21st June 2026

 

           Dear All,

We had another enjoyable week in Derbyshire after attending the penultimate service at Sutton Bonington where we were both interviewed.

En route we called in to open gardens at Middleton.

 

 

Middleton Old Vicarage

 

 

 Middleton Village

 

Monday is traditionally Bakewell market day studying the cattle a sales and the street market. After we drove to Castleton planning to visit the Blue John caves but discovered the last tour was 3pm.

 

 

Bakewell Cattle Market

 

Castleton

 

On Tuesday Kate and I called in at Bolehill to visit Phil, Mandy and Natasha catch up on family news then moved 500 yards down the road to visit Kate’s old school friend Elisabeth who has been battling cancer for many years. In the afternoon we visited Ashbourne and Tissington.

 

 

Ashbourne Football museum

 

 

Tissington

 

On Wednesday we did join the tour of the Blue John tour which was quite an experience involving 260 steps down and up with little in the way of safety measures.

 

 

Blue John Cave

 

Blue John Rocks

 

Wednesday was Sue’s birthday and Bill treated us all to High Tea at the Rutland Arms hotel in Bakewell where they had their wedding reception.

 

 

 

High Tea

On Thursday Kate and I signed in for a tour of Chatsworth house and gardens, we had done the gardens before but not the house.

 

 

 

Chatsworth House

 

 

Ceiling of Entrance Hall

 

 

The Cascade

 

 

 

 

 

The Rockery

 

We took Bill and Sue for a meal Thursday evening and got off to an early start Friday morning we were in Bar Hill Tesco’s by 9.40am.

Friday we had a visit to a local onion farm which was very interesting.

Best Wishes

 

 

Mike & Kate

 

13t^h June 2026

 

           Dear All,

Not too much to report this week and we are off to Sutton Bonington and Derbyshire tomorrow hence the earlier posting. We are invited to our old college at Sutton Bonington because they are planning to pull down their 1700s Baptist chapel and build bigger. We are part of the history as when we were undergraduates we helped dig out the baptistery which had been filled with brick rubble during a quiet time for the church.

We are going to then join up with Kate’s sister and brother-in-law at Darwin Forest Country Park, near Matlock.

We have been picking Strawberries and Raspberries most days and now well into new potatoes. I also picked our first tomato but as it was less than 1cm diameter I will not be bragging about it!

The news from Moldova about Marius the lad we have been supporting through leukaemia treatment was not so good as the Turkish hospital wants another 50,000 euros to complete his treatment. However people have been incredibly generous so far.

We did a local walk on Tuesday renewing friendly conversations with Burling’s hybrid Stabiliser bulls.

 

 

 

 

The rain has been very welcome this week and everything in the garden looks more cheerful.

Esther had a second eye operation on Thursday at Southend. The operation is to put a film over the cornea to make it smoother. She says this time it has been more painful and she is off work for a few days.

I attended the last session of the U3A Travel writers group on Friday where the book for discussion was “Mirrors of the Unseen” by Jason Elliot written in 2006 about Iran. It was a very interesting insight to the history, art, architecture and daily life of the country but plenty long enough at over 400 pages. Some of the architecture is incredible especially as it so old.

 

 

 

 

Best Wishes

Mike & Kate

 

7^th June 2026

 

           Dear All,

After swimming on Monday I had an MRI scan on my arm which is often numb, I haven’t had a result yet. 13mm rain on Monday night was a welcome relief.

A special annoyance this week was my phone locking “As an additional security measure!” As I couldn’t unlock I couldn’t call Kate for a lift from the guided bus and had to get “Stan the Computer Man” to sort it. This required deleting everything and reinstating later.

In the garden the main task this week was leek planting but also planting additional sweet corn, squash and lettuce.

Raspberries and strawberries have come on stream, strawberries are good but the raspberries rather small.

 

 

I managed part of the Thursday walk from Fen Drayton this week. It was a good walking temperature but rather windy.

 

 

Three Horseshoes, Fen Drayton

 

 

 

Peacock Caterpillars

 

Holywell

 

 

Bracket fungus

 

Fen Drayton

 

John Lane called with a surprise gift of Marmalade and chili sauce on Friday. Both cricket matches were rained off on Saturday. 

 

Regards

 

Mike & Kate

 

31st May 2026

 

           Dear All,

Phew what a scorcher – another week of water carrying and trying to keep every thing alive. Geoff Pake heroically came up with the loan of a heavy duty fan which has helped no end.

 

 

Later on Monday I turned off the kitchen tap and it came away in my hand creating a few minutes of excitement with water everywhere.

The allotment is gradually filling up, this week with Sprouting Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Squash and more Sweet Corn. There was a minor crisis when Kate spotted Processional moth on the apple trees. This can be very destructive so we have been busy pruning out the infestation.

 

 

 

Processional Moth

 

I attended the last session of Biographies on Friday when the topic was Eleanor of Aquitaine a remarkable lady who married two kings and survived 80 years

 

 

Eleanor of Aquitaine

After we had an end of term meal at the Maypole.

We met Glenn Firth while we were watering the allotment on Friday and he passed on the sad news that his partner had collapsed and died at work in April.

Cultural highlight of the week was Over Players production of “Murder on the Nile”. It was very well done starring Roger Hetherington as the detective.

 

 

 

I accompanied Kate to St Ives on Saturday for another Covid jab.

It has been an exceptional year for Broad Beans – I think our freezer is nearly full.

 

 

 

Today’s New Potato Harvest

 

Variety Jazzy 39 tubers

 

 

 

Regards

 

Mike & Kate