28th February 2021

 

Dear All,

This week has been dominated by Zoom, Ivy stripping, walking and the garden gradually drying out a little.

The extra Zooms this week were a Garden Club talk for Chesterton GC and a couple of U3A lectures one on Antimicrobial resistance and one on China. Giving talks on Zoom is not too bad but you are screened from any audience reaction as they are all muted so you have no idea how it is going down until question time at the end. The Antimicrobial talk was by Dame Sally Davies ex chief medical officer for England. She is very worried about over use of antibiotics due to over prescription, use in animal feeds and fish farms and less development of new actives by pharmaceutical companies as they have lower profit margins compared to medicines which are prescribed for life.

The China talk was delivered by Prof. Alan Macfarlane an anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 20 books and numerous articles on the anthropology and history of England, Nepal, Japan and China. He is extremely pro-China and stressed all the good points in modern China and tended to gloss over any negatives. He claimed there are now more Buddhists and Christians in China than Communists. Also, China has lifted more people out of poverty in the last 30 years than any civilisation in history.

Kate and I have spent three sessions stripping ivy off of gateposts and gravestones in the cemetery. It was much more difficult than we imagined as it was a mass of thick stems and packed roots. We had a large bonfire yesterday and happily it burnt very well.

 

 

Gateposts

 

 

 

Gravestone before

 

 

Gravestone after

 

We haven’t planted anything outside yet but it has been dry enough to hoe and dig and planting has continued in pots in the greenhouse.

On Thursday we walked the Willingham Fen, Gravel works, Earith, Rothschild Way, River Ouse, RSPB loop. It was much drier than of late and sunshine all the way. There was again plenty of bird life especially geese everywhere.

 

 

Early (grubby) lambs

 

 

 

12 furrow reversible articulated plough

 

Gravel works

 

 

A still damp field!

 

Yet another new Badger Sett

 

 

Geese at the RSPB

 

“Biographies” topic this week was “Frank Ramsey” 1903 to 1930, born and raised in Cambridge, son of a mathematician who was extremely bright and contemporary of Wittgenstein, John Maynard Keynes and Bertrand Russell and brother of Michael Ramsey who became Archbishop of Canterbury (he himself was a militant atheist). He excelled in mathematics himself as well as philosophy and economics. He died aged 27 having contacted a liver problem swimming in the Cam.

 

 

Frank Ramsey

 

With love

Mike & Kate

 

21st February 2021

 

Dear All,

We had a trip to St Ives on Monday for decorating materials. Kate has finished renovating the dining room chairs this week and is now threatening action on the study. While there I visited Poundland and purchased ingredients for a Treasure Chest for the grandchildren. This involved quite a lot of wrapping but Andy videoed them unwrapping it, so I guess it was all worthwhile?

One of the seedsmen I knew through work sent me a sample of the latest leading variety of onion seed this week. I duly split it and sent it to friends who requested some, but I only put 2^nd class stamps on the envelopes and so far, none has been delivered.

I planted a few early potatoes in pots in the greenhouse and have so far checked about 80 seed lots for germination. The benches are already looking fairly full.

 

 

Greenhouse Bench

 

We have listened to two Zoom lectures this week: on Tuesday it was on CAP (Christians Against Poverty) it is a charitable company founded in Bradford, by John Kirkby in 1996. It is a national organisation specialising in debt counselling for people in financial difficulty, including those in need of bankruptcy or insolvency. Our church is thinking of joining the volunteer helpers.

On Wednesday we tuned into Prof Jack Price from Kings College, London talking about “The Future of Brain Repairs using Stem Cells”. Evidently there has been significant progress in targeting specific cells to replace damaged sites particularly in Parkinson’s Disease and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Might be a bit late for some of us but maybe the younger generation?

It was Brenda Ingle’s funeral on Thursday morning. She was one of the first lady deacons at chapel and had been fighting cancer for over 5 years. Attendance was by invitation due to Covid, so apart from family most households were limited to one representative. Kate attended and I watched on Zoom as did some of her relatives in Australia.

We have walked several times in the week but on Thursday after the funeral we took the road to the Windmill then along the Guided busway to Swavesey, returning to Over. Not the most scenic walk but firm underfoot.

 

 

Longstanton Road Pond

 

 

Over Windmill

 

 

Guided Busway

 

Mere Fen

 

“Biographies” topic this week was “Octavia Hill” she was an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. She was also a co-founder of the National Trust.

 

 

Octavia Hill

Kate and I spent some time yesterday hacking down ivy at the cemetery which had overgrown and old gateway and got top heavy and collapsed. It was a thick knot of branches and roots and a bit of a challenge. We cleared one side with another to go. I mav have mentioned before that I have a glut of Parsnips this year so I did another distribution to the poor and needy (actually friends in the village!).

 

 

 

With love

Mike & Kate

14th February 2021

Hi All,

Microsoft Office is playing up this weekend so the letter is initially only on the blog site.

It has been a very chilly week although we have not had the snow that seems to have settled in Essex and it has been a plus to walk on frozen mud rather than the sloppy sort!

We did our longer walk on Wednesday this week partly because the I had a talk to deliver on Thursday and partly because the weather looked better. The weather proved to be good for walking with sunshine above and frozen below. We walked across the Over RSPB tp the Staunch to see how high the river was - and it was very high, We then took the Ouse Valley Way intending to reach Earith but the path disappeared under water half way along, so we retraced our steps and circumnavigated Barleycroft lake. The Lake was heaving with water fowl: flocks of ducks and geese as well as several swans, egrets, coots and cormorants.

Frozen Mud on RSPB

River Level

Style to?

Ouse Valley Way

River Ouse Reflections

A surprising feature next to the Lake was a field of about 90 Alpacas which were not there on previous walks.

Alpacas

The sugar beet clamp in Over Fen has been cleared this week to a hard standing but has left a terrible mess on the field.

Post Sugar Beet Clamp

I have delivered two talks on ZOOM this week, on Tuesday to U3A Garden Group on "Legumes" and on Thursday to Hitchin Probus on "The Wildlife of Costa Rica". I usually enjoy this one but I had several bird experts in the audience who corrected a few things!

We attended Megan's funeral on U Tube which was obviously very emotional, especially seeing all the photos.

"Biographies" this week featured "Carl Gustav Jung" of psychological fame. It was very highbrow as we were introduced to Archetypes, Archetypical images, Complexes, Extraversion and introversion, Persona, Shadow, Ego, Collective unconscious, Anima, Animus, Self, Individuation and Synchronicity - but I don't expect I have to explain any of these to you?!! He was actually quite a cheerful chap and lived until 86 years old with a plethora of children and grandchildren,

Carl Gustav Jung

Kate did a Hinchingbrooke run with Lorna on Tuesday and they had to wait over 45 minutes in the Car Park for admittance - I think you need to avoid hospitals if you are not feeling well!!

love

Mike & Kate

 

7^th February 2021

 

Dear All,

The mud and floods seem to have dominated the week again. We actually started walking in wellies this week as there is so much water locally – I think we need Vermuyden back again!

 

 

Furtherway,Over

 

 

Tricky path

For our Thursday walk we decided to head for the Guided Busway as there is a solid track beside it thinking we would escape mud and water. This only half worked as there were at least 5 stretches of the path under quite deep water. We managed to battle through to the RSPB bus stop but every route off was flooded so we had to retrace our steps. The RSPB reserve itself was almost totally submerged – we have never seen it like that before.

 

 

Guided Busway

 

 

RSPB Fen Drayton

 

 

 

On the way back we viewed the aconites and snowdrops in Swavesey Manor gardens which are quite a display.

 

 

Swavesey Manor Garden

 

We tuned into a U3A lecture on “Can we Refreeze the Arctic?” by Dr Hugh Hunt. He presented data about global warming and two approaches to solving the problem: a) burning less fossil fuel and b) Geoengineering. As there is little evidence od a) happening he outlined some possibilities for b) including carbon capture (trees) and Solar Radiation Management including making the oceans more reflective with microbubbles and SPICE: Stratosphere Particle Injection for Climate Engineering. This involves spraying particles in the stratosphere from aerosols attached to tethered balloons to reflect the sun’s rays.

 

SPICE

 

“Biography” subject this week was Rev, Richard Relhan a little-known cleric and botanist (1754 -1823) he was born in Brighton, went to Westminster College and Trinity College, Cambridge but despite having a very rich step mother was himself permanently hard up. He became a clergyman in Kent then back in Cambridge and published the first flora of Cambridgeshire. He had 15 children but only 6 survived childhood. The scale of his debts got him dismissed from the chaplaincy of Kings College and his life spiralled down in long years of poverty.

 

Kate fortunately got an all clear from her mammogram and is still stripping and polishing the dining room chairs.

 

Seed potatoes are chitting, the Amaryllis is flowering, peas have been sown in gutters and carrots are emerging in pots.

 

 

Seed Potatoes

 

 

Amaryllis

 

 

We were pleased to receive the latest school photos this week.

 

 

 

As it rained most of Saturday, we ventured out to distribute parsnips (we have a glut) and got wet, apart from that it was a hard day watching cricket, football and rugby!

 

With love

Mike & Kate

 

31st January 2021

 

Dear All,

Question: (not for our veggie offspring!) when is the last time you ate rabbit? It was an ever present growing up but I can’t remember the last time I ate it. Derreck Medlock, our erstwhile next door but one neighbour moved to Nottinghamshire but kept the bungalow and returns to stay or check it over occasionally. He still has 200 -300 rabbits and when we invited him for a meal last year, he presented us with a rabbit – fortunately skinned and jointed. Kate was not over joyed and it was put in the freezer and only retrieved and cooked this weekend. Kate could not actually face it herself but it was OK in a casserole but somehow you see fluffy bunnies when it is on your plate, which is not a problem with other sorts of meat!

Our microwave cooker packed up on Monday so we ordered another which was delivered on Friday, it is amazing how much you miss the convenience.

Kate had another mammogram this week, it has been a yearly treat since her breast cancer operation. I took her to Addenbrooke’s and waited in the Park ‘n Ride car park to avoid public transport. All the doors at the hospital are locked with guards.

We took part in the RSPB “Big Bird Watch” Friday morning. Fortunately, the sun came out and we recorded a few small birds but Pigeons and Crows were top of the list. It is disappointing that the Woodpeckers, Jays and Long tailed Tits that we have seen recently, disappear when needed!

We have managed to walk nearly every day but are running out of non-muddy, non-watery paths. On Thursday for our longer walk we took the main road to Willingham, which was OK as long as you were prepared to jump on the verge each time traffic roared by. We then explored the backstreets of Willingham before returning on the footpath – where we soon encountered mud and water again – having to wade through a flood near the end.

 

 

Mud

 

 

Muck

 

 

Water

 

“Biographies” session had two short presentations this week: Arthur Ransome and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Ransome had two distinct periods to his life, the first as a journalist in Russia where without actually being a spy, he provided information to both the UK and Russian governments. Then he retired back to England and wrote the “Swallows & Amazons” books for children.

 

 

Arthur Ransome

 

Elizabeth Jane Howard was born in New Zealand but came to England to finish her education. She had three marriages, numerous liaisons, several jobs before joining the Bloomsbury set and writing many books of which the “Cazalets” collection were best known (not by me!). Her first marriage was to Peter Scott (naturalist & painter) and her third to Kingsley Amis. She was a friend of D.H. Lawrence and he is thought to have based “Women in Love” on her.

 

Elizabeth Jane Howard

 

We are in charge of the Sunday ZOOM session today on the topic of “Fear”

I think I may be getting ahead of myself with seed propagation this year – blame the lockdown!

 

 

Propagation Bench

 

 

Germination cabinet

 

Brenda Ingle’s funeral due this Tuesday has had to be postponed as her son-in-law has tested positive for Covid and her daughter and granddaughter are having to isolate – not easy for the family.

With love

Mike & Kate