18th February 2024
Dear All,
The Pool was virtually bath temperature this week –
you never know quite what to expect. Just Vegetating was “Salads- Fruit” and
Kate prepared: Courgette pistachio and lemon cake, Roasted
stuffed peppers and Tomato, strawberry and basil salad.
French
History covered 1715-1789 mostly the reign of Louis XV who became king and was
married at 15 and fathered 10 children in the first 10 years of his reign while
keeping a harem of mistresses the most famous being Madame de Pompadour and the
Countess du Barry. France claimed to be “The Greatest Nation” and in 1700 had a
population of 21.5m while UK was only 5m. It had a high Literacy rate They were
leading in culture and architecture and produced philosophers like Voltaire and
Rousseau.
Louis XV
Madame
de Pompadour
On
the way back from Cambridge we called in at Clear Glass in Cottenham to buy a
replacement pane for one of the greenhouses, it was a large sheet at 72cm x 142
cm but the cost was a shock at £53!
The
football club are preparing an exhibition of old photos for the end of season
and I was able to submit this vintage shot from the 1971-72 season.
Over FC 1971-72
I
sowed a few more seeds on Wednesday and pruned the autumn raspberries but
working the land is still out of the question.
Thursday
was sunny fortunately so walking was not such a slog as the previous week,
there was still some mud but we were in a chalky area so it was not too sticky.
We began at Ashwell in Hertfordshire and took in Hinxworth and Caldecote.
Snowdrops in Hinxworth
Ashwell Museum
The
Biographies subject this week was “Barbara Castle” – Baroness Castle of
Blackburn. She had a remarkable career as an MP from 1945 until 1979 holding
four cabinet positions: Ministry of Overseas Development, Ministry of Transport
where she introduced breathalysers, seat belts and 70mph speed limits in
response to her claim that road deaths since the war had exceeded Hitlers
civilian casualties (150,000). Then Secretary of State for Employment where she
had trouble with the Unions and finally Secretary of Health and Social
Security. When she left parliament, she had 10 years as a MEP then finished in
the Lords until her death in 2002.
Barbara Castle
In
the afternoon I drove to Kentford to collect 1000 packets of seed donated by Mr
Fothergill’s for Moldova. All we need to do now is sort and list them and find
a way of getting them into the country!
On
Saturday there was a Men’s breakfast at chapel and the speaker was very good an
ex-Army Chaplin who had a spell in Afghanistan and is now pastor in Swavesey. This
was followed by a Lego afternoon which I helped set up and Kate had a busy day
helping cook the breakfast then was in charge of bacon rolls at the Lego. I
managed to cut the grass, at least the areas above water level.
Dave
and I went to Witchford to watch Witchford 1 v 1 Over in a game Over should
have won.
Regards
Mike
& Kate
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