Show time

Once again apologies for the lack of news but I have been away on a course at the HSBC training college in Brickett Wood near St Albans. I really missed the allotment (and Nick and the cats) and was shocked to find that autumn is just around the corner when I got back. Lots of harvesting to do and I remember fondly the days when we got excited with one little trug of produce. The onions were ready to pull and we found a lot of garlic that I had forgotten that I had planted. The beetroot is ready to pull as it is going woody. We decided to dig the carrots and have a plastic dustbin full – which brings me neatly onto another topic – the Old Basing Village Show.

Out of that many carrots you would think that we could find three good enough to show but sadly no! Having paid out 30p for that class we decided to go for it anyway and in the non-pointed class there were only three entries so we got third! I have to admit that the show was not as exciting as the Basingstoke Show earlier in the year as it was a bit of a one man show but we had a modicum of success. My model shed won first in the craft section, the beetroot got a well deserved second plus second for cheese straws and we got third in the classes for a foliage plant, cheese scones, 3 carrots (as mentioned above) collection of 6 veg, any other veg (aubergine) and a highly commended for shortbread. No sign of any rosettes though but there are cash prizes which don’t even cover the entry cost. One think we have gained is what we need to do next year – so watch out Old Basing 2007 will be our year.