Debbie and Amy at the Cow Lane Godmanchester Meadows this day
Debbie and Amy at the Cow Lane Godmanchester Meadows this day

Off to St Ives auction viewing with Debbie’s friend Amy where I spotted Mr McNish’s St Neots paper mill old desk and then a look at Cow Lane Godmanchester meadow fields in flood conditions before a visit to Nigel Smith for a chat about investments and shares. News today of the grisly process of identifying the underground fire victims, as police believe they have found the reason for the fire that smouldered for over 2 hours prior to the blaze. Another bomb was detonated in Northern Ireland on the eve of a new memorial service planned for Enniskillen in the morning

Slept well enough and then lay in bed listening to the radio and drinking my morning tea. A little late to breakfast, as I was thinking and dreaming too much. Then became more active and decided to go out this morning. Today is the viewing for St Ives auction and so I took the girls there (Daniel was at school of course). We picked up Debbie’s friend, Amy, and drove off. First, we stopped off at the top of Paxton Hill and looked down over Little Paxton, but the sun had gone in and I could not take any satisfactory photographs. Then, we went to the end of Cow Lane in Godmanchester to see my meadow fields. The river levels had been up and I wanted to see how this affected them. Also, the girls wanted a walk. The sun came out, we had a nice exercise and I got some good photographs. Then on to St Ives, where our first priority was some morning drinks at the cafe. This accomplished, I viewed the antiques, whilst the girls went round the shops.

I was struck by an old desk put in by the St Neots company, Paines and Co. It has the two pedestals swinging outwards to reveal a wealth of document drawers and many of the old labels refer to St Neots Paper Mill Co and a Mr McNish. From my history studies, I know that Mr McNish had the idea of getting together a consortium of St Neots businessmen to save Little Paxton Paper mill after the Toogoods had gone in 1888. He became the Chairman and this was his desk! I must bid for it next Tuesday. Met the girls in the car park and then we drove home, via Hartford, to see the meadows from the opposite side of the river. They were well flooded, but still interesting. On to drop Amy off at Little Paxton, then to St Neots to collect Daniel and have lunch at The Beefeater at The Bridge Inn. Nice food and service, which we enjoyed. Back home, but plans for this afternoon came to an end when Nigel Smith phoned up, having received my Spycatcher book, and invited me over. I accepted and spent a happy couple of hours until a late teatime. We discussed our activities, the stock market crash, and trees/other investments. I was late for tea and made myself a pork pie salad. This evening, I decided to read Dr Ravi Batra’s US-published book, ‘The Great Depression of 1990’, which is rather frightening. This recent stock market crash has come a bit early. News today of the grisly process of identifying the underground fire victims, as police believe they have found the reason for the fire that smouldered for over 2 hours prior to the blaze. A bomb was detonated in Northern Ireland on the eve of a new memorial service planned for Enniskillen tomorrow morning, to commemorate the war dead and recent massacre.