27^th July 2025

 

           Dear All,

The summer time swimming program started this week and the over 50s slot was very crowded with a bus load from the old folks home! After Kate went to her book club in Cambridge library and I started work on my next Biography choice – Capability Brown.

On Tuesday I had a long email from Michael Phiri an old Zimbabwean friend who was briefly in the village as a carer, he has now retired to Wales and taken an allotment which he refers to as his "farm" and needs constant advice about what the grow and how to grow it! The car passed its MOT this week and we managed to get our landline phone working at last.

I dug main crop potatoes Caledonian Red on Wednesday and Kate was busy stringing onions for the winter.

We led the walk on Thursday from Ely, it was rather a miserable drizzly day so waterproofs were in order which makes for sweaty bodies in the summer. We actually shortened the walk to 7 miles as although the section in the city was fine the countryside part was not so interesting.

 

 

 

Geese by the River Ouse

 

 

River Ouse

 

 

Damp break

 

 

Ely Cathedral from Queen Adelaide Way

 

 

Nearly Back!

David Smith and family are on holiday this week so I loaded the laptop for the services, the last part of which I discovered rather late this morning.  We were watching TV on Thursday night when a neighbour banged on the door and said “have you seen the gigantic fire in your backyard?” we rushed out and the fire was actually some distance away in the orchard but was truly enormous as the guy had been demolishing a barn and replacing it with a house. Sparks were flying everywhere but fortunately because it had rained earlier nothing caught,

On Friday after cricket pitch preparation I brought John Lane home for a drink and found that we already had ex lodger Kathy and Adrian imbibing so a good house full!

Our first Sweet Corn was actually 16 days earlier than last year. I sowed some green manure crops this week.

On Saturday I went to fetch Dave Harrower from Bar Hill to watch the cricket as he can no longer drive. On the way it started to rain then it hammered down so I stopped at his to watch the Test Match for a little while thinking cricket in Over would be washed out. When I got back to Over they were actually playing after a short break and managed to finish the game!

 

Best wishes

Mike & Kate

 

20^th July 2025

 

           Dear All,

Rain at last as I write this – almost forgotten what it feels like! Mondays swim was rather crowded with over 30 plunging up and down and after about 30 minutes Kate said “I think you are the only man in the pool!” Later we dug up the next row of Potatoes Kestrel which were large but with some scab.

On Tuesday I took Kate to Ely for an X-Ray on her foot the result of which was “Wear and tear and osteoarthritis”. In the evening it was the chapel AGM preceded by a meal which Kate cooked.

Wednesday Norman Ingle was here for lunch followed by the last Church group pre summer holidays. This was followed by the Garden Club Garden Party with food, drink, potato and carrot competition and a quiz. We were joint 1^st in the quiz on garden topics but lost the play off which was a pop music question!  (What was the 1^st record played on Radio 1?) It was held at the Redmayne’s - one of the largest gardens in the village.

Kate and I recced a walk on Thursday from Ely. The sections in the city were OK but the countryside was rather flat and dull so we decided to cut some mileage but fortunately discovered a Permissive Path through King’s School playing fields and the golf course.

Happily we met Chris and Cathy Wright near the end of our walk.

 

 

King’s School entrance

 

 

Ely Cathedral

 

 

River Ouse

 

 

Ely Malting’s

 

Kate had a Specsavers appointment on Friday so I was entrusted with the Tesco shop. In the evening we took part in the chapel boat trip outing from Fen Ditton to Cambridge. The boat advanced at a very gentle pace but the sun shone and the river was very busy as rowers were practicing for “The Bumps” next week.

 

 

Crew

 

 

Rowers

 

 

Sister Ship

 

 

University Boathouse

 

Ben ran another Marathon on Saturday at Walton-on-Thames in cooler conditions than his previous effort, but this time got soaked as it rained throughout, his time was 4 hours 01.23.

 

 

His Medal

 

 

 

Best wishes

Mike & Kate

 

13^th July 2025

 

           Dear All,

 

Highlight of this week has been attending the cricket Test Match at Lords on Friday courtesy of Ben providing a ticket as a Christmas present. Lord’s was an absolute picture full house with a “Red for Ruth” dress code. It was very warm and I only lasted until tea time but it was an engrossing days play and good to meet up with Ben after his travels. He is signed up for another marathon next weekend but a bit closer to home.

 

 

Bumrah bowling to Carse

 

Quite a lot of harvesting this week: Runner and French beans, Courgettes, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Charlotte Potatoes and Raspberries.

The excitement on Monday night was a meeting of the Non-conformist Cemetery trustees meeting where we put up the cost of dying!

I spring cleaned the pond on Tuesday and found a newt amongst the mud.

On Wednesday it was Adrian’s 73^rd birthday and Mervyn organised get together at their house.

Thursday was another warm walk this time starting at Barley (not Bali as someone thought!) and took in Nuthampstead and Barkway. Some crops looked OK but others were dying in their feet. Jan Ingram was back walking after two operations for an aneurism.

 

 

Patchy Bean crop

 

 

Decent Wheat crops

 

 

Pedigree Charolais

 

 

 

Unwelcome Hill at end of walk

 

Garden Club next week is an outdoor meeting with the competition assessment of the results from one potato tuber and 40 carrot seeds. My potatoes look better than the carrots!

 

 

Lady Christl

 

 

Nantes 5

 

 

Best wishes

Mike & Kate

 

6^th July 2025

 

           Dear All,

 

Last Sunday evening we were invited to walking friends for an outdoor meal self-cooked on a hot plate. It was a very enjoyable evening but both their house and garden are absolutely immaculate with no weeds or anything out of place.

Yet another week without rain so things are looking a little careworn in the garden but amazingly still cropping quite well.

On Tuesday we hosted an Albanian lunch as we invited Alan Winfield who taught the “Balkans” course at U3A to meet Paul Davies from the Albanian Evangelical Mission. They seemed to get on very well exchanging tales and experiences of their times in the country.

Ben joined the family Zoom from his hotel in Sao Tome and Principe having successfully completed his marathon in 11^th place out of 21. He said that after 100 meters the coloured runners were out of sight and he only saw one other runner during the whole 26 miles!

 

 Sao Tome

On Wednesday Kate was preparing lunch when she was suddenly struck with a severe back pain “Like being shot with a bullet”. She rested for the rest of the day with pain killers and was content to let me go to the Thursday walk while she did a gentle local walk. However 10 minutes before I was leaving she changed her mind and decided she could attempt the 8.3 miles – which of course she did manage! I think my Dad would have muttered “Where there is no sense there is no feeling!”

Our walk started at Woodditton and took in Dullingham and Stetchworth. It was an excellent walk and not too hot. Being close to Newmarket there were numerous Horse Racing studs as well as several eco flower fields and not many fields producing food! I hope someone knows what they are doing? Butterflies were plentiful but not much other wildlife.

 

 

Eco Field near Woodditton

 

 

Race Horse Stud

 

 

Borage field

 

Dullingham Church

 

 

Woodditton Village Sign

 

On Friday it was time to get the entry sheets for the Village Show updated and printed, a local surveyor has a large scale printer and does the job for nothing. In the afternoon we prepared the cricket wicket which despite being watered on Thursday was still cracking up. However it did not play badly as Over scored 239-4 and beat Fordham 229-7 by 10 runs.

Amelie was 14 on Saturday and spent some time in the sea with her friends.

 

 

One of these is Amelie!

 

 

 

 

 

Best wishes

Mike & Kate