25th January 2009

25th January 2009.

Dear All,

‘Tis the season for Decorating – we have started in earnest on the Dining Room this week and as in most of the old rooms it means stripping wallpaper, then degluing the walls, followed by a great deal of filling and sanding. In this room we also have to sand and reseal the parquet wooden floor. So we might not be finished just yet. On a brighter note the ceiling is not too bad so I have already painted that.


Dining Room

I have had an Ice week – in “Geodyssey” we studied Ice Ages (3, 4 or 8?) and in “Antarctica in a Nutshell” the topic was Ice, including a lecture by the country’s leading ice core sampler and interpreter. There is air trapped in the ice cores and they can tell what air quality was like up to 700,000 years ago! And did you know that there is a 14,000 km² fresh water lake 4 km under Antarctica? And if all the ice on the Weddell Sea melted sea level would rise by 5m? – just say if I am boring you!
I took another Garden Club this week at Great Wilbraham; it was not a large group but very friendly.
On Monday I visited Adrian Hart in Addenbrookes, he was taken in the previous Thursday passing blood and proved to have an ulcerated colon. They kept him in for a week but he is out now and called round yesterday. Being a bachelor I think he enjoyed being fussed over by nurses for a few days.
Two church meetings this week, one a normal business meeting where the main controversy was whether the Play group can have wine at their fundraising event! Who says we don’t meet the real issues of the age! We also had the yearly events planning meeting.
Missing the Rambling as it clashes with the Antarctic so did a walk round the Fen Drayton pits with Carol on Thursday.
For those here at Christmas you will be pleased to know that Kate finished the jigsaw puzzle this week and has had a deal of trouble with a second hand gamma counter – a fresh update every day.


Spot the missing piece!

For those with green fingers have you tried a seed sprouter to provide fresh veg during this cold weather? I can recommend it.





Sprouter Fenugreek & Mung Beans


Love

Mike & Kate

18th January 2009

18th January 2009.

Dear All,

I started my new U3A class this week “Antarctica in a Nutshell”. The first lecture was excellent introducing geography, climate, exploration and research bases with some spectacular photography.



Antarctic Ice

It was much easier to follow than my other class on “Geodyssey” which this week was on the “Proterozoic Eon” evidently a period of 2000 million years where not much happened apart from bacteria appearing and most of the worlds iron being laid down.
We have started working on our dining room this week by clearing most of it, ordering a new sideboard/dresser combination and taking delivery of a Persian carpet.
I was at Wisley on Wednesday on a gloomy day when the mist and fog did not really lift (but was sunny all day at Over). We were judging late cauliflowers and leeks and tasting sweet potatoes.
On Friday I walked to the Post Office – which used to be a 5 min. toddle into the village but now thanks to the recent closures means a 45 min walk to Willingham. I was posting a parcel and card for Mary-Ann who celebrates another birthday today, I am sure she appreciates the effort even though I have learnt that only the card turned up on time.
In the evening we went to the cinema to see “Slum Dog Millionaire”. It was excellent and easily the best (and only!) film I have seen this year.
Yesterday we held a CEEM Training Day at St Neots for any one interested in Moldova either supporting or visiting. There were 32 there and I did a couple of presentations about the agricultural projects.
We have been entertaining today, Janet and Jim Burr; Janet has been struggling following a heart valve operation. Kate has now popped into work to feed and divide her latest batch of cells.
My other purchase this week was a half dozen Rummy Nosed Tetras, small fish which look as though they have bloody noses.

Rummy Nosed Tetras

Love

Mike & Kate

Letter 11th January 2009

11th January 2009.

Dear All,

Almost back to normal after the holidays but the cold weather and continued local sick list have coloured things somewhat. The main event this week has been the chapel New Year Social. Kate, as ever, was in charge of the catering, not so many this year due to the sick list but still a reasonable undertaking for 40.
Menu:
Escallops de melon avec la sauce ginger

Le roast bouef avec pudding de Yorkshire
Le petit pois avec le grand chou
Les Carrottes julienne
Pastinaca avec beurre
Le gravy avec vin rouge de bon marche

Choice of dix puddings

Fromage avec les biscuits

Café au lait, sens lait ou le the

Anyway it was excellent. I produced a power point review of the year which took me most of the week and there were divers other entertainments.
Monday we had an extra “Geodyssey” lecture this time on gold and diamonds, Tuesday at work I wrote a New Year Newsletter and on Wednesday we had a planning meeting I Peterborough Tescos for the next trip to Moldova. We should have been there this time last January you will remember but spent 8 hours in Luton Airport waiting for a plane that was snow bound in Bucharest.



Romanian/ Moldovan border January 2008

Incidentally the lady from the Foreign Office that we met at Colin’s party contacted me this week, the British ambassador from Moldova is in London this week and she would like to give him more information of our activities. I went to check on the Fen Skating on Wednesday on the way to Peterborough. The washes between Somersham and Earith froze sufficiently for skating practice this week but each time they planned to hold the championships there was a slight thaw so I don’t think they have taken place so far.



Earith Skating (ex me and the Guardian)

Our walk on Thursday started at Reed near Royston and progressed via Therfield and Buckland. There was more snow south of Cambridge than here so the fields were photogenic (but I forgot the camera!)
The Kitsons had a pedometer for Christmas and are trying to achieve 10,000 steps per day so we helped by walking them round Over fen this afternoon.
There were only 13 hardy folk out for this evenings service which was rather discouraging but illness, old age, other commitments, apathy etc all play a part I guess.


Love

Mike & Kate

4th January 2009.

Dear All,

Happy New Year to all my readers (that sounds pretentious! - but us correspondents have to milk it). I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and are looking forward to a challenging and stimulating New Year. Thanks for cards and presents to all those who sent them, why not to all who didn’t?!
An update on people, places and things:
People
Ben arrived on the Tuesday before Christmas with a bad cold, Esther came Christmas Eve and both stayed until Monday. Eirwen came Boxing Day until Sunday, Mary-Ann and Andy came Saturday after Christmas and stayed until New Year’s Eve.
Places
We managed several walks over the duration:
Swavesey Fen in Boxing Day sunshine
Over Fen more bracing the next day
Fen Drayton Pits at dusk on the Sunday
Welney swans and Ely on Tuesday
Hall’s Green, Luffenhall, Cromer (near Stevenage), Hare Street and Weston – 9 miles with Kate and the U3A on New Year’s Day.
North Repps, Overstrand, Cromer (Norfolk) with friends yesterday.

Swavesey Fen

Fen Drayton Pits

Things
My star gift this year was an iPod from my family who thought I was ready for my next step in technology. Andy started me off and loaded it with several story Cds and a selection of elderly music (suitable for elderly persons). So far so good but the ear plugs encourage my tinnitus so I have ordered speakers!
I managed the usual pre Christmas Brussels Sprout distribution – 50 stems and 2 nets from Biggleswade. One of our former host growers gets them for me as he no longer grows the crop. There were once 17,000 acres of Sprouts in Bedfordshire, now only one large grower survives.
We bought a new game called “Timed Out” as advertised in the Guardian for Christmas and it was very good, in addition Ben taught us a couple of new card games. Mary-Ann and Andy showed us some of their photos from South, Central and North America, and very good they are too. They had sportingly pruned them from 10,000 to 600 so that we could have time to enjoy them more!
Yesterday we drove up to North Repps near Cromer in north Norfolk to visit Sue and Duncan Colquhoun who have purchased a barn jointly with Sue’s sister and are converting it into living accommodation. £140K seems a high price for a barn when you need to spend £100K or so on the conversion, but I guess it is the thrill of the challenge. We did a 4 hour walk to the coast and along the beach. There are certainly some attractive walks in that part of the country.
We had good congregations for the pre Christmas services especially the evening which was candlelight and included the school choir. Since then however numbers have been decimated by flu, colds and the sickness bug. In addition the heating cut out tonight so it was no place for the feint or half hearted!



Cromer from Overstrand




Welney

Love

Mike & Kate

21st December 2008

21st December 2008.

Dear All,

Long day on Saturday, gardening and sorting “Songpro” in the morning, watched the first half of the Over v Eaton Socon match before setting out for Beaumont. We attended the Stable carol service well led by Sue before going on to Colin and Ben’s birthday party at the Chester Camp in Jaywick. Mary and Graham also put in an appearance so it was good to see a good slice of the family before Christmas.

Stars of the show


Couldn’t talk too much at the party due to the decibel level but I guess that was to be expected! Highlight was meeting an interesting lady from the Foreign Office, Russian section who has been to Moldova and visits Russia twice a year.
We did not stay too long as we had to travel back afterwards eventually arriving home about midnight.
Family service this morning then we were invited out for lunch, candlelight carol service tonight and we have John and Sally Lane and Duncan and Sue Colquhoun coming for tea.
Our Thursday ramble was a 10 miler starting at Barley via Reed and Barkway, again it was up and down with interesting scenery, more trees than usual. We watched a DVD for the first time in ages “It’s a wonderful Life” – they don’t make them like that any longer.
I have sorted the Cuba photos and sent CDs to all those from the trip who requested them, we have been in email contact with several of the party since we returned.
It has been dry enough to do some digging this week and I have dug some late planted potatoes intended for Christmas – not a great yield but fresh.
Are we ready for Christmas? well obviously not but the cards have all been sent, presents purchased or ordered and some have arrived. Kate has finished work for the duration – just a bit of cooking, sprouts to be collected and distributed and a few quizzes to prepare!

Love

Mike & Kate

Letter 15th December 2008

15th December 2008.

Dear All,

No letter yesterday as we were at the christening of Kate’s sister’s first grandchild Emma Louise Digeorgio at Terling near Chelmsford. Mandy and Natasha came down to stay the weekend from Derbyshire. Esther, Mary-Ann and Ben all dutifully turned up as well so it was a sort of “Smithside” pre Christmas get together.

Natasha, Emma & Esther

The service itself was not a great advert for Christianity, conducted by a nervous Anglican vicar who read from various books from different places in the church. His normal congregation is 12 and there was food in the United Reform church opposite – normal congregation 10. We went back to Esther’s afterwards to collect presents for Derbyshire and to monitor the house training of her new feline pets.
Monday we covered gold mining in Geodyssey as our lecturer spent many years as geologist at gold mines in Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Tuesday at work we were reporting on our “Low Input and Sustainable” trials. This has replaced organics in things DEFRA is prepared to fund and is aimed at developing a trials system that would identify varieties that would do well under less intensive farming methods i.e. lower inputs of particularly nitrogen fertilizer but also less pesticide, fungicide and herbicide.
On Wednesday I wrote up a report on the visits we made in Cuba (available on request!). Our ramble on Thursday was further south than usual starting at Arkesden and progressing via Wicken Bonhunt, Rickling and Hill Green. The route was more hilly than Cambridge folk are used to and very sticky underfoot.


17th century chapel at Wicken

On Friday I attended a seminar on “Tropical Legumes” at work delivered by a visiting Indian at 2 million words per minute in an indistinct accent. This was followed by the NIAB Christmas lunch which was “in house” and prepared very well.
Saturday was cold and wet, Kate took Mandy and Natasha to “Jack and the Beanstalk” in Cambridge while I fetched the Christmas tree, delivered our allocation of the Over churches Christmas card, wrote next months Gardening Column and made a few cards for work.

Love

Mike & Kate

letter 7th December 08

7th December 2008.

Dear All,

We arrived back from Cuba at 4.30 pm yesterday having travelled through the night. The freezing temperatures were the first shock having got used to 25 to 30°C for a couple of weeks and we were straight out to the Over Day Care Centre helpers Christmas meal (our help was doing a couple of quizzes) – the imminence of Christmas was the second shock.
Everything about Cuba was very interesting: the politics, history, economy, architecture, scenery, agriculture, birds, plants, music, environmental issues etc. and we were fortunate to see it in the way we did in a small study group. We have only been on a group tour once before (to India) and you wonder beforehand what the group dynamics will be like. In fact, there were some fascinating characters which added to the holiday: age range from 20 to 75, a few members of the communist party and most very pro Cuba and interested in environmental issues.

The Malecon

The Capitole, Havana

We started with four days in Havana then travelled south to Trinidad (the town not the island) for four days and returned via Santa Clara (one day) to Havana for another four days.
Havana has some tremendous buildings from the Spanish occupation but most are crumbling and in need of attention. The economy is creaking following the break up of the Soviet block but after severe hardships in the 90s they are gradually recovering.
Older folk who remember what it was like before the revolution are still behind the government but younger ones are becoming more restless. Castro seems to have cunningly deified Che to shift the spotlight and most places have wall to wall Guevara posters, statues, slogans and souvenirs.
People had told us that you would not travel to Cuba for the food and that is probably true, but it was not too bad: rice and black beans are the staples usually with pork, sometimes chicken or fish. Food variety was a bit limited partly due to the recent hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Music is endemic and it was not possible to have a meal without live musical accompaniment. The biggest surprise for me was the extent of waste land most of which had formerly grown sugar cane. I expected with food in short supply they would cultivate every inch but because fuel and fertilizers are scarce this is not the case.

An Organoponica

Trinidad Beach

Our itinery included: walking tours of old Havana, Trinidad and Santa Clara
A medicinal herb production site
Two large “organoponicas” - urban vegetable production enterprises
A meeting of the CDR Committee for the Defence of the Revolution
Two vegetable markets
A community food preservation project
An old sugar mill
A mountain jungle walk
One afternoon on the beach!
A mountain eco university site
Two swims in mountain pools
The Che Guevara mausoleum
A scale model of Havana used for city planning
Havana Botanical gardens – 600 ha
A solar energy project
A highland eco research centre
A river regeneration site
The National Institute of Agricultural Science
In addition we visited the museum of the Revolution, the Cuban art museum, the Trinidad Romantic museum, a Cuban cinema, the Revolution Park, the Malecon (seafront), American Embassy, John Lennon statue and a few other things which I won’t bore you with (but could if you insist!) All in all a busy schedule but very informative.
I have pruned the photos from 700 to 500! and aim eventually post them on Flickr.



Guess who?

Love

Mike & Kate