11th August 2013.

Dear All,

The week did not start well. Esther's hospital visit fell through due to NHS inefficiency. She was originally told the appointment would be 8 am, then they changed it to 2 pm, then when she went to pre op on Friday they changed again to 4 pm. Kate was all packed and ready to go when Esther phoned to say she had just had a call from the hospital "why hadn't she turned up at 8 am for her appointment!!!!"
It has been rearranged for next week when Mandy and Natasha are due to arrive.
Meanwhile I eventually got through to Addenbrookes for the result of my scan
and have another appointment in 2 weeks! Then the roller packed up on the cricket square. Then the company I ordered new belts for the cricket mower from phoned to
say they are no longer stocked! The following day I tried rotovating John Lane’s new garden and the clutch cable broke as had the Tom Tom the previous week!

Esther has a new appointment this Monday when Mary-Ann hopes to come and look after her and we are due to inherit Mandy and Natasha’s visit. They hope to fit in a visit to Kate’s nephew James and Joanna as they have a new baby but that has been complicated by the fact that James was made redundant from the architect’s where he works this week.

I had another trip to Wisley this week and as my usual travelling companions were not attending I took Ken and May Elsom for a visit. It started overcast and dull and I forgot to take a hat. Then the sun blazed down so I have a sore top of my head. We were judging calabrese, courgettes, runner beans, onions and tomatoes so quite a busy day. The M25 was busy but not as slow as the previous 4 visits!

 Runner Bean trial

 Courgette trial 

Onion trial

 Phlox trial

  Wisley Rockery

         

                                                          Apple identification

We managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in our last midweek chapel cricket match on Wednesday. We were playing Huntingdon District Council and dismissed them for 118 and were cruising at 60 -2 until Mervyn, our ancient but very keen elder statesman entered and smote 16* in 12 overs so we narrowly lost by 9 runs!

It was Over Produce Show yesterday and I was not showing any fruit and vegetables for the first time in 40 years as I had been invited to judge. The standard was not too high but there were a few new competitors. We did enter a few flowers and won 1sts for a herb, pom pom dahlias, and Kate’s flower arrangement (a 1^st in several ways!).

Gardening has been dominated by clouds of cabbage white butterflies attacking the brassicas each day so we have been squashing eggs every other day.

Love

Mike & Kate

4th August 2013

4th August 2013.

Dear All,

The main event this week has been a trip to Hove to inspect Mary-Ann, Andy and Amélie’s new residence and surroundings. They have more room with a larger kitchen and extra bedroom so Amélie is now ensconced in her own room and seemingly untroubled by the separation. Parking is an issue and while they are waiting for a permit their car remains at Andy’s workplace.

They are only two streets from the beach and we walked from Hove into Brighton inspecting the Pavilion, Pier and “The Lanes” – narrow streets with small shops and cafes.

  

3 Haddington Street

 Strolling the Prom 

                                          I see no ships!

The Lanes 

  

                               Brighton Pavilion

 The Pier

  

                              Driving Postman Pat

Before travelling on Tuesday we had attended a funeral for Erica, one of our walking group. It was held at the Woodland Cemetery and was an Eco/Quaker ceremony. There was a wicker coffin and attendees were encouraged to bring flowers to weave into the lid and throw into the grave at the burial. There was an hour of tributes followed by a Quaker, mainly silent, service. We did not stay until the end as we were travelling to Hove but it was a moving experience.

We walked on the hottest day of the week starting at Croydon, near Wimpole Hall, taking in Shingay and Clopton, a deserted, overgrown, medieval village. I played cricket in the evening so went to bed reasonably tired!

 Site of Clopton Village

The garden has benefited from the recent rain but there has been an explosion of cabbage white butterflies. Tomatoes are just beginning and cucumbers and lettuce in full profusion – so salads it is!

Kate was called on to judge the cakes, pickles and jams at Lolworth Show yesterday. As there were several entries and she had to sample them all she was not hungry for an hour or two.

Pat Howard is 65 this weekend so Mervyn has arranged a surprise party for her at the Community Centre this lunchtime. I am fairly sure she will hate the event and the attention – but Mervyn will love it!

Love

Mike & Kate

28th July 2013

28th July 2013.

Dear All,

This week has been dominated by Holiday Club. We had 30 -33 each day, which is double recent years and it seemed to go very well. The children were better behaved than usual and Rachel led the proceedings excellently. Kate and I were in charge of the older group of 17 with the theme of “Space Academy” related to the story of Daniel. We had 2 sessions of crafts and games each day with the story, drama and singing parts and refreshments sandwiched in between. The crafts included tile painting, 3-D veg, lion masks, lion cups, rubbish to robot construction, gingerbread spacemen, Das stamping, foot and hand stencilling etc. On Friday there was a meal for parents and children and there were about 75 participating.

 Holiday Club 2013

There has not been much time for other things this week besides gardening, cricket pitch maintenance and preparing U3A talks for the autumn when Kate and I are leading a course called “Just Vegetating” covering the history, background, importance, breeding aims, nutrition, commercial growing, garden growing and recipes for vegetables. It is due to run for 10 weeks so involves a certain amount of preparation. I know you will all be disappointed that you cannot attend?

We managed to swim on Monday but had to miss the Thursday walk due to the Holiday Club. Philip our esteemed walk leader came to collect some plants I had been looking after for him on Monday while they were on their latest holiday in the Lake District. This followed 7 weeks in Sicily and precedes 3 weeks in Cornwall!

Mary-Ann, Andy and Amélie seem to have settled in OK but still have boxes to unpack. Amélie has managed a paddle most days and there are 2 small girls living next door. We hope to visit this coming week.

Love

Mike & Kate

21st July 2013

21st July 2013.

Dear All,

A fairly busy week: Monday evening, Deacons meeting; Tuesday evening, Annual Church meeting; Wednesday evening Over Garden Club trip to gardens in Lode; Thursday evening, Guest at Bourn Garden Club 40^th anniversary dinner; Friday evening, attended book launch in Cambridge; Saturday evening, Sue Whitfield’s 70^th birthday party – and that’s just the evenings!

The gardens in Lode belonged to Richard Ayers and a neighbour. Richard was the former head gardener at Anglesey Abbey. The garden was attractive but not a vegetable in sight!

Lode garden

I was honoured to attend the anniversary dinner at Bourn having delivered more talks there (11) than anyone else. They unusually ended up with too much cash in the bank and needed an excuse to spend it!

The book launch was held at Wolfson College and was for Felicia Gordon, one of our walking companions and the topic was rather esoteric: “Constance Pascal (1877 – 1937) Authority, Femininity and Feminism in French Psychiatry). It may not be a best seller but the lady was the first female psychiatrist in France.

Felicia Gordon

We called in at Moggerhanger again this week to return a cool box that our raspberry delivery was made in and on the way picked up some bags to dispose of our asbestos down pipes that have been hanging around for a year or so. It is a tortuous process in that the bags and permission have to be obtained from the Council Offices in Cambourne and the disposal made at a prearranged time at Waterbeach. While at Waterbeach we were able to pick up a car load of green compost.

Our Thursday walk started at Kimbolton and it was fairly warm. Kate was on the short walk which missed the way so we were back at 12.30 pm from the long walk while the short walkers did not appear until 1.20 pm, rather hot and flustered!

Kimbolton

It was “Messy Church” again yesterday, numbers were down a bit but it still went OK.

 Messy Church

Mary-Ann, Andy and Amélie finally moved to Hove on Monday. It must be a relief to get it over with. Their new address is: 3 Haddington Street, Hove, Sussex. BN3 3YQ.

Tel: 01273 985766.

Love

Mike & Kate

14th July 2013

14th July 2013.

Dear All,

As trailed last week Kate spent 3 days helping Mary-Ann pack and I met up with them after another Wisley session. Hopefully the move goes ahead tomorrow. Meanwhile Mary-Ann, Andy and a couple of friends have spent the weekend in Nottingham taking in the Test Match yesterday and we have been looking after Amélie – which was no hardship! They all came for lunch today together with Esther and picked up Amélie leaving about 3.30 pm.

Yesterday was Over Carnival so Amélie may well be thinking that the Green will be covered with roundabouts, animal stands and loud music each time she comes to see her grandparents.

  

We had a chapel stand as usual and it was particularly successful this year. We had a quiz, ball game and Messy church craft activities and took over £40.00 in 10 pences. The weather, of course, helped it was a great contrast with the mud last year.

Wisley was again looking pretty good but showing signs of water shortage. We were judging potatoes and calabrese and checked progress of onion sets, tomatoes and runner beans.

I returned to swimming again after my burst ear drum and had another lung scan on Friday.

We led the walk on Thursday starting at Nuthampstead taking in Barkway and Reed.

The garden is looking particularly colourful at present.

  

Love

Mike & Kate

7th July 2013

7th July 2013.

Dear All,

Summer here at last, can you stand the heat? We attended our first BBQ of the year last night at Kate and Gordon’s and it was almost too hot!

Two walk this week as we had to recce for leading this week at Nuthampstead and the normal Thursday walk was at Arkesden, Wicken Bonhunt (still no blue plaque for David’s studying), Rickling and Clavering.

The Axe & Compasses, Arkesden

    

 Arkesden village

I attended a NIAB Salads Demonstration in the fens at Littleport on Tuesday where apart from the lettuce and endive plots Cranfield Soil Science Dept. had dug a large hole to show the soil profile which was strangely interesting showing layers of compaction, ancient root zones and an odd spot of peat before reaching the water table at 1.2m

A few lettuce!  

  

NIAB plots

 Funfix (Batavian) 

 A hole in the ground!

Kate and I had a rare shopping expedition to Cambridge on Wednesday looking for Holiday Club materials and maps. We also visited the venue for the U3A course we are leading in October in Castle Hill Methodist church.

The garden continues to be productive harvesting broad beans, mange tout peas, podded peas, lettuce, radish, potatoes, onions and strawberries this week.

The Moggerhanger Berry production has also been in full swing and John Law delivered the first batch of raspberries to Over for distribution on Friday. They have 3,500 plants under glass and the temperature was 45°C at 9am that morning so the pickers are wilting. 25% of the profit goes towards the “Meal Deal” for street kids in Moldova.

Moggerhanger Raspberry production

Mary-Ann and Andy hope to move to Hove on Monday week so Kate is planning to drive down tonight to help packing and cleaning. I have a lift to Wisley on Wednesday so hope to meet up with them afterwards.

Love

Mike & Kate