20th May 2012

20th May 2012.

Dear All,

On Tuesday I had a meeting at Wisley and Kate met up with Mary-Ann and Amélie. The rhododendrons and azaleas were spectacular at Wisley. We were judging asparagus and keeping tabs on new parsley, lettuce and tomato trials. The level of expertise at RHS has dipped in recent years so there is always plenty to discuss on these visits.

Wisley Battlesdon Hill

We managed a swim this week joined by Kate F and Carol for the first time after breaking her arm in the snow.

The Tuesday walk was rather local meeting at Willingham and walking through Over Fen, along the river to Earith and looping back to Over then Willingham again. Fortunately it was dry overhead and not too bad under foot.



Earith Bridge

We managed to get the cricket pitch sorted well enough to play after cancelling the previous 2 weeks and both teams managed exciting wins, the 1sts by 8 runs and the 2nds by 1 wicket.

Otherwise we have been busily trying to plant as much as possible in the garden before departing for Poland tonight for James (Kate’s nephew) wedding in Kilice.
We plan to catch the boat train to Harwich this evening meeting up with Kate’s sister Sue and husband Bill to drive to Poland via Magdeburg and Poznan. We are away for 10 days so no letter next week.

Love

Mike & Kate

13th May 2012

13th May 2012.

Dear All,

A week of pestilence as several members of the household succumbed to sickness and diahorrea. Andy arrived poorly on Sunday and spent most of his time in bed, Esther stayed an extra night as she was so sick on Monday and Kate felt bad on Monday night and was still being sick on Saturday. Nobody is blaming Amélie - but only those who changed her nappies succumbed!!!

Couldn’t have been me!

I have spent the wet days writing reports and articles and the dry ones catching up in the garden. This now looks well after a month of steady rain – except for the parts that were underwater last week.




Kate missed two celebratory nights out with meals for Margery Johnson (80) and Kate Foster (59).

The Thursday walk started at Braughing in Hertfordshire and although sticky underfoot stayed dry until we had finished. Philip our leader has just returned from a 9 week cruise from Sydney – good these army pensions!

Sticky underfoot

The cricket square is still soggy but they managed a match on the artificial wicket yesterday.

love
Mike & Kate

6th May 2012

6th May 2012.

Dear All,

John Law and I survived another trip to Moldova where the weather was seriously hot and they understand the true meaning of the word drought. The temperature in the shade was mid 30s and when we moved the thermometer to full sun it rose to 52°C. In addition the SW region has not had rain for several months so water is a huge issue.
As ever there were encouraging signs as well as a few set backs. We had been discussing piping one of the springs in the hills to the village for about 6 years and now it is underway. A huge ex winery tank has been towed to the hills to act as a reservoir and we paid for 2 km pipes to connect to the village so hopefully that will be connected within 2 weeks.

Water tank and pipeline

Our star grower Oleg in whom we invested a 30’ poly tunnels last year has it up and working and produced decent data from last years trials. He is however short of water and we further invested in a 60 m deep well.


Oleg’s tunnel

The local church had arranged for a Romanian acting group to stage a multimedia outreach presentation in the former Communist Cultural Centre and 250 people turned
Out. We managed another growers training day and 38 attended.
We took large quantities of Lego this time mainly for the Street Children’s project and this was a big hit with the old as well as the young.

Lego

As usual we tried to visit all the local growers who have ex NIAB tunnels and managed to distribute over 1500 packets of seed.
Other projects that came up were plans for a small shop in Chisinau to ensure fairer prices for the growers, a 3 ha walnut project and planted trees on the river floodplain to prevent erosion.
As John is planning to lead a photographic trip to Moldova next year we visited a couple of extra potentially photogenic places: Transneistra and their version of the “Grand Canyon”. The Transneistra situation is thawing a bit and certainly not as sinister as when I visited 15 years ago. There are still 3 border check points and a few places where you cannot take photos but far less Russian soldiers and less Kalashnikovs in evidence.
The Grand Canyon is their no.1 tourist attraction, it is a large U shaped limestone valley with a monastery in caves and attractive villages.


Transneistra war memorial


The Grand Canyon

I arrived back Thursday evening to find the bottom of the garden under water and every where decidedly soggy.
Esther, Mary-Ann and Amélie have been up for the weekend to help celebrate Kate’s 65th birthday. Andy is due this afternoon and Ben is in Nicaragua.

love
Mike & Kate

22 April 2012

22nd April 2012.

Dear All,

Kate and I travelled to Godalming on Monday morning returning Wednesday afternoon. We managed to sort a few jobs as well as catch up with Mary-Ann, Andy and of course Amélie. The drought has certainly broken in that part of the country and we managed to get wet each time we left the house.
Amélie now has 4 teeth and rapidly becoming a jet propelled crawler, so fixing stair gates has been a recent priority. She continues to smile in a winning way (I expect all grandparents say that?) and take an interest in anything that fits in her mouth – mostly, but not exclusively food! I think the main downside for her parents is that she seems to have lost the knack of sleeping through the night.

Amélie at 8 months

We visited Wisley on Tuesday principally to see the rhododendrons and azaleas on Battleston Hill but these were not yet at their best and the camellias were past their best. However there were spectacular orchids in the hot house, carpets of dog violets and a good show in the alpine house.

Wisley Rockery

Dog Violets



Camelia

Cherry blossom

Alpine Daphne

Orchid

On Wednesday evening we attended the Christians in Sport Quiz at St Neots as defending champions. We only managed 3rd this time mainly due to an injudicious choice of round for the joker – in fact our worst round – but it was good fun and over 70 attended. The speaker was Ian Lancaster a legendary? ex Carlisle footballer.
We had a rare wet walk this week starting on Royston Heath, climbing to Therfield and Reed with lunch in the Golf Club. In fact we did not get too wet and as it was mainly chalk underfoot the going was not too sticky.
An exciting week on the computer: first someone sent an attachment so huge it ground the emails to a standstill and repeated 2 days worth 10 times. Then someone hacked into my seldom used Facebook page claiming that I had an accident in Madrid and had lost all my money “please send some emergency cash to…” I have now suspended my account.
Plenty to do in the garden this week planting, sowing, weeding, mowing and harvesting – but I won’t bore you with the details.
John Law and I should be off to Moldova on Thursday so no letter next week.

love
Mike & Kate

15th April 2012

15th April 2012.

Dear All,

Tom Webster is currently down from Scotland so I have had three outings with him this week. He is 88 and now on his 3rd artificial leg. He walks for 2 hours every day and with his latest leg is able to climb and descend hills. His target is to reach the summit of The Cobbler for his 90th birthday in August 2013.
He accompanied me for my talk on Costa Rica to the St Neots Aviculture meeting on Tuesday and to Horringer near Bury St Edmunds for a Garden Club on Wednesday. Kate joined us for a visit to Saham Toney near Watton in Norfolk on Friday to visit an old NIAB colleague Bill Chowings who has recently moved there from Swavesey.


Bill, Kate, Joyce & Tom

We now have Geoff Barnes staying for the weekend. His wife Doreen has Parkinsons and was due to have a couple of weeks respite care in Finborough Hall but was taken to Ipswich Hospital with complications.
The cricket club motor roller is rather ancient and sprang an oil leak when some of the lads were rolling the outfield. When it was taken apart (with difficulty) it was found that a hydraulic ram had split – not the rubber gasket but the metal sleeve. The mechanic said he had never seen this before in 30 years. We marked the square out yesterday so it is that time of year again.
Our Thursday walk began at Chippenham near Newmarket and touched on Red Lodge, Horringer and Kennet. The woods were full of Mahonia and the field full of free range pigs. We had just completed it in good weather when the heavens opened for a violent hail storm.


Mahonia



Free range pigs

Plenty of gardening this week planting out lettuce and cabbage, sowing parsnips, Scorzonera, land cress and digging in the sprout land.
We hope to visit Godalming for 2 or 3 days from tomorrow.

love
Mike & Kate

8th April 2012

8th April 2012.

Dear All,

After an unscheduled visit to the dentist on Monday morning (another split tooth!) we travelled to Lavenham. I had forgotten how quaint it is, it must be like living in a museum. There are so many wood fronted cottages of all colours with hardly a straight edge in sight.

Lavenham

We had a rare shopping trip to Cambridge on Tuesday, Kate needed to buy some sowing materials for Esther’s visit later in the week and we replaced our toaster, I also started shopping for Moldovan handouts. The toaster did not work when we tried it at home so it had to be returned next day – and being John Lewis they replaced it with a superior model.
At last a decent rain on Tuesday, we had almost 0.5” but it tailed off towards Cambridge and Thriplow did not get any.
I had to address Cambridge Geranium Society in the evening – an even more ancient gathering than usual for my talks1
Esther came up on Wednesday evening to do some serious sowing machine work and stayed a couple of nights. She helped me sort some of the Moldovan seed, we have been given over 1500 packets by Suttons, Mr Fothergill and Tozers.


Esther Seed Sorting

Kate stayed to help Esther on Thursday so missed the walk which started at Coton and travelled through Hardwick, Dry Drayton and Madingley.
Tom Webster arrived on Thursday and I am planning to see him a couple of times next week.
We did a practice short walk yesterday for one we are leading in the village this afternoon. I watched Over draw with Chatteris then we went to the ADC theatre in Cambridge to see a production of “The Sound of Music” featuring the son of one of Kate’s ex work colleagues. It was actually very good – if you like that sort of thing.
We had a 6.30 am sunrise service this morning; although “sunrise” would fall foul of the Trades Descriptions Act.

Sunrise Service

love
Mike & Kate

1st April 2012

1st April 2012.

Dear All,

Monday did not turn out quite as expected as we had a 2 year old dumped on us whose parents are going through difficulties. He slept most of the morning and was cheerful enough in the afternoon so it could have been worse. In the evening it was the annual chapel trip to Pidley for 10 pin bowling. There were more than 20 of us for a meal and 2 games.
John Law came over on Tuesday to plan the next trip to Moldova a little more. He has negotiated 20 kg extra baggage allowance free for each of us as it is a charity. All we need now is a couple of sherpas. We plan to depart on the 26th April. John is a bit creaky at present with skin cancer spots on his back, a stiff neck and gout in his knee.
He is on a team that have been negotiating to buy 45 acres round Moggerhanger and this has just gone through after long and painful deliberations. Kate and I went over on Friday to look at the land and anchor some of John’s plans to the floor as he tends to get a bit carried away.


Moggerhanger Walled garden

Moggerhanger Hall

I have been asked to give a talk on Costa Rica to a bird group in St Neots. As this is a new venture I have been sorting the photos from our 2010 trip which has brought back many memories and a realisation of how much wildlife we saw – a sloth a day keeps the boredom away!

Costa Rican wildlife

Our Thursday walk started at Howlett End and took in Thaxted. Undulating countryside and firm under foot so very enjoyable.



Thaxted

We finished to ACC Pastoral care course yesterday with sessions 9 and 10. Kate was chief cook again. 19 of the 22 starters were present and the others had good excuses so it has been a worthwhile – if long exercise.
We currently have two ladies from the Faroe Islands at our church and one has been to lunch today with her geologist husband and lively 2 year old daughter.

love
Mike & Kate