Martin & Margot at Blenheim
Martin and Margot’s Christmas letter
2025
Dear All,
Happy Christmas!
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| The Garden |
For us, much of 2025 has been the year of the garden! After moving in 2024 and working on getting the house straight, early this year, we finally tackled the large but compacted bit of old runway that makes up our garden. Because of surface water problems among our neighbours, we decided to opt for raised beds, taking our plants above the clay and not risking a lawn, as so many locally had died from waterlogging. We had help in design, and we are very pleased with the result. For a first summer it proved to be remarkably productive, with potatoes, butternut squash, courgettes, beans, sprouts, chard….. We have planted fruit trees on dwarf stock, as well as some free native trees and a walnut from a seedling in Haddenham. We hope to increase its biodiversity – even now, we have been rather pleased to see the black redstarts again!
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| Martin teaching at Birmingham Christian College |
We have been helping out in our local churches a fair amount, particularly during festivals. But in September our full-time benefice team finally reached full strength, so we will hopefully be needed a little less. But decreased involvement locally means we have more space for doing our environmental work around the country. This autumn, really since the beginning of September until Christmas, we have been out most weekends at churches and colleges, and there is no sign that this will change next year. Our module on “Creation Care and Christian Mission” will run again for All Nations Christian College in the first three months of the year. We have a new book contract, which will keep us busy!
Martin’s research continues way beyond expectations! Papers
in international journals have continued to emerge, and early next year, there
should be more of those, and a book with five chapter contributions. Very
strangely, there were also three European conferences this year, two of which
were paid for. I’m editing another special edition and still trying to get the
carbon sequestration in phytoliths work to really take off. You might think
that sequestering carbon while growing cereal crops would be a popular idea,
but not so far….
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| M&M at Chateau Villandry |
For holidays, we went a bit further into France with our electric car and got as far as the Loire Valley, and a nice gîte in a picturesque village. Then we took the train to visit Chris and Alison even further south at Angoulême. It was pretty hot, and we went out early each morning and then retreated to our lovely cool gîte, reading and relaxing before wandering out in the evening.
Back home, we’ve had various friends to visit, and in the
summer, we held another big social day with Margot’s relatives. We’ve also
fitted in a record number of concerts and other trips – Westonbirt for Margot’s
birthday in October and a stunning trip to Blenheim Palace (top and bottom pics)
for their breathtaking light trail.
And so to 2026. Apart from our environmental work, we also
have two big dates coming up, and we are already making plans. Hope you have a
good Christmas and New Year – do come and see us if you are in Oxfordshire!
Love from
Martin and Margot x
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| Blenheim Palace Light Trail 1 |
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| Blenheim Palace Light Trail 2 |
