Biographies topic this week was Lady Anne Fanshawe who was a well to do wife of a cavalier sympathiser at the time of the English civil war. Her husband Richard stuck with Charles I and Prince Charles so had to hop around the country, France, Ireland and Spain while they were on the run. Anne tried to keep up with him when possible and found time for 20 pregnancies and 14 children, only 5 of which survived to adulthood. She kept a careful Journal of her husband’s activities which provided an accurate idea of what life was like at that time.

 

 

Lady Anne Fanshawe

 

My over wintered sprouting broccoli has decided to crop now and we have also harvested Fennel, Celeriac and started Parsnips this week.

Over were walloped 5 v 2 by Cherry Hinton yesterday – 3 down in 15 minutes.

I finished reading “The Places in Between” yesterday by Rory Stewart, covering his walk across Afghanistan. As travel books go it is the most hair raising that I have read – I really do not know how he survived.

 

 

 

Rory Stewart

 

With love

Mike & Kate

 

 

24th October 2021

 

Dear All,

Ben ran well in the Cambridge Half Marathon getting round in 1 hour 42 minutes placed 1850 out of nearly 10,000 runners. This time we managed to spot him!

 

 

Come in No. 10776

 

On Monday we were invited to Wimpole Hall by Howard Dickinson one of our walking colleagues who volunteers in the walled garden and on the allotment. The NT are cutting staff so are glad of volunteers to keep things going. A few years ago, they advertised the allotment project and received over 50 replies from interested parties, most however were not interested in working only harvesting and consuming and at one time only 2 people were keeping the project going. I was able to help with varieties especially. Then the walled garden was needing additional help and Howard and another chap have taken on a project on six large beds comparing “Dig” and “No Dig” and again were looking for some ideas.

 

 

Wimpole Allotment

 

Tuesday night was rather damp here and I recorded 27.5mm – a record so far this year. The bottom of the garden was again flooded as the pond overflowed.

 

 

Flood

 

The cricket square is looking good so far as the weather has suited the reseeded grass.

 

 

Over Lords square

 

Both Amḗlie and Albert have had +ve Covid tests this week so are off school isolating. Amḗlie has had a few symptoms but Albert seems fine and is disappointed to miss school and the weekend Park run.

Our Thursday Ramble started at Birdbrook south of Haverill and took in Stambourne Green and Steeple Bumpstead. The rain earlier in the week meant that this was the first taste of winter mud so going was more difficult than of late. We took a new member called Anne who has just moved into Over and joined the group.

 

 

Damp Field

 

 

Flooded stream

 

 

Moyn’s Park House, Birdbrook

 

We had our Covid booster jabs on Friday at the Grafton Centre in Cambridge. I was then able to get to the second half of the Biographies session this week featuring Dorothy Hodgkin  a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, including penicillin, B12 and insulin. She had communist party sympathies and taught Margaret Thatcher chemistry (but not politics!)

 

 

Dorothy Hodgkin

 

We had a load of muck delivered to the allotment so there has been much wheelbarrowing, spreading and digging in – with more to go so volunteers welcome!

 

 

Muck Spreading

 

I went to watch Over playing at Isleham yesterday (Over 2 v 1 Isleham) and on the way passed the vast new church called the Ark which has been self-built by members in Isleham taking 5 years. It has been featured on the BBC and local papers made of green oak and looks very impressive.

 

 

The Ark, Isleham

With love

Mike & Kate

 

 

17th October 2021

 

Dear All,

Highlights this week include a warm swim, a visit to several seed trade open days in Lincolnshire, a visit from Mary & Graham and Ben here for the weekend.

After a month of chilly swims, the Impington pool finally reached a decent temperature which made a considerable difference!

On Tuesday we collected the last of the Squash from Elsom’s garden, I have slightly overdone the squash this year but the Elsoms are using less vegetables themselves and I needed to fill their garden. We also heard that Mary-Ann and Andy have had their offer on another house accepted – it is large and needs some TLC but well placed near Hove Park.

On Wednesday Lawrie, Dave and myself travelled up to Lincolnshire to view the Seed Trade open days. We managed seven company sites where the standard was high and besides catching up with varieties stocked up on hats, pens, notepads, a boot bag and an umbrella!

 

 

Amoresco Orange Romanesco

 

 

Sakata Display

 

 

Mike with travel companions!

 

 

Winter Squash

 

 

Brussel sprout Hey Melis

 

 

Elsom’s Display

 

 

Elsom’s Lettuce

 

 

Kate and I were leading the walk on Thursday starting at Conington and completing a square via Boxworth, Knapwell and Elsworth. It was a decent walk and the pub was very efficient.

 

 

Boxworth Manor

 

 

Knapwell Woods

 

 

U3A Biographies started again this week and the first subject was “Lisa Meitner” she was a leading Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on radioactivity, she discovered the radioactive isotope protactinium-231 in 1917. She was credited with being the “Mother of the nuclear bomb – which she hated and died in Cambridge.

 

 

Lisa Meitner

 

Ben is here to run in the Cambridge Half Marathon today and we are off to watch him shortly.

With love

Mike & Kate

 

10th October 2021

 

Dear All,

Publication delayed today as we have just returned from an exciting 6 hours at Hinchinbrook A&E where I spent a few over rated hours passing a kidney stone – not something I recommend!

We had an excellent few days in the Cotswolds travelling down on Sunday and returning Friday. We tool Lawrie and Naureen, friends from Histon as Lawrie has just had cataracts removed from both eyes. We stopped off at Chedworth Roman Villa on the way down which has some remarkable mosaics and had a warm up walk to Chedworth village. Our accommodation for the week was Burleigh Court Hotel just overlooking Stroud. Our room was for some reason, the pick of the place with anti room, bedroom, a spare bedroom and bath room. Breakfasts were excellent and evening meals adventurous with the emphasis on creativity rather than bulk!

 

 

Chedworth Roman Ruins

 

 

Burleigh Court Hotel

 

We walked each day and nost routes were very undulating with plenty of climbing involved. Each day there was a long walk of 11 to 14 miles, a shorter? walk of 8.5 to 10 miles and a casual walk. We stuck to the short walks.

On Monday we walked from the hotel along a ridge to Oakridge for lunch then back along the Golden Valley between the river and a canal with a steep climb to finish (us off!)

 

 

View across the Golden Valley

 

 

 

View to Brinscombe

 

We were leading on Tuesday which was a challenge for a route we had not recced with 13 people in tow. Fortunately a couple of folks had GPS gizmos so we did not go far wrong.. We started at Cranham and walked through Painswick, Paradise! and Sheepscombe for lunch. The return to Cranham was mostly uphill!

 

 

Beech woods

 

 

Cranham

 

Wednesday was supposedly the easiest day with a circular walk through four villages: Sherston, Eastern Grey, Foxley and Norton. We gained some of the casual walkers on the promise of lrelatively level ground but a couple of the did not last the pace and had to be picked up in a car. Progess was not helped by the vast number of styles we encountered. After the walk we explored Stroud taking in the museum, park and arboretum.

 

 

Cotswold Barn

 

 

Mudstone in the Museum

 

Thursday we started at Newark Park near Westonbirt Arboretum. We had fantastic views across to the Severn Valley and had lunch in Wotton-under-Edge a very interesting village complete with alms houses and a haunted house!

 

 

Wotton Alms Houses

 

 

The Short Group

 

Most returned straight home on Friday but we visited Highgrove to keep an eye on Charles and Camilla. It was an interesting visit but heavy on security and only guided tours allowed so you could not dwell on areas of interest – ot take photos! The journey back was the usual Friday afternoon crawl but we were back by 5.50pm.

 

 

Highgrove Thyme walk

 

 

Highgrove Arch

 

With love

Mike & Kate