8th December 2019

Dear All,

We were on street patrol again last night and it was reasonably challenging. It did not start well as the guy who was on last week forgot to pass on the church keys so we had to go via Waterbeach to collect them. Then the security company who provide the bouncer for the café said they could not guarantee that he would turn up so the café was cancelled. However, the police did turn up for a briefing which has not happened very often recently. It was a fairly busy night with many office Christmas parties in town, then it started to pour with rain about midnight. As usual the last 2-hour shift after 2 am was most demanding. We were called to Vinyl, the most recently renovated club where a girl out with the Cambridge United staff Christmas do, was convulsed and not responding well. It took nearly an hour and a half and she was still not fit for a taxi so her friend’s father was roused from his bed to collect her at 3.30am. We were just returning to base to clock off when we were called to the taxi rank where a lad of Portuguese extraction was having palpitations and behaving oddly. His mates were in a club that was staying open until 6 am. We eventually wound up at 4 am and bed at 5 am – hence the delay in producing todays epistle!

The penultimate session of “Just Vegetating” was “Minor Crops b” – Artichokes, Cardoons, Sweet Potatoes, Okra etc. One more session to go.

On Tuesday I had a visit from a man keen to sell improvements in the solar panels. It did not start well as the man on the phone who arranged the visit claimed their rep had another visit in the village, the efficiency would be improved by 33% and it would cost around £500. In fact there was no other visit nearby, the efficiency would be improved by 25% and would cost £6000!

We visited a couple of garden centres on Wednesday to implement a little Christmas shopping and purchase some autumn fruiting raspberry canes.

Our Thursday outing began in Godmanchester and skirted Huntingdon and crossed Hinchingbrooke Park – so no ploughed fields this week!

Hinchingbrooke Park

 

River Ouse at Huntingdon

Godmanchester

It was my turn to present a biography this week and I had chosen “Jack London”. It did not start well as there was no one to let us ibn the Friends Meeting House where we hold the course and we had to decamp to one of the member’s home which was not idea for a PowerPoint presentation – but it seemed to go well. Jack London only lived to 40 but packed an enormous amount in that time including being an Oyster pirate, seal hunting, bumming rides on trains, a spell in prison for vagrancy, an adventure gold mining in the Klondike, covering two wars as a journalist and sailing half way round the world. He wrote 23 novels, 46 short stories, 3 autobiographies, 50 non fiction essays, 3 plays and 113 poems.

 Jack London aged 17

Yesterday was along day starting with a Men’s Breakfast and taking in Over 1 v 1 Great Shelford before bed at 5 am.

With love

Mike & Kate

1^st December 2019

Dear All,

It was “Minor Vegetables a” this week at “Just Vegetating” the likes of Scorzonera, Salsify and Hamburg Parsley. I always define them as things you are more likely to find on an allotment than in Tescos but some of them are gradually creeping in. The pool was thankfully back to its normal temperature this week after a couple of chilly sessions.

We have completed two decent walks this week as on Tuesday we were reccying for one we are leading in two weeks time starting from Castle Camps near Haverill. We managed to plot a course avoiding the worst of the muddy fields but some of the paths were very slippery and the grass fields were heavily poached by cattle.

On Thursday we started at Orwell and took in Whaddon and Wimpole Hall where they are spending a deal of money relocating the car park to cater for their 390,000 visitors a year. En route we encountered a field silage clamp and the tractor tyres leading up to the clamp told their own story. We also encountered something that I have never seen before in the form of Slime Mould. It is a primitive saprophytic fungus which uses grass for support and is capable of moving.

Silage Clamp mud

 

Slime Mould

Wimpole Hall from the Avenue

“Biographies” this week featured “Marco Polo”. The remarkable thing about his travels were that it was so long ago – he travelled the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295 and also that it was recorded in a book. When he returned, he was in the Venetian army fighting their traditional enemy the Genoese. He was captured and imprisoned and passed the time telling stories of his travels. It so happened there was a scribe also incarcerated with him and he wrote the stories down. No one knows how true the stories are!

Banks have been playing up this week. The chapel account at Barclays lost personal details of the signatories and Bob and I had to fill in a sizeable form and actually go to ST Ives with photographic evidence to prove who we were – a couple hours of my life that I won’t get back! Then HSBC the holder of the CEEM account have embarked on a “Safeguard Review” which involved an 8-page document and some probing questions. I haven’t quite finished that yet.

Over’s match at Hemingford was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch so we went to West Wratting to watch a cup semi final v Cambridge University Press. Coming back the road to Bar Hill was closed – a regular feature of the A14 upgrade and we had a 10-mile detour to cover the last mile!

In the evening it was the Christmas market on the Green together with the turning on of the Christmas lights - it is getting close!

Christmas Lights on Over Green

Our Neighbour’s efforts

With love

Mike & Kate

24th November 2019

Dear All,

With love

We missed swimming this week as Kate’s cooking for “Just Vegetating” was more time demanding, this week it was “Potatoes”. In the evening we had a Street pastors get together mainly to discuss recruitment and the new temporary café site on Parkers Piece which is not attracting the usual number of customers.

On Tuesday we drove down to Hove via Littlehampton to visit a former neighbour Sophie Bridgeman who is now in an old folks home and rather frail.

On Wednesday we took Albert to Middle Farm near Lewes where he found the pigs a little intimidating but was happier with the harvest mouse and the ice cream!

River Arun, Littlehampton

Resident Artist

Kate & Albert

Fearsome Pigs

Less Fearsome harvest Mouse

 

Farmer Bert

Our Thursday outing began at Chevington near Bury St Edmunds. It was dry overhead but fairly sticky underfoot.

  

Grass maze at Chevington church

The biography subject this week was “Franz Kafka” a rather complex character who was loath to publish anything he wrote and asked for everything to be destroyed after his death – which did not completely happen although 90% of his output did perish.

  

Franz Kafka

 We entertained Grace and Arthur in the afternoon. Our pastor David’s father died this week so he has flown to South Africa for the funeral and subsequent arrangements so it is all hands to the pump for a week or two.

Most of you will know that we were in Beaumont for David’s 80^th celebrations yesterday. He didn’t want the guest list to be all over 70 so there was a good mixture of younger locals. We were fed well, fitted captions to photos and had a glimpse of his hitherto secret memoirs!

David, Graham & Jen

And furthermore………

Love

Mike & Kate

17th November 2019

Dear All,

It was “Legumes” in “Just Vegetating” on Monday with accompanying Bean Burgers and several other bean dishes. For the second week the swimming pool was bracing which kept the numbers down!

In the evening Terry Rugg came over and we planned the next Moldova trip probably in May while Kate was at the Dickens Fellowship in Cambridge. Driving back later that night was the usual excitement as the layout of the A14 changes almost daily – or more bafflingly -nightly.

On Tuesday I thought that the wasps in the compost bin would have lost their aggression and emptied the bin and mucked both greenhouses. The nest was small about 8” across and only a few inmates still alive and active. I also measured up the broken panes of glass (3) and got replacements from the glaziers on Over Industrial Site.

Wasp’s Nest

Mucked greenhouse

We both went to Cambridge shopping on Wednesday, Kate to buy new walking boots and me to be outfitted for the wedding.

Our Thursday walk began in a downpour which kept the numbers down but still 20 turned out. We started in Fulbourn which is surrounded by a surprising amount of Fen and Nature reserve. It stopped raining by half time and overall was not a bad walk with the autumn colours looking particularly good this year.

Damp Start

Surface water in Great Wilbraham

Winter Draws On!

The “Biography” subject was “Henry Blogg” ex coxswain of Cromer lifeboat. He is the most decorated lifeboatman of all time with 3 gold medals and 4 silver. Under his captaincy the boat was launched 387 times and saved 873 people.

Henry Blogg

Bill and Sue were present when I arrived home en route from Derbyshire to their sons in Kent. They had endured a very wet week in Derbyshire and had great difficulty getting out through the floods. Adrian Hart then called for us to help him renew his passport on line. When I did this for myself earlier in the year it worked like a charm, this time it did not work so well and tested our patience somewhat.

There were no decent football matches locally yesterday (damn International break!) so after a trip to Oakington Garden centre I finished off my biography contribution – Jack London for 3 week’s time.

I harvested Sweet Potatoes this week and they produced a decent crop.

 

Sweet Potato Crop

With love

Mike & Kate

10th November 2019

Dear All,

Not too much to report this week as we have not been far. “Just Vegetating” this week was “Salads-Fruit” covering Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers and Aubergines. The food continues to be popular with none left over for hungry leaders who have skipped breakfast to go swimming!

At the weekend I received an invitation to speak to the “South Devon Organic Growers” in January. It is a long way to go but I have met them before as they supply “Riverford”.

I have started working on my next “Biography” presentation this week as I have to perform in December now, as someone has dropped out. This time my subject is “Jack London” who packed a lot in a short life dying at 40.

Our walk venue was one of the more distant locations at Haynes in Bedfordshire beyond Old Warden. The weather was better than forecast and it was a good autumn walk with coloured leaves and loads of fungi.

Autumn colours

Fungi

Maulden Wood

  

Clophill Old Church

In the evening it was the AGM for Over Produce Show which is a bit of a non-event but necessary nonetheless.

This week’s biography was “George Keith” he was an obscure Scottish and Prussian army officer and diplomat. Jacobite by persuasion. He served in Flanders under the duke of Marlborough from 1708 to 1711, but for considering placing the Old Pretender on the British throne on Queen Anne's death he was deprived of his commission. He fought on the Jacobite side during the 1715 Jacobite rising and his estates falling to the crown. He then served Frederick the Great in Prussia eventually dying there.

George Keith

Yesterday I wrote December’s Garden Column and watched Cherry Hinton 2 v 0 Eaton Socon while Over beat Fulbourn 8 v 2

With love

Mike & Kate