19^th January 2020

Dear All,

The swimming pool was rather chilly again on Monday and sparsely populated – maybe the two were linked? Later I attended the funeral of John Ardley who worked for DEFRA on the NIAB site and lived in Swavesey. He had battled Parkinsons Disease for 32 years but still managed to achieve a geat deal.

On Tuesday afternoon I spoke to the U3A Garden Club which meets in Milton Road catholic church. One of their meetings caught my eye: “After Wednesday Mass come to the Rosary club – you do not have to have your own beads”.

Kate has been suffering all week – actually 12 days to date having lost her voice and coughing for England (in or out of the EU) – it is a serious virus.

I assembled my propagation cabinet on Wednesday and began germination tests on Saturday so the growing season is underway. I attended Over Garden Club in the evening where we were entertained with garden themed poems and readings which was entertaining – I will have to get more poetry into my talks!

Thursday saw the walking group at Tilbrook near Kimbolton. It was undulating topography but still very muddy so you certainly knew you had been taking exercise!.

Cromwell House, Tilbrook

 

Mud still available

U3A motto: We are never lost – sometimes we are not sure where we are!

I had some RHS homework this week as we split up seed catalogues between Panel members to check which varieties have been added or removed.

“Biographies” began again this week and the subject was “Ivan Maisky” who was the Soviet Union ambassador to the UK from 1932 to 1943 and very influential in convincing Churchill that the Russians would not make separate deals with the Germans. He had overcome serious handicaps being Jewish and initially backing the wrong side in the Russian civil war. He had a spell in Siberia and later Stalin accused him of being an English spy, but he survived and died aged 90 at his dacha.

  

Ivan Maisky

Over won a good game Foxton 2 v 4 Over yesterday – a good performance in rather chilly conditions.

With love

Mike & Kate

12^th January 2020

Dear All,

It was the chapel New Year Social yesterday. Kate was in charge of the meal but unfortunately has been suffering with a heavy cold since Wednesday and cooking for 50 in a steamy kitchen has not improved her health. However the meal went well and I delivered the usual review of the year.

 Menu:

We went to the Fitzwilliam museum on Wednesday to view the exhibition “Feast and Fasting” covering food related items from 1500 to 1800. There were some interesting paintings but also icing sugar models and interesting write ups of topics such as growing pineapples in those days.

 Fitzwilliam Promotion

Food Models

Our Thursday walk was local starting at Fen Drayton and taking in the RSPB Lakes and river bank. Needless to say there was a certain amount of mud and there were at least 5 fallers albeit into soft landing!

Fen Drayton Lakes

  

The Ferryboat Inn, Holywell across the River Ouse

Sticky going by the river

Wedding photos are now on-line if you have an hour or two to peruse them: https://boutiquefilms.wetransfer.com/downloads/cf3060e6551f1120d7af084db0013b5a20200105075309/9a6f038e251005e0e8b7ed8cff22113b20200105075309/adc208

With love

Mike & Kate

5^th January 2020

Dear All,

It took Ben 7 hours and 45 minutes to bike back to Streatham last Sunday albeit by a longer scenic route. It has been a quieter week after family departures – so a shorter letter!

After our swim on Monday we took advantage of the sunny weather an did a walk round Over Fen where new sluce gates have been installed.

Over Fen

 

New Sluce Gates

On Tuesday we finished the Christmas jigsaw puzzle entertained Adrian and Janet, visited Tesco and Kate had her wedding nail varnish scientifically and painlessly removed!

Christmas Puzzle

On New Year’s Day we briefly attended Foster seniors gathering where we lowered the average age of the gathering then travelled to the Ely cinema to watch “Little Women” which was very good.

Thursday’s walk started at Clare and was challenging with especially sticky mud and a fairly long walk. In U3A terms we were never actually lost but there were several occasions when we did not know where we were!

Clare castle

  

Seasonal mud

Clare Parchetting

Windows 10 decided up upgrade itself again this week (without asking!) and as usual protected me from opening several applications so I had to entertain “Stan the Computerman” on Friday to fix it.

We entertained the Gregory’s last night for a meal as Kate and Jane are in charge of the New Year Social meal next Saturday and were experimenting with the menu.

With love

Mike & Kate

29th December 2019

Dear All,

After our swim on Monday it was serious sprout distribution – 55 stops this year. Ben arrived on Tuesday having biked 85 miles in just under 7 hours taking a slightly longer route via Biggleswade. We had Michael ex Zimbabwe court translator now carer for lunch so only 4 of us – a far cry from the days of 26!

Carol Service choir (after intense practice)

On Boxing Day we were invited to the Howards mid-morning then Mary-Ann, Andy, Amélie and Albert arrived about 7 pm and Esther and Emma 9.30 pm.

Friday was a bit like Christmas Day with games and presents after Mary-Ann and Andy had walked to St Ives and back and Ben had run a few miles round the villages.

Friday lunch

On Saturday we went to Old Hurst where an enterprising farmer has a farm shop and butchery backed by the attraction of a tropical house with crocodiles and snakes plus Meercats, Wallabies and storks outside

Old Hurst livestock

. In the afternoon Amélie helped us choose some more tropical fish from the garden centre ay Coton where we were entertained by a trio of singing reindeer!

What is Christmas without a few singing Reindeer?

Ben has just left at 9.30 am for his return journey and the others plan to depart after lunch.

With love

Mike & Kate

22nd December 2019

Dear All,

We have managed two Christmas lunches this week and both were decent quality for mass catering. On Monday it was the ex NIAB employees at the Hallmark Hotel at Bar Hill and on Thursday the walking group at The Crown Little Walden. Both suffered reduced numbers through illness which seems especially rife this year. The walking lunch had to be earned of course with a challenging walk via Saffron Walden with mince pies and mulled wine at a member’s house. The walk outside of town was slippery and hard going with hardly a field without a lake on it.

Near Little Walden

 

Saffron Walden

 

The Class of 2019

Kate and I did a little more shopping in Cambridge on Tuesday and on Wednesday I managed to book our next flight to Moldova and collected a Christmas tree from Fenwick’s bargain allotment – still £2 per foot. I also completed an eight page security check for the CEEM account at HSBC – a few hours of my life that I won’t be getting back!

I collected my usual haul of Brussels sprouts on Friday this time grown in Kent via a farm shop in Hilgay. The size is good but they have a few more black spots than usual and the price had increased by 50%. I started delivering yesterday to locations outside of Over and plan to distribute locally tomorrow (58 on the current list).

Sprout trees

Additional sprouts

We watched Shelford 3 v 1 Eynesbury yesterday with one goal being scored from 70 yards.

Happy Christmas to all readers especially those we will not be seeing over the period.

With love

Mike & Kate

16th December 2019

Dear All,

Can’t think what happened last weekend to prevent me writing – must be old age creeping in!

There again I think it is coming back to me gradually under the code of E E D D.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the wedding and Kate and I both enjoyed it very much. There was a very good atmosphere, everyone had good words to say about both Esther and Emma and they had put enormous thought into activities to keep the young and not so young amused. Enough said as most of you were there so a few pictures ahead of what might be a tidal wave to follow! It was also nice to stay over and share breakfast with so many next day to unwind gradually.

Last week was the end of the U3A term so we concluded “Just Vegetating” with “Oriental Vegetables” and the class donated £162 towards CEEM.

Kate went carol singing in the Grand Arcade, Cambridge on Wednesday evening with the Fitzwilliam College choir and they raised over £1000 for “Winter Comfort” which supports homeless folk in Cambridge.

I have been busy trapping mice which are chomping through my broad beans in the garden – tally three so far.

Thursday was a full day as we led the walk in the morning beginning at Castle Camps near Haverill and took in Steventon End and Shudy Camps. It was not the best of conditions as wet for most of the walk and they specialise in super sticky brand of mud. We managed to avoid crossing any cultivated fields but even the paths were slippery.

Cooper’s Farm Machinery dump

Damp break

In the afternoon we had flu jabs before voting then in the evening it was Over Pantomime – Aladdin this year.

Our final session of “Biographies” features Christmas and Winter readings, a quiz and eats.

The A14 continues to exercise everyone who dares to enter, cross or journey down it – both our journeys at the weekend required some patience!

With love

Mike & Kate

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