25th June 2023

 

Dear All,

I gratefully received Father’s Day presents in the form of the latest Barbara Kingsolver book and a complete afternoon tea of scones, clotted cream, jam, cakes and courgette slab through the post!

 

 

 

Loot!

After a swim on Monday morning, we drove down to Essex for an elderly cousin’s reunion. Wendy had driven Peter & Annemarie. Mary, Graham and David all assembled at Dovercourt Weatherspoon’s for lunch and were joined by Muriel for tea. David gave us a conducted tour of the farm at Beaumont and the winter crops looked really well. Peter & Annemarie are both rather frail now and daughter Wendy is their official carer.

 

 

Dovercourt Lighthouse

 

 

Muriel, David, Mike & Graham

 

 

Mary, Peter, Annemarie & Kate

 

 

Graham & Wendy

 

On Tuesday it was gardening including harvesting overwintered garlic and shallots and digging Broad Bean land. Arthur & Grace came after school as usual.

 

 

Garlic & Shallot harvest

 

Ex NIAB employees were invited back for a talk about the future of NIAB by the new Director Mario Caccomo who hails from Argentina. He painted a fairly rosy picture of their achievements and their turnover has risen from £8.8 in 2014 to £30 m now. They are working closely with Cambridge University and their Mission Statement is to produce more food

·         With less synthetic inputs of pesticides and fertilisers

·         On less land

·         While reducing Greenhouse gases

·         And adapting to climate change

Example projects are reduced gluten wheat for bread and stabilising legume yields. Meanwhile they have taken over East Malling Fruit Research station and Strawberries are performing very well.

My old boss Bill Chowings was down from Norfolk for a few days and after attending the meeting we entertained him for dinner.

Our Thursday walk this week started at Horseheath and took in West Wickham and Burton End. It was plenty hot enough so 8 miles was enough!. The winter cereal crops were very good here as well.

 

 

Leaving Horseheath

 

 

Winter Barley

 

 

Yen Hall Farm, Burton End

 

 

Cracks

On Friday we thought we would have an expedition to Warboys for PYO Strawberries to replace those the badger had predated. We had checked their web site and it claimed they were open all day but when we arrived at 10am there was a notice “Sorry not open until 12,30” – a wasted 34-mile round trip. We got a few over ripe ones from a farm shop for jam and topped up the fresh fruit from Tesco’s.

Kate has been busy picking Red Currants all week and water carting for the allotment has continued.

 

 

Red Currants

 

 

Water operation

I judged Stapleford Fruit & vegetable Show on Saturday morning, as usual it was not a great display and not too many difficult decisions. I watched Over 2nds beat Girton 2nds on the very dry Green then in the evening we were invited to Kate & Gordon’s at Haddenham for drinks on the lawn.

love

 

Mike & Kate

 

18^th June 2023

 

Dear All,

We enjoyed a really good week in Derbyshire followed by an excellent day (for me) at Edgbaston on Friday.

As mentioned last week we started out after a Men’s Breakfast with farmer Richard Blackhurst giving a talk. On the way up we stopped at Duffield to call on Kate’s relatives Michael & Pauline Severn to discuss gaps in Kate’s knowledge of their family tree especially the Canadian branch, as some relatives became orphans and were despatched as Barnardo children to Canada. We came away with 4 albums of sepia photos which may or may not be useful! We arrived at the cabin in Darwin Forest, near Matlock about 5pm. It is a well-designed site with plenty of trees and rhododendrons to separate the cabins.

 

 

Hut No. 85

 

 

 

Local Flora

 

One of the major benefits of the site is an indoor heated swimming pool so we started each day with a swim to wash away the cobwebs – and it saves on washing!

On Sunday we travelled to Wirksworth to the church that we were married in, except that it has moved and amalgamated with another on a different site called “The Wellspring Church” and as they sold the other building the new one is very well appointed.

We met up with Kate’s brother and family at The New Bath Hotel in Matlock Bath for lunch. Phil & Mandy are not the most positive people you could meet but daughter Natasha seems to be doing well with her job and apparently enjoying a shipboard romance with a Philipino gentleman that she met on a cruise. In the afternoon we visited the village of Bonsall which had an Open Gardens Day.

 

 

Bonsall Cross

 

 

 

A Bonsall Garden – not much flat land!

 

 

On Monday it is traditional to have coffee in the Chatsworth Farm Shop then attend Bakewell Market. This year we were able to access the Cattle Market which previously had been restricted for Covid. It was interesting to study the local characters as well as the animals and try and keep up with who is bidding for what.

 

 

Bakewell Cattle Market

 

In the evening Kate, Sue and I explored the Lumsdale Valley in Matlock. It was an important industrial site for water powered industries for more than 300 years but now only ruins remain. There are three ponds connected by a stream with a decent waterfall at the end.

 

 

Kate & Sue at the Middle Pond

 

 

 

Lumsdale Waterfall

 

 

Industrial ruins

 

On Tuesday we travelled to Tissington, a very pretty village famous for Well Dressings. We did a circuit of the village and had an excellent tour of the house.

 

 

Tissington Hall

 

After we walked round Elton, a small village that none of the Derbyshire locals had visited before but which has now issued a village circuit brochure. Unforgivably, I forgot to take my camera this day so the above photo is from John’s phone and I have none of Elton!

 

We did our own thing on Wednesday and visited Haddon Hall which had not been open in recent years. It is the home of the Dukes of Rutland and dates back to the 11^th century. There is some very old furniture and a Long Gallery 110 ft long.

 

 

Haddon Hall

 

 

Kitchen

 

 

Chapel

 

 

The Long Gallery

 

We followed this with a visit to Wirksworth Stone Museum and a sentimental climb on Black Rocks.

 

 

Black Rocks

 

 

 

On Thursday John dropped Kate, Sue and myself at Hopton near Carsington Reservoir to walk to Wirksworth. Needless to say, the route was not flat but interesting including evidence of several lead mines and we came across a group sheep shearing. In Wirksworth we visited the Heritage Museum and called in to Ash Farm for a drink and chat. We visited Lea rhododendron gardens on the way back to Derwent Forest and ended the week with a meal in the site restaurant.

 

 

Climb from Hopton

 

 

Old Lead Mines

 

 

Sheep Shearing

 

 

Ash Farm

 

Ben had given me a ticket for the first day of the Ashes Test at Edgbaston for Christmas so I drove there on Friday while John & Sue dropped Kate off at home en route to Framlingham where their granddaughter was to be confirmed. Sat Nav took me through the centre of Birmingham which was a challenge, but it was a thrilling days cricket in baking sunshine. I met Ben outside as he had the tickets and we joined four of his mates in the ground.

 

 

Edgbaston

 

 

Pete, Ben & Mike

 

 

 

love

 

Mike & Kate

 

9^th June 2023

 

Dear All,

Early dispatch this week as we are off to Derbyshire tomorrow – hopefully. I say hopefully as Kate’s sister Sue phoned this morning to tell us that she and Bill are recovering from Covid – do we still want to go? As we have an arm full of injections and they seem to getting over it we plan to risk it. We are not off at crack of dawn as there is a farmer speaking at Men’s Breakfast tomorrow and Kate is helping with the cooking. We are also planning to call on one of Kate’s relatives – 2^nd cousin? in Duffield – as both Kate and he plot their family trees and like to swap information.

After swimming Monday morning, it was back to watering and weeding and BS preparation. I led on Wednesday on the topic of “Mordecai”.

We attended an ex NIAB employees’ lunch at Girton Golf Course on Tuesday then it was entertaining Arthur and Grace after school.

Kate has continued her war on badgers this week and has tacked wooden slats along the hedge boundary and we have placed pallets and wire along the bottom – however the Night Cam revealed two intruders last night so defences do not seem to be perfect yet!

 

 

 

Badger Proofing

 

 

 

Intruder

 

Norman Ingle was here for lunch on Wednesday and former neighbour Derek Medlock and Joyce came for tea. Derek is still heavily involved in the rabbit world and gets to judge shows all over Europe. They recently were in Germany for a show that in the past attracted 25,000 entries (once reaching 31,000!) however this year it had shrunk to a mere 9,500! A friend had asked them to buy a variety of giant rabbit at the show for which they paid 250 euros. They went for a cup of tea and when they went to collect the rabbit someone had stolen it!

 

Our Thursday walk was reasonably local starting at Hardwick and taking in Toft and Comberton. The sun shone throughout but it was not too hot and the crops we passed looked very well.

 

 

The Blue Lion, Hardwick

 

 

Oil Seed Rape

 

 

Wheat & barley crops

 

 

Comberton church

 

 

Comberton Rectory

 

 

Comberton Pond

 

I have planted out winter Brassicas at the allotment today which is now full and desperately needing a good rain.

 

Love

Mike & Kate