sunshine!!

Today has been a beautiful day and making the most of it in the allotment has been lovely. Sold 2 dozen eggs to a group of walkers passing by, and managed to get rid of my excess runner beans and a load of potatoes also! it was useful as I put a few quids worth of petrol in the car!!

Was reminded of Record Breakers ( the show with Roy Castle from the 1970's), as I found 5 hens crammed into 1 nesting box, each one desperate to drop an egg! Each year the programme would show a score of properly drunk students squeezing into British telephone boxes or the ubiquitous Mini!. The hens' efforts were I thought more impressive as they were laying eggs as well. I was also glad to see one of the black hookers jammed in with the others, so the initial bad feelings of yesterday's introductions, seem to be over!

Picked the rest of the broad and French beans, ready for freezing, and got a few peppers ready for pickling! I also picked my first onion, which I was very proud of! Yep not very exciting to the reader but satisfying to me!

Tonight catching up with Hazel and a good glass of wine, which is nice! Pay day tomorrow (thank god)

Chicken Village

The wet weather has caused the smaller of the two chicken runs to look rather grubby, so on the spur of the moment I have amalgamated the two runs and introduced the Black Hookers to the the rest of the girls. The two dozen birds now have several hundred feet in which to roam and feed and from a distance the coops resembles a small early North American village. We have had a few squabbles, indeed Raquel Welsh cornered one the Hookers behind the biggest chicken house and literally kicked the shit out of her, black fluffy feathers were flying I can tell you, but things seem to be a little more relaxed at the moment, with the occassional scuffle and spat

Never again

..........suffice to say, she won't be wearing it again!

Man flu

Chris is full of cold today and has lost most of his voice. Feeling crappy he has spent the day on the couch wrapped in my scarf and the 1940s eiderdown, and looked close to death when I got home from work. I walked the dogs on the beach ( they were a bit stir crazy) did the weekly shop,cleaned and fed the chickens and cleaned the house of the rubbish of the flower show then checked on the patient! Weak ,fed up and ill, I got him to drink a lem sip, and eat a large tin of macaroni cheese! In fact the old saying of "feed a cold,starve a fever", came to mind, as he forced himself to consume, two cups of tea,one large glass of orange juice, a fruit yogurt , a medium sized walnut and date fruit cake! (all of it) and a plate of fishfingers. I think he will live.....

Chasing cars

Had a odd Finlay moment yesterday too. Running around in Prestatyn to get last minute Flower Show items, Heard Finlay's Chasing Cars song by Snow Patrol

It was sung rather well by a busker of all people next to Boots!

I know it's silly but I dropped a pound in his collection tin.

The Trelawnyd Flower Show 2007

There are several reasons why I have really enjoyed the flower show even though it has been a long,hard day. I have learnt a great deal from the the professional vegetable and flower judges, won first prize and a commendation for my rose and two seconds for my boiled egg and French beans, and been a part of the most successful flower show to date, but I must admit that the main reason for having a good day is the fact I have met a lot of very friendly locals and felt very much a part of the community, which only happens with this sort of thing. After setting up a load of entries from us and many of the Prestatyn entrants, I shadowed the old Welsh teddy boy and colourful character who was judging the veg! Obviously many of my veg was not quite up to scratch, so I was quick NOT to tell him which was mine ! even though he slagged some of them off terribly ( my herbs had been "thrown" into a trug!!) I was pleased that he praised my beetroots but did comment they were rather small! He was obviouly passionate about judging and about village shows and I enjoyed learning the "show tricks" from him.

Carol shadowed the arts and food judge,Glenys over saw the flower judge, as Auntie Gladys (centre in pic) got on the the raffle and Irene (left) organised the teas with a small army of helpers, so although we were short of stewards, everything was done and done properly!.

A delightful guy called Alan who was originally German, had lived in the Midlands for most of his life ( and had been retired in Trelawnyd for 7 years), helped me on the door, and he introduced me to scores of locals. I found it remarkable that he can now speak Welsh fluently, and did just that, to almost everyone! Characters like Mrs Jones, ( the elderly lady I wave to daily from the farm way down the lane) came to introduce themselves for the first time, and at times it was a little overwhelming but very, very sweet!

The doors opened at two thirty and in an hour over two hundred people had crammed themselves into the village hall. Our door was up on the day, the number of entries was over a hundred more than usual, and the judges stated that the quality of the produce was the best ever, so we felt pretty happy at the whole damm thing! My mother's tablecloths and the sweet peas that decorated each of the tea tables, went down very well with the predominently elderly audience, and many said the hall had never looked so pretty! which was nice too.

Ann and her affable group of despots from her allotment, came up trumps and joined in with the show and all got good prizes. (Ann won the cup for best floral art) Many others turned up after entering the Prestatyn Show last month and they in turn won also, so the winners were not all from the village which everyone seemed to appreciate.

we finished at 5pm, knackered but rather smug with the day. Chris enjoyed cake eating and bought Meg (yes Meg) a woolly Brown dog jumper from Gladys' stall!, and I got home just in time for a large chardonnay infront of the fire!

working tomorrow, and Monday night, and back to allotment work on Tuesday!

small world

I have just read Nigel's blog, the idle ramblings of a relaxing holiday maker- written from a sunny internet cafe in Sitges, Spain, and it is strange to think that nowadays the world aften feels so small. The internet, email,this new networking facebook thingy and texting makes instant communication possible, if not obligitory and I hardly remember my childhhood phonecalls home from spain in the 1970's, with fistfulls of coins, a faint line and a sense of awe at the possibilities of calling home from another country. Now it all is SO easy!

Enough already.........................

ok ok It has been flower show ALL day! The kitchen looks like an explosion in a vegetable factory!