It’s been a mixture of showers and sunny intervals this week – good for the garden and the reservoirs, not much good when it pelts down in a torrent when you’re in the middle of a field walking the dog! The grass is greening up nicely and will soon need a mow, the first since mid-July, I think. I would be a lot happier if it would rain at night and keep dry during the day but I guess that’s too much to ask.
Last Saturday was the Moreton Pinkney Garden Club’s annual horticultural show which was a great success. There were concerns that it would be a bit miserable this year with the lousy weather and drought conditions we’ve enjoyed but there were still a decent number of entries in most classes.
This year it was 80 years since the first horticultural show in 1942 and there has been a show in Moreton Pinkney every year since then. Apparently, researchers amongst the Garden Club committee have ascertained, while there are garden clubs that have been around longer than ours, none has managed 80 consecutive years holding an annual show (it seems).
I am delighted to say that our success in previous years has continued and I have just about perfected my strategy for submitting winning entries. Some of you will know that I voluntarily relinquished my strangle-hold on the sourdough category this year. I’ve been struggling with an acid reflux flare-up and wondered if sourdough bread might be exacerbating the condition. So, I gave up making sourdough bread a few months ago. As it happens, I don’t think it’s made any difference so I am looking forward to restarting but I’ll need a new batch of starter from Nick.
In the meantime, though, I decided to enter a few additional categories and submitted a few entries in the fruit classes as well as a yeast-based loaf using the breadmaker. My submission of four cooking apples came second but my pears, to my surprise, took first prize. Alas, I had not read the instructions sufficiently well and my plums, which were very good indeed, were not presented with their stems attached – my picking technique involves twisting the fruit gently and if it comes off easily it’s ready. Sadly, this left the plums sans stems so they were discounted by the judge. Next year I’ll know better. My malted granary loaf produced using the breadmaker came first in its category, much to my surprise and delight.
Penelope did equally well – she won first prize for her butternut squash tarts (which are delicious) and she also won first prize for her carrot cake using my mother’s recipe – absolutely delicious! And, we had Jessie for the night before so that she could put together a few entries as well. Under Penny’s supervision she made some excellent jam tarts which came second in the Junior member category. She also came second with a photograph of something in her garden as well as for her model of an animal made out of fruit and/or vegetables – an excellent dinosaur-type beast.
So, all in all, we were quite pleased with our haul of certificates and it’s confirmed once again my strategies for success. Firstly, choose categories which require almost no work of any description. Pears, apples, plums – I don’t do anything apart from pick them at the appropriate time. Mother Nature does all the heavy lifting which suits me perfectly. Secondly, try, if you can, to enter a category where no one else enters. This served me well for many years in the sourdough competition but lately more and more folks have started making it. This year mine was the only entry in the breadmaker category and once again I waltzed away with the first prize. However, that is not always a recipe for success – this year there was a category with only one entrant and it only garnered a second prize!
And so, since we saw you last, we have a new Prime Minister and a new Monarch – what are the chances of that?
Frankly, I blame Boris for the Queen’s death – the last official duty she had to perform was to accept his resignation and pronounce his dim-witted successor as the new Prime Minister. How loathsome that must have been.
Across seven decades she’s seen 15 Prime Ministers. She’s seen great leaders, she’s met great leaders – neither of these two come even close. Boris is the only Prime Minster we know of who lied to the Queen when asking her to prorogue Parliament soon after he assumed the office, an action that was later deemed to be unlawful. He also had to apologise to her for the rabble-raising party held in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Phillip’s funeral, at a time when his government had specifically precluded such social gatherings.
As for the new Prime Minister, John Crace summed it up well in the Guardian:
Given a choice of a halfwit with half an idea and a flatlining ideologue with no actual ideas, the Conservative members were always going to vote for the most hopeless. There’s even less to Liz Truss than meets the eye.
John Crace, The Guardian
Heaven help us.
We’re off on Wednesday on another campervan adventure, this time to the Peak District. I hope I’ll have time to pull something together for next Sunday but, if that doesn’t happen, I know you’ll understand.
Finally, enjoy a splendid photo of two fine friends.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg