30th January
2022
Dear All,
We are gradually getting
used to the new venue for “Just Vegetating” in St Clements church, Bridge
Street. One of the drawbacks is that someone has donated them 6 bells so they
have workmen in building a belfry – and that tends to be a little noisy! We were
covering “Alliums” this week and Kate prepared leek, oat and tomato pancakes, apple,
blackberry and red onion marmalade, leek, potato and sauerkraut gratin and
shallot tart tartin. Unfortunately, the bus timetable has changed and we had to
wait 35 minutes wondering if it would arrive and when it did it was heaving and
not ideal for pensioners carrying 5 bits of luggage for the course!
“Cognitive Psychology”
this week was about how we recognise objects and faces but I had to depart
early as it was Dave Birch’s funeral. Dave was an interesting chap who was
baptised at chapel and produced four children with his wife Kym. He had a
demanding job buying and selling metals which involved a deal of travelling
round the world and unfortunately, he hit the bottle and became an alcoholic
which eventually led to the marriage failing. He fought it and kept good
relations with his family but succumbed to cancer. All four of the children
spoke up well at the funeral.
History wise we has
another session on Alfred and the Vikings and Alfred’s son Edward the Elder who
ruled greatly aided by his sister Aethelflaed. As it was a sunny afternoon, we
had a walk round the fen.
On Thursday we started
our walk at Eltisley and took in Gransden and Caxton (of gibbet fame). It was
dull and threatening to start with but we finished in bright sunshine. The pub
was very efficient taking food and drink orders beforehand and serving 30 of us
very quickly. It also had rather dramatic wall paintings for a pub.
Church
Farm, Caxton
Caxton
Ford
Pub
Decor
We had a double bill at
Biographies this week. First there was a presentation on the “Professor and the
Madman” Professor James Murray was
working in Oxford as an editor of the new Oxford English Dictionary. As he
catalogues words and their definitions, he delegates words to other people and he
begins receiving submissions from a source at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic
Asylum. He receives over 10,000 entries from the “madman” — Dr. William Chester
Minor, a retired Army surgeon in the United States. The pair work together to
write the dictionary 414,000 words in all.
The Professor, James Murray
The second offering was William Tutte an ace mathematician who was
drafted into Bletchley Park to help break war time codes. His contribution was
evidently as crucial as Alan Turing’s but he has not received the same
recognition. He was born in Newmarket and briefly retired there when the
presenter Dr John Calvert was his GP.
William Tutte
Colossus his code breaking Computer
Medical news is that Andy, Amḗlie and Albert seem to be recovering from
Covid which gave them unpleasant stomach cramps and Kate passed her latest
mammogram but failed the bone density scan and has been put on an unpleasant
drug which has not pleased her as she is aware of possible side effects.
Looking out of our back
window yesterday I spotted this large raptor which a friend has identified as a
female Merlin.
Merlin
I watched Over 4 v o
Gamlingay Saturday afternoon.
With love
Mike
& Kate
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