19^th April 2015.

Dear All,

John Law and I are off to Moldova again on Thursday so this week there has been some preparation of talks and present buying. The seed parcel arrived at its destination on Tuesday but still no resolution of the Moldova/Europe issue. I spent a good part of one day trying to pre book and prepay for some luggage on Air Moldova using our 6 digit reference number to access the relevant web site – only for the message “this site only takes 5 digit numbers” and helpfully listing a Moldovan phone number if there were difficulties. After an afternoon of unsuccessful ringing I eventually got through next morning. A young lady gave me an alternative 5 digit number - which did not work and then explained that you cannot book luggage on line anyway – even though the web site indicates that you can! In addition the £3000 we receive from NIAB had not arrived in our account despite a few reminders. Things seldom work smoothly where Moldova is concerned.

The walk this Thursday started at Shillington, Bedfordshire on the edge of the Chilterns, an involved a little unusual climbing peaking in Deacon Hill at 172 m!

Deacon Hill

Chilterns

Shillington

Kate started Pilates this week to help strengthen her groin muscle together with regular exercising.

We had some fun covering the fruit cage on our allotment with a new net and I have now dug it as well.

Cricket pitch preparation began in earnest this week: rolling, cutting etc and briefly both mowers and the roller are working!

We had a private briefing with Philip at his home in Foxton for the U3A trip to Betws-y-coed. We missed the group briefing as we were down at Hove. The Snowdonia map was laid out on the table with small flags for each days walk. The only thing missing were the model soldiers and tanks!

Yesterday we had a long session training for Street Pastors: 9.15 to 15.15 and that is just the first 2 modules of 6! Kate left at lunch time for Messy Church – so it was a long day.

Love

Mike & Kate

12^th April 2015.

Dear All,

Spring fever in the garden as well as cleaning this week! On Monday we had another cleaning session in the chapel and removed a couple of edge pews to see whether the local carpenter can make one out of them as they are fixed to the wall and only have one proper end each.

We then started on the new allotment, Kate clearing rubbish and I rotovated all the bare earth. It is in quite good condition and I have already more than half filled it with potatoes, broad beans, peas, carrots, onions, parsnips and beetroot. I plan to fill the rest with squash and sweet corn but am a bit nervous about the proximity of the largest badger sett in the village.

The magnolia in the front garden has been pretty spectacular this year despite the wind buffeting.

Allotment

Magnolia

We had a frustrating day on Tuesday thanks to DHL. I needed to post the donated seed to Moldova. Last year I used FedEx and it took 3 weeks instead of 3 days and arrived after we were home, so this time I thought we would try DHL even though they were slightly more expensive. As we have not used DHL before I checked the nearest depot and it came up with 2 addresses for WH Smith at St Ives. The first was on the Industrial Site and we did not find it. The second was at their town centre shop. When we arrived the shop explained that they were not taking parcels this day could we come back tomorrow. There was nothing on the web site to indicate this and we had to travel to get there so had wasted a couple of hours.

In the afternoon we tried Cambridge, the nearest depot was listed as Staples at Chesterton Road. When we arrived the shop was closed for renovation – again no warning on the website. We went on to Staples in Newmarket Road where the staff were very helpful but when I came to pay for a size 7 box for Moldova I was charged £199.95 (Rest of the World rate) instead of £119.95 (Europe non EU rate). When I protested the man serving spent 30 to 40 minutes on the phone to DHL expressing dissatisfaction but was told this was correct.

I was obviously not happy and phoned DHL myself to complain and was eventually put through to Reena who said she would investigate. She eventually rung back to say she has been told that the charge is correct because only 20% Moldova is in Europe! I explained that this is complete nonsense as Moldova has been an independent state since 1990, it is in Europe, it has a small breakaway state called Transnistria which represents 14% of the population, and the parcel is addressed to Cahul which is not in this area. I was advised to complain the head office, which I have now done, and await the results with bated but not optimistic breath!

I chose DHL on the basis of the handout “DHL – Fast, Secure and Reliable Worldwide Delivery” – “The Easiest Way to Send a Parcel Anywhere in the World”. There is no mention of excluding Moldova from “Europe Non-EU”.

Our Thursday walk started at Sturmer and took in Baythorne End (special memories for Esther? – it is where she fell out of the car!), Ridgewell and Birdbrook. It was sunny and dry so a pleasant walk.

Gathered Walkers

Birdbrook

John Lane and I marked out the cricket square on Friday and as usual had trouble with one of the mowers so I had to run that down to Babraham. The grass is looking good so far but will need to as we have at least 8 extra matches planned this season.

News has just arrived as I am writing that chicken pox has struck Hove –“ recovering less itchy but still very scabby.”

Jackie called in yesterday en route from Beaumont to Derby and dropped off glass craft work from the last cousin's reunion.

Love

Mike & Kate

5th April 2015

5^th April 2015.

Dear All,

Happy Easter to all readers!

Monday was a busy day as we were Spring Cleaning at the chapel which involved obtaining a scaffold tower so that we could change and clean all the fluorescent tubes in the school room as well as multiple cob web removal, window washing, dusting, polishing, drawer rummaging etc, However there was a good turn out and although not quite finished to everyone’s satisfaction a great deal of progress was made.

In the afternoon I had to go to Addenbrookes for the result of my lung scan and as the lesion had not changed I was thankfully discharged.

In the evening we had the annual chapel 10 Pin Bowling and meal jaunt to Pidley. It is always well attended: 24 bowling and another 6 eating. I believe I came 2^nd on aggregate but importantly beat Gordon by one point!

On Tuesday Mervyn helped me refelt the shed roof at the bottom of the garden as it had been damaged in the high winds at the weekend then we departed for Hove picking up Mary-Ann from work and Amélie from Nursery.

We visited Borde Hill Gardens near Haywards Heath on Wednesday which are famous for their specimen Magnolia trees as well as Camelias and few other spring flowering trees. As they also had a craft tent and a decent playground Amélie was happy – although the stones in the car park were the main attraction for her.

Borde Hill House

  

I managed the long walk on Thursday which began at Cottered and took in Throcking and Buntingford. It was sticky after overnight rain so quite hard work. Kate did the short walk – which actually took longer due to some interesting leading. She has been exercising and had an assessment with a physio.

Tannis Court near Cottered

All roads lead to Cottered

I became the proud custodian of an allotment this week to compensate for the loss of next doors garden. It is in reasonable condition but obviously not quite so handy at the chapel cemetery in New Road.

We received another donation of over 700 packets of vegetable seed for Moldova this week which needed sorting and cataloguing.

The chapel laptop has been playing up this week so many happy? Hours have been spent trying to sort it out – so far with only limited success.

We managed to plant potatoes in what was until recently part of the lawn yesterday and in the evening attended the party for Tom Colquhoun’s wedding at Cottenham.

Love

Mike & Kate

29th March 2015.

Dear All,

Last weekend our neighbour opposite announced that they were changing their patio and we could have the old slabs if we could use them. It was quite a large patio and although I eventually collected 60 slabs this was less than half the total area. It is being replaced by smart large sandstone pavers which I guess will not work out very cheap!

I have so far laid 47 in a path to the bottom shed and a standing area along one greenhouse.

New Path

The “Italian Cities” course drew to a close on Monday with a session on “Naples” With Vesuvius due to erupt any time the authorities organised a practice evacuation last year which in true Italian style ended in gridlock and farce as everyone seemed to follow their own agenda and not the agreed plan.

Bay of Naples

Castle Nouvo

Galleria Umberto

The walk this week started at Northill near Biggleswade and although there were a few showers it was not too bad. Kate managed to walk this week even though not 100% but has been exercising following a visit to a physio.

Pussy Willow

Silver Birchs

Old Warden

We had a NIAB Wrinklies lunch on Tuesday, Tom is due to visit again on the 8^th April.

Sowing, planting and grass cutting this week but still a bit chilly so the spuds are still in the bedroom chitting.

I watched a top of the table clash between Shelford and Hardwick yesterday then we were invited to a meal at John and Vera Lee’s together with the Howards.

Love

Mike & Kate

22 March 2015

22nd March 2015.

Dear All,

Spring seems to be on the way and gardening is clicking into gear. Next door has been sold without coming onto the market so we will almost certainly lose access to that garden. I am applying for an allotment but meanwhile I have started digging up a bit of the lawn and also decapitated the bamboo. This has been incredibly invasive with suckers showing up about 7 meters away.

Italian Cities featured “The Vatican” this week with one session to go. We have booked to go on the spin off trip to Italy in November.

I met up with John Law on Monday to plan the next Moldova outing at the end of April.

I celebrated my birthday on Tuesday by attending a Church Meeting! Thanks to all for cards or presents. We actually went out Wednesday evening for a meal at “The Old Crown” at Girton with the Kitsons, Howards, Fenwicks, & Kate F (Gordon was busy elsewhere).

Kate missed the walk this week resting her damaged muscle. She has actually seen a physio who has diagnosed the problem as a strained Iliopsoas muscle and although it cannot be directly strengthened surrounding muscles can, so she has some exercises to do.

The walk started at Hatfield Broad Oak and was fairly dry underfoot.

Hatfield Broad Oak

The last “Biography” of the year was “Handel” and I had to scan and project 25 photos for an elderly music teacher. This was followed by an end of term meal.

While we were queuing up to get into room we had a very brief glimpse of the eclipse – about as long as the memorable view of the Northern Lights last year!

Kate was cooking for Messy Church yesterday. I was sent home feeling achy so was able to watch most of the rugby yesterday.

Love

Mike & Kate

15th March 2015

15^th March 2015.

Dear All,

We had an excellent week in Austria. The journey to and fro was the usual “Uncle Graham” ie 8 legs but thoroughly researched for economy and efficiency, so car to Harrow, 2 underground trains to Heathrow, flight to Munich, train to Munich East, train to Kufstein on the Austrian border, train to Blixlegg, bus to Alpbach – and of course it all worked like clockwork!

The Walk to Breakfast

View from our Window

Reith lake

Our accommodation was in 2 buildings, we slept in Haus Rossstall and ate in Haus Andreas, but we soon got used to that as it was family run and very friendly.

We had a heavy snowfall on the first day of at least 6” and this lasted the rest of the week when the sun came out for most of the time.

We walked up and down the valley by different routes, took the cable car to the top of a ski slope and walked down, walked up and down a toboggan run and explored a historic village and a lake resort. Mary was apprehensive as she is still recovering from a broken arm but she survived well and failed to fall over even once! I suffered a heavy cold, Kate had a muscle problem and Graham a sore back – but we still claimed to enjoy it all!

We did not walk on our return on Thursday but opted to finish the decorating in Ben’s old room.

I planted onion sets, garlic, shallots and peas so spring must be coming.

“Biographies” topic this week was “Rudyard Kipling” – named after where he was conceived – so nothing new Becks and Posh!

Apart from this there has been an Events Committee, a gardening Column, 2 football matches and last night we were on “Street Pastors” in the cafe getting to bed at 4.45 am. It was a reasonably busy night with a steady flow of the sadly inebriated and one ambulance casualty who was suffering from facial bleeding and memory loss.

Love

Mike & Kate

1^st March 2015.

Dear All,

On Tuesday we met Ben at the Horniman Museum en route for Hove. The museum was well worth seeing with a large collection of stuffed animals, a huge collection of musical instruments, Egyptian and African sections, an aquarium, a large garden and a few animals. After, we travelled to the Crystal Palace to view the concrete dinosaurs.

Horniman museum outside

Horniman inside

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Brighton Seafront

Revellers!

Brighton Eye

On Wednesday, Kate, Amélie and I walked from Hove to Brighton Pier, then caught the bus back to Hove before walking again to Hove Park. I am fairly sure Amélie slept well that night.

On Monday “Italian Cities” covered “Siena” and on Friday “Biographies” topic was “Viscount Montgomery”.

Siena

The Thursday walk was the one Kate and I reccied a couple of weeks ago starting at Litlington. Unfortunately this was the only wet day in the week so plenty of mud and dampness.

We received a “runners up” prize for our cricket wicket this week – a certificate and two bottles of wine.

The walls of Ben’s old room have now been painted, so the end is in sight!

Decorating

We plan to leave for Austria with Mary & Graham on Wednesday, so no letter next week.

Love

Mike & Kate