daytime

Sunday, 13 March 2022

13^th March 2022

Dear All,

The news from Moldova is not improving. We have had email contact with most of the places we know. In the capital Chisinau, Igor reports that “We have packed bags – just in case, all the local shops have sold out of cases”. He has also picked up refugees from the border. In Leova, they have turned their community centre into a refuge but are surprised that some well to do refugees are a bit fussy while poorer ones are finding things more difficult. In the villages there is less impact so far.

Meanwhile here in peaceful? England the garden has dried up enough to allow planting of onion and shallot sets, peas from gutters, Broad Beans and lettuce. The grass has had its first trim and the cricket square also. Tomatoes, Peppers and Aubergines have all been pricked out and I have sown some less usual salads in the form of Minutina and Agretti.

Protected Peas

U3A Cognitive Psychology was about “Working Memory” the difference between short term and long-term memory and how we store and access both with terms such as “Phonological loop” and “Episodic Buffer” thrown in!

We reached the last session of UK History covering 1051 to 1066 mainly Edward the Confessor and his pro Norman bias leading up to William and the Normans proper. The course had interesting sections but was too much into lists of kings and their battles rather what everyday life was like. In the afternoon we tuned into a U3A talk on “UK Foreign Policy in Central Asia” by David Hardy who has spent most of his life working in Kazakhstan and all the other ‘stans: Kurdistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan Turkmenistan and Kurdistan. He described the differences between them all, what they are strong in and their outlook on the rest of the world. Kazakhstan is especially interesting and the new capital Astana is like something out of Disneyworld.

Astana

In the evening we were invited round to the Howards to help Mervyn celebrate his 81^st birthday by sharing four curry’s that he had made himself.

The planned walk for Thursday was over an hour away at Shillington beyond Baldock so we decided to carry out a recce for the next walk we are leading in a couple of weeks’ time. This started at Waresley and took in Great and Little Gransden. Again, it demonstrated the value of a recce as we managed to find a way round a flooded path and also managed to take a wrong route necessitating several extra steps and a longish walk! We had lunch in Waresley Garden Centre afterwards.

Waresley

Waresley Wood

Unusual Sign

I was in charge of Biographies this week as our leader was indisposed with a stomach ailment. The subject was “Dame Laura Knight” a 20^th century artist who pioneered the way for female artists in a male dominated world. She was excellent at portraits and landscapes and helped raise morale in WWII by painting individuals who were exceptionally brave as well as land army girls. She was the only artist allowed to paint the Nuremberg trials.