16th August 2015.

Dear All,

On the way to Hove this week we stopped off at Nymans, a National Trust garden near Haywards Heath.  It was developed by three generations of the German Jewish banking Messel family, from the late 19th century, and home of Antony Armstrong Jones mother. It has 35 “Champion Trees” i.e. taller, older or larger than any other of that species in the UK and prides itself on having colour all year round. It lost 486 trees in the 1987 storm and suffered a serious fire in 1947.

Nymans

Summer Border

Dry Garden

Blue Salvia

On Wednesday we explored Newhaven Fort, the largest built in the 19^th century and now contains an interesting museum as well as an adventure playground.

Newhaven Fort

Dads Army Audition

On Thursday our walk began at Great Easton, near Thaxted and at 11.5 miles was quite long enough!

Great Easton

On Friday I had to go to Spalding to check an out sourced RHS cauliflower trial being hosted by Elsoms Seeds. It was a very murky journey but the trial looks very promising.

Yesterday was “Show Day”. I was judging Fruit and veg, here in Over and Kate was on duty at Lolworth judging everything edible. The Vegetables at Over were of a high standard with two very good growers quite evenly matched. Most classes are reasonably easy to judge but 12 sets of almost perfect cherry tomatoes are a challenge!

Over had their first Saturday football match of the season yesterday and as the 1^st cricket team were home as well we were spoilt for choice.

The baby muntjac is still around and beans, cucumbers and tomatoes are still in plentiful supply.

Love

Mike & Kate

9th August 2015

9th August 2015.

Dear All,

Kate and I met up with Esther, Mandy and Natasha in London on Monday for Natasha, Kate and myself to climb the O2. Esther had brought the trip for Mary-Ann following her own successful conquest during her “40 year Challenges”. However circumstances have changed and most great mountaineers are not 7-8 months pregnant! It was not too difficult but rather windy and although overcast the visibility was good. After we met up with Ben for lunch on the Embankment.

O2

Hillary, Tenzing & AN Other

View South

Lunch

On Friday I went to Colchester for the Cricket Festival match v Surrey with two walking companions. It was an enjoyable day with sunshine and a decent Essex performance with regular updates on the Australians demise. In fact there has been quite a lot of cricket this week as we had a chapel match on Wednesday – rained off half way and I took Jim Burr to watch Over at St Ives yesterday.

Castle Park

Colchester Castle

Our Thursday walk started at Furneaux Pelham, between Buntingford and Stanstead. It was humid but dry so enjoyable with a good array of Hertfordshire cottages.

 Furneaux Pelham

Kate has been suffering with a sore tooth/gum and been referred for a scan and possible wisdom tooth extraction.

We were on “Nightlite” duty again last night – hence the delay in publication. It was very quiet until 1 am then busy thereafter. It was a tricky night as the church where we hold the cafe is smothered with scaffold outside and inside so we had to improvise to find enough space and all night life folks with dogs had to sit outside. The evening ended with a large skirmish outside the neighbouring night club but this did not affect us.

Love

Mike & Kate

2nd August 2015

2^nd August 2015.

Dear All,

On Friday evening I arranged a tour of the RSPB Ouse Fen project in Over where Hansons have been extracting gravel for a number of years. As they finish an area it is taken over by RSPB as a wetland project mainly planting reeds to encourage bitterns. This year they have counted 10 male booming bitterns so it appears to be working. The highlight of our visit was seeing one but their camouflage is incredible and it took several minutes to pick it out even after it was pointed out. We also saw a barn owl, marsh harriers, egrets, grebes and several small brown birds! The site is planned to grow to 700 ha after 30 years extraction.

Ouse Fen

Spot the Bittern Contest (not my photo)

 Ditto

We have removed all the pews that we are allowed to this week and electrics and radiators have been rearranged and walls varnished. The carpet tiles need to be sorted then things should look much better and more flexible.

Our Thursday walk this week started at Shepreth and took in Fowlmere, Foxton and Barrington. It was surprisingly rural for a route so close to Cambridge.

Barrington

Foxton

The Chapel cricket team trashed Huntingdon District Council on Wednesday and Over IIs trashed Sutton II yesterday but already some players are choosing to play pre season football friendlies.

Our juvenile muntjac has been around every day this week sampling here and there with fairly exotic tastes such as sweet potatoes, aubergines, gooseberries and apricots.

Plenty of gardening again this week: preparing a new strawberry bed, covering against leek moth and pigeons, digging spuds and picking beans.

Ben is safely back from China and seems to have had a good time. Esther is entertaining Mandy and Natasha and we are joining them in London tomorrow to climb over the O2.

Love

Mike & Kate

26th July 2015

26th July 2015.

Dear All,

It was Hove week this week and we left earlier than usual on Tuesday and called in at Wakehurst, near Haywards Heath. It is a large garden of 500 acres run by Kew and houses the Millennium Seed Bank. It has a collection of different gardens separated by some very healthy trees overlooked by a fine 16^th century mansion.

Wakehurst Mansion & Pond

Walled Garden

Millennium Seed Bank

On Wednesday we caught the bus into Brighton and visited the museum which has some magnificent pottery and china including a chamber pot with a model of Napoleon in the bottom so that you could insult him at each visit. The museum was also hosting the Natural History Photographic competition winners and some of these were truly excellent.

Flying Machine

Napoleon Pot

Ice cream time

Two animal stories this week. I was working in the garden on Friday and when I looked up there was a half grown muntjac fawn about 3 yards away. Instead of bolting it was quite curious and I managed to collect my camera and take a few shots. Later it was sheltering in the greenhouse, then yesterday it reappeared again. Whether this is good or bad news remains to be seen.

Friend or Foe?

Secondly all our tropical fish have been wiped out over two days. We have had a tank for nearly 44 years and this is the first time this has happened. I am not sure why.

We are in charge of the “Eco House” up the road this week as John and Sally are on a cruise. The main duty is locking up the chickens at night but last time they were away their freezer packed up with dire consequences.

Apricot season has begun and the tree has excelled this year.

Cricket was off yesterday due to the rain on Friday, which was nearly all day but greatly needed.

Having gained planning permission to replace the pews in the chapel after about 7 years waiting new chairs have arriv4d so we have a serious work session arranged this week to start the changeover.

Love

Mike & Kate

19th July 2015.

Dear All,

It was Over Carnival yesterday so a fairly busy day with Kate in charge of refreshments in the Pavilion and the usual chapel stand with quiz, game and craft. Esther, Mary-Ann, Andy and Amélie all came to help or participate and the sun shone all day so there was a good turnout. Our former lodger Cathy came to help with the refreshments a) she got lost getting here having lived in Over for 10 months! b) she was rashly assigned to the cash point and was largely the reason for increased profits as she was extremely approximate with the change. We picked up litter this morning but it was not too bad.

Quiz

Game

Crowds

Refreshments

Joy rider

Entertainment

Litter pickers

I called in at NIAB on Tuesday and found them in the middle of another round of redundancies “not because we are cash strapped but we need to change direction to more profitable areas”. That does not particularly cheer those affected.

Our Thursday walk started at Godmanchester and was reasonably familiar taking in Houghton, St Ives and Hemmingford – 11.4 miles but it was dry and not too hot.

Houghton Mill

Hemmingford

Harvesting continues at a pace with runner beans and tomatoes starting and French beans, cucumbers, lettuce, beetroot carrots, onions, shallots and garlic all producing well. On the fruit side of things raspberries and cherries have replaced strawberries and currants.

Our visitors all left this afternoon, Esther via Addenbookes to visit a work colleague. No news from China so hopefully Ben is having a good time?

Love

Mike & Kate

12th July 2015

12th July 2015.

Dear All,

On Friday Kate and I had a day out visiting Naseby Battlefield and the nearby Coton Manor Gardens near Kettering. There is not a great deal to see at Naseby but it was interesting to see the terrain they fought over in what was a decisive battle in the Civil War. The gardens were well worth visiting with terraced beds, woods and water.

Naseby Battlefield

Coton Manor Gardens

Thursday’s walk was a circular route around Ely and although largely familiar we did find some areas we had not seen before.

Ely

Red currant picking entered the second week but has finally finished for this year but raspberries are beginning now and the dwarf cherry tree has excelled this year.

Otherwise we have been preparing for next Saturday’s carnival, preparing wickets and generally keeping on top of watering and weeding.

I went to a NIAB “Wrinklies” lunch at Girton on Tuesday watching the differing rates that people age!

Ben flew to China on Friday for a 17 day visit.

Love

Mike & Kate

5th July 2015

5th July 2015.

Dear All,

We were on duty in the “Street Pastors” cafe last night so did not get to bed until 4.45 am - hence the belated epistle this week. It was a fairly lively evening in “Nightlife” with numerous hen parties, celebrating students and general revellers. The usual street folk and intoxicated youths were augmented by foreign students at language schools to learn English. As several of these are non drinking Muslims they are a welcome change when they drop in for a chat to improve their language skills. We had one serious casualty from South Carolina dripping with blood as he had been beaten up and a couple of heavily intoxicated girls who, atypically were not very grateful for help received. In addition, our 6’5” Nigerian security guard was suffering from a migraine so was packed off home. We were asked out for lunch at Merv & Pat’s today for which we were very grateful.

Monday was exercise day as we followed our normal swim with a 8.5 mile recce then cricket pitch repairs and an evening meal at Girton with some of the walking group. In fact we had 5 matches on the Green in 8 days so no respite for the groundsman in the testing weather!

On Tuesday evening we went to Warboys to hear a talk by Garry Williams from the John Owen Centre at the London Theological Seminary and Wednesday I painted the bottom shed with Cuprinol which proved an extremely warm job.

The chapel cricket team were out against St Neots Evangelical Church in the evening and we won fairly easily.

We led the walk we had recced on Thursday starting at Stow cum Quy and crossing Quy Fen to Clayhythe, Waterbeach and back along Bottisham Lode via the Cambridge Polo ground – which we had no idea existed and the disused Coprolite Pits.

Quy Fen Coprolite Pit

Overgrown section of the Walk!

We attended another session of Street Pastor training on Friday night which was better than some and in the night were woken by overhead thunder and lightning followed by 1.5” of very welcome rain.

We have been picking red currants most days this week – I have never seen such a heavy crop.

It has been Amélie’s 4^th birthday today. Esther went down to help with the celebrations with a “Creepy Crawlies” theme.

Love

Mike & Kate