Spring 2020 Chairman’s Report

Well we have never had a year quite like this before, and it is my expectation that the newsletter will be a little thin on the ground this time.

We were doing fine until February when although the warnings of what was to come were gathering on the horizon, Cardiac Friends was still operating and holding its regular events, and naively perhaps, we thought that if we were outside walking or kept a reasonable distance from our fellow participants, then we could continue those activities, but that all came to a shuddering halt once the government advice consigned us all to our own homes, and the usual places to meet friends, have a relaxing cup of coffee and a chat suffered the order to immediately close their doors for the duration!

For our group who are inherently social animals, this has proven to be particularly hard for us and we are all forced to look inwards to manage our time. So what has everyone been doing?

I strongly suspect that those lucky to have access to a garden, will be spending more time than previously in that safe confine. I know some of us are doubly lucky to also have an allotment to repair to because even though some travel might be necessary to get there, this has been deemed appropriate by the authorities since it leads to that “exercise” activity, sanctioned as one of the reasons for venturing outside.

As it happens, we are one of four couples of Cardiac Friends who have an allotment on the same plots at Old Hale Way in Hitchin, and we are usually lucky enough to be able to have a short chat with them, while strictly observing the 2 metre social distancing criteria.

I know speaking for myself, that our garden and allotment have been life-savers and have never looked better, since we are spending much longer hours in both. I include a couple of pictures of our garden to show you how it looks:

Front of the house showing the wisteria (my pride and joy) and the clematis Montana “Elizabeth” where the “head gardener” parks her car.

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The wisteria takes some serious and careful pruning but is worth every effort: the only down-side is that because it is so floriferous, when the petals finally drop, we have to wade through a mass carpet of lilac-coloured flowers, and spend endless days brushing up and disposing of them, but worth it!

Clematis Montana “Warwickshire Rose” grown over our side-entrance gate. The

wisteria has been trained around three sides of our house, but this view was taken before the wisteria on this East wall had fully flowered. At this (later) moment in time it is just reaching its peak – and beautiful!

We often have people stopping outside to admire the display.

“Head gardener’s” pride and joy – Tree Peony, one of four in the garden!

She paces around the garden impatient for the blooms to open and is transported with joy when they do – they are the size of dinner plates!

I do hope that all you other gardeners have had as much enjoyment with your own

patches as we have with ours. The weather, both wet over the winter and dry and hot now, has certainly been a positive contributing factor this year.

But now to other things: although I sent out the following paragraph by E-mail some while ago, I make no apology for repeating it here in the newsletter for the benefit of those who still rely on the Royal Mail and the newsletter to keep them informed.

“Sadly we have lost one of our friends, although not to the pandemic! Kingsley Day, one of our long-term Cardiac Friends and Wednesday walkers, passed away – it is believed - on Thursday 2nd April and I’m sure our thoughts and prayers are with Ann.But thankfully there are also some items of good news worthy of celebration:Pat and Mike Patmore’s 60th wedding anniversary, just before the restrictions were put in place; Cyril Savage celebrated his 80th: Mary and Jim Corrigan’s 53rd anniversary and Liz and Adam Kuzminski’s upcoming golden wedding at the end of May, as well as the numerous birthdays of various seniority – and these are just the ones we know about!It goes without saying that for all of you who have had a reason to celebrate be it birthday, anniversary, grandparenthood or indeed anything else - your friends wish you all the best for the occasion.” I also would like to add in Fred’s 89th which I missed as it happened just after I sent the E-mail, and also to report that Jacqui and Peter Dawes finally made it back after an extended stay with their friends in New Zealand. A hearty welcome home!

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We have just passed the sixth week point of the “lock-down” – I’m fast beginning to hate that phrase - and if the news is to be believed, the peak has passed and numbers of infections are reducing, so the future starts to look brighter: hopefully then, the present highlight of my week – deciding which dustbin to put out on a Tuesday evening – will be consigned to history!!!

Please, please, please keep yourselves well and keep yourselves safe, and hopefully before too long we can all get back together again and return to our normal lives.Barry Brown cardiacfriends.chair@outlook.com

Monday Morning Walkers

We meet every other Monday at 10. 30 A.M. and try to keep the walks local.

Wednesday Walking GroupIt was so sad that we had to cancel our meetings to walk the countryside together - however needs must. I hope that you are all staying well and that you and your families have not become victims of the virus. I have had many emails etc. from you to say how much you are missing the walks and the company of all your 'Cardiac Friends'. I thought to perhaps bring back memories and let you remind you of one of our walks I would include a 'virtual' example.

Virtual WalkOur 'Bluebell Walk' from 'The Strathmore Arms' usually takes place in April or May so I thought perhaps we could let our minds run riot and try and have a virtual walk.

We leave the car park of 'The Strathmore Arms' and walk up through the grounds of the church of St. Pauls Walden.

Leaving the church grounds we follow the field edge until we reach the drive of Stagenhoe House where we turn right and cross the road and enter the wood. Here we see not only our first Bluebells but also as we leave the wood some Cowslips and Primroses. We cross a large open field and enter another wood shortly crossing a lane and then walk down a shady meandering path. After about 100 metres we come out in the open and walk alongside a large field on our right. In the distance we can see Stevenage and in the foreground is Lister hospital. We enter a small wood and then the path goes very sharply downhill.

 At the bottom of the hill we cross the road and enter Hitchwood. The path runs parallel to the lane and we see masses of Bluebells on our left. We continue for a few hundred yards and before our path turns right and we stop for our photo call.                                                    

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We continue through the wood climbing gradually, the Bluebells are mainly on our left and eventually we leave them behind. The path turns right and we climb steadily through a more sparse landscape.After a few hundred yards we turn left heading to the edge of the wood. Having reached an ancient lane we turn left and walk along the lane. Soon we see more Bluebells on our left.

We reach the end of the wood; ahead of us a footpath crosses the field ahead diagonally right. At the other side of the field is another wood which we skirt and soon pass a farmhouse on our right. The footpath turns right past the farmhouse, and we walk alongside a large field and pass another wood on our right with more bluebells.

                                         

Soon the path enters the wood and after a further 100 yards we turn left onto a path which passes Stagenhoe House. After passing the house and a tennis court we join a gravel path turning right and walking back eventually passing the church and then it is downhill to the pub for a much needed drink and lunch.I hope you enjoyed the 'walk' and it won't be too long before we can do it for real!

Stay Safe! Regards, Fred Maryon

Exercise Group 4

Hi everybody I hope you are all well and coping with the lockdown. As you can imagine I have no idea when we will be able to resume our exercise classes but I hope all of you continue to do some kind of exercise be it gardening, walking or joining in on one of the many classes on YouTube.

I am not living at home at the moment as when all of this started I was on holiday in Spain with my friend from Royston. That all turned out to be rather traumatic. We arrived on Monday the 9th of March for two weeks. We were aware that the Coronavirus was in Madrid but were assured by Saga that it was fine for us to travel to Almunecar, Andalusia, so off we went. On arrival we booked trips out for the rest of the holiday. On the Friday we went on a lovely trip out into the mountains visiting small villages and enjoying the beautiful spring flowers and the flowering orchards. We were looking forward to seeing more on our next trip but on returning to the hotel we were informed that ‘lock down’ would be enforced from Saturday! Of course we all wanted to know what would happen about returning us to the UK as quickly as possible.

In the meantime the strangest thing happened. During the night all the beaches, restaurants and most shops were closed. Same thing as here but much earlier. The front of our hotel was closed off and all the seating in the outdoor area facing the pavement was removed. The police continually patrolled the town to enforce it all.

On Sunday we were told that we would be flying home on Monday on a chartered flight to Gatwick and from there we would be returned to our original airports. Being in the airport was a very strange experience with nothing open and only a couple of check-in desks open. Everyone was anxious that we would make the flight but we did. Everything was socially distanced by tape on the floor. Gatwick was even stranger. When we got to passport control we could have had a rave. However Saga were well organised and we were returned to Stansted in Limo style.

On returning to Royston with Nina we decided to stay together for a further week. Then guess what we had lockdown so we have stayed in Royston together.

Love to all, Jackie Quinn

Heartsong

Having inevitably cancelled the March session our next session is on May 29th. This is obviously in the balance, but we will circulate people about the state of play A.S.A.P. after the Government announcements this weekend.

We live in Holwell, a small village just north of Hitchin and, as we've all found, bird song is much more audible these days because traffic and other noise has reduced so much. The poem, Adlestrop written in 1914 and  well-known to many, was read on the Radio 4 Today programme recently and evokes this temporarily rediscovered world. So let's enjoy the beautiful sounds while they last. 

John Burden

Adlestrop - BY EDWARD THOMAS

Yes. I remember Adlestrop—

The name, because one afternoon5

Of heat the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Line Dancing

Our last Line Dancing session was back on 21 March which turned out to be a good one to finish on as there were 11

of us dancing and during our break time we were joined by Barry, our Chairman, who came to see what we get up to and have a chat with everyone whilst having some tea and cake. After refreshments Barry joined in a few dances with

us too. It was a very enjoyable morning.

Although we have not seen each other or danced together for several weeks we are keeping in touch regularly via email or speaking on the phone. This way we are supporting each other through these difficult times.

I am so pleased to say that everyone of us in the group are well and virus free and are all looking forward to the time we can meet at Willian village hall for some more line

dancing together again.In the meantime I send best wishes to everyone in Cardiac Friends – keep well and stay safe.

Poem printed in the Kitchen Garden magazine written by one of its readers

I’ve over pruned my whatsanames, and mice have eaten my peas!

I planted some daffodils, SOMEWHERE… They SHOULD be under the trees!

My marrows look like cucumbers, and my cucumbers never showed.

I’ve tried every kind of fertilizer – I buy it by the load!

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Its wet when I need some sunshine, and dry when I need it wet…

I’m sure some day my fingers will be green… But it hasn’t happened yet!

Janet Savage

London Walks

Although we had the best intentions after meeting up with Kim, to carry out a programme of walks for this year, the arrival of the “plague” in our midst has well and truly scuppered that!

Once the government advice directed us towards our homes for our own safety, coupled with the forced closure of all social venues, it rather forced our hand in cancelling the first 3 walks of the year. Although Taylors Travel coaches were still operating right at the beginning, albeit with the need to hand-wash and disinfect before boarding the coach, by then our hostelry in Farringdon where we have enjoyed many a Sunday lunch was itself closed and many of the coffee stop where we would have started our walks were themselves shut.

At this stage, we are not convinced that we can continue with any of the walks this year! The jungle-drums seem to suggest that social distancing will become the norm for some time into the future, and that will mean that coach journeys where we are sat next to each other will be out of the question, and furthermore, the pubs and restaurants have been informed that they would be one of the last group of businesses to be released in order to open again.

Although it is by no means certain, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to anticipate restrictions for some considerable time to come.

We have contacted Kim to see how she is getting on and informs us that although business has virtually ceased, she is still managing. Son and daughter both at home with her and Rex and the only bad news is that she lost her mum who passed away on Good Friday and with the restrictions on attendance at funerals, is unsure if/when they can attend. I’m sure you all join with us in offering our sincere condolences.

She sends her love and best wishes to you all and looks forward to getting back to normality, like all of us. She also included a “virtual” London quiz for our entertainment, which we have reproduced here for your benefit. Each of the items is a London Landmark - many of which we have seen on our Sunday walks. Answers will be provided once we receive them from Kim.

Gaynor & Barry Tinsdale Ruth & Barry Brown

Email to:cardiacfriendswalks@outlook.com The London Walks Team

Places of Interest/ Theatre Group

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Of course I am not arranging any new trips at the moment but I will take this opportunity to update you on the two trips that have been cancelled.

The trip to Oxford (which was scheduled for the 30th April) I hope to resurrect in the future, probably in 2021. Members have paid £20 each for this trip which will be refunded in total.

The trip to see ‘Mousetrap’ (which was scheduled for the 19 th March) I also plan to resurrect in 2021. For this trip I had already paid for the theatre tickets and the coach hire. I am in the process of trying to obtain a refund from both the coach company and theatre agents. I understand that they are inundated with various requests at a time when many of their employees are self-isolating. However they have both confirmed my refund requests. Both of the original payments were made by credit card which should ensure that, as a last resort, refunds can hopefully be obtained from the credit card company.

I will make refund payments to Members as soon as all matters are finalised. I am sorry that I am unable to be more specific.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Best wishes to you all. Adam Kusminski

PS. Refund for the ‘Mousetrap’ theatre tickets has now been received in early May.

Now for a bit of humour and some poems

A Poem that has been doing the rounds on social media.

(And I have had this sent to me by several people. Thanks to you all.)

I'm normally a social girl I love to meet my mates

But lately with the virus here we can't go out the gates.

You see, we are the 'oldies' now we need to stay inside

lf they haven't seen us for a while they'll think we've upped and died.

They'll never know the things we did before we got this old

There wasn't any Facebook so not everything was told.

We may seem sweet old ladies who would never be uncouth

But we grew up in the 60s - lf you only knew the truth!

There was sex and drugs and rock 'n roll the pill and miniskirts

We smoked, we drank, and we partied and were quite outrageous flirts.

Then we settled down, got married and turned into someone's mum,

Somebody's wife, then nanna, who on earth did we become?

We didn't mind the change of pace because our lives were full

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But to bury us before we're dead is like a red rag to a bull!

So here you find me stuck inside For 4 weeks, maybe more,

I finally found myself again then I had to close the door!

It didn't really bother me l'd while away the hours

I'd bake for all the family but I've got no blooming flour!

Now Netflix is just wonderful I like a gutsy thriller

I'm swooning over ldris, or some random sexy killer.

At least I've got a stash of booze for when I'm being idle

There's wine and whisky, even gin lf I'm feeling suicidal!

So let's all drink to lockdown to recovery and health

And hope this blooming virus doesn't decimate our wealth.

We'll all get through the crisis and be back to join our mates

Just hoping l'm not far too wide to fit through the flaming gates.

Various contributors

What Loo Roll Shortage? My loo roll papers plentiful it's called the Daily Mail

I thread it on a piece of string and hang it on a nail

But first I have to cut into pieces six by four

With a whole cut in the corner to hang behind the door but mind you hang right way up Cos upside down won't do

If you want to read the paper while you're sitting on the loo!

Glenda Underwood. 

From the Newsletter Editor

Maggi Bullen has been sending out regular emails to the Monday walkers, as does Fred to the Wednesday walkers. And don’t forget ‘The Sharing Page’, a new feature of the website where you can post (via Peter Howard the Webmaster; peterbhoward@ntlworld.com) and let us all know how you are using your time during the lockdown.

If you have anything in the way of poems, stories or anecdotes which you think will be of interest to our friends, please do send them to me. Thanks to all the contributors of this newsletter; Adam, Barry, Cheryl, Fred, Glenda, Jackie, Janet, John, Kim and Roy.

The rainbow included on the header is one made with fir cones coloured in rainbow colours by my two oldest grandchildren; Noah 10, and Natasha 8, who live in Hitchin.

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Ruth Brown 08/05/2020

Stay well and stay safe.

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