9th July 2017

Dear All,

Kate had a check up on Wednesday and was given an all clear until her next mammogram. She also had a blood test and an X-Ray on her hip which has been playing up. She celebrated on Thursday after our walk by being violently sick and feeling awful so had to be rushed home where she recovered quite quickly after a shower and a sleep.

The Thursday walk started at Howletts End, near Thaxted. The crops in the area were excellent: uniform and fairly weed free. We took in Brocks second hand agricultural machinery show ground, at Cutlers Green, which is now massif.

Wheat near Howletts End

Brock’s Machinery Showground

Kate pre collapse

Apart from that we haven’t been far this week. Kate has been painting windows and fence panels, I have demolished part of our old coal bunker to accommodate the three dustbins. This produced 10 bags of brick rubble which we took to the tip yesterday.

Bin Bunker

I have also been tunnelling a track through the 6 feet high brambles behind the chapel to allow a painter to access the windows. While I was doing this the lady next door came to chat and said “I am surprised you haven’t done something with this area as it belongs to the chapel” which is a major surprise to us as our deeds state that it belongs to them. I have also started strimming the overgrown graves at the Cemetery – this is not one of my favourite jobs as strimmers seem to be especially temperamental!

We chalked up a rare victory for the Chapel cricket team this week. I managed to bowl 2 overs for 6 runs but when batting faced a whole over of a slow bowler lobbing balls out of the sun and didn’t see any of them.

We were invited to a BBQ at Matthew and Rachel’s yesterday together with their toddler Grace who Kate sometimes looks after.

The garden and allotment both seem to be going fairly well after last week’s rain and courgettes have entered “would you like some?” stage. Tomatoes and cucumbers are underway in the greenhouses where we also have melons, sweet potatoes, peppers, aubergines, ginger and peanuts.

Bottom Greenhouse

Peanut

Melon

Love

Mike & Kate

2^nd July 2017

Dear All,

Yesterday was a long day as I was drafted into the cricket team for the afternoon followed by Street Pastors – a bit much for a 71 year old! Both cricket and SPs seem permanently short of numbers at present. It was fairly busy in town as it was payday. We were called to a comatose girl outside “Revolution” and were able to get her to “Nightlite” to recover from whence she was collected and returned to Stevenage. A group were amusing themselves by throwing glass bottles off of the roof garden of “Revolution” so there was broken glass everywhere. A lad had been thrown out of “The Regal” for fighting with all the buttons ripped off his shirt and had become parted from his wallet and a coach driver was refusing to drive his passengers home as they were very drunk and abusive and trying to overcome his reticence by threatening to “break his jaw!” So enough going on to make the time pass reasonably quickly!

We had over an inch of rain on Tuesday – which was needed but did not make for an easy drive to Hove. We were late setting out as I had a Garden Club booking at Barton Mills and eventually arrived at 11.20pm. On Wednesday we caught the bus to Brighton Marina together with Albert, as we had not explored it before. It has been developed with smart new houses together with shops and many restaurants. Amélie was getting excited in preparation of her birthday party yesterday.

Brighton Marina

Fishing Boats

Housing Developments

Harbour Development

Homework

Serious Snack Consumption

Teeth Hygene

Bubble Fun

The rain led to a sticky walk on Thursday starting at Great Chesterford close to where Kate used to work.

Great Chesterford

love

Mike & Kate

25^th June 2017

Dear All,

A little too warm this week perhaps? Anyway it resulted in the unprecedented event of Philip cancelling our Thursday walk for fear of the health and safety of his elderly participants. Ironically Thursday was the coolest day of the week!

Kate and I went swimming instead which has the advantage of feeling better afterwards whereas walking sometimes needs time to recover!

On Monday, Kate and I met up with John Law at “Edible Ornamentals” at Chawston, just off the A1. They specialise in Chilli Peppers and are taking an interest in growing and importing from Moldova.

Tuesday, we made a rare foray to the shops in Cambridge ending with a picnic by the Cam at Fen Ditton.

The Chapel cricket team braved the heat on Wednesday against Huntingdon District Council,  narrowly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with 3 balls to spare.

Kate has been stoically picking currants nearly every day this week. We have a bumper crop and she has been delivering most of them to a friend in Fen End who makes jam as a business.

Friday evening we had a chapel outing to Les Cook’s farm on the edge of the fen. He specialises in raising and selling pedigree Hereford and English White cattle. He shows all over the country and has some outstanding stock. He sells stock, semen and embryos all over the world. He claims not to make much money but to have a fantastic way of life.

English White family

Champion Hereford Bull

Transport

I judged the first F & V show of the year at Stapleford yesterday. It was a very poor turn out and standard with rather fussy organisers.

Later we attended a “Marie Curie” tea party hosted by Kate & Gordon at Haddenham.

love

Mike & Kate

18^th June 2017

Dear All,

How are you standing the heat? It has been a little uncomfortable here for a couple of days. Highlights this week were the Cousin’s Reunion, the “Just Vegetating” lunch and Street Patrol on Friday night.

The Cousin’s Reunion was hosted by Dave & Jen at Beaumont with Jen heroically providing the food. John & Muriel were able to attend as it is a route that John is familiar with driving – and he still won’t be driven by anyone else – I guess at 89 he is unlikely to change! Peter & Annemarie were driven by their daughter Wendy as Peter had been fitted with a few stents a few days before! After lunch we drove to the Naze for a walk and then had a conducted tour of Colin & Amanda’s estate next door.

  

300 years of Wisdom?

The Naze Tower

On Friday we held a lunch here for the attendees of our “Just Vegetating” course. 18 turned up; Kate masterminded the food but some helped provided extra this time. Fortunately the weather was good – unlike last year when everyone ended up indoors.

The Street patrol on Friday was reasonably quiet with just two serious incidents. The first was a comatose girl who was diabetic but had consumed 13 units of alcohol. The night club had ordered an ambulance but it had not arrived as all overtime has been cut and they are operating a very basic service. In the end her mother was summoned from Ramsey and we were with her for over an hour. The second incident concerned an oriental gentleman who had been ejected from a club for throwing missiles and picking fights and had promptly passed out on the pavement. He took some time to wake up and was then copiously sick a few times but still not responsive. It was gone 3 am by this time and we could not find out who he was or where he was living. Fortunately two lads one Italian and one east European, both well drunk came by and claimed to know him as a student at St Edmunds college – but not living in. They were very enthusiastic with their support as only drunk people can be and said they would take him back to the college to sleep in their rooms if necessary. The next problem was how to get him there as taxi drivers are understandably resistant to taking drunks. In the end they found one who was willing (?) to take him and I managed to manhandle him into the taxi. He weighed a ton as his legs weren’t working but we managed to bundle him in and waved him off with some relief. Meanwhile we had been called to another case but this time the ambulance beat us to it and proved to be a good miss as the police were also involved in a difficult incident.

All the services are stretched at present, the police did not turn up for our usual briefing and part way through the night one of the clubs came on the radio to ask for police assistance as there had been an assault and they were holding the aggressor who was on bail. The reply was “take his details and let him go as we have no one available to deal with it at present!”

We attended Lily Firth’s funeral on Thursday at March. Her youngest son Brian gave an excellent eulogy and her husband Michael was able to attend, but following a stroke he is paralysed from the neck downwards and was very sad to see.

Over won a thrilling match by 2 runs yesterday which was unexpected as the first XI only had 4 regulars as the rest are in Poland for a stag weekend!

love

Mike & Kate

11^th June 2017

Dear All,

We have been “About a Bit” this week: Tuesday and Wednesday in Hove, Thursday walking at Much Hadham and Friday and Saturday in Derbyshire for the Chatsworth Flower Show. The journey down to Hove was wet with plenty of road spray and restricted vision at times. We arrived in time to collect Am lie from after school club. She was very pleased with herself as she had learnt how to make a jam sandwich at school that day and demonstrated her new skill at home!

On Wednesday we took Albert to “Middle Farm” where his highlights were the slide and feeding the pigs with various fruit and vegetables. I pushed him along the seafront when we returned to Hove and the wind was so strong we could barely stand upright. The almost inevitable accident on the M25 delayed us for 30 mins on the return journey but we were home by 9.30pm.

Sandwich Maker

Pig Feeder

  

Smiler

Much Hadham is over 45 miles from Over so about as far as we go for a Thursday walk. It was worth the effort as it is attractive rolling countryside and the walk took in the “Henry Moore Sculpture Park” at Perry Green.

Much Hadham High Street

Much Hadham Hall

Henry Moore Sculpture Park

The reports coming from the Chatsworth Show were not encouraging as there had been serious delays with car parking and heavy rain had turned the show ground to mud on Wednesday and Thursday. We left home at 5.30 am and reached Chatsworth at 8.30 am. Lessons had been learnt from the first two days and we got in very easily and enjoyed fine weather. It is a new show hence the teething problems, but it is a wonderful setting and an enjoyable experience. It was fairly similar to Hampden Court with water running through the site and less stuffy than Chelsea. We stayed the night in Ashbourne and visited Bolehill on the way home where they have taken on a new puppy – hopefully less savage than its predecessor!

Chatsworth

Queen Bee?

love

Mike & Kate

4^th June 2017

Dear All,

It has been a good week for the suntan! We have not been far so the garden is reasonably under control and the car is clean. An ex NIAB colleague, Roger Morley came for lunch with a friend on Wednesday and gave us a donation for Street Pastors as he had a relative that lived on the streets with a drug addiction for 10 years but eventually married and has settled down with some help. He is also a Mason and promising further help in that dark and secretive direction!

Our Thursday walk was a new one starting at Catworth, north of us between Graffham Water and the A 14. I labelled the photos “50 Shades of Green” as everywhere looked very fresh and very green. The crops there looked especially good and there a good mixture of wheat, barley, rape, grass and even a parsnip seed crop.

On Friday we had lunch with Rob & Penny Turvey who are walking friends (they were at my 70^th). They have recently returned from Australia where both their children currently live.

In the evening we attended the Over Players latest offering “My Fair Lady” which was very good.

I was called into the cricket team on Saturday playing on Parkers Piece in Cambridge which has both pluses and minuses. It is an iconic setting but has a constant stream of pedestrian traffic, quite a bit of it across the pitch. On Saturday it was particularly busy as “Strawberry Fair” was taking place so the passers by were more high spirited than usual. One of our boundary fielders lost his cap and another had his trousers pulled down! We had the opposition at 46 for 7 then a Pakistani gentleman came in at number 8 and scored 71 not out taking them to 163 – 8. We reached 145- 9. We needed 30 of 3 over when I got in and although Chris Gayle would have smashed this with no trouble I only managed a run a ball 6. I did take a sizzling one handed catch and quite enjoyed the game.

love

Mike & Kate