24th April 2022

 

Dear All,

It is decorating season again – Kate is keen to paint the dining room so it was sleeves up time. She had gradually cleared the room throughout the week and painted the ceiling and I started the walls yesterday morning. The plan is three greyish walls and one dark blue.

Painting Workforce

 

We unexpectedly entertained Arthur and Grace on Tuesday as their mother had been taken to Addenbrookes in the night. We had planned to go to St Ives to collect paint and decorating materials so we took them with us. The front seat, upstairs on the Guided bus was close to paradise for Arthur! There was time for serious swan and duck feeding. In the evening we attended a public consultation meeting held by the RSPB about a proposed new circular footpath round the reserve. Aged cousin John Bell rang in the evening, his days seem to consist of getting up at 6 am, making breakfast, then falling asleep! He really wanted to attend Jen’s funeral but probably wisely considered it would be too much.

I had my fourth Covid jab in Cambridge on Wednesday morning, it was much quieter than previous visits. In the evening I was a substitute speaker at Over Garden Club as the booked speaker dropped out. I took tubs of Watercress and Minutina for them to try.

 

 

Watercress

 

 

Minutina

Thursday’s walk was fairly local starting at Stapleford, taking in the Roman Road and Wandlebury. It was sunny and dry and a good walk with reduced numbers as some were on a walking holiday in Derbyshire.

 

 

The Roman Road

 

 

Wandlebury

 

More work on the cricket square this week spraying for weeds, first match next Saturday.

Plenty of gardening sowing squash, pumpkins, marrows and courgettes indoors and salsify and French beans outdoors and transplanting more peas. In addition, I have dug the winter brassica and parsnip land at the allotment. The neighbouring allotment holder plans to introduce a couple of bee hives which should prove interesting.

Our pastor David and family returned from South Africa where they encountered the worst flooding for many years so had various adventures trying to travel on indifferent road surfaces, putting up with power failures, a flat tyre on the way to the airport and son Caleb was bitten by a spider!

The Cambridge News photo feature this week was “Trees” and I contributed a Weeping Willow.

 

 

Weeping Willow

 

love

Mike & Kate

 

17th April 2022

 

Dear All,

Having met most of you all this week much of the news might be stale! Mary-Ann, Andy, Amḗlie and Albert arrived Sunday afternoon and Kate and I were responsible for the children on Monday and Tuesday while the parents were working. On Monday it was model making, Willingham playground and the Auction House for lunch.

 

 

Willingham Playground

 

Model Making

 

On Tuesday we booked in to “Inflatabounce” at Wyton. This was a vast barn 150 yards by 40 yards filled with inflatables in which to bounce for a 3-hour session. This seemed to go quite well and certainly had the bonus of tiring everyone (including watching grandparents!) out.

 

 

Inflatabounce

  

Inflatables

 

On Wednesday we all caught the guided bus to Cambridge and while Mary-Ann and Andy visited the Hockney exhibition in the Fitzwilliam we took the children to the Sedgewick Museum to view fossils then a romp and picnic on Parker’s Piece and explore the playground on Jesus Green.

 

Sedgewick Dinosaur

 

Sedgwick Fossils

 

 

Dinosaur head

We collected Ben from Huntingdon station on Wednesday evening and we all travelled to Beaumont and Frinton for Jen’s committal and Thanksgiving service. We left in plenty of time but got held up in Linton and made the committal in Beaumont churchyard with a minute to spare. This was supervised by Graham and attended mainly by the family followed by some refreshments at Faith Farm. The service in Frinton was packed with several tributes from family and friends. It was a good send off but as ever with a mixture of emotions. After we walked to Frinton beach and Ben tested the water – it was very cold and we met up with Mary, Graham, Rosie & Helen before repairing to Glebe Farm to say goodbye to David and several others of the family.

 

 

Ben sampling the Ocean

 

 

Family Gathering post beach

 

On Good Friday Over chapel joined up with Northstowe and Cambourne for a joint service in Cambourne Village College. In the afternoon John Lane and I had a serious bash at the cricket square: cutting, rolling and attempting marking out. The marking did not go well and we had to complete it on Saturday.

It has been a busy week in the garden sowing leeks, runner and French beans, sweet corn and cucumbers, planting peppers, aubergines, peas and lettuce. I have also dismantled the Propagation Cabinet while Kate seems to have flowers germinating everywhere.

We watched Over beat top of the table Shelford 1 v 0 Saturday afternoon.

With love

Mike & Kate

 

10th April 2022

 

Dear All,

We tend not to go swimming during school holidays as the timetable changes and the pool gets crowded. Instead, I had an additional walk with Lawrie a friend from Histon. We walked down to the RSPB reserve then on to the Staunch, along the raised flood bank to Overcote then back to the village along another section of the flood bank. Lawrie has had ankle trouble so did not want to walk any further. His USP is his encyclopaedic knowledge of bird songs so it is a bit like walking with Bill Oddie or David Attenborough with recognition of Cettis warblers, chiff chaffs and reed warblers, even if you do not see them! The Staunch was heavily clogged with reeds that someone must have cut upriver and we had a long conversation with one of farmer Burling’s offspring about their special Stabiliser breed beef cattle. It is all very scientific these days with ear tags which reveal the genetics of the cow and the ability to sex semen for the chosen gender!

 

The clogged Staunch

 

 

Stabiliser cattle & keeper

 

Beehive array

 

Our main walk on Thursday started at Great Barford beyond the A1 for us towards Bedford. It was a very scenic route beside the River Ivel north to Roxton then back along the Great Ouse. We digressed in Roxton to view one of only two surviving thatched chapels in the UK. The wind however was something else, the worst we have walking in since Iceland 1972!

  

Barford Bridge

 

 

Blunham

 

 

Roxton Congregational church

 

We have both been busy in the garden and allotments this week. I have rotovated in muck at the allotment and sown parsnips, carrots and beetroot and planted out celeriac. In addition, we have unclamped and planted dahlias and planted the first tomatoes in the GH.

 

We held our first Men’s breakfast at chapel since February 2020 yesterday. The speaker was Robert van der Weher who was the man in charge of St Clements church where we held “Just Vegetating” this year. He had an amazing life story being born to wealth as his father inherited a stately home and village and was related to the Earl of Leicester and Sarah Ferguson. Robert was expelled from his kindergarten aged 5, studied at Eton and decided to travel to India rather than take a place at Magdalen College, Cambridge. To fund his travel, he worked in a chicken farm, had a spell as a butler and a doorman in a brothel. In India he fell in with the Jain followers who espouse poverty and possessions only owning a loin cloth and a begging bowl. They pluck all their hairs, never stay in one place for 2 nights running and sweep the floor so as not to tread on any insects or wild life. He was offered a place to join them but eventually declined and returned to UK where he met Sarah and returned to India with her looking for the meaning of life by joining an Ashram and studying under a Guru. He was a convinced atheist but it so happened that he was directed to an Ashram that followed the teaching of Jesus without all the trappings of dogma and creeds and this changed him. Cutting a long story short he returned to the UK and qualified to teach economics, philosophy and religion in Cambridge while qualifying as an Anglican priest and running the Little Gidding Community which had a farm for handicapped folks, His wife worked as an Occupational Therapist with handicapped people in Peterborough. Hamerton Wildlife Park was in his parish so he became a Trustee of that when it was set up. He also had a regular phone in programme on local radio as well as taking part in debates on the BBC. After 25 years of lecturing, he retired and moved to Cambridge and took an interest in St Clements church which was in a state of disrepair. This has now been renovated with a small elderly congregation but they share the premises with the Cambridge Russian Orthodox church which has been an interesting exercise in recent weeks. Checking him out on-line as I had to introduce him for the talk, I found that he had written 130 books! All in all, an interesting guy. We were not sure how many would turn up due to the prevalence of Covid locally but 17 braved it, which was not too bad.

The work men at Esther & Emma’s have made a good start and plan to work all weekend. We are expecting Mary-Ann, Andy, Amḗlie & Albert later today and Ben Wednesday night to join us to travel to the funeral on Thursday.

 

 

Early Stages

With love

Mike & Kate

 

3^rd April 2022

 

Dear All,

We had a colourful start to the week by visiting the National Hyacinth collection kept by an elderly farmer at Waterbeach. He has collected from all over and now has over a hundred varieties but he himself is 85 so I am not sure how long he will continue.

 

 

Hyacinths – one of many

 

After swimming on Monday, I had a dentist appointment which Kate had booked me for a check-up. However, when I arrived, they did not have me listed so I had to wait 45 minutes listening to drills and scrapes to be fitted in. In the evening we had a 10-pin bowling session at Pidley. There were about 30 of us and the offer was a meal and 2 games for a bargain price. I did reasonably well scoring 256 in the two games but was, of course, beaten into second place by Gordon as usual!

 

 

Bowlers preparing

 

 

Bob poised

 

 

Prizewinners

 

Kate was at the dentist on Tuesday so we had Arthur later for lunch then took him to Oakington Garden Centre where Kate converted some of her Mother’s Day Gift tokens into Wellington Boots and gloves. It was a good day for visitors as we entertained Adrian, Lorna, Rachel and Grace for varying lengths of time.

I dug trenches for Runner beans on Wednesday and had compost buying trip to Berrycroft Stores.

On Thursday it was a surprise to wake up to a dusting of snow and as we drove to Horseheath for the walk there were several more snow showers but once we started walking the sun came out and although the wind was chilly it was good walking conditions as long as you kept moving.

 

 

                                                                    Snow dusting

  

West Wickham church

  

 Yen Hall Farm, West Wickham

 

Pastor David and family flew to South Africa for a 3 week break on Thursday so it is all hands to the pump covering services while he is away.

With love

Mike & Kate