Mike & Pam

Mike:  Life remains restricted for me because of my kidney condition and a transplant is increasingly less likely because of my age and accumulated antibodies. However the NHS - bless them - are keeping me going by helping me through the various "issues" as they arise.

This year I have continued my involvement with the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association (SCKPA). As you may recall, Pam is webmaster and is now doing a monthly newsletter, see below. Meanwhile our Chairman is handing over the reins to me and it will be my job to steer the charity (like countless other small charities) through some very rocky waters. Incidentally I shall refuse to be called "Chair"!

We were thwarted by the pandemic from visiting cricket or opera at Wormsley and from both the Hay and Oxford literary festivals. However we did attend a smoked salmon tasting and a wine tasting via Zoom. As a result, our Christmas lunch will be largely courtesy of Forman and Field, purveyors of smoked salmon to the Oxford and Cambridge Club.

A highlight of the year was a Zoomed Q&A session organised by the O&C Club with Sir John Scarlett, a member who also happens to have served as head of the SIS after two separate postings to Moscow. Wow! But Chatham House Rules must apply.

My latest hobby is dehydration! Due to an offer of some chilli plants in the Spring, we had a mass of chillies that we certainly could not have eaten before they went off. So I am now the owner of a dehydrator and the result was a pot of chilli flakes (very successful) and apple crisps (reasonably successful!).

Final result - anyone for chilli flakes?

Chilli plants

Chilli harvest

Dehydrator in action

Pam:  in spite of being confined to one's home for most of the year, the months seemed to whizz by with more than enough to keep me busy in the house, in my office and in the garden. Many jigsaws (fifteen so far) were completed including one of Lotte's photo of the garden that she had made.

Although officially retired, I still keep an eye on some of my long-time clients' systems, do the accounts and help out when requested with testing new applications.

Being on the committee of the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association, we were very aware that no branch or social meetings could be held so there was a danger of members losing touch with SCKPA. My current project is therefore a monthly online newsletter available through our website. It is a mix of relevant medical articles, amusing contributions from readers, recipes, puzzles and other suitable entries. Being managed by Oxford’s Renal Unit we are fortunate to get leading articles on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the 'Recovery' trials to find new treatments for the Covid-19 disease and other cutting edge research work. If you would like to read these newsletters, click here to access the SCKPA website, then select menu option Newsletter.

Following up my project from last year, wild flowers in a Chiltern garden, I found some more wild flowers in our back meadow to add to the list including a fourth orchid, the fragrant orchid. Again the wet autumn made the final mow very difficult so in the end we called in a local contractor. His heavy equipment soon cleared the whole area and, as I write, we have an extremely large bonfire that will probably take a couple of weeks to burn through.

'Sandycot in the Spring' jigsaw

Shakespeare's London jigsaw

Stonehenge, one of the more difficult jigsaws!

Mowing the back garden

Collecting the grass and leaves