To Burwell, Fordham, Lode, Newmarket, Soham, Stretham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Swaffham Prior, Wicken, etc.

To Burwell, Fordham, Lode, Newmarket, Soham, Stretham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Swaffham Prior, Wicken, etc., today to collect signatures for my Election Nomination Paper. This Paper requires a Proposer, a Seconder and eight more who 'assent' to the nomination. The whole thing was done in about five hours. I didn't hurry because the weather was awful - again - and because I was offered several cups of tea (thanks, in particular, to Bryan and Alex) and also because it was wonderful going from place to place and home to home picking up what was needed with little or no discussion or dissent. My supporters know instinctively what to do and why we are doing it. We are on to victory whenever the General Election comes.

One of my calls was at this house close by the village of Swaffham Bulbeck and the snow from last night and this morning is still evident. Despite the snow, it is easy to see the lovely location beside Swaffham Bulbeck Lode. (Lodes are ancient canals that date back to Roman times and they used to carry boat and barge traffic from the Fen-edge settlements to the River Cam and on, eventually, to the North Sea). We haven't had all that much snow, but the Winter is almost too much for some of us. Roll on Spring!

I was also in Burwell and had intended to call on my friend, Mrs Lesley Reader, who is Clerk to Burwell Parish Council and whose office is at the Jubilee Reading Room on The Causeway. The building was named for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887 and was actually opened a year or so later. Meetings of Burwell Parish Council are held there and I have attended many of them over the years. Today, the door was locked and I missed Mrs Reader.