26th September 2010

26th September 2010.

Dear All,

We have been entertaining again today, Ray & Rita, Jane Gregory and a new young couple Rachel & Will Addison plus baby Jonty who have recently moved into the village and started attending chapel.
This has been Harvest weekend with a supper last night with a local farmer, Geoff Pake as speaker reminiscing about harvests past. This morning we had Stan Crees from “Operation Agri” with a presentation about their agricultural projects worldwide. As usual the decorations were very good.

Harvest 2010

Yesterday Kate and I visited Anglesey Abbey a National Trust property at Lode near Cambridge. The dahlias and cyclamen were the main attractions in the gardens and we explored the house for the first time.

Anglesey Abbey

Our last college visitation on Monday was to Murray Edwards Hall formerly New Hall. Unlike its namesake in Oxford it is fairly recent (mid 60s) and has only just been named due to a generous donation from the Edwards family, Murray being the first President. The head gardener is a lady and they try to keep a modern theme to the gardens.

Murray Edwards Hall

I had another Garden Club talk this week, this time at Burwell. They were a responsive audience but again fairly mature.
Wednesday we had an interesting Day at Wisley judging 50 Squash varieties and 20 Pak Choi.

Pak Choi trial

Winter Squash trial

The Thursday walk was south of Newmarket starting at Burrough Green proceeding via Kirtling, Dullingham and Stetchworth. The weather was not great as it rained for half the trip.
On Friday we had a CEEM Board Meeting at Little Paxton. Pete one of the founders has resigned but we swore in a couple of new Board members.

love

Mike & Kate

19th September 2010

19th September 2010.

Dear All,

On Monday our college garden group were addressed by a man from the Cambridge City Parks Dept. They look after 80 open spaces in the city totalling over 500 acres including 45,000 trees and spend £45,000 a year on bedding plants. You can graze a cow on their common lands for £42 per year and they provide a pinder to look after the cattle.

Jesus Green, Cambridge

We were grading set onions all day Tuesday wearing a mask in a cloud of dust. Church groups resumed in the evening after the summer break.
I had a call from Jane Ryall midweek, she used to work at NIAB and Kate and I stayed with her parents in Northern Island for our 25th wedding anniversary. She is back home having donated a kidney to her elder brother John. It is the third he has received and the previous donations are still in place so he now has five kidneys!
This weeks walk began at Walkern in Hertfordshire and was a circular via Benington – beautiful village, and Burns Green.

Benington

Friday was cricket pitch winter maintenance day which is a major operation involving a scarifier, aerator, reseeder, soil barrow and levelling lute.
Saturday Kate and I returned Geoff and Doreen Barnes to Fressingfield beyond Diss. It is an interesting village with some fine old buildings and a chapel shaped like a coffin – to remind man of his mortality! There is also a large organic agricultural and forestry project which I had heard about and we went to have a look at that as well.

Wakelyns Agroforestry

Back of the Dog & Fox, Fressingfield

Love

Mike & Kate

12th September 2010

12th September 2010.

Dear All,

We have been entertaining today hence the late delivery of this bulletin. Geoff and Doreen Barnes are staying at a remote cottage in the back lanes of Cottenham Fen for a week and as they cannot drive have needed ferrying as well as entertaining. They have been here all day and we also invited Mary Watts and the Kitsons for lunch.
My allocation of U3A classes came this week. Last year I applied for 5 and due to over demand only got on 2; this year I thought I would apply for 6 hoping for 3 but have been offered 5! These are:
1. The Past, Present and Future of Cambridge
2. Astronomy
3. Maps in the Digital Age
4. Family Genes
5. Walking (again)

As I was not planning to go back to full time education I have dropped “Family Genes” so will only be involved for 4 days!
Feeling fit I actually went for a run on Monday but I don’t think it will last.
It was the start of the Garden Club sessions this week and I was at Coton on Monday talking about “Oriental Vegetables”.
Tuesday we held a Sweet Corn open day at NIAB – pity none of you are close enough to benefit!

Sweet Corn Trial

Kate joined the walkers on Thursday as we finished the “Stour Valley Way” from Stoke by Nayland to Cattawade. This was probably the best section passing through Dedham and Flatford in sunshine.

Stour near Flatford

Flatford Field Study Centre

On Friday I helped collect 70 bags of Ongar loam ready for the cricket pitch winter treatment this week – not a bad trade selling 25kg bags for £4 a throw.
I was judging again Saturday this time at Great Shelford. The standard was better than the previous week but the number of entries down due to the earlier drought.

Large Onion Class

Kids Animal from Veg Class

I finished reading “Troubles” by J.G. Farrell this week and we watched “The Bicycle Thieves” on DVD last night – both are recommended, has any experienced either of these?

Love

Mike & Kate

5th September 2010

5th September 2010.

Dear All,

Busy day yesterday: judging Bottisham show in the morning, Over Day Care Centre 21st Birthday party in the afternoon and the cricket club dinner in the evening.
The show was OK but I was judging flowers as well as fruit and vegetables, 45 classes in all but the entries were not that numerous. I was “blessed” with an overhelpful mature lady assistant who kept offering her own opinions about the relative merits of the entries!

Bottisham Show

The Day Care Centre has been a great asset to Over and surrounding villages offering care, medical checks, a bath and other entertainment. It is a long time since I have felt so young!
Yes, I did get an award at the cricket dinner, this time the managers award for services to the club ie looking after the wicket.
I was at Wisley on Thursday for a Trials Advisory Committee, this is not much fun as they are currently reviewing the amount of trials they carry out and everyone is up in arms as they do not like changes. As I was travelling alone I took an old couple Ken and May Elsom for a treat and they enjoyed a sunny day.

Wisley

I missed the walk this week because of Wisley but managed to fit in the college visit, this week to Robinson, the newest Cambridge college. It was funded by the man behind Robinson Rentals and his wife was allowed to choose the bricks that were used. Unfortunately her choice is shipping water and most of the outer brickwork will need replacing shortly.

Robinson Pendulous Redwood

Chapel stained glass

Robinson Lake

Otherwise there have been a few meetings as plans for the autumn get underway.
Ben is back safe and sound and evidently had a wonderful time in Madagascar, highlight included seeing several types of lemurs in the National Parks, hearing whales sing underwater and interacting with the natives who have not yet seen enough tourists to be cynical.
Kate has been to a work colleagues wedding this afternoon in a farm barn at Shingay cum Wendy.

Love

Mike & Kate

29th August 2010

29th August 2010.

Dear All,

I had another exciting day at the Test Match yesterday at Lords. At Trent Bridge I saw 15 wickets in a day and yesterday 17 wickets and the end of a world record Test 8th wicket stand of 332 runs. We also managed 7.5 hours without weather interruption which was a bonus for last week.

Lords Cricket Ground

On Tuesday we held another NIAB open day near Bures this time demonstrating this years array of onion varieties in situ before harvest. It did rain a few times but not too seriously and we had a decent crowd of 50 or so.


Onions at Bures

We have had a few problems with storage of items donated for Moldova, so had decided not to plan a lorry this year but a school in St Neots cleared out about 50 tables in reasonable order so they have been in temporary storage at Eaton Socon on the A1. This space is now needed so we had to clear them out but fortunately found some space at the farm in Willingham where I gave a talk on their farm open day last month. On Wednesday we hired a truck and moved them over.

In over 2 years we have only had one Thursday walk where it has rained throughout and that was when Kate joined us for a local walk round Willingham Fen. Well now we have had two as this weeks stroll from Brandon to Thetford was wet for the duration. Ironically Kate had planned to join us but hearing the rain drops in the night decided that it would be more fun to go to work!

Santon Downham in Thetford Forest



Little Ouse near Thetford

The garden continues to perform well with buckets of beans, bowls full of tomatoes, plenty of blackberries and raspberries and sweet corn also in full stream.

No news from Ben in Africa but he is hopefully back this week.

Love

Mike & Kate

22nd August 2010

22nd August 2010.

Dear All,

It was our annual chapel outing to the seaside yesterday, this time returning to Hunstanton. It was dull when we arrived but we hire a church hall close to the front as a base for coffee and lunch and it did not actually rain. It is a tradition to walk along the front in the morning, have a fish and chip lunch and then the men have a pitch and putt competition in the afternoon, - and this year was traditional! The sun came out briefly in the afternoon and it was fairly breezy. On the way home there was a tremendous downpour – the sort where the wipers cannot keep up and the road is completely covered with water. This lasted 15 minutes and by the time we reached Kings Lynn there had been no rain and the sun was out.
Kate and Gordon hosted a BBQ at Sutton on the way home; extra folk joined us and that went very well.

Not so Sunny Hunny!


BBQ at Sutton

The cricket pitch has miraculously changed from brown to green in the last fortnight and the contractors have attempted to fill the drainage channels on the Green for the 5th time. This has meant rolling the whole field yet again.
We held a courgette open day at NIAB on Wednesday and managed to coincide with a damp morning, but it suited the plants.

Courgette punters

Our walk on Thursday started in Ridgewell south of Haverhill and was a circuit including Stambourne and Great Yeldham. These are all places that I have driven through many times between Cambridge and Beaumont but not stopped to explore.

Near Stambourne

The college visit was to Trinity Hall, another very old establishment with some attractive buildings and on Tuesday 10 of us braved the weather to watch the Shakespeare in the open air. This time it was “As You Like It” at Trinity College (not Hall) and there was a decent crowd despite rain just before the performance. The actors did remarkably well rolling round on damp grass and carrying on regardless.


Trinity Hall

Love

Mike & Kate

15th August 2010

15th August 2010.

Dear All,

I think we can recommend the Brecon Beacons, not only the scenery and walking but the weather was much kinder than expected for Wales. We stopped in Ross-on-Wye for lunch on the way down and they were holding a carnival. When we arrived at Brecon they were holding their agricultural show and Jazz weekend so it was almost impossible to park.
We stayed at Defynnog near Sennybridge in a small barn conversion and managed a walk almost every day.

Our House/Barn
On Sunday we attended Kensington Baptist chapel where a smallish congregation have raised £250K to match the sum granted by the Welsh Assembly to rebuild a large stone building with serious roof problems. We had lunch at the Jazz Festival then climbed Fan Frynch which was a long valley walk with a steepish climb to the top where it was boggy and difficult going.
On Monday we visited the Mountain Centre then walked across the moor to Mynydd Illtud. After we drove down to Methyr Tydfil in the only serious rain of the week to pick up Esther.
We travelled further west on Tuesday to the Black Mountain and climbed up to Llyn y Fan Fach reservoir followed by a long wait at the Red Kite feeding station. I think the large crowd deterred them coming too close but we saw plenty flying overhead both then and throughout the week.


Llyn y Fan Fach Reservoir
Wednesday we climbed Bryn, a round topped hill east of Brecon, with excellent views of Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Beacons. We then explored Crickhowell a pretty small town east of Brecon then climbed the Table Top mountain with a distinctive flat top.

Table Top Mountain
We rang the changes a bit on Thursday and visited Brecon Museum then hired a canoe for 3 hours on the Brecon Canal followed by a visit to Brecon Cathedral.

Brecon Canal
Friday was the highlight climbing Corn Du and Pen y Fan which at 886m is the highest hill/mountain in southern Britain. As we did not feel too bad we went on to Ystradfellde Waterfalls where we anticipated a gentle stroll round four waterfalls. In fact it was quite a hard slog so we ended up walking 6 hours that day.

View from Pen y Fan
The journey back was not too bad – just the usual delays on the M25 as we dropped Esther in Hutton having inspected her livestock, them home by 4.15pm in time to watch the end of the cricket.
Love

Mike & Kate