22nd May 2022

 

Dear All,

Esther and Emma left early Monday morning for Esther to have 5 sessions at Addenbrookes culminating in a magic injection which cost £1000! Hopefully this is the beginning of greater relief. Meanwhile the changes on their house have been progressing a pace both inside and out. The latest shots seem to show the garden disappearing!

 

 

19 Alpha Road

 

Not to be outdone there is at long last movement on Mary-Ann & Andy’s house purchase with the certificate for change of use completed and a notional moving date suggested subject to the mortgage going through alright.

Amḗlie seems have had a great time camping in the New Forest with her school despite a very scary thunderstorm one night. Somehow, she managed to wet most of her clothes and arrived home with a dustbin bag full of damp clothing.

Ben completed the Copenhagen marathon in just over 4 hours despite having sore ribs from a bike accident!

After swimming on Monday we noticed an ambulance at No. 23 Dereck Medlock’s bungalow. He moved out 20 years ago but keeps it on and visits frequently. His partner, Joyce, tripped over the back doorstep and broke her hip in three places. When he rang for an ambulance, he was told it could be 10 hours! It came sooner than that but the crew said that as she was in pain, they could not administer any medicine and they needed to wait for a second ambulance! – no wonder the system is stretched.

We attended an ex NIAB employees’ lunch at Girton Golf Course Tuesday lunchtime. It was good to catch up and try and avoid just talking about medical ailments!

In the morning Arthur helped? me dig a new trench for asparagus at the allotment – he is a dab hand with a wheelbarrow. Later in the day I went back to the allotment myself to water and this created a deal of interest amongst the bees that the neighbouring allotment holder had installed the previous weekend. In the morning they were fine, now they were very angry, it seems David had completed the movement of the brood from a transport box to the hive and this upset them. I was stung twice and had to flee the scene. David later apologised for not warning us about their anger and brought round a bottle of wine to apologise.

We had a new dish washer installed Wednesday morning after its 16-year-old predecessor expired.

We started our walk from Thaxted on Thursday and looped south through Richmond’s Green, Sibley’s Green, Little Cambridge, Tilty and back via Monk Street. The rain the day before meant that it was a little sticky underfoot but it was excellent walking weather, with some very attractive architecture.

 

 

Tilty

 

Tilty Rectory

 

 

Thaxted Mill

 

Thaxted Guildhall

 

The new asparagus crowns arrived on Friday and were duly planted along with some potted raspberries.

 

Asparagus bed underway

 

 

Offending Beehive

 

 

Kate’s allotment

It was “Birds” again in the Cambridge News and I had a Bald eagle entered from Ecuador.

 

 

Bald Eagle

 

The church where we delivered “Just Vegetating”, St Clements, has had the promised bells fitted this week, this photo was in the local paper.

 

 

St Clement’s Bells

 

 

In the absence of both local cricket and football on Saturday Kate and I drove to the new visitor site for the RSPB at Earith and did a new walk for us.

 

 

RSPB near Earith

 

love

Mike & Kate