21st May 2023

 

Dear All,

I guess it was back to normality this week after 3 weeks away. Evenings this week went Tuesday: church meeting, Wednesday: Over Garden Club, Thursday: Over Produce Show committee, Friday CEEM committee. Stir in plenty of gardening, cricket pitch preparation and a local walk and the result is nothing out of the ordinary.

Kate started the week far from well, shivering, aching and low in energy, then after four days she developed diarrhoea and feeling sick but dry heaving and now after a week slowly recovering but still not 100%. Not that this caused her to slow down overmuch which might not have helped?

The garden took a lot of weeding after being away but is now largely under control. This week I have planted courgettes, sweet corn, sweet potatoes and sown swedes more sweet corn and lettuce. I have also erected the brassica cage at the allotment.

 

 

Veg Patch

 

 

Early Potatoes.

 

I had a Pneumonia jab on Tuesday but Kate cancelled her slot. A new fridge arrived Wednesday and I ordered a new lawn mower so we are spending the kid’s inheritance!

The garden club speaker was from a nursery near Peterborough and he brought about 150 slightly unusual plants with him to talk about and sell. He was clearly a character and bore an uncanny resemblance to Ross Noble the Geordie comedian!  Kate was not well enough to join the walk on Thursday but we managed a local circuit on Saturday down the orchard and up through the allotments,

 

 

Orchard plus cow parsley

A feature was the May blossom, the wild flower strip near the allotments which featured crimson clover and the profusion of buttercups along Mustill’s Lane.

 

 

Wild Flower strip with Crimson Clover

 

 

 

Buttercup meadow

 

 

May Blossom

 

CEEM is going better with Gordon sorting the finances and Geoff adding enthusiasm. Folk have been very generous with donations and this week I received a surprise cheque from cousin Muriel.

Local Cricket is underway so that has meant pitch preparation for the first match on The Green which Over won convincingly today by 8 wickets thanks to the inclusion of a keen Indian gentleman who took 3 wickets for 2 runs and scored 45 runs,

 

 

Love

Mike & Kate

 

 

14th May 2023

 

Dear All,

12 days in Moldova, 2 days at home then a week in the Lake District was not ideal planning but that is how it worked out. One of our walking group is a keen HF Holiday enthusiast and arranged to take over the whole hostel at Derwent Bank and filled it with 60 members of the Tuesday and Thursday U3A groups. It was Kate and my first experience of HF and we were very impressed with the organisation, leaders, accommodation and food. The house was right on the shore of Derwent Water and three walks of different lengths and difficulty were arranged each day, led by knowledgeable volunteers. The only slight downside was that we were on the top floor and 51 steps after a long walk was a good way to finish us off!

We opted for the middle walk on the first day which tackled the summits of Outside and Barrow. It was 9 miles with tough ascents and one of our friends Ian fainted and fell backwards cracking his head on a rock and bled profusely. Kate was nearest to him and while tending him received several splodges of blood on her smart anorak. The leader Steve, dealt with the situation very professionally but we had to get Ian down to the road and arrange for a taxi to take him to hospital to be checked over – as this was exactly the time of the Coronation the taxi took some time to arrive, so it added 90 minutes to our jaunt. I have never really subscribed to the opinion that ”coming down is worse than climbing up” but in this case the long descent from Barrow was a severe test for everyone’s knees. In all we were out for 8 hours so an exacting test on our first day, but magnificent views.

 

 

Newlands Valley

 

 

Ascent to Outside

 

“Brought wit is cheapest!” so we opted for walk 1 for the rest of the week. The next walk followed the shoreline of Derwent Water to Rosthwaite including a climb up to Millican Dalton’s cave. Dalton returned from WWI rather affected and lived in this remote cave for a while. The route gave excellent views of the lake and was not nearly so demanding.

 

 

Derwent Water

 

 

Borrowdale

 

Monday was a free day and a bit overcast. Six of us caught a boat which zig zagged up the lake and got off at the far end to explore the Ladore Falls then climbed up to Ashness Bridge. We had a little drizzle but nothing serious.

 

 

Derwent Water from Ladore

 

 

Ashness Bridge

 

On Tuesday we headed for the Whinlatter Forest trails opposite Skiddaw and enjoyed end to end sunshine and again spectacular views.

 

 

View from Spring bank towards Skiddaw

 

 

View towards Bassenthwaite Lake

 

On Wednesday we were the other side of the valley in the foothills of Skiddaw. While the group 3 climbed to the summit of Skiddaw, disappointedly hidden in cloud, we scaled the smaller peak of Latrigg with a very civilised gentle ascent. But excellent views of Keswick and Derwent Water. Returning to Keswick we had time to visit the Pencil Museum – surely the high point of any outing!

 

 

Latrigg

 

 

Keswick Pencil Museum

 

For our last walk we caught a bus to Ullswater and walked most of the length of the lake enjoying our only shower of the week. The weather really was kind to us as on our return to Over the rain gauge read 53 mm! We climbed to the top of Aire Falls.

 

 

Ullswater

 

 

Lyulph’s Tower above Ullswater

 

We arrived home 1.40pm Friday amazed at the growth in the garden during the week away and found the goldfish swimming in the grass surrounding the over flowed pond. Kate did not feel well and is still struggling with a temperature, aches and pains but has tested -ve for Covid.

Love

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

16th April 2023

 

Dear All,

Mary-Ann, Amḗlie & Albert stayed until Wednesday morning but Andy had a work commitment and caught the train back on Tuesday. Sunday there was a 20 clue Easter Egg hunt planned and executed by Mary-Ann and Andy resulting in considerable loot! In the afternoon we walked round Knapwell Woods which incorporated “Hide & Seek” and spotting a surprising number of oxlips.

  

Easter Egg Hunt

 

Loot

  

Oxlips

 

Monday morning, I employed happy? Volunteers to sort, count and catalogue 758 packets of flower seed which had been donated for Moldova by Mr Fothergill’s. We then travelled to Wyton to engage with “Inflatabounce” a vast barn full of bouncing inflatables which kept the children amused and exercised for some time.

 

 

Seed Sorting Army

 

 

Inflatabounce

  

Fearless Adventurers

 

On Tuesday it was Linton Zoo which is a reasonable small outfit with a decent array of animals.

 

 

Giant Tortoises

  

Stripey Horse

 

 

 Tapirs

 

Mary-Ann left early on Wednesday as Amḗlie had an “Escape the Room” party to attend.

John Lane and I marked out the cricket square aided by a junior apprentice who is taking a coaching course.

Our Thursday walk started at Ousden south of Newmarket and took in Hargrave, Denham and Dalham. We didn’t get too wet or muddy this week but the wind was keen and cowslips were prominent.

 

 

The Fox, Ousden

 

 

 

Leipsic Wood, Dalham

 

We had a Men’s Breakfast on Saturday with the guest speaker from the Sally Army. Otherwise, I have been preparing talks and collecting items for Moldova. Three of us are due to travel on Friday so no letter for next 2 weeks.

Love

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

2^nd April 2023

 

Dear All,

We managed a swim early Monday before driving down to Hutton to help Esther & Emma sort their post builder’s garden. I took our rotovator with us and it helped make an impression on what looked an initial daunting task! I think you can see the difference?

 

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

Before

  

After

 

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

Part of Work Force

 

On Tuesday we went to St Ives to start collecting gifts for Moldova then in the afternoon I drove to Kentford to pick up a couple of boxes of seeds donated by Mr Fothergill’s and I have spent a few hours since sorting, cataloguing and entering them on a PowerPoint ready for a Seminar in Moldova.

 

 

Box 1 Flowers & herbs

  

Box 2 Vegetables

 

I unloaded the rotovator at Adrian’s Monday night and spent Wednesday morning helping finish his winter cultivations! In the afternoon I was invited to give a talk to the pensioners at the Over Day Centre. It was an interesting challenge to engage the audience and keep them all awake, and although some closed their eyes, I am sure they were listening! I showed photos of RHS gardens and presented a vegetable quiz.

So far the rainfall figures for 2023 are rather uneven: January 31.5mm, February 8.5mm and March 92.5mm (3x the March average!). The March figure accounts for another muddy walk on Thursday starting at Chrishall and circling via Upper Green and Duddenhoe End. We saw another herd of 50 deer including an albino. It remained nearly dry with just a slight shower but there was a serious wind for most of the journey.

 

 

The Red Cow, Chrishall

 

 

Chrishall Church

 

 

Muddy Stretch

 

 

Under Water Section

 

In the evening I was at a committee meeting for the Over Produce Show – our secretary as usual managed a 20-item agenda and the conversation was largely dominated by how to fix photos to the display boards!

U3A has finished for the term so Friday was free for a change. After Tesco’s the weather did not encourage outdoor activity so I spent a few hours on the seed.

Both Over teams lost 2 v 0 yesterday but the main topic of conversation revolved around Dave Boothroyd’s son who had just moved house to St Ives. Unfortunately, the previous owners were the couple involved in the local murders at Somersham and Sutton. The police raided the house at 4am thinking the couple were still resident and had John prostrate on the pavement at gun point in his underpants – quite a nasty shock!

Love

Mike & Kate