The show was very good, as always.  I ate bits of ten cheese straws (the men’s class, which is always very competitive), nine fruit cakes – that was interesting, one was a very rich Christmas type fruit cake, several were quite fruity, medium dark, a few were light, fairly spongy cakes with the addition of dried fruit and one was a banana cake.  Then there were quite a lot of jams and chutneys, about an equal number of entries in the tomato taste class, half a dozen sausage roll entries, three marmalades (fewer than usual), four eggs – raw in the shell, we judged on appearance, having cracked one into a saucer – three olive and sundried tomato breads, two eclairs, two custard tarts and four apple tarts.  Betty and I tasted everything, discussed, evaluated, agreed and adjudged.  In the case of the apple tarts, two were pretty equal first and two were pretty equal third.  So we used appearance as the final factor in the first instance and gave two third prizes, because we’re lovely, basically.

The rest of the great pile of wood has been cut up and is stored.  It will be added to even more, but we’ve already got a few years’ worth of logs.  And we – well, I, because LT came with me but made it clear I was in the driving seat – bought some more plants, particularly for the very dry round bed in front of the house, where it’s really hard to keep anything alive for more than three years.  I’ve got some irises and sedums and hope for the best, as long as the beastly muntjac deer don’t have them all.