A visit to Castle Hedingham and a short walk

On 19th August 2025, eleven of us went in 3 cars to Castle Hedingham where we regrouped at the café within the castle – seated on what felt like medieval chairs at medieval tables. Unfortunately, they only had cakes, not savoury food. After refreshments we spent some time exploring the Norman castle, of which only the Keep remains, then met up again outside to do the walk.

Exiting the castle grounds past the ornamental lakes, we turned left to the end of the village, then left out of the village and a short way up the road turned onto a footpath behind the castle.

The original walk was to be 3.75 miles, but that hadn’t factored in visiting the castle, which has limited opening days, but being a circular walk basically on footpaths/fields around the perimeter of the village there were places to cut it shorter, so it was about 2 miles. We did cross the tracks of the Colne Valley Railway, next to an old signal box, before following a meadow path between the railway track and the River Colne. On reaching a road we turned left back into the village to find a tea-shop or pub, settling for the latter as the tea-rooms shut around 3.30pm.

The village itself is a lovely mix of medieval houses, including the Old Moot House (currently a tea-room/restaurant but up for sale as a private residence), thatched cottages and more modern houses, plus two pubs and a small gallery/tea-room.

Including walking around inside the castle we covered over 4 miles and having left Eagle Lane at 10am we were home at around 6pm after an enjoyable trip.  

Richard, 21st August 2025

Photos by Madeleine

We were all in agreement that the grounds of the Castle were beautiful

 What a super day we had at Castle Hedingham. Here are some us enjoying the lovely grounds around the Keep.This photo was taken from the Minstrels Gallery at Castle Hedingham

Photos by Lorraine

Hitchin Lavender Fields

Given that I had sent an email out describing the planned outing to Hitchin Lavender as basically a convoluted journey to visit a field of wilting lavender, it was lovely to have a group of ten people – or eleven if you count the temporary What’sApp group set up for the occasion, which seemed to take on a life of its own – join in with the trip on 2nd August 2025.

Jill, Val, Claire and her friend Diane travelled up by car, with the rest of us making our way by public transport, which amazingly seemed (seemed) to be running fine for a Saturday.

I’ll hand over to the What’sApp group messages to provide a flavour of the journey to Hitchin.

• We’re at Kings Cross, journey going well. 

• We got here early so see you at Paul’s Coffee Shop opposite the Eurostar ticket office. [wish I’d had a doughnut] 

• Just when we thought it was going so well, the train has been cancelled, so we’re stuck at King’s Cross for the next hour

[At this point the picnic site changed from a lavender field to a bench at King’s Cross Station, as there was little else to do, and the general mood dipped somewhat.]

• Jill: Try St Pancras, there should be trains every fifteen minutes

[Rather frantic group dash to St Pancras…will they make it??]

• We’re on the train, Jill you’re a star for suggesting that! 

• Car 1:There’s quite a bit of traffic 

• Car 2: I’ve got here…where is everyone?

• Train: Nearly there 

• Car 1: If you’re driving the postcode on the website takes you to a care home 

• Train: I’m in need of one after the stress of the journey 

Don’t ask me how, but amazingly everyone arrived at the lavender farm within a few minutes of each other, and were greeted by wafts of lavender and the sun showing itself through the clouds. 

I can’t think whose ridiculous idea it was to carry the picnic chairs Jill had very kindly brought along up the long slope to the top of the field, have lunch, and then lug the chairs all the way down again, but I was swiftly talked out of it, and we set up what was left of our picnic in a very nice spot, and had a lovely long and relaxed lunchbreak.

While the farm essentially comprises one main field, it is a very lovely field; and although the lavender was beginning to fade, it was still pretty abundant, and I think the recent rain had pepped it up a bit. About a third of the field is given over to sunflowers, and these had just come out, and were really lovely too. We all had a good walk up and down the field, enjoying the purples and golds, and taking plenty of photos.

After that, a cup of tea from one of the outlets called, although we drew the line at the posh chips, with their posh price tag of £7 a portion.

Tea drunk, it was time to make our various ways home, which included an optional two mile walk back to Hitchin station, kindly worked out and led by Trevor. A nice walk back it was too, with some woodland, open fields and a river, before we reached the town and the station came into view.

Thank you to everyone who came along, and additional thanks to Mad for navigating King’s Cross; Jill for coming to the rescue with alternative train times and for bringing picnic chairs and rugs; and to Trevor for leading the walk back to Hitchin, and for stoically being the token bloke. A very nice day, with the unforecast sunshine being an added bonus.

Louise, 8th August 2025

Madeleine's 'Sunflower with Ladybirds'

 Photos by Jill and Madeleine  

Themed Music Evening

On Thursday 7th August, we held another Themed Music Evening for our weekly get-together at the Scout Hall. This time the subject was "This Cover Is Better Than The Original (In My Opinion)" although not everyone agreed with that sentiment on all the songs. I received 19 suggestions to play, but knew we wouldn't have time to play everything so all the 'second choices' were eliminated, although I have included them in the list below. I played a small selection of my favourite covers whilst everyone got tea / coffee and biscuits and then we got started.  Those present sat in huddles of four or five and, as each track was played, the groups conferred to determine who had first recorded the track. Once the track was finished, I asked each team, in turn, what they'd concluded and noted who was right. Some were easily identified by everyone, some were correctly guessed by one or two teams but not the others and some were unguessable. Some people didn't recognise the covers, never mind know who did the original and, for a couple, people didn't realise that the more well-known version was actually a cover. Our selection covered jazz to punk and a couple of tracks were definitely more enjoyable for some people than others, but it was a fun evening and having a topic to discuss enabled people to socialise whilst the music was played. Unsurprisingly, The Beatles and Bob Dylan featured a few times.  

Soundcheck:
Jealous Guy by Roxy Music  (John Lennon)
I'm A Believer by The Monkees  (Neil Diamond)
Days by Kirsty MacColl  (The Kinks)
My Way by Sid Vicious / The Sex Pistols  (Frank Sinatra). If you've never heard this, I recommend a listen (and do get beyond the first 1 minute 8 seconds too).  Apparently Paul Anka (who wrote it for Frank Sinatra) loved this version. 

Playlist:
Valerie by Amy Winehouse  (The Zutons)
Make You Feel My Love by Adele  (Bob Dylan)
Eloise by The Damned  (Barry Ryan)
The First Cut Is The Deepest by Rod Stewart  (Cat Stevens)
Long Tall Sally by The Beatles  (Little Richard)
Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees  (The Beatles)
Knocking on Heaven's Door by Guns n Roses  (Bob Dylan)
The Chain by The Highwomen  (Fleetwood Mac)
Love Me Or Leave Me by Nina Simone  (Ruth Etting) - we also played a short snippet of the original, from 1928
Mr Tambourine Man by Melanie  (Bob Dylan)
Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye  (Gladys Knight & The Pips)
Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers  (Les Baxter)
Tainted Love by Soft Cell  (Gloria Jones)

The ones we didn't get to:
Feeling Good by Muse  (Nina Simone)
Nothing Compares To You by Sinead O'Connor  (Prince)
Roll Over Beethoven by The Beatles  (Chuck Berry)
The Crying Game by Boy George  (Dave Berry)
Red Red Wine by UB40  (Neil Diamond)
Rockin' All Over The World by Status Quo  (John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Mother Nature's Son by John Denver  (The Beatles) 

Jill S, 7th August 2025

'Just a Minute' Game

When I was first introduced to this, it was called "Just a Minute", but it's not the same as the TV / radio show of that name and is probably more accurately described as "Who Is This?" or "The Name Game". 

An email was sent out, a couple of weeks ago, asking for people to send me the names of two famous people; they could be dead or alive, recent or historical, but had to be real people. The responses were an eclectic mix of authors, actors, sportsmen, explorers and royalty amongst others, although musicians / singers and politicians dominated; there was only one duplicate (Beethoven).  I added some scientists, chefs, fashion designers, artists, entertainers, TV personalities and historical figures, plus some more authors and actors, to the list, ensuring there were male and female names in each category where possible. Each was printed on individual squares of paper.  

This evening - 31st August 2025 - the group divided into two teams, with each sat in a row, facing the other team. To determine which team would go first, I gave a clue to someone chosen by myself (cigar-smoking, p****, who was actively involved with Stoke Mandeville) - which was correctly guessed by the team on my left as Jimmy Saville. The first person in Team A was handed the first piece of paper and had to describe the named person so that their team guessed who it was. Saying "sounds like" or "rhymes with" isn't allowed and nor can you pass so, if you have no idea who the person is or what they did, you have to be creative with your clues to guide your team to the correct name. As soon as the correct answer was guessed, another piece of paper was handed over. After one minute, time was up and the unguessed name went to the bottom of the pile. The first person is Team B was given the next name to describe to their team. Again, one minute to successfully describe as many people as possible. We then came back to Team A and person two in the row, and so on until all 54 names had been correctly identified.  Some were easy, but who knew that Steve Redgrave is a cyclist? (actually, Trevor did, as he guessed that his team mate knew nothing about sport and shouted out the sportsperson that he'd actually suggested) or that Stevie Nicks is male? or that Julius Caesar was Greek?  Walter Raleigh also got the bicycle treatment, Princess Charlotte was linked to fruit with no-one thinking to say she's William and Kate's daughter, Ellen Terry was described using nappies and Billy Joel may now forever be associated with goats. It took a few rounds before Elon Musk was correctly identified, possibly because no-one mentioned Tesla. 

For round two, the papers were shuffled and we continued down the line, alternating between Team A and Team B, for one minute each - but this time the person standing at the front could only use one word and their team was only allowed one guess. If they got it wrong, the piece of paper went back to the end of the pile and another name was passed over to describe in one word. It helps to have paid attention to the clues given (and the answers) in the first round, but at least you can pass in this round if you have no idea. In my example, I pointed out that 'cigar' for Jimmy Saville wouldn't help much as it could also apply to Groucho Marx so 'Mandeville' would be a better clue. Clearly my suggestion didn't sink in though, as 'author' gave the team a 1 in 5 chance, 'chef' didn't help narrow it down between Delia Smith or Gordon Ramsey (yet Norwich and 'swears' had both been mentioned in round one), 'clothing' could be Ralph Lauren or Coco Chanel (again, 'Polo' and 'dress' were mentioned in round one and that's how they were eventually identified), 'French' could be Claude Monet, Coco Chanel, Brigitte Bardot or Marie Antoinette and 'beheaded' applied to Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette.  We also learned who hadn't paid attention in the first round when answers such as Charles Dickens and Vincent Van Gogh were shouted out - they weren't ever on the list. 

In round three, you had to mime. Richard crawling on the floor, trying to be a 'cat in the hat' for Dr Seuss was hilarious, blowing the bl**dy doors off for Michael Caine was mistaken for Guy Fawkes, smoking a cigarette (tobacco) for Walter Raleigh was guessed as Groucho Marx (should have gone for the cycling action!), attempts at miming a crown on the head for Queen Elizabeth II and for Princess Charlotte might have worked if a similar headpiece mime wasn't also used for Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Julius Caesar and, oddly, Dawn French (presumably linked to the Vicar of Dibley). Miming writing was variously used for Dick Francis, Bill Bryson, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace and Carol Vorderman, so wasn't a huge help.  An asp biting Cleopatra was well acted (if you knew the answer) but obviously wasn't clear the first time round - when it came round again and was mimed to the same team, the person who'd acted almost the exact same mime was able to guess it immediately. At least Lewis Hamilton was relatively easy, once Jeremy Clarkson had been discounted and so were Charles Darwin (ape to man), Bruce Lee (karate kick) and Martina Navratilova (I should have added a male tennis player to the list!).  

We didn't quite get through them all - Michelle Obama, Tony Blair, Ellen Terry and Nelson Mandela proved too difficult to mime - before our evening had to be brought to an end, but it was good fun and I'd certainly like to thank all the participants for making me laugh so much, even if that wasn't the intent.  One person's idea of 'famous' isn't the same as another's and there were a few names in the pile that were unknown to many in the group, which made it very interesting. However, I can't criticise as I had no idea who Ellen Terry was.  

Jill S., 31st July 2025