1^st May 2022

 

Dear All,

Decorating completed so life can return to normal!

 

Dining Room

Kate and I started the week in the swimming pool which seemed to be following advice to reduce fuel costs by lowering the water temperature! We went on to Oakington Garden Centre for coffee and a few purchases. I then distributed 30 odd spare Tomato plants to 4 deserving causes in the village.

We had Arthur again on Tuesday and took him for another ride on the Guided Bus to St Ives. Last week we were able to claim the front seat upstairs so he could “drive” the bus. This week it was occupied so he sat in the seat behind and announced in a loud voice that “he would like to sit in the front seat” and the incumbent lady kindly vacated the seat!

On Wednesday John Lane and I prepared the wicket for the first game of the season: cutting, rolling and marking out. I have never known the wicket to be so dry in April.

 Numbers were down for the walk on Thursday as of the 60 who went on a HF holiday in Derbyshire 20 went down with Covid! The walk began at Little Walden near Saffron Walden and looped to Ashdon and back. The shorter walk was 8.5 miles and very enjoyable with many flowers and gentle undulations. The longer walk, led by Philip got lost and returned 40 minutes late having completed 12.5 miles! We stopped to look at Ashdon church and a warden came by and filled us in with some of the village history as it is believed that there was a battle there in 1016 won by Cnut which led to him taking the crown from Edward Ironside.

 

Little Walden Lake

 

 Ashdon church

 

Break on Handy furniture

  

Park Farm, Little Walden

 

Garden wise the Wisteria has been in full bloom and I have rashly planted out Runner and climbing French Beans. Kate has planted Chrysanthemums and Sweet Peas at the allotment. Peas, Broad beans and overwintered Alliums are looking good but my asparagus is very slow and we were grateful to Glynis for a hand out.

  

Wisteria

  

Peas & Broad Beans

  

Alliums

 

Andy is on a 106 km walk round the Isle of Wight this weekend, Ben is training for the Copenhagen marathon and Esther and Emma are on the east coast at Winterton-on-Sea belatedly celebrating Emma’s mother’s 70^th birthday. CEEM founder John Law is currently back in the UK sorting divorce papers and due to stay with us on Tuesday night. This afternoon Kate, Phil and I plan to visit Sveta a Moldovan mother of 7 staying with her eldest daughter in Luton. She was an absolute workaholic looking after a large garden, several fields and tunnels in Burlacu while bringing up seven children. She was the recipient of one of the original NIAB tunnels that we took to Moldova and has since worked for two spells in the USA as a nanny to raise money to educate the children.

Football and cricket yesterday. We watched the 2^nd football team who had a bad start to the season and got to Christmas with no points. They have since won 4 times and needed to win yesterday to stay up. They are a very young team and although they were one up for most of the game conceded 4 in the last 15 minutes. The 1^st team won 3 v 0 at March and the cricket team narrowly lost their first game.

love

Mike & Kate