26^th March 2023

 

Dear All,

We had an early start Monday as we collected Merv & Pat at 5.30am to take them the Cambridge Station en route for their holiday in Madeira. We then managed a swim before the final instalment of “Just Vegetating” – Oriental Vegetables and Salads. Kate prepared Aubergine & Pepper curry, Vegan chocolate beetroot cakes & Sweet Potato au gratin with coconut and chilli.- not altogether oriental but no complaints. In fact the class were very generous donating £175 (for CEEM), a bottle of wine and some chocolates. I followed this with a check up trip to the dentist who are introducing exciting (for them!) new payment options.

On Tuesday I filled the remaining space in the Raised Bed with lettuce, carrots and potatoes. This week I have planted out more peas and broad beans and Kate’s front garden is looking colourful and the Magnolia tree is in full blossom, waiting for the late frosts!

 

 

 Raised bed

 

 

Protected Peas

 

 

Magnolia

 

 

Front Garden

 Arthur and Grace came after school. In the evening I had a Garden Club talk at Christchurch a village I had not heard of deep in the fens beyond Welney. I guess not much happens there as I arrived at 7pm for a 7.30pm start and the congregation were all already there waiting and on enquiry found they had been there for 15 minutes!

On Wednesday am I helped Adrian dig his garden and plant early potatoes, then after Church Group meeting we planted our earlies. I eventually managed to post books to John Law in Turkey which had not been possible for 2 months. In the evening we had a Zoom meeting to monitor progress for the next Moldova trip from 21^st April to 2^nd May. One member began the meeting by dropping out with the feeble excuse that his wife had broken a patella. Fortunately I managed to find a substitute later that evening in the shape (full) of retired Willingham farmer Geoff Pake. I have managed to change the flight tickets but at a steep cost of £92 considering I did all the work on line and all the did was reissue the Paper work.

The Thursday walk was challenging as the over 80mm rain this month had created plenty of mud. There was also a brisk wind and a sharp shower to finish. We started at Helions Bumpstead near Haverhill and circled to Steeple Bumpstead and Church End, the pub was very efficient. Both Adrian and Lorna called in the afternoon, then one of our Biographies speakers for next day sent me 19 emails each with a picture to turn into a PowerPoint.

 

 

Helions Bumpstead

 

 

Damp Patch

 

 

One of those Days!

 

 

Steeple Bumpstead

 

The last meeting of “Biographies” was a double header featuring the “Sisters of Sinai” and Giuseppe Verdi”. The sisters were twins raised in a rich Presbyterian household and their father rewarded their language studies by treating them to a holiday in each country when they mastered the language. Both were widowed after brief marriages and consoled themselves by travelling very widely including to Sinai where they discovered early manuscripts of Bible texts. In their wills they left money to build Westminster College in Cambridge.

Verdi was raised in poverty in the Po Valley but his musical genius came to the surface and he could play the church organ for services aged 12.

 

 Maggie & Agnes

 

 

Giuseppe Verdi

 

The chapel curtain saga took a major step towards completion as the material has now all been collected, however the lady selected to actually make them up has not been answering emails – so not quite completed yet!

I watched West Wratting 0 v 4 Cambridge University Press Saturday which was a little feisty with 4 red cards following a mass brawl.

 

Love

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

19^th March 2023

 

Dear All,

First of all, many thanks for the cards and gifts marking my 77 years on this planet – I am very grateful.

  

First Batch

  

 

Second Batch

We celebrated with 10 friends at a very good Italian restaurant at Harlton on Friday evening then Esther and Emma came up for the day yesterday. Emma set about patching up cracks in the kitchen while Esther cleaned the downstairs loo. I guess it comes under the heading of “Care in the Community!” But we are very grateful.

 

 

Emma in Bob the Builder mode!

 

It was just Kate and I for Mondays swim as Merv had dentist business. Just Vegetating was Minor Crops B which included Artichokes, Cardoons, Sweet Potatoes, Horseradish, Ginger, Watercress, Tomatillo, Tamarillo,  Okra and another 16 crops. Kate prepared Gingery Beetroot, Burnt Sweetcorn with deep fried Onion and Fennel and Butternut squash with red rice. We then had our umpteenth visit to the curtain shop to warn them that we planned to collect whatever was ready on Friday. In the afternoon the first batch of seed for Moldova arrived from Tozer’s.

Madingley Mulch delivered a ton of topsoil Tuesday afternoon for the raised bed. I managed to shift half of it that afternoon and Kate helped finish it on Wednesday. The bed has now been half planted with onion and shallot sets.

The speaker at Over Garden Club this week was one of our walking friends Ian Bradley so we entertained him and his wife Chantal for dinner before the meeting. They both volunteer at Wimpole Hall and the talk was about the Greening of the estate. The whole estate is 1000 hectares and over the last two years they have planted 90,000 native trees a large orchard ,an agroforestry area and turned the arable fields organic.

Walking was much easier this week although it was a little sticky underfoot in places. We started at Abington Pigotts and took in Guilden Morden, Steeple Morden and Litlington. The pub named “The Pig and Abbot” would not earn many stars for efficiency!

 

 

Blackthorn hedge

  

 

Litlington Old Lock up

 

 

Ancient Water Wheel

 

 

First Primroses

 

 

16^th Century Gatehouse

 

“Biographies” subject this week was Ernest Bevin who left school at 11 years old and rose to be Minister of Labour in the wartime coalition cabinet and Foreign Minister after the war.

 

 

Ernest Bevin

 

After I met Kate and we had another visit to the curtain shop where everything was ready and waiting – actually no - I was parked in a precarious place and had to wait for 15 minutes to collect the curtain material and only enough lining for one set of curtains – the saga goes on!

Pastor David has succumbed to Covid this week so it is all hands to the pump to keep the show on the road today.

 

Love

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

12^th March 2023

 

Dear All,

The headlines this week probably go to the weather. We had snow on Wednesday and Thursday followed by rain which added up to 40mm on Thursday and Friday.

This produced a familiar scene at the bottom of our garden and a vivid illustration involving the wheel barrow.

 

 

Pond Overflow

  

2 days of Rain

 

 All of which made our walk on Thursday challenging. As we were leading we felt obliged to go and 6 hardy souls turned up for the shorter walk (8 miles) and 11 for the slightly longer 9.5 miles. We were at Graveley near St Neots and circled through Papworth St Agnes and Yelling. We set out in a snow storm which added to the scenery and helped underfoot but after half way it started to rain which made foot work more slippery. We felt it was an achievement getting round!

 

 

Kate leading away from Graveley

 

 

Near Graveley

 

Horse Paddocks

 

 

Approaching Papworth St Agnes

 

Papworth St Agnew Bake House

 

 

Graveley Shelter

 

After swimming on Monday “Just Vegetating” this week covered Minor Crops part 1 including crops like Scorzonera, Salsify and Hamburg Parsley. Kate produced Fennel and Grape salad, Butternut squash biscuits & Jerusalem artichoke dauphinoise.

In the afternoon I managed to get a troublesome slow puncture mended once they had found a small nail in it.

Garden wise I finished painting and assembling the structure for a raised bed and Kate was in despair as mice trashed the sweet peas she had been nurturing for a month. This meant a trip to Oakington Garden centre to find replacements. I harvested some rhubarb which had been forced.

 

 

Embryonic Raised Bed

 

 

Forced Rhubarb

 

 

Crime Scene

 

Arthur and Grace came after school on Tuesday.

I had another Garden Club talk on Wednesday, this time at Sutton and less usually in the afternoon. There were over 40 there which was good as the weather was not encouraging.

Biographies subject this week was Mahatma Gandhi. Which was very interesting but I guess you all know enough about him so I won’t elaborate.

                                                                   Mahatma Gandhi

 Cathy Wright called yesterday to return our exercise bike which her mother has used for many years but no longer feels safe riding. She helps run Ely Food Bank and told us about the vast increase in demand at present.

Local football matches were postponed due to water logged pitches so Dave and I had to put up with watching rugby on TV – which is not quite the same!

 

Love

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

5^th March 2023

 

Dear All,

It is often claimed (at least by me!) that all the best people were born in March. This weekend we are celebrating two birthdays, Dave my football watching colleague and Merv our chapel and swimming mate share birthdays on Monday, Dave is 80 and had a party at his daughter’s house in Bar Hill last night and Mervyn will be a spritely 82 and we are invited to a lunchtime celebration today. Talk about life in the fast lane!

After swimming on Monday “Just Vegetating” featured Potatoes this week. Kate’s offerings were: Curates pudding, Bombay potatoes, pan fried hash browns.

In the evening we held a Zoom session which included Andrei from Moldova to discuss our impending visit. Folk there seem reasonably calm but obviously wishing for an end to the war in Ukraine.

Ever since our helpful neighbour planted an 8-foot hedge growing conditions on that edge of the garden have suffered, so we are planning a raised bed to try and overcome some of the problems. We ordered the wood from a recycling woodyard in Cottenham on Tuesday, it was delivered on Wednesday and it has now had one coat of preservative. We visited Oakington garden Centre on Tuesday for onion and shallot sets and a few flower plants and found some Lady Christl potatoes – my favourite early variety, which have been missing for a couple of years.

 

 

Onions & Shallots

 

I planted peas from gutters on Wednesday and reseeded but our friendly neighbourhood muntjac revisited and trashed my first planting of Broad beans so a barricade has now been erected on the next planting.

 

 

Muntjac Barricade

 

On Wednesday evening I had a Garden Club talk at Little Paxton and Kate accompanied me to share the driving.

Thursday’s walk started at Little Walden near Saffron Walden and circled round Church End and the Harcamlow Way. It was amazingly dry underfoot, I only recorded 8.5mm rain during the whole of February. The pub at Little Walden is very good for food – we enjoyed the best walkers Christmas meal there a few years back.

 

 

Mitchells near Little Walden

 

 

Bowsers near Church End

 

 

Break

 

 

Ancient Wagon

 

“Biographies” this week featured “Vincent van Gogh” delivered by our resident Dutchman who was reared near the painter’s birthplace. Van Gogh was a troubled soul who spent his youth working in bookshops and school teaching and having failed romantic relationships. He did not take up painting until his mid-twenties. He was supported financially by a younger brother who he repaid with paintings – he never sold a painting in his lifetime and left his brother 200. He had a nervous breakdown and was in a Psychiatric clinic for a while, became friends with Gauguin and cut off his ear when the friendship finished. He eventually shot himself aged 37. There is a fantastic virtual gallery on line where you can view all his paintings: http://www.vggallery.com/index.html

 

 

Vincent van Gogh

 

Over lost 2 v 1 yesterday to Wisbech St Mary, not helped by losing their centre half in the first minute following a clash of heads which caused his eye to swell dramatically and he ended up in A&E.

Love

Mike & Kate