11th May 2014

11^th May 2014.

Dear All,

It was our turn at Hove again this week and the weather on Wednesday was of the proper seaside sort, so we spent the day walking to Brighton along the sea front. One brave soul was taking his first sea swim of the year wisely wearing beach shoes due to the somewhat course nature of the sand! Amélie was fascinated by the fact that “he was going into the sea with his shoes on”.

 Brighton 

Our walk on Thursday started at Halls Green, near Stevenage, and it was a beautiful sunny day with gently undulating scenery.

Messy church yesterday, I was in charge of origami boats and the Sea of Galilee i.e. paddling pool was popular on a hot afternoon.

Lots of gardening this week ready for going away tonight so early sweet corn, Brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, Romanesco, courgettes aubergines and cucumbers have all been planted. We have invested in a new pest proof vegetable cage to try and keep pigeons and butterflies at bay.

There have been three cricket matches on The Green this week so the square has needed some attention especially as the grass is growing at a rate of knots.

We are due to fly to Turkey tomorrow after staying overnight in Harrow.

Love

Mike & Kate

11^th May 2014.

Dear All,

I have spent much of the week catching up in the garden, writing the Moldova report and preparing the cricket square.

Kate had looked after the garden well and employed resourcefulness on the nights when frost threatened so there was no serious damage and most crops look very well.

I dug in the crimson clover that I use for green manure but as it had sucked out all the soil moisture the ground had set like concrete.

Crimson Clover

Vegetable Patch

The good news re Moldova is that the seed finally turned up in Burlacu on Day 18 of the 3-5 day promised delivery time! Still this is Moldova.

I spent nearly 4 hours cutting and rolling the cricket square on Wednesday then another hour marking out in the rain on Thursday with John Lane – only for both Friday and Saturday games to be cancelled.

I managed the walk on Thursday, my first for a month as my knee has been playing up. This started at Stapleford and took in Wandlebury and was rather damp.

Damp Walker

On Tuesday a group of us went to Warboys to listen to Matt Gamston who has been a missionary in the Philipines for 11 years. He is a breath of fresh air in that his newsletters were down to earth and amusing despite the dreadful situations he encountered with people living on the streets, dying for lack of money to pay doctors and coping with the typhoon last year.

We had a chapel outing to St John’s College on Friday evening shown round by the head gardener. 6 gardeners have to cope with 22 acres so they have their hands full.

Trespassing in Fellows Garden

The Masters Lodge (where the Duke of Cambridge recently studied)

Second Court

The Bridge of Sighs

Pythagoras Building

Love

Mike & Kate

4^th May 2014.

Dear All,

I have just returned from my 10^th trip to Moldova. John Law my companion this time was on his 14^th visit and claimed it was “the best yet”. I will write a fuller account when I have time but I am sending a few photos now to give you a taste of things. We flew Moldovan Airlines and it was fine. They were more punctual than most I have been on lately but you would not recommend the inhouse refreshment – a cross between a croissant and a bread roll. Unfortunately the 2000 packets of seed that I have lovingly sorted, catalogued and dispatched by courier did not arrive by the time we had left. Arriving late Saturday night was a problem as we were due at a service in Burlacu 3 hours away at 10 am next morning. Our driver opted to deliver us that night rather than early next morning. He got back to Chisinau at 1.30 am. We were not able to change money in Chisinau and when we had the opportunity in Cahul there were 44 ahead of us in the queue and a shortage of large denomination notes.

Several of the polythene tunnels needed recovering and we were able to sort some decent polythene. The Training Day went well and the church at Burlacu are erecting a new building. We were treated very well at Burlacu and had time to walk and explore as well as plant and talk, teach English at school and help with the “Meal Deal”

Leova the town further north is much more of a challenge. The house extension we have been funding is nothing like the plans we agreed and still far from finished. They treated us to goat for breakfast. We arrived at about 4.30 pm and they said “we have a service at 7 pm” fine we thought we do not have a translator until tomorrow so that lets us off. At 6.45pm they announced: “Chris Ducker is coming to translate and you two are speaking”. In the end it went OK and we were invited to Razesi to see the Duckers community project and brand new tunnel. We stayed for lunch and met the family who all seem to be very happy.

Igor drove us back to Chisinau and as it was a (another!) holiday he was relaxed and collected his wife and daughter and took us sight seeing to the “Moldovan Grand Canyon”, their tallest monastry and a winery where we treated them to dinner.

The situation in Ukraine, particularly the deaths in Odessa created a lot of discussion in Chisinau. In Burlacu it seems a long way away as they do not have newspapers or listen to the news.

It is the best way I know of making your life seem longer!

Meanwhile Kate took a flying visit to Derbyshire meeting up with a 102 year old relative who filled her in with some of the dark secrets of family history.

Oleg our star grower

Plenty of new Orthodox churches

Burlacu family

English class Burlacu school

Uptown Burlacu

Meal Deal kids

Local transport

Local erosion

Local character

Planting Water melons

Leova extension

Razesi tunnel

Grand Canyon caves

love

Mike & Kate

26^th April 2014.

Dear All,

Early bulletin this week as we (John Law and I) are off to Moldova this afternoon.

It was our turn to mind Amélie this week so we travelled down Tuesday afternoon returning Wednesday evening. We spent most of Wednesday in Newhaven, initially on the beach under the fort then walking round town. It has clearly seen better days and much of the port seems to have been given over to recycling.

There is an impressive sandy beach, which apparently belongs to the fort and has been sealed off to the public for “Health & Safety” reasons. This is a great pity as the rest of the coast is huge pebbles.

Sandy beach

Not so Sandy beach

Newhaven Cliffs

Newhaven Docks

Easter comes but once a year!

The rest of the week has been spent packing, gardening and cricket square preparations.

On Thursday we were invited to Churchill College for a Red Cross fund raising lecture by Sir Gregory Winter on the role of Antibodies in medicine. He was very erudite and reasonably clear but I guess a good percentage of his audience struggled to keep up! It was quite interesting to hear not only the science but the way discoveries are commercialised by the major drug companies.

love

Mike & Kate

20th April 2014

20^th April 2014.

Dear All,

Well we survived our first experience of “Spring Harvest” and it was quite enjoyable. The teaching was good, I knew I would struggle with the singing – I am not keen on endless repetition, the accommodation was adequate and the company good. We were with Bob and Carol Kitson and the Addison family. We attended the main morning session each day led by Malcolm Duncan in a marquee holding 3000. In the afternoon we went to a seminar then got off site for a few hours and in the evening watched the main session on TV (thus avoiding serious singing!) before sitting in on a later film/comedy slot. One of the most impressive speakers was Barnabus Mam a Cambodian who had survived Pol Pot reducing 10,000 Christians to 200.

Accommodation

Main Marquee

Inside

Kate was keen to explore Skegness as it was her earliest seaside experience. It is actually in quite reasonable condition, but must boast the biggest collection of unhealthy eating offers anywhere in the country.

Welcome to Skegness

Healthy Eating

Boating Pool

We also drove out to Gibralter Point, a nature reserve that was severely flooded in December and walked up to Ingoldmells Market a huge outdoor market in a sea of caravans and fairground rides – cultural experience!

Gibralter Point

Ingoldmells market

Yesterday was spent trying to send a parcel to Moldova by courier (2 hours on computer), Messy Church (over 50 attending), watching the first half of Over 5 v 1 Soham Town Res. and catching up in the garden.

love

Mike & Kate

13^th April 2014.

Dear All,

It was good to see most of you yesterday as we enjoyed a well planned day for Jen’s 70^th. It is interesting to log the changes in both old and young when you do not see them too often. “Faith Farm” made an excellent venue for the activities as besides eating we attempted to hit clay pigeons, archery, golf and football targets and show skill on a mini digger. We also undertook a couple of walks in between serious chin wagging.

Rosie’s new career

Maid Marion?

Faith Farm

Still dextrous at 70!

On Monday night we had the annual chapel outing to the 10 pin bowling rink at Pidley, preceded by a meal. About 30 came for the meal and 24 bowled. I got a prize for “Most improved player” advancing from 82 in the first game to 144 in the second.

On Tuesday I went to Fenners to watch Cambs University take on Essex at cricket. Neither side found batting very easy but one Essex batsman (Bopara) scored 90 exactly the same as the whole Cambs team.

Fenners

Alistair Cook

I missed the walk on Thursday as my knee is still playing up but Kate led the short walk from Burwell round Wicken Fen on a pleasant sunny day.

We were invited out for lunch on Friday with some fellow walkers who both taught English at Anglia Ruskin University. We were joined by John and Carol Pook, the lady will be known to my children as a teacher from Swavesey. As they live close to the Botanic Gardens I had my second visit in 2 weeks.

I have been gradually accumulating things for Moldova and John came over on Friday night to make final plans as we are scheduled to leave in 2 weeks.

love

Mike & Kate

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