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