20th September 2009

20th September 2009.

Dear All,

Mary-Ann and Andy have been here since Friday night and they were joined by Esther Saturday lunchtime. Andy wanted to do the “tourist thing” round Cambridge as he not seen much of it before. We visited the Madingley American Cemetery, the Sedgewick Rock and Fossil museum, the Fitzwilliam museum, the market, climbed the tower of Great St Mary’s and a food and craft fair on Parkers Piece – pausing only for lunch in a Spanish tapas restaurant. Both the Sedgewick and Fitzwilliam had Darwin exhibitions. There was no time for punting but being a tourist is very tiring.

Madingley American Cemetery


Fitzwilliam restored vases


View from Great St Mary’s - Kings


Crew at the top of Great St Mary’s


Market from top of the tower

I have delivered four talks this week: an update on Moldova last Sunday night, Over Gardening Club on Wednesday, a breakfast meeting at 7.30am in Willingham church on Saturday and the children’s talk in the morning service today. I think there is a danger of over exposure!
Thursday’s walk was more chaotic than usual as our leader was away in France. We had leadership by committee which meant the pace was not so hot and there were more rests to work out where we were. The walk started and finished at Little Walden via Ashdon – only 9.5 miles, hardly worth getting your boots on.
Friday was a busy day: preparing the last cricket pitch of the year, collecting a few things for the Moldova lorry, dividing seed for Romania and Moldova, packing items for the lorry, a meeting to discuss “terms of reference” for a new part time church worker, cleaning the house from top to bottom, Garden centre to buy some bulbs, Tescos, talk preparation. Still better to be busy.
We had another “Tea & Talk” tonight from a local guy who has done time inside and now visits Bedford Gaol every week.
Kate had a work bonding day at Mepal Outdoor Centre on Wednesday. It seemed to go well; she chickened out of paint balling but took part in archery and rifle shooting.

Love


Mike & Kate

13th September 2009

13th September 2009.

Dear All,

Three days at work again this week – how long can this go on? These included two open days, Sweet corn at NIAB on Tuesday and Salads near Chichester on Thursday. We stayed overnight in Havant and ate in the yachting haven of Emsworth. Thursday in Sussex was a nice sunny day so it was quite enjoyable even though the plots were not as mature as we would have liked.


Sussex salad Plots

I was sent a complimentary copy of the revised “Oxford Book of Food Plants” this week as I helped with the text – look out for this international best seller in your local bookstore!



We had to prepare two cricket pitches this week as the juniors had their end of season exhibition matches and awards presentations. I have also ordered 60 bags of Ongar loam which is the recommended soil for winter pitch repairs and renovation.
Kate and I went to the Over Players presentation of “Caught in the Net” on Friday; it is a Ray Cooney farce and was very funny – especially when they forgot their lines.
On Saturday I judged Shelford Produce Show. The fruit and veg entries were not spectacular but they have several innovative classes of crafts, miniature gardens and amusing animals made out of veg.



Shelford Show

Kate has been to a “Pain Symposium” so will be able to understand how you are all feeling.

6th September 2009

6th September 2009.

Dear All,

We had our annual chapel trip to the seaside yesterday, this time to Walton-on-the-Naze. David had arranged for us to hire a church hall as a base and the day went very well, with the weather pretty good for September. We have normally gone to Hunstanton but last year people voted for a change. Unfortunately the first attempted visit to Walton in 2008 had to be cancelled due to rain but this year there were no such problems. In a party of 28 it was surprising how many had not visited Walton before.

Sand at last (it was high tide)


The Naze Tower

We arrived at 11 am for coffee, most then explored the pier, a few then held our annual putting tournament followed by fish and chips and a visit to the Naze. Some walked the Naze and explored the beach, most climbed the Tower and studied the art exhibits and the view from the top. The rest entertained toddlers on the beach. We then returned to Over for a BBQ. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day.
At the risk of provoking your sympathy I have been to work 3 days this week as several crops are ready at the same time: lettuce, sweet corn, courgettes, oriental greens as well as onion grading. On Tuesday we cut 180 lettuce plots which is not good for the back. I will probably need to go in three days this week as well as we have two open days.
Kate has been to a croquet party with some of the U3A ladies that she met in Yorkshire and followed that with an evening entertaining Japanese colleagues.
We had to postpone the Moldova lorry this week as due to the political uncertainties there no one is prepared to sign the necessary papers. A CEEM BBQ an auction of promises on Saturday has so far raised £1380 – far more than anticipated. We have received a steady trickle of photographs from Moldova this year so we have a much better idea of what is going on. The maize harvest has apparently been carried out by hand with the help of willing volunteers and a donkey!

Moldovan Maize harvest

Satisfied customer


We had Cliff Keeys at chapel this morning for a taster session for the “Walk Through the Bible” training – he was very good so should have enthused a few people.
Thursdays walk was along Fleam Dyke near Six Mile Bottom. The going was fairly tough 12 miles with strong winds and hardened hoof prints, but the dyke was well worth the effort.


Fleam Dyke

30th August 2009

30th August 2009.

Dear All,

We have been entertaining last night and today. Leonard is a Zimbabwean who had to flee for his life 8 years ago after backing the opposition party – many of his colleagues were beaten or murdered. His case was taken up by Amnesty International and his wife Anna was able to join him 5 years ago and Raymond was born that year but 2 small children had to be left behind with grandparents. Hilary Allen’s brother helped with the Amnesty side of things and our church helped with funding the children’s escape last year. Leonard has a gardening job near Oxford but still awaits proper Home Office clearance. The family were visiting this weekend and needed somewhere to stay. The elder two children Petronella and Simba are much better behaved than Raymond but overall they are a great family so I hope it works out for them.

Simba, Anna, Leonard,Raymand & Petronella

Kate and I also met up with the Barr family from Northern Ireland for a picnic lunch at Cambridge Botanic gardens. We stayed with them near Coleraine when we celebrated our 25thwedding anniversary. Their daughter Jane used to work with me at NIAB and father Hugh is in the Guinness Book of Records for winning the World Ploughing Championship three years running.


Jane, Kate, Kathleen & Hugh


Cambridge Botanic Gardens

I had a trip to Wisley on Wednesday judging Sweet Corn, cabbages and endive. There is always plenty to admire there but the star exhibit this time was a trial of celosias (cockscomb) in full bloom

Celosia trial

Celosia

We had a courgette open day at NIAB this week; we have been picking 22 varieties 3 times a week for a couple of months so have had courgettes coming out of our ears!
I have been in to work an extra day this week due to pressure of onion grading, sweet corn, courgette and oriental veg harvesting.
Thursday was Icknield Way section 10 from Icklington to Euston. The first section was through the Kings Forest and part of the rest was through the Elvedon Estate (owned by the Guinness family) 12 miles in all and hardly a human in sight.
We won our third match on the trot Saturday beating March who are top of the table so our late season form continues – again not much due to me except in catching.
Mary-Ann and Andy are at a music festival in Paris this weekend and Esther is in the Scottish Highlands. Hope you all have a good bank holiday.

Love


Mike & Kate

23rd August 2009

23rd August 2009.

Dear All,

Our home group attended one of the open air Shakespeare plays this week. It was a performance of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in the gardens of Kings College. It was a good night as the weather was fine, the performance good and the setting fantastic.

Kings College Gardens

My other cultural highlight was to visit one of the many Darwin Exhibitions in Cambridge. This was at the Fitzwilliam Museum and was mainly paintings which had affected him or he had influenced. It was reasonable enough but the connections were a rather tenuous in some instances.

Fitzwilliam Museum

We had an open day at Thetford on Tuesday showing new onion varieties; again the weather was kind and the attendance pretty good. Most of our trials look good this year which is a tribute to the amount of rain at most sites.
Our walk this week was a circular route starting at Haynes in Bedfordshire taking in 10 miles via Clophill including the Greensand Ridge Walk. We did get wet briefly, for the first time recently, but it was a good walk with a few contours.


Haynes, The Greyhound


Haynes Park

We won back to back Saturday cricket matches for the first time this season – I did not contribute many runs but took a surprisingly sprightly catch for a 63 year old!

Love


Mike & Kate

17th August 2009

17th August 2009.

Dear All,

We have had a weekend entertaining Derbyshire folk, so no time for letter writing. There was a chapel trip to Madingley Hall gardens on Saturday morning which was well attended and brought to life by the head gardener who had been there for 22 years. The house was built in 1543 and been added to on numerous occasions. The gardens were designed by Capability Brown, of course, and the whole estate of house and 5000 acres of land was purchased by Cambridge University for £50,000 in 1948. It is now the home of the University’s Institute of Continuing Education offering courses and conferences to the public and business groups.


Madingley Hall

Kate took the visitors to Denny Abbey Farm and Countryside museum in the afternoon while I played cricket. Esther came up on Sunday to help with the entertainment, so several small card board boxes made from Christmas cards should be making their way to Derbyshire as I write!
The garden needed a bit of attention after a week of wet weather while we were away. I picked 2 large crates of runner and French beans as well as several cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot and carrots. Raspberries and blackberries are also cropping well so nature is bountiful at present.
Thursdays walk was the 9th section of the Icknield Way from Gazeley to Icklington, via Herringswell, Tuddenham and Cavenham Heath. The weather did not look promising but once again it turned out fine and no waterproofs were needed.


Tuddenham


River Lark


Cavenham Heath

Love


Mike & Kate

10th August 2009

10th August 2009.

Dear All,

Kate, Esther and I arrived back safely on Saturday evening from a week in France with the Brown tribe. We stayed in a hamlet of three houses called Fretay in the middle of a prosperous agricultural region. The nearest town was Savigny-sur-Braye and the nearest city was Le Mans. We crossed from Dover to Calais and had a 300 mile journey which was fairly painless apart from the tolls. The house was a large converted barn standing in a large garden with a swimming pool. One of the neighbouring houses was a chateau complete with moat.

House at Fretay

Neighbours!

The weather was very hot so the local wheat harvest was completed while we were there. All the grass was burned brown and maize was being heavily irrigated. One downside to the rural location was a pig unit in the next hamlet which sometimes wafted country smells especially when slurry spreading! and always seemed to encourage a host of flies. There was plenty of larger local wildlife including a wild boar and several deer.
The pool was very welcome and used to cool off most days.


Pool Lifeguards!

The scenery was not spectacular but we were close to Le Loir (which is a smaller tributary of La Loire) and there were a number of interesting towns on it which we visited in turn. All were decorated with window boxes and flower borders and most had troglodyte cave dwellings as the rock was easily excavated.



Lavigny

Verdome

It was a restful week with a craft or activity rota each night and a chance to get to know younger relatives much better!

Aunty Kate’s homemade volcanoes

Love


Mike & Kate