15th September 2013

Dear All,

Kate, Mary, Graham and I arrived back from the Baltics on Friday night having covered nearly 2000 Km and 3 countries. It was a very interesting holiday and we were very fortunate with the weather enjoying wall to wall sunshine for the first week with just a couple of wet periods near the end.

We met up with Malcolm and Ruth Firth in Riga – they have been missionaries there for 17 years and they gave us a meal and “showed us the ropes” on our first day which was very valuable orientation. We also met up with Ana who I encountered as a teacher in Moldova. She had met Latvian Valera on line and eventually married him having met “in the flesh” only twice but shared countless hours on Skype. They seem very happy and now have a 12 month old baby girl Daria.

Each of the capital cities has an “Old City” area with attractive buildings that have either survived various wars or been repaired as the original. All also seem to be extremely well endowed with churches for ex communist states and Graham was keen to explore most of them!

Riga has a flourishing market with comprehensive displays of vegetables, fish and meat. We took in a panoramic view from the top of a ministry building known as “Stalin’s Birthday cake” and spent time in the “Museum of the Occupation” which describes all the periods when Latvia has been bullied by it’s larger neighbours particularly Russia and Germany.

Riga

After 2 days we drove up the Baltic coast to Estonia and stayed two nights in a convent just outside Tallinn. The accommodation was clean and peaceful and an excellent base. Tallinn is on the “Cruise Route” so was crawling with tourists from the boats which was exacerbated by the Dutch being in town for an Estonia v Holland international football match. It has a strong Finnish influence and a long stretch of intact city wall. We also took in Peter the Great’s Palace in a park between Tallinn and our convent.

   Tallinn  

      

                                 

       Peter the Great's Palace

Next day we drove along the north coast of Estonia to Palmse which has a smart Manor which was home to rich barons for many years. On the way we saw a large flock of cranes which was the wildlife highlight of the tour.

                                                      Cranes                                                                        

Palmse

Next stop was Tartu a university town which was staging a student’s art exhibition each in a portable ship container. We ended up back in Latvia for the night near Cesis in a National Park and next morning explored a local river gorge, before skirting Riga again and heading for Lithuania. On the way we took in Rundale Palace, a huge spread designed by the man who built the winter palace in St Petersburg. We stayed a few miles outside of Vilnius in a region of lakes so had mosquito nets on the beds – but sustained no serious damage.

              Cesis               

                                             

Rundale Palace

On Monday we drove into Vilnius and explored the city starting with the Upper castle (it has 2). Vilnius has more catholic influence and so again, a few churches to admire! There is a quaint custom of knitting protective covers for tree trunks.

We moved on to Trakai to the best apartment of our holiday. We borrowed bikes and rode to the castle which is on an island.

Next day we headed for the Lithuanian coast via Kaunas, a large more industrial city and thence to Klaipeda on the Baltic where we encountered our first rain. The main purpose of travelling there was to explore the “Curonian Spit” a nearly 100 Km long sand dune which runs parallel to the shore. Half of it is in Lithuania and the rest in Kaliningrad, a Russian Province so a no go area. We spent a whole day explore the sand dunes, following a wooden sculpture trail, visiting an aquarium (Mike) or searching for amber (the rest).

    Vilnius Cathedral     

                                           

Curonian Sand Dune

We left Klaipeda in the rain next morning (but it soon cleared) and headed back toward Riga taking in the amazing “Hill of Crosses”. It started as a pagan site, which evolved to a catholic one where locals planted crosses to commemorate the fallen. It became a patriotic symbol of resistance to the Czar, then communism. The communists levelled the site 3 times in the 70s but each time more crosses replaced the removed ones. There are now over 200,000 crosses on the site.

Hill of Crosses

Our last night was spent at Ozolnicki again by a lake in a place we had not booked in the UK. It was the worst of the trip being rather grubby and smelly but gave us a glimpse of local colour!

Kate and I arrived in Over at 4.45 pm and the garden was rather full of beans, tomatoes and sweet corn.

I judged Shelford Show yesterday and watched Over beat last years champions (coincidentally Shelford) 3 v 1.

Love

Mike & Kate

PS Have loaded all the photos on Dropbox – should you be interested!

1st September 2013

1^st September 2013.

Dear All,

On Monday Kate and I visited Houghton Hall to view “Houghton Revisited”, the Walpole art collection which was sold to Catherine the Great, and has been loaned back from the Hermitage. It was worth seeing but dominated by portraits, some excellent and several rather drab. The Hall itself was well worth seeing with a deer park, large garden and sculpture trail.

After we went on to explore Kings Lynn which again was interesting and rather cosmopolitan with English a minority language.

 Houghton Hall 

                                                           Formal Garden

Two Priceless statues? 

 Fire and water

 Vegetable Garden

                                                        Kings Lynn Town Hall

 Kings Lynn Boats Old & New

 Kings Lynn Monuments

Kate had her foot examined at Addenbrookes on Tuesday and they gave her another cortisone injection and X- Ray which did not especially please her but she is at least in the system and they have promised follow up.

Two walks this week, a recce at Radwinter and Hempstead on Wednesday for one we are leading later and Abington, Hildersham and Babraham on Thursday both in shirtsleeves.

I was drafted into the cricket team for the last match of the season which we narrowly lost and I managed not to get injured and achieved double figures (just).

Otherwise we have been preparing for our U3A course and harvesting and tidying the garden ready to leave it for 10 days as we leave for Latvia on Tuesday.

Love

Mike & Kate

25th August 2013

25th August 2013.

Dear All,

Another trip to Wisley on Wednesday and a long day judging Runner Beans, Tomatoes, Courgettes and Onion sets. The RHS has been going through a “funny phase” since they offered redundancy to some of their staff and have lost a deal of expertise which always ensures a major discussion whenever we meet nowadays.

 Runner Beans

                                                           Learned Panel

 Tomato tunnel 

                                                            Coleus trial

On Monday we managed an early morning swim, then I had an emergency visit to the dentist for a patch up job on the tooth I split, cut a deal of grass and then to Addenbrookes for a chat to a consultant re my lung. It was good news in that the nodule on my lung had not grown and is probably a scar of some ancient infection. I need to have it checked again in a year.

Our Thursday walk was rather damp and humid. We met at Rede, south of Bury St Edmunds and walked via Purton Green, Stansfield and Somerton. Our boots needed cleaning for the first time in several weeks. Harvest seemed to be about 75% completed in that area.

 Purton Green Fishing Lakes

In the afternoon we visited Geoff and Doreen Barnes who had arrived at Cottenham for their annual visit. Doreen has been suffering with Parkinsons for several years but they seem determined to make the best of it.

Two meals out on Tuesday: at lunchtime I met up with some ex NIAB colleagues at Girton and in the evening our church group meet up at Colne.

Cricket was off all round yesterday so I watched Over Sports FC play what was already their 4^th match of the season. 3 wins and a draw so far so currently 3^rd in the league.

Jim and Janet Burr managed to move house to Long Furlong this week after considerable anxiety with exchange of contract and completion dates. They have moved to a chalet bungalow near the war memorial.

  

48 Long Furlong

I purchased a new camera with a zoom lens this week – so I could be taking a few photos to test it out!

 X 26 zoom

Love

Mike & Kate

18th August 2013

18th August 2013.

Dear All,

This week has seen quite alot of what my father would have called “shanking about” with two trips to Hutton, and visits to Cambridge, St Ives, Beccles and Hunstanton.

We travelled to Hutton on Monday to visit Esther in hospital and pickup her intended visitors: Mandy and Natasha from Derbyshire. Mary-Ann and Amélie were already there and stayed until Thursday to look after Esther. The operation seemed to be fairly quick and successful but left her very sore and tired. She has been warned that there may be some bleeding for up to 6 weeks.

 After op.

                                                              Sympathy

The pianist entertains

Entertaining folks from Derbyshire is never a light undertaking! We took them to Cambridge on the guided bus on Tuesday and after visiting the market tried punting which was an entertaining experience. We then caught the guided bus again to St Ives for a leisurely look round.

Punting

On Wednesday we drove to Beccles to visit Kate’s sister and her new granddaughter Mila – the product of the wedding we attended in Poland last year. James and Joanna were staying for a few days together with Polish mother-in-law and niece. The baby was fine while we were there but evidently cries all night. James has just been made redundant from the architects where he works but is hopeful that he can find other work quickly.

 New baby with aunt and mother

We returned Mandy and Natasha to Hutton on Thursday as they had train tickets from Shenfield. Mary-Ann and Amélie had done a good nursing job but left when we did so Esther has been on her own since.

It was the chapel outing to Hunstanton yesterday. We had been anxiously studying the weather forecasts all week but it was not too bad, a brief shower when we arrived, very breezy all day and sunshine by the time we left. We had a record turn out with 29 attending. Morning activities centred round the beach and in the afternoon some shopped, some rode the road train and others tackled the Pitch and Putt course. On the way back we stopped at Sutton for perhaps our last BBQ there as Kate and Gordon are putting the house on the market next week.

  Hunstanton

I had a dental check up on Monday and emerged with a clean bill of health – before splitting a tooth on Thursday! So it is back to the dentist tomorrow and a visit to the hospital for scan discussions in the pm.

Love

Mike & Kate

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