28th June 2020

 

Dear All,

I hope you didn’t melt in the midweek heat – it touched 50°C in our greenhouses! And although we have had some rain since it seems to have forgotten how to do it properly. As the forecast was so hot on Thursday, we started our walk at 7.30am but it was still plenty warm enough by the time we returned. This week we redid the Willingham, Earith, Rothschild Way route with Lawrie and Maureen. Philip has some of the U3A group organised in groups of 6 starting at different locations but my medical advisor (Kate!) thinks it is a bit too soon. The main feature of our walk was the spread of poppies on the land disturbed by the gravel works in the fen.

 

Poppies

 

 

Cinnabar Moth caterpillars on Ragwort

There is a possibility of cricket starting next month so we retrieved the roller and cut an experimental strip. The Parish Council have forbidden the use of the pavilion which might cause a few problems.

Kate has been picking Strawberries, Raspberries and Red Currants every day and is beginning to look like a red currant! Most of the currants end up with the jam making lady who provided the pots for Esther & Emma’s wedding.

 

 

“Currant Kate”

I harvested garlic this week and may have over done the plantings this year. We have also picked Globe Artichokes, French Beans, Summer cabbage, broccoli and cauliflowers.

 

Garlic harvest

 

 

Globe Artichokes

 

I had another Centrefold photo in the Cambridge News this week with a gosling shot.

 

Gosling Creche

 

Yesterday we were invited to a Virtual 70^th Birthday Party for June, a walking colleague from Willingham. We attended a virtual museum tour and this was followed by an art experience and tonight there is a virtual quiz. It actually worked quite well and could well catch on for more normal times.

 

I managed to shed a filling during the week and have a dental appointment tomorrow – unfortunately not virtual. “Make sure you go to the toilet before you come, wear a facemask, sit in your car until collected when you will be given hand wash and conducted straight to the chair”. I can’t wait!

 

With love

Mike & Kate

21^st June 2020

Dear All,

A decent rain at last which has immediately improved the garden. It has been really productive this week with strawberries and raspberries cropping heavily and plenty of vegetables. Kate picked Red Currants yesterday and a fellow allotmenteer gave us a recipe for “Deep Freeze Jam”.

The feature of this week’s walks has been the number of butterflies on the wing. Earlier in the week it was clouds of Meadow Browns, later we saw several others including a Comma. Yesterday it was dragon flies.

Towards Over Windmill

 

 

                        

          Meadow Brown   

                                           

Comma

Dragon Fly

We postponed our Thursday longer walk to Friday due to the weather, starting at Yelling and walking to Graveley and Papworth St Agnes. Papworth St Agnes has an old public bake house where the whole village used to bake their bread on a rota.

Papworth St Agnes Bakehouse

Graveley Shelter

Yelling

On the up side I received an anonymous donation of £1000 for Moldova this week but on the downside Air Moldova are declining to refund our fares for the cancelled flights.

With love

Mike & Kate

14^th June 2020

Dear All,

Another mixed week weather wise as we have enjoyed several showers without thorough soakings. Our electrician finally made an appearance and changed 6 strip lights to LEDs and updated our fuse box.

Kate has been busy mask making this week so can now augment her ex work Tesco shopping mask with a homemade suitable for public transport version!

Our U3A “Biographies” is planned to go ZOOM for the autumn term and as the weather was cold and damp on Wednesday, I began preparation on my choice for this year “Cornelius Vermuyden”.

We substituted a bike ride for the normal walk on Thursday but it was very windy and hard work along the road to Willingham and back along the footpath and Furtherford. We did a longer walk on Friday starting at St Ives and walking to Houghton Mill, Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey.

St Ives

 

The Thicket

Houghton Mill

Yesterday we did a familiar walk down Lowburyholme, the flood bank, Webb’s Hole and Overcote. The outstanding features were watching House Martins feeding chicks in the nest holes in the Webb’s Hole sluice gate and the sheer volume of Mallow blooming in nearly every hedgerow.

House Martin nests

Mallow

As I reported last week Overcote is having a facelift and it is attracting the crowds, we counted 22 cars there with numerous water-based activities.

Overcote

In the garden it has been a serious spraying week for aphids, rust and blight. Strawberries and raspberries continue to crop very well and cauliflowers, broccoli, cucumbers, peas and carrots have been harvested and the first tomato.

With love

Mike & Kate

7^th June 2020

Dear All,

It has been an interesting week weather-wise as we changed from being too hot with every window open to actually lighting a fire last night. The rain has been welcome if a little hesitant here. The badger fencing has worked so far with no further damage but there is a long way to go. The last area of free space has been filled with leeks this week at all three sites. This used to be an easy crop to grow but thanks to Leek Moth and Allium Leaf Miner it is necessary to spray and cover from the outset. Walking or biking has continued nearly every day. On shorter walks this week we have seen the changes at Overcote where paths and a launching strip have been improved and a house that disappeared over night in Lowburyholme.

Overcote

 

Lowburyholme

We were joined by four of our walking friends for the Thursday outing – observing social distancing of course, and crossed the river and circumnavigated Barleycroft Lake. There was as usual plenty of bird life but the outstanding feature was large patches of bee orchids.

Lawrie, Kate, Elly, Maureen & David

 

Bee Orchids

We have managed to get all the cash successfully transferred to Moldova this week but it was far from straightforward.  I have been composing a newsletter which I will circulate after running past my colleague. I had an email from John Law in Turkey – he has just received 3 months’ worth of mail on one day.

Jackie has very kindly sent me a face mask in exchange for seed.

Wanted for Masked Hold ups!

With love

Mike & Kate

31st May 2020

Dear All,

Well it seems like more of the same this week: walking, watering, ZOOMing and gardening. The main addition for us has been a trip to Kate & Gordon’s at Haddenham – the furthest we have been for 10 weeks to replace some tomato plants and a battle with badgers at the allotment. I have grown potatoes for about 60 years and have never had a serious pest problem but I suspect because of the drought the badgers have discovered my patch at the allotment and dug about a quarter of them. I think they are probably looking for worms but also chew the seed potatoes as well. This week we have replaced a puny low fence with 1.5m chicken wire dug in at the bottom and weighted down. In addition, we have placed petrol-soaked rags around the edge. It worked Friday night but we haven’t checked today as yet. Frustratingly they have not touched potatoes on the other allotments which are not protected at all.

Badger damage

 

New Fence

For our longer walk this week we drove to Earith bridge and walked round the lakes there. We intended starting by taking the footpath along the Old Bedford River but it was closed. In general, it was not as good as recent walks as the lakes are mostly owned by private fishing syndicates and sealed off with wire fences. The highlight was the vast numbers of Damselflies. The previous day walking in Over Fen there were masses of Banded Demoiselles.

An unusual sight was an Allan Williams turret. It is a Pre-Fabricated Defence Structure built of Steel. It was manned by two crew members with a Lewis Gun, who entered through the entrance tunnel The turret could be rotated through 360 degrees giving a limitless field of view of fire. 199 Turrets ordered and built. Designed to be used for all types of light weapons: Bren, Lewis, Boys, Hotchkiss & Browning.

.

  

Damselflies

  

Earith Lakes

 

Allan Williams Turret

Banded Demoiselle

This week in the garden I have planted cabbage, cauliflowers and leeks while strawberries and raspberries are coming on stream, together with calabrese, broad beans and mange tout peas.

With love

Mike & Kate

24th May 2020

Dear All,

The heat and lack of rain have meant we have spent quite a lot of time watering this week as several crops and flowers are newly transplanted and not well established as yet.

Watercan line up

My other gardening project has been to construct another compost bin at the allotment from pallets. I have also been forced to fence potatoes for the first time as they are attracting attention from badgers at the allotment.

Patented Compost Bin !

It was so hot on Thursday that we postponed our longer walk until Friday. This time we crossed the river at the Staunch again then headed along the river bank towards “The Pike & Eel” then to Needingworth and back around the gravel works and Barleycroft Lake. The main feature this week was the profusion of Dog Roses.

  

From the Staunch

  

Dog Roses

Needingworth Lake

Terry and I had a ZOOM session with Moldova this week as we sort out the mechanism of transferring money. They have only recorded 221 deaths so far but like many other countries are sceptical about the truth of the statistics. Their restrictions were eased on the 15^th May and they are allowed gatherings of 50 as long as they are outdoors and socially distanced. They held their Sunday service like this last week. The “Meal Deal” for children has not been able to meet but they have been taking food round to the neediest.

Philip is busy making plans for U3A walkers to resume in groups of 6 and rotating round a series of local locations. We think he is a little ahead of the game at present! U3A have contacted us with options for this autumn’s classes which will not meet but may continue on-line or be postponed. We have opted for postponement for “Just Vegetating” but will probably try ZOOM for “Biographies”.

With love

Mike & Kate