6^th April  2014.

Dear All,

Tom Webster has been down from Scotland this week. A few of the NIAB “Wrinklies” met up for lunch in his honour on Tuesday after I took him to the Botanic Gardens. He is understandably getting a bit frailer but currently has his right arm in plaster as he typically was determined to see whether he could ski on one good leg! The answer is evidently “no” as he kept falling over until he eventually cracked a bone in his wrist.

Tom and Prunus x yedoensis

He and his Cambridge hosts, Jock and Molly came for lunch on Friday and he back up north on Tuesday.

Last Sunday afternoon Kate and I visited the Hyacinth open day at Waterbeach. A local farmer, Alan Shipp holds the national collection and opens the site once a year to show 189 varieties and 10,000 bulbs. As you might imagine the scent is quite powerful.

Waterbeach Hyacinth display

I have been struggling with a swollen knee this week but it was tolerable on Thursday so I did the usual walk this week at Guilden and Steeple Morden. I don’t think it has improved the knee!

Steeple Morden church

Esther came up yesterday and Kate has been helping her make a wee dress – I can’t guess for whom!

I have spent non active time sorting vegetable seed packets for Moldova. We have been given more than 2000 packets from Suttons and Mr Fothergills but not all are suitable.

Over won 3 v 0 against Cottenham yesterday – a somewhat nervous performance as they approach the final furlong of the season 4 points clear at the top of the Premier League!

love

Mike & Kate

30th March 2014

30th March 2014.

Dear All,

This has been a “Hove Week” and as U3A classes have finished for Easter we left fairly early on Tuesday and had a good run down and were able to pick up Mary-Ann from work and Amélie from nursery.

On Wednesday we visited the Lancing College chapel – a very imposing building, then went on to Coombe Valley Farm to see new born lambs and calves. The farm has hundreds of sheep as well as a herd of Sussex cattle. As they charge £4 entrance fee and £2.50 if you want a tractor and trailer ride round the farm I believe they are probably making more from the public than the livestock. However Amélie approved as she got to stroke lambs and feed them hay - which they may not have wanted.

Lancing College Chapel

Sussex Cattle

A few Sheep

Would be Shepherd?

Woolly Matress

Feeding Time

Devils Dyke

Afterwards we drove up to Devils Dyke on the top of the Downs for a walk with splendid views.

Our Thursday walk started at Elton near Peterborough and took in Fotheringhay where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned and finally beheaded and Richard III was born. The houses are most stone built and similar to the Cotswolds.

Elton Mill

Elton Village

Otherwise it has been mostly gardening – planting maincrop spuds, preparing the runner bean trench etc. and starting cricket pitch attention.

We were invited out to lunch with neighbours (the Twiss’s) opposite yesterday and then I watched Over put in a nervous performance having gone back to the top of the league, equalising in the last minute to draw 3 v 3 with Cambridge City Reserves.

Ben heading for the line in the Brentwood half Marathon

Finishing 315th out of 2425

love

Mike & Kate

23rd March 2014.

Dear All,

We had a challenging few days in the Lake District. We travelled up on Sunday and stopped at Ilkley for a walk across the Moor and Sunday lunch. We then continued to the new Brimstone Hotel at Elterwater in Langdale. The hotel has been built on a timeshare site to a very high spec.: a fire in each room, together with bath, 7ft square bed, en suite wet room, balcony and some with a mezzanine level. The reading room was supplied with free wine, beer, soft drinks, scones, sandwiches etc. in addition there was a heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. Fortunately our leader who is a member of the timeshare was able to negotiate a less than 50% introductory offer.

Ilkley Moor

 The Brimstone

There were two walks arranged each day, on Monday the longer walk climbed out of Langdale to Grasmere then to Loughrigg Fell, Skelwith Bridge and back along the river to Elterwater.

 Grasmere

68^th Birthday Pose

The weather on both the first two days was excellent but this did not last until Tuesday when we awoke to persistent rain which reduced the takers for the longer walk! However Kate and I decided to try it – which could have been a mistake? We again climbed out of Langdale heading towards the Langdale Pikes. At higher altitudes the wind got stronger with the odd hail shower alternating with the rain so it became a feat of endurance. It was not safe to climb the Pikes so we headed across Blea Crags to Stickle Tarn then down to Dungeon Ghyll for lunch, before walking back to Elterwater in the afternoon. It was a good test of people and equipment – we were fairly damp and cold only not to be allowed into our rooms on our return as the Duke of Gloucester was opening the Brimstone!

Under the Pikes

Wednesday was much more enjoyable as Hatty, one of our members, is an expert on the area and took us to Tilberthwaite and explained the history of copper mining in the Coniston area. Kate survived the first three days well but suffered on the last day as there was a long stretch on hard paths and roads.

Near Coniston

Tilberthwaite

I have loaded the full set of photos onto “Dropbox” should you be interested.

On Friday it was our last “Biography” session – Richard Wagner followed by an end of term lunch.

I drove to Cottenham on Saturday to watch football and my car would not start for the return journey – probably flat battery as I did not drive to Langdale. I had to be towed home in lashing rain and poor visibility. This was awkward as we were due to drive down to Hutton to say goodbye to Esther who has gone to Bulgaria to train and supervise some OTs and meet Ben who ran in the Brentwood Half Marathon today. We used Kate’s car and guess what it refused to start for the return journey!

Ben ran a creditable 1 hr 38 mins which was good considering his training has been hampered by worked horrendously long hours. The start was near Sawyers Church who cancelled their morning meeting and gave out free food and drinks to the masses.

It was good to meet up with Mary, Graham, David & Jen the week before for a meal at Weeley, walk at the Naze and tea and new house viewing at Beaumont.

Naze Walkers

Glebe Annex

Love

Mike & Kate

9th March 2014.

Dear All,

We were on duty in Hove on Wednesday but Tuesday was complicated by having a Garden Club talk at Blunham near Sandy which did not finish until 9 pm. We thought it would be an easy adaption to take the A1 instead of the M11 but unfortunately the A1 was closed for a couple of junctions for repairs so we had to divert to the M1 and eventually arrived at 11.45 pm. However we had a very enjoyable day on Wednesday visiting an open farm near Lewes with lambs, calves, llamas, pigs and a multitude of chicken breeds as well as a bale play area. In the afternoon we explored Lewes castle which pleased Amélie as she especially enjoys climbing steps at present.

Lamb Feeding

Headless Chicken?

Pig Feeding

Bale Jumping

Lewes Castle

We studied “Health Foods” in the Tuesday course and “Inigo Jones” in Biographies on Friday. Inigo was a self taught, pioneer architect before Christopher Wren and some of his buildings e.g. The Queens House at Greenwich still survive.

Our walk on Thursday started at Toppesfield near Haverill and was much less muddy than of late.

Boggy Patch

The Land Time Forgot

It has been good to see some sunshine this week and begin a little gardening mainly grass cutting, digging and weeding.

We have both been fighting a nasty coughing virus all week but have hopefully seen off the worst of the symptoms.

The Day Centre Quiz last week raised a record £545 which made it all worthwhile.

Love

Mike & Kate

2^nd March 2014.

Dear All,

We had a record turn out for the Day Centre Quiz this week with about 75 folk and 13 teams. This is part of the chapel’s fund raising support for the Day Centre who are currently saving for a new minibus. As usual, Kate had thought up most of the questions and I was a rather hoarse question master as there is not sound amplification system. It seemed to go quite well, not least because the usual winners were not in the first three!

The “Northern Walkers” sub group had a meal out at the Old Crown in Girton on Monday night. You can never predict what pub food will be from visit to visit but this was excellent.

“Eat, Drink and be Healthy” covered essential fatty acids, diet and cancer and inflammatory processes this week – not necessarily all cheerful topics. The U3A film was “Cabaret” which was much more cheerful.

The glass I ordered to replace the gale damage to the green house was ready for collection on Wednesday so I had a constructive session of reglazing – always a challenge with the largest sheets 106 x 75 cm.

The Thursday walk started at the “Lazy Otter” at Chittering and was largely on the banks of the Little Ouse through Streatham and Little Thetford with a few choice areas of mud but manageable. I think we must be adapting to mud a little now – perhaps the webbed feet help?

Little Ouse Bank

Streatham Old Pumping Station

Rare picture of Author!

Could become Wet & Muddy later!

New Chittering Solar Farm

The “Biography” topic this week was “Sir Joseph Banks” who was botanist on Capt Cook’s first voyage to Tahiti and Australia founding Botany Bay and having over 80 species named after him.

I have managed a little gardening this week mainly emptying one of the compost bins and sowing tomatoes, peas, broad beans and herbs in the greenhouse. The cricket pitch has been cut but remains rather soggy – so no play for the foreseeable future!

Over returned to winning ways beating Brampton 5 v 0 yesterday and in the evening Over hosted the Area Grace Baptist Association meal. There were only about 40 present but this was the 8^th meal at chapel so far this year and Kate has been involved with most of them.

Mary-Ann and Amélie are in Germany this weekend visiting Andy so we hope that goes well.

Love Mike & Kate

23rd February 2014.

Dear All,

Stephen and Margaret Jessup called in for lunch on Friday en route from visiting their son in Peterborough to home in Maidstone.

The novelty of several dry days got me excited enough to plant broad beans, onion sets, shallots and garlic. Probably a bit early but I got carried away at the sight of sunshine!

On Monday we went swimming at 7.15am as the pool was operating half term timings – it is a good way of making your life seem longer. In the afternoon, we had a briefing on our next walking holiday in the Lake District leaving 16^th March. Our leader has a time share at Langdale and they have developed a smart new hotel on the site. As usual his briefing was very thorough – “where will you be eating on Tuesday night and at what time?”

“Eat, Drink etc” covered topics such as “Evolution and the brain”, Food Preparation” and “Food Supplies” and the U3A film was “Aguirre The Wrath of God” a Werner Herzog production about a Spanish expedition in South America seeking El Dorado.

Esther came up to Cambridge on Wednesday to redeem a 40^th present of “Tea and Cakes” at a posh restaurant with Kate and Kate Foster. I attended a funeral for John Morley an old NIAB colleague at Stretham.

Our Thursday walk started at Monk Street near Thaxted and took in Little Cambridge and Tilty. It was muddy and adventurous as the deputed leader had not carried out a recce, so we were not always where we should have been including being on the wrong side of a stream where the bridge had been washed away and replaced by a temporary affair with loose planks. This worried some of our number and one even crawled across.

John leading?

A bridge too far?

Pat’s solution!

Tilty church

The subject of this week’s Biography was “Lady Charlotte Guest”. She was high borne, the daughter of the Earl of Lyndsey and married a wealthy Welsh iron and steel manufacturer. Atypically for the times she helped in the business keeping the books and acting as secretary and running the business when her husband died. She had a gift for languages teaching herself German, French and Spanish before she was 16 then later Greek, Persian and Welsh. She started a school for employees and locals spending £20,000 on a new school which was more than the entire English education budget that year 1847. She found time to have 10 children, all of which survived to adulthood and 9 out lived her when she died aged 82. When her eldest was old enough to run the business she took up collecting porcelain, then fans and playing cards each time becoming a national expert. But her greatest achievement was translating the “Mabinogion” an ancient collection of Welsh poetry and legends into English. I am not sure what she did in her spare time!

Over played their first game for a month and were very rusty losing 1 v 0 to Eaton Socon.

Love Mike & Kate

16th February 2014.

Dear All,

I hope you have all survived this week’s weather. We were in Lincolnshire on Wednesday and had an interesting journey home. We were nearly blown off the road on the new Cowbit and Crowland by pass with lorries wobbling everywhere; then a tree across the road followed by Whittlesey Mere which looked like the Lake District.

We were in Lincolnshire to meet up with Bryan Withers who used to work with me. He suffered from polio as a child which deformed his chest. He now has severe breathing difficulties with an apparatus to help him at night. We met up with Bill (another former colleague) and Joyce Chowings who now live near Watton, Norfolk and Tony Hewitt and David Jeffries (RHS colleagues) at Surfleet for lunch.

 Whittlesey Mere

The wind was worse on Friday night and blew the end out of one of our greenhouses but thankfully the sun is shining as I write.

I rushed to the swimming pool on Monday to meet Kate after I had a dental check up – only to find it closed for GCSE exams.

“Eat, Drink and be Healthy” covered minerals this week. They comprise 4% of our body weight, we need 18, calcium is most abundant, kelp contains 1093 mg/100g and milk only 103, cheese and nuts are far better sources than milk. Iron is most likely to be short. Even one we have hardly heard of like Vanadium is necessary in insulin action, bones and regulating Na/K balance in cells and is best sourced from parsley. Kate spent the morning sitting with Mary Watts, an elderly lady who needs constant company and care, relieving her live in carer.

The U3A film this week was “Elisabeth” the Kate Winslet version with an Indian director. The review said “colourful but not historically accurate”

Our Thursday walk started at Arrington again and was mostly in and around Wimpole Hall. It was mainly sunny and not too much mud.

Wimpole walk

“Biographies” subject was Dame Laura Knight, an artist who rose from a poor background to eventually paint the Nuremberg Trials.

It was “Messy Church” again yesterday. I think the weather kept some folk at home but there was a reasonable turnout.

Love Mike & Kate