28th September 2025

 

           Dear All,

I have had two trips to Essex this week, one to Beaumont for a cousin’s reunion and one to Chelmsford for cricket. On Tuesday we met up with David, Jackie, Mary & Graham, Stephen & Margaret at the farm before going to Walton-on-the Naze for lunch at the Titchmarsh Marina fish restaurant. After we walked along the front from Walton to Frinton before returning to Beaumont for tea.

 

 

Graham, Mary, Mike, Kate, Margaret, Stephen & David

 

 

Walton Beach Huts

 

 

Walton Sea Front

It was the first day of Essex’s last match of the season on Wednesday and I went down to Chelmsford with Lawrie a walking colleague. The day was mostly sunny but rather chilly and decidedly not cricket weather when the sun went in. The bowlers struggled all day and the match looked to be heading for a draw but Essex skittled Somerset on the 3^rd day to win.

 

Essex fielding

 

 

Post lunch huddle

On Thursday we missed walking for another funeral, this time John Lee who was 98 years old.

 

 

I have started winter digging at the allotment and of course after this year’s drought it is still very dry and rather solid.

 

 

After Sweet Corn

 

There was a Men’s Breakfast on Saturday morning and David Smith talked about Rudi Visagie a South African rugby player who accidently shot his own daughter thinking she was a car thief.

Over had a great win Saturday inflicting the first defeat of the season on Shelford who are currently top of the league.

This weekend is our Harvest Thanksgiving with a meal and talk last night and a special service this morning. The speaker last night was Richard Blackhurst who is a fen farmer growing 170 acres of onions.

 

 

 

Harvest Decorations

 

 

Richard Blackhurst

 

To end on a warm note we managed to get our boiler repaired after 3 weeks out of action – quite a small copper tube had corroded and blocked.

 

Best wishes

 

Mike & Kate

 

21st September 2025

 

           Dear All,

Back to routine this week catching up in the garden, two walks and a meeting most evenings! We were leading the Thursday walk this week so we had to do a recce on Tuesday as it was a not familiar route from Alconbury Weston taking in Upton, Buckworth and Alconbury. It was a mixed walk with some good sections and some very exposed to frisky winds. There was an excellent crop of Haws and as we stopped for a break at Buckworth church we were able to help transporting in some of the decorations for their Harvest Festival. Ploughed fields are not so common these days but we found a serious one on this walk.

 

 

Haws

 

 

Ploughed field

 

 

 

Approach to Buckworth

 

Buckworth church

 

In the evening it was a church business meeting where it was revealed that we have been left a £30,000 bequest.

Wednesday church groups was followed by Over Garden club where there was a speaker on Weeds! A few months ago we were all given a fuchsia plug for a growing on competition, modest prevents – OK I won!

 

 

Winning Fuchsia

After walking on Thursday it was the Over Show committee where we always have a 20 point agenda!

After the Tesco run on Friday I cut the grass then shredded to Jerusalem artichoke tops which had grown to about 8 feet. Kate meanwhile was busy painting a front window.

 

 

Shredding

 

 

Painting

Saturday we dismantled the electric fence round the sweet corn at the allotment and harvested the first batch of winter squash.

 

 

Winter Squash

 

Over managed to lose two games while I was in Italy but thankfully returned to form today with a 4 v 1 victory over Milton.

 

 

 

Best wishes

 

Mike & Kate

 

14^th September 2025

 

           Dear All,

We are just back from an action packed and enjoyable 8 days in Northern Italy billed as “The Hidden Lakes”. A 7.05am flight from Heathrow is not an ideal start – we opted for a taxi which collected us at 2.30am. The plane landed in Milan and we were transported to Lovere for 3 nights stay on the shore of Lake Iseo. Lovere is an attractive small town which we had time to explore and also enjoyed a boat trip round the lake including a visit to Monte Isole the largest inland island in Europe. The island was preparing for a flower festival with a difference as all the flowers were made of paper.

 

 

Lovere from Lake Iseo

 

 

Paper Flowers

 

 

Isola di Loreto in Lake Iseo

 

On Monday we had a trip to Bergamo with a conducted tour of the old city including a ride on the funicular. On the way back we had a tour of a winery including a meal and wine tasting.

 

 

Bergamo Merchants house

 

 

Bell Tower

 

 

 

Winery

We left Lovere on Tuesday morning and headed for two smaller lakes Idro and Ledro. Idro was fringed by an interesting Nature Reserve. On the journey we stopped off at Riva del Guarda on the shore of Lake Guarda. This was very busy so we were glad that we were concentrating on the smaller lakes.

 

 

Lake Idro Nature Reserve

 

 

Lake Idro

 

 

Lake Ledro

 

We spent the next four nights at Levico Terme but with trips out did not have time to explore the town very much. Wednesday we had a conducted tour of Verona with an excellent guide. The morning was damp – the only rain we experienced during the week. Highlights included the Arena, restored bridges and inevitably Juliet’s balcony.

 

 

Ponte di Castelvechio

 

 

Arena

 

 

Juliet’s Balcony

 

Thursday we visited two more lakes Molveno and Serraia. Molveno was probably my favourite for the week as it was bright blue water and we were able to view it from a cable car which went up higher than Ben Nevis. Serraia was smaller and we were able to walk right round it.

 

 

Lake Molveno from the Cable Car

 

 

Lake Molveno

 

 

Lake Serraia

 

Our last trip was to Trento with much evidence of Dante who was famous hereabouts.

 

 

Dante & friend

 

 

Trento Cathedral

 

 

Floral Wall

 

The journey home was a little longer than expected as after a 2 hour coach trip to Milan the plane was delayed by poor weather so when we reached Heathrow we were stacked for a while. We then took the Elisabeth line to Liverpool Street and caught the slowest train to Cambridge North with 16 stops. Then the Guided bus took us to Swavesey by which time it was dark so Merv picked us up.

All in all an interesting holiday in a surprisingly neat and tidy part of Italy.

 

Best wishes

 

Mike & Kate