And a new toy for granddaughter

Our new favourite recipe…..drop scones. Made in a minute and flavoured any which way. The savoury ones have brewers yeast, salt and mustard powder instead of grated cheese. It works a treat (thank you cousin Judy) and the sweet ones have some golden caster sugar and some frozen blackcurrants added to the dough. It’s goi g to be an eating day with guests.

Easter biscuits for Autumn! The recipe fell out of a book last night so why not?

J spent a quiet hour in the poly tunnel

Nigel played outside amongst the pots of dahlias after J banished him from the tunnel!

Just a few miles from Colmworth is the abandoned Tempsford airfield where RAF squadrons 161 and 138 were stationed from 1940. This was part of the Special Operation Executive which sent spies to occupied countries in Europe where they carried out sabotage and assassination missions. The airfield was disguised as a working farm and we walked towards a barn that was the hub of the operation, sending hundreds of young men and women into alien territory. Inside the barn the spies were kitted out with arms, explosives and cyanide pills.

The small Lysander and larger Hudson planes were able to take off and land on very short strips and they could drop the operatives on the continent, remaining on the ground for just three minutes before taking off again for home.

Many of the spies were natives of the countries to which they were sent as their missions required intimate knowledge of the countryside, the language and the people.

Of the operatives, 75 were women and four of them were awarded the George Cross. Two posthumously. Many of the spies were captured, tortured and executed. Others chose to swallow their lethal capsules for fear of exposing others to danger. Many of the hundreds of the active airmen were also killed during these operations. Outside the barn, trees are planted with plaques to commemorate some of those who did not make it home.

We left the barn and walked along an ancient, straight roman road where legionnaires had trod two thousand years before the stationing of war planes. It was a memorable walk in an ancient and historic landscape where many ghosts reside.

More on this later

We had to cross a level crossing …… and I wasn’t quick enough to snap the train.

Learning from their two bantie mums about scratching in the earth

We just harvested the Borlotti beans, podded them and now they will go into the airing cupboard to dry them off before storing in jars.

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