22nd October 2023
Dear All,
The
first frost of autumn has been followed by some serious rainfall – 76.5 mm in 3
days which left both our garden and Fen End looking rather damp!
Garden
Fen End, Over
One
of seed company guys from last week’s jaunt to Lincolnshire posted this photo
on WhatsApp:
Adrian
continues to struggle with his back but eventually had a scan at Addenbrookes
this week, he awaits the result. I have spent a couple of sessions helping him choose
a new garden shed. On Monday we travelled to Soham to visit a company which
proved to be no longer there then we went on to Witcham and Willingham. He saw
something he liked at Witcham but the exact model was on show at Scottsdale’s
at Shelford so we went there on Friday afternoon to confirm that this was what
he wanted.
On
Tuesday I had an ex NIAB employees lunch at Girton Golf Club followed by a
Covid booster in the Grafton Centre.
The
Burrell family are due to move to Norwich next Tuesday so we entertained Arthur
and Grace for probably the last time this week. Rachel’s sister was getting
married in Cornwall on Saturday so they have a long journey down there before
facing moving on their return. Grace is to be a bridesmaid and Arthur a “Flower
Girl” don’t you mean Flower Boy? “No, I am going to be a Flower Girl!”
I
had to lead the group meeting on Wednesday on the subject of “The Wisdom of
Solomon”. In the evening it was the Garden Club and the committee had changed
the topic in their wisdom from “Plants in Hot Dry Conditions” to “Perennials
for Cuttings”.
It
was another wet Thursday – they never used to happen in the good old days! This
time we were at Brent Pelham which is a good distance for us – we left at 8am
and did not arrive until 9.20am due to traffic, rain and distance. The rain
never developed beyond drizzle but the one cultivated field we had to cross was
very sticky going. Highlight was seeing about 20 Red Kites circulating near
Clavering doubtless having discovered a corpse of some kind? There were several
decent fields of Oil Seed Rape all sown with Buckwheat as a pest prevention.
Oil Seed Rape
& Buckwheat
Ruttles, Butts
Green
Roast Green
Red Kites
The
second session of Biographies was a very interesting presentation of “Sir James
Bazalgette” the engineer responsible for relieving the “Great Stink” caused by
London’s sewage problems. He was described as “That great farsighted engineer
who probably did more good, and saved more lives, than any single Victorian
official” He was also responsible for the Embankment, four Thames bridges, six
London streets, some London Parks and sewage schemes in several other cities
including Cambridge and Budapest The talk was given by Stephen Halliday who
studied Bazalgette for his PhD and then wrote a book on him. Last Christmas Melvyn
Bragg contacted him to help present a “In Our Time” programme on “The Great
Stink”
Sir Joseph
Bazalgette
Esther
and Emma are already in residence in Aldeburgh and we plan to join them on
Monday. Local football was washed out Saturday so I had to listen to England
cricketers being hammered by South Africa,
Mike
& Kate
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