26^th June 2022

 

Dear All,

It took a couple of days to get the garden and allotment under control with weeding, watering and harvesting. In addition, we have barricaded the bottom hedge and side passage against badgers. Harvesting has included cherries and red currants as well as onions and shallots.

 

Cherries

 

 

Red Currants

 

 

 

Shallots & Onions

 

 

Bottom hedge barricades

 

 

Side Passage

 

On Monday evening I took the Garden Club at Ramsey where there was a fairly lively audience and on Wednesday, we had a tour of Madingley Hall with Over Garden Club. Madingley Hall was purchased by Cambridge University in 1928 for £50,000 including all the houses in the village and 2,500 acres! We were shown round by the head gardener who has been in post since 1980 and knew the history and provenance of every tree and plant on site so made it very interesting.

 

 

Madingley Hall

 

 

Walled Garden

 

 

Sunken Garden

 

 

Evergreen Magnolia

 

Because the badgers chomped most of our strawberries while we were away, we took Arthur on an outing to Warboys to a PYO Strawberry farm. The quality was very good and made us wonder why we bother growing our own!

On Thursday our walk started at Brockley Green near Haverill and took in Hundon and a loop east initially overlooking the Stour Valley. Despite being on the warm side it was a good work out with crops mostly looking good but some spectacular wild oats and several fields mystifyingly sprayed off and fallow. The pub was not the most efficient but as they had opened especially for us, we couldn’t complain.

 

The Plough, Brockley Green

Bearded Wheat and Cracked Soil

Flint Knapped House, Brockley green

I watched a piece of Over 2nds v Milton 3rds yesterday – Test Match standard it certainly wasn’t!

Esther & Emma are back in Alpha Road with the new layout looking very roomy. Mary-Ann and Andy are awaiting carpets but again the new house will give them much more space. Kate and I hope to visit on Wednesday night to assist where we can. Ben made the Test Match on Saturday after anxiety with the train strike.

love

 

Mike & Kate

 

19^th June 2022

 

Dear All,

We have just returned from a sun-drenched Derbyshire – words you seldom hear! We have been staying with Kate’s sister Sue and husband John in their log cabin in Darwin Forest near Darley Dale, a few miles north of Matlock. On the way up we met Ben at Trent Bridge for the first day of the Test Match. It was a day that New Zealand dominated but nevertheless an enjoyable experience.

 

 

Trent Bridge

 

On Saturday we began by viewing Darley Dale church which has a 2000-year-old Yew tree in the cemetery with a huge trunk. The church has a “Lepers Window” which is a slit where the unfortunate stricken could look in from the outside without infecting the congregation. We arrived in the middle of a coffee morning so they were pleased to see us. Next stop was Heague Windmill which is only one of three in the country with 6 sails. We were given a thorough conducted tour and purchased a bag of their finest flour. This was only 3 miles from Belper so we travelled there for lunch and explored the town. It has a couple of decent parks but is dominated by huge disused cotton mills one of which is seven stories high and had a Peregrine falcon on the top ledge. We then drove to the Cromford Canal and did a waterside walk looking for the outlet of Meerbrook sough which Kate was keen to find. So, a fairly busy start to the holiday.

 

 

2000 year old Yew Tree

 

 

Heague Windmill

 

On Sunday we travelled to Wirksworth, the Baptist church where we were married has amalgamated with the Methodists and sold the Baptist building. They have used the money to refurbish the Methodist church which was a revelation with an ancient looking exterior and a very smart modern interior with excellent projectors and a huge kitchen where they teach folk cooking skills as well as feeding those that need it.

 

In the afternoon we moved a few miles to Brassington as they had 24 gardens open, they were not spectacular but it is an attractive village and we managed to view 14 gardens, very few of which were on level ground!

 

 

Wirksworth Wellspring church

 

We had done our own thing for the first two days but on Monday we went to Bakewell Market with John & Sue and then on to Magpie Mine which claims to be the best example of an 18^th century lead mine. It was interesting to explore but not well explained, but we were able to remedy that later in Matlock Bath Mining Museum. We walked from the mine to the nearby village of Sheldon.

 

 

Magpie Mine, Sheldon

 

 

Horse Gin for drainage

 

Darwin Forest has a heated indoor swimming pool so we began each day with a few lengths – an excellent way to wake up!

On Tuesday we visited Lea Rhododendron gardens. The flowers were mainly over but it is in a spectacular valley setting then to Smedley’s factory shop. There used to be several of these factory shops in the area but this seems to be the last survivor. Even though the clothes were reduced they were still expensive and therefore resistible! At lunchtime we met up with Kate & Sue’s brother Phil and partner Mandy at the New Bath Hotel where Kate had skivvied as a teenager. The hotel was built on the sight of a spa pool and still boasts a large open-air pool where Kate almost learnt to swim but instead opted for shivering in the shallow end!

 

 

New Bath Hotel Pool at Matlock Bath

 

 

John, Sue, Kate, Phil & Mandy

 

Wednesday saw us exploring the Plague village of Eyam which has a museum as well as plaques all round the village. John had booked a special lunch at “Stella’s Afro Caribbean Experience”. Stella was a cheerful lady from Cameroon who somehow met and married a local farmer and set up a restaurant which was recently put on the map by a visit from the Hairy Bikers. It was an enjoyable experience. After we returned to Bakewell and walked a section of the Monsal Way.

 

 

Eyam stocks

 

 

Sue, Kate, John & Stella

Thursday, we caught a bus in Matlock and visited Buxton. After exploring the Crescent and water springs in the town we walked up to Poole’s Cavern which contains the usual stalagmites and ‘tites but also an unusual large brilliant white Calcite deposit. We then walked up through Buxton Country Park to Solomon’s Temple - a tower with a fantastic view over Buxton. After lunch at Weatherspoon’s, it was the bus ride home. The bus was 30 minutes late and the driver seemed intent on catching up so it was “hold onto your seat time!”

 

 

Buxton Crescent

 

 

Calcite Deposit in Poole’s cavern

 

Walk to Solomon’s Temple

 

We had a quieter day on Friday revisiting the Matlock Bath Mining Museum, checking Kate’s parents’ graves in Wirksworth, then on to Bolehill where Kate called in on Elizabeth Bunting, a childhood neighbour who has had serious cancer problems but has coped reasonably well and is very determined and positive. We then walked round some of Kate’s brother’s fields a few of which would have Chris Packham weeping with joy as they revert to native species! The temperature rose to 29°C, unusually warm for Derbyshire.

This was Sue’s 70^th birthday so they had booked a celebration meal at the Red Lion at Kelstedge where Kate and I held our wedding reception. It had changed and gone upmarket considerably in 51 years and we would not have recognised anything including the price list and portion size, I have never seen such small portions at eye watering prices! – a contrast to Weatherspoon’s. Still, it was a good atmosphere and a good occasion.

 

Ash Farm, Bolehill

 

 

70^th Celebration

 

We were up early at 5.30am on Saturday for a quiet journey home while John and Sue travelled west to their caravan near Minehead. Back home we were greeted with serious badger activity as they had eaten four pots worth and every carrot on a row. The pots were in our fruit cage which they had burrowed in and cleared the strawberries in passing!

Friday, we had two good pieces of news, firstly we had a WhatsAp message from Phil in Moldova. We had not heard anything for a week and travelling alone with £10,000 in his luggage could have gone wrong, but he had completed three out of four stops and it had all gone very well. Then we heard from Mary-Ann that after months of frustration their house move was going through and in fact, they completed the move that day.

So, all in all an excellent week.

 

Mike & Kate

 

5^th June 2022

 

Dear All,

How have your patriotic Platinum Jubilee celebrations gone? In addition to the “Yarnbombing” round the village a vigilante group lit the beacon and there was a children’s fun day on Saturday. The beacon was not scheduled to be lit as the Parish Council thought there were too many Health and Safety issues! And the British Legion were all too old to manage. We had a celebration tea at the Twiss’s opposite together with the Whitfield’s.

 

 

Beacon

 

 

Celebration Tea – trick photo – makes me look fat!

 

My other contribution was judging the Stapleford Fruit & Vegetable Show which they had moved earlier to be part of their celebrations. Unfortunately, they had not told the F&V as it was rather a weedy display!

 

 

Stapleford Fruit & Veg.

 

We went to St Ives on Monday to purchase gifts for Phil’s trip to Moldova next week. Hopefully we can sort the money side of things this coming week but it is never straightforward.

 

 

Assembling Gifts

 

We entertained three of our walking friends for lunch and a look round the garden and allotment on Wednesday. One of them, Howard, volunteers at Wimpole Hall running the large allotment and a project in the walled garden comparing dig and no dig.

As part of the deal with my new phone we somehow gained a new BT Hub which I managed with some trepidation to install this week.

Our Thursday walk started at Great Chishall taking in Heydon and Chrishall. This involved the highest point in Cambridgeshire at a breath-taking 146 metres! So, it was more undulating than many local walks.

 

 

Chrishall church

 

 

Heydon church

 

 

Heydon Old School house

 

 

 

 

View from Great Chishill

 

Plenty of garden activity this week planting Brussel Sprouts, Purple Sprouting broccoli, Kale, and 4^th batch of Sweet Corn while harvesting the first batch of new potatoes (Foremost) from a tub.

 

 

New Potatoes

On the downside badgers attacked one of my carrot pots for a midnight snack!

 

 

Badger damage

 

The Cambridge News topic this week was “Countryside” and my submission was a shot from the Brecon Beacons.

 

 

 

Brecon Beacons

 

16 mm rain so far last night, the most we have received on a single day this year.

 

 

 

Mike & Kate