20^th August 2023

 

Dear All,

I guess you have to admire an 88-year-old man, with no descendants, who plants a tree? Last year Geoff Barnes an ex elder of our church who moved to Fressingfield, Norfolk a few years ago phoned me up to ask about growing figs. I said don’t buy one as I can layer down a sucker from one of our trees, which I did, and this week it was ready to be delivered. On Tuesday, Kate and I together with Bob and Carol Kitson plus Carol’s 102-year-old mother Etty, travelled up to north Norfolk to deliver the tree. Geoff is remarkable for an elderly person as he thinks young and is vaguely planning to visit Brazil with a neighbour from there as well as Australia to see a close friend!

Fressingfield is a fairly small village of about 1000 inhabitants but they have recently sold their old church building – which was shaped like a coffin to remind man of his mortality! And have spent £1.5 million building a new one which is a fantastic edifice with an attached sports hall, large kitchen and numerous small rooms for classes.

 

 

Geoff with Fig Tree

 

 

Geoff, Etty, Mike, Kate & Bob

 

 

Inside the new church

 

 

Sports Hall

 

 

Kitchen

 

I had started the week at Cambridge Crematorium for the funeral of John House who was both a member of the U3A walking group and the Biographies class. He had been suffering from Parkinsons for some time but had a heart attack on the train returning from London.

We harvested our maincrop potatoes this week (Desiree and Rooster) before they are attacked by blight and have been distributing runner beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes to deserving cases!

Our Thursday walk started at Cowlinge south of Newmarket this week and took in Attleton Green, Wickhambrooke and Farley Green. The pub in Cowlinge opened especially for us. Harvest was well advanced probably 75% completed in that area and once again the sugar beet crops were excellent. It is an area of quaint thatched cottages with little noticeable poverty!

 

 

Period Barn near Cowlinge

 

 

Attleton Green

 

 

Farley Green

 

 

Cowlinge

 

Pastor David’s sister-in-law died unexpectedly in South Africa this week from blood clots following a hip replacement. She was in her 50s so the family, including David is in a state of shock. He has been given leave to go back to South Africa for the memorial service and help his brother.

Geoff Pake and I were invited to give a talk about CEEM and Moldova at the Breakfast meeting in Willingham Baptist church yesterday. The breakfast was excellent and they seemed to listen attentively.

Over did not have a football match yesterday as 3 teams have dropped out of the Cambs Premier league already. Dave Harrower and I therefore attended the top of the table clash between West Wratting and Great Shelford who finished 1^st and 2^nd last year. It was a proverbial “Game of two halves Brian!” ending as a 1v 1 draw.

 

Love

 

Mike & Kate

 

 

13^th August 2023

 

Dear All,

Stand out event this week was a family gathering at Beaumont on Wednesday. Most of the Brown clan had been staying at the farm all week and Kate and I were invited down for the day. We started with lunch after various groups returned from their morning’s activities: Car Boot Sale, Beach, Fossil hunting and shopping. After lunch David and Gavin gave tractor driving lessons on a couple of their large machines which Scott captured on his drone. We then did a walking tour of the farms and cemetery, followed by a BBQ for which the numbers rose to 26 and a quiz. It was good to catch up with everyone especially teenage boys that we had not seen for several years and we were forced to ask “and who are you?!”

 

 

Latest Addition

 

 

Tractor Training

 

 

3 Degrees! Ali, Rosie & Jackie

 

 

Charlie & Danny

 

 

Farm looking towards the sea

 

 

Miniature Mustang

 

 

240 years of Wisdom: Graham, Kate & David

 

Less years of not so much wisdom! Helen, Scott, Jackie & Colin

 

We have enjoyed? two decent walks this week, both over 8 miles. On Thursday we met at Burrough Green south of Newmarket and circled round Stetchworth and Woodditton, it is racing territory so plenty of horses in view. Yesterday we carried out a recce for a walk Kate and I are leading in a fortnight starting at Dry Drayton and taking in Childerley, Knapwell, Boxworth, Lolworth and Bar Hill.

 

 

Woodditton Water Tower

 

 

Woodditton Village Sign

 

 

Ten Wood, Stetchworth

I have had my laptop and projectors PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) examined by Adam Swain this week. It is a requirement for using electrical equipment for U3A classes and some garden clubs, checking the wiring, plugs and fuses.

Harvesting is in full flood at present with plenty of Runner beans, French beans, Tomatoes, Beetroot, Marrows, Cucumbers and Courgettes and Sweet corn beginning.

 

 

Monday’s harvest

 

 

First Sweet Corn – don’t tell the badgers!

 

 

 

Love

 

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

 

6^th August 2023

 

Dear All,

Were we really praying for rain a few weeks ago? Well, the answer is 65mm rain in July and 40mm rain in the first 5 days of August so far - with apparently power to add!

This week has been dominated by the Over Produce Show as apart from harvesting, polishing and preparing my entries I am also on the organising committee so we had to be at the Community Centre Thursday night to receive and catalogue the entries, on Friday we prepared the hall erecting tables etc then most of Saturday was taken up with the show.

This year the vegetable entries were up, flowers held their own but pot plants, cooking children’s entries and photos were all down. However, it was a successful show and the standard of vegetable entries was high. Kate was persuaded to put a couple of flower entries for the first time and achieved one first prize. I didn’t do well on the staple potato, onion, beetroot, tomato classes but rallied with aubergine, marrow, sweet corn, lettuce (unjustly!) and collection firsts plus rhubarb, a photo and bread. I was 2^nd in the veg, photos and overall but way behind the usual winner. Attendance was good maybe because of the continual rain outside?

 

 

Show Spectators

 

 

Part of the Veg Bench

 

 

My Collection

 

 

Rhubarb

 

 

Cut Flowers (Kate’s to the right of the Gladioli)

 

We had a rare outing to Cambridge on Monday summoned by Nationwide to prove my identity, despite the fact that I have had a savings ISA with them for some time.

The second outing of the week was to Coton Garden Centre as Kate wanted something new to wear at the impending gathering for her sister’s 50^th wedding anniversary. We also purchased a few more tropical fish and green manure seed.

 

 

Tropical tank

 

Following Ben’s photos of his latest cycling outing we decided to book a holiday in Georgia next month (the country not the state!). We hope this is not next on Putin’s shopping list!

Our Thursday walk this week started at Guilden Morden and took in Steeple Morden Litlington and Abington Pigotts. It stayed dry – a rarity for this week, and there was a good turnout. Crops were putting up with the weather quite well and we stopped in Guilden Morden church which has a very old and unusual double rood screen.

 

 

Kate airborne!

 

 

Crossing a Wheat field

 

 

Gatehouse to Morden Hall

 

 

Double Rood Screen

 

Ben should be back from Georgia and Armenia today and Mary-Ann, Andy and family are in Lanzarote.

The local football season kicked off with the usual preseason Ken Garner tournament between four local sides: Over Reserves, Willingham, Milton and Longstanton. Over eventually won the final on penalties in front of a crowd that would do justice to many nonleague teams.

Love

 

Mike & Kate

 

 

 

 

30th July 2023

 

Dear All,

 

Not too much to report this week as summer holidays kick in. With a couple of wet days, I began preparation for next term’s Biography presentation. This time I am trying Thomas Cook the travel agent, but as I got into it, I think I will add his son John Mason Cook as he was integral in expanding the Tourist business. On Monday afternoon I had a check up and tuning for my new hearing aids.

Our fish tank sprang a small leak so Kate has been successfully wrestling with sorting that this week which involved partial drainage and applying special water proof sealant.

On Tuesday Nat West sent an advisor to make sure we are looking after our vast wealth to the best possible advantage! Later Mervyn called to say he had a large collection of shoes and clothes cleared from next door after his neighbour passed on – would I like to collect any? Well, I am not proud and came away with 3 sets of footwear, a couple of shirts, several pairs of socks, two jackets and a belt. I may not win many “Best Dressed Man” competitions but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth!

As our normal U3A Thursday walk was at Thaxted and the weather forecast was not promising we decided to give it a miss this week and do a local walk on Wednesday. It was a good decision as the weather was good and the walk interesting spotting the recently acquired Konik ponies in the Ouse Fen, loads of butterflies and Damsel flies and carpets of thistles, ragwort and mayweed.

 

 

Konik Ponies

 

 

River Ouse at the Staunch

 

 

Red Admiral

 

 

Barleycroft Lake

 

 

Mayweed Carpet

 

 

Brownshill Staunch

 

On Thursday we bravely faced filling in the 96 sheets we had downloaded for Lasting Power of Attorney – spoiler alert you children will shortly being sent forms to fill in as Attorneys! Friday was a little busier as I began with cricket pitch preparation then we were asked to check the garden in Histon of an ex-walking colleague who had passed on and his widow was worried that she had Japanese Knotweed. The plants she was worried about were not JK but there was a strand that was, so we had to remove it. As we were close to Cambridge next stop was Curry’s as our TV was playing up and we bought a replacement. Setting up a new Smart TV has proved quite challenging and we still haven’t got all the required channels! This was followed by Tesco’s, a trip to the post office and visits from Adrian and Janet. I managed to fit in a practice loaf of bread as it is Over Produce Show next Saturday.

 

 

Practice Loaf

 

Over won an exciting match on Saturday chasing 184 they won by 1 wicket with an over to spare.

 

The Cambridge News Photo section this week was “Waterways” and I offered:

 

 

The Duoro Valley, Portugal

 

Ben has sent in a few phots from Georgia where the weather has been hot for cycling at 37°C and topography rather mountainous. Meanwhile Mary-Ann, Andy and family have been on the Isle of Wight sheltering from the rain!

 

Love

 

Mike & Kate