9th February 2020

Dear All,

We had a serious malfunction in our tropical fish tank, while we were in Hove the thermostat packed up and overheated the water and cooked the fish. Consequently, we have started again with some new electrics and a spring clean of the tank. Fortunately, a friend – Adam Swain had an over population of Swordtails and was keen to restock our tank.

  

We attended the U3A film club this week to see “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” starring Humphrey Bogarde  made in 1947 but it was still very good.

Our cemetery has been left some money and is spending some trimming the hedges where there was some hefty trees growing up. I have been the main beneficiary of the timber and spent much of Wednesday sawing up logs so that we sat in front of a roaring log fire for the first time this winter on Thursday.

Sowing is well under way with peas in gutters, tomatoes, celeriac, lettuce, beetroot, salsify, cabbage, cauliflowers and broccoli all started and a severe gash on my head as I forget how low the greenhouse doorway is!

I spoke at Great Chesterford Garden Club on Wednesday night and had to judge their spring flower competition – I try and leave before the results are announced!

Thursday saw us at another distant location this time at Shillingford beyond the A1 in Bedfordshire. The journey was worthwhile with wall to wall sunshine and rolling countryside.

  

Shillington church on the hill top

  

Near Lower Gravenhurst

Wrest House

“Biographies” this week features a relatively unknown polymath called “John Cranch” presented by one of his descendants who had written a book about him. He was born in 1751 in Devon and did not go to school due to poverty. He was apprenticed to a lawyer aged 10 then to an Attorney in Axminster before escaping to London where he had a lively interest in all things artistic teaching himself Latin and French and developing great skill as a painter becoming a mentor of John Constable. He moved to Bath and started collecting Roman pottery and coins and his collection started the Bath museum collection. He must have been a remarkable man in his day and yet none of had heard of him illustrating the transience of fame!

John Cranch

The Plasterer by John Cranch

Over won a cup semi final on penalties yesterday after drawing 1 v 1 with Bassingbourn.

Amḗlie has spent 4 days away with her school at an outdoor activities centre which she has greatly enjoyed.

Ben was uncomfortably close to the site of the stabbing and shooting in Stretham last weekend but thankfully not too close.

With love

Mike & Kate

2^nd February 2020

Dear All,

We were down in Hove for grandparent duties Tuesday and Wednesday with good journeys both ways. On Wednesday we took Albert to Brighton to visit a few places from “The Secret Brighton” book. These included the “Loaves & Fishes” sculpture, the Toy Museum and the Jewish quarter.

The Toy Museum is not large but packed with vintage toys including vast numbers of trains and displays of iconic names like Meccano, Dinky, Corgi etc. To make it more interesting for small children they had included a number of Lego men amongst the exhibits and Albert was very sharp in spotting these.

 Loaves & Fishes sculpture

 

Toy Museum

Jew Street

 

Jew Street

On the Bus

 

Gull with lunch

Amelie demonstrating the Yoga method of putting your shoes on!

We walked on the beach after and spotted a gull eating a baby shark.

On returning home we found that the thermostat in the fish tank had misfunctioned and cooked all the tropical fish which was especially disappointing as several babies had been born recently.

The swimming pool was still sparsely populated on Monday with our car load of four providing half the occupants. In the evening I had a garden talk at Wickhambrook about 40 miles away on a cold damp evening which made me ponder how much longer I wanted to continue turning out especially in the winter. To make things worse there was a a 5 mile queue on the A14 so I had to take to the villages to make it in time.

Biographies this week featured “T. E. Lawrence” of Lawrence of Arabia fame. He was a complex character as described in one biography entitled “Hero or Charlatan”. According to the presenter the famous film “Lawrence of Arabia” got a lot of things wrong but captured his character quite well.

T.E. Lawrence

This week’s walk started at Ingham north of Bury St Edmunds on light sandy land so we escaped mud for the first time for several weeks. The route took in Culford school grounds where some pupils were having a golf lesson – just like our own school days! It was a good walk including the River Lark with a good collection of water birds. On the downside it was very odiferous with the smell of Bury Sugar beet factory blending with numerous piggeries and an odd bonfire.

Culford School

Egyptian geese

Culford Bridge on the River Lark

We were on the streets Friday night and it was busy being pay day and Brexit but well behaved with little trouble. We had two ambulance incidents, one a large lad completely comatose with wide dilated pupils suggesting ketamine indulgence and a severely sick girl for whom a helpful passerby had ordered an unnecessary ambulance.

We watched Over at West Wratting yesterday in very exciting game where Over were 2 up in 6 minutes but West Wratting equalised for 3 v 3 in injury time.

With love

Mike & Kate

26^th January 2020

Dear All,

The highlight of this week was the New Year Social for the U3A Walking group. This is normally held in Newnham College but they have been altering their premises so we met in a church hall in Hills Road opposite Homerton College. It was the usual “bring and share” which is excellent as the donors tend to get competitive and the standard is very high! Kate cooked a ham this year and I was responsible for the Review. In addition, we had a saxophone rendition and a poem relating to the year.

After swimming on Monday, I met up with Peter Rickard a guy who I knew from work. He was director of Arthur Rickwood Experimental farm for a while then an ADAS Horticultural advisor so we used to work on carrots and parsnips together. His wife died 5 years ago from a rare vascular disease.

We have signed up for the U3A Film Club this year and the first offering on Tuesday was Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator” which was released in 1940 and a brave offering at the time.

On Thursday we had a long journey down to Much Hadham for our walk which took in Perry Green and the Henry Moore sculpture park. It was a dull day but there was less mud than recently and it stayed fine.

Much Hadham

 

Near Widford

 

Fit a caption contest

 

And another!

The Cambridge News photo page topic this week was “The Sea” and I submitted “Frozen Sea at Lulea, Sweden” which some of you will remember (not warmly!) and it was published on Thursday.

Our “Biography” topic on Friday was Lady Hester Stanhope” (1776-1823) niece of William Pitt the Younger who was his private secretary for a while but after he died began travelling, mainly in the middle east. She was very independent and caused a few scandals. Her archaeological expedition to Ashkelon in 1815 is considered the first modern excavation in the history of Holy Land archaeology.

 Lady Hester Stanhope

With love

Mike & Kate

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