More than half way through August

I can't believe we are more than half way through August.   At last the weather has changed and we are have a heatwave here in the UK.  Well, for the last week at least.

At the beginning of the month our Village Garden Club held its Annual Show.  As Show Secretary I am very involved, to say the least.  This is only the third year we have held a show, the Garden Club only being formed about six years ago.  I was very apprehensive about the unchangeable weather we were having  at that time, since we hold the show in the garden of one of our members.  The show committee comprises three members and now we are in our third year we each know what we have to do.  The day before the show I am at home to receive show entries - down this year, mainly due to the weather, but also some members were at the Olympics.  The Gazebo is erected and tables collected from the village hall.  On the morning of the show the other committee member and myself prepare the tables with black cloth for the exhibits and a white cloth for the home produce, and place marker rods for each class.   In the afternoon members begin to arrive with their entries and all is hustle and bustle as we shift the marker rods to make room for extra large flower arrangements and displays. It's always difficult to judge how large an entry will be.  Then all members have to leave and the judges arrive.   All is quiet as they inspect each entry.  The stewards bring across to me and my colleague the winning entries and these are logged and prize money prepared.   After the judging the members return to check their entries and it is a really exciting time seeing the joy on members faces as they discover they have a First, Second or Third.  I give out their winnings, but really I am sure they would not mind if they received nothing (actually it is not much at all, just a token).

I think I had the widest grin of all when I was told I had won Best in Show with my six runner beans!  I was so thrilled as the judges had told me the last two years that my beans had missed by a pip (or should that be bean?) to a flower display the first year, and a display of gladioli last year.   In fact, the judge was very impressed and said I did well in this difficult year to grow such good beans.  Wow!   We did have a short shower at one point in the afternoon, but we were all so busy I don't think anyone noticed it. It was a lovely event.  After the show we all went across the road to another members garden for a barbecue which was most enjoyable.  Of course, the next day we had to dismantle everything and I had the accounts to sort out, but all in all it is really good day.  Now we start to plan for next year!

Did you all watch the Olympics?  Like a lot of people, we got hooked and really enjoyed it.  I particularly enjoyed the track events and the gymnastics.

I love this photo of Mo Farah (GB) and Usain Bolt (USA)

An Award and A Balloon

Two postings in one day?  "Good gracious" I can hear you all say.  Checking up on comments received lately (I do love to receive your comments) I noticed that Jaclyn of ''My Hook on Life' has nominated me for an award.  How amazing is that?  I am deeply honoured and undeserving of the award since I don't usually post very often here (I do have two other blogs - see right side panel, and I run my village Garden Club Blog - here)   Thank you so very much Jaclyn.

So, in order to justify this award I have to tell you seven things about myself:-

1 I have two other blogs : http://www.perfect-pelargoniums.com/ and http://camera-capers.blogspot.co.uk/
2 I am Show Secretary of my Village Gardening Club
3 I run the Gardening Club Blog (see above)
4 I am a bit of a technophobic and love all things computer.
5 In September I am going to Ireland to meet my sister from Australia there.
6 If you have looked at my Pelargonium Blog you will see that I love the Pelargonium family of plants
7 I got back into crochet through Ali here.  I in turn got my friend in California 'hooked' on crochet, and she   encouraged her friend to take up her hook again.

Now to nominate up to 15 favourite blogs for the award.
Ali at Macscrochet.blogspot
Kirsty at Handmade by Kirsty
Jacquie at http://bunnymummy-jacquie.blogspot.co.uk/
http://yarnroundhook.blogspot.co.uk/
SJ Scott at http://coalescentcrochet.blogspot.co.uk/

I will leave a note on each of their blogs telling of the award.

Now for the balloon.   When I got up this morning I could not help but see a huge balloon low in the sky over the property opposite.  I grabbed my camera for a shot:

When I came out from the shower I noticed the balloon was down on the Village Green so I quickly put on :some clothes,grabbed the camera again and ran up to the green.  This is what I saw

Looking inside from the basket end

Looking inside from the top

Folding away

An exciting few minutes before breakfast!

The Silent Pool

On Tuesday my neighbour John suggested a photographic trip to The Silent Pool - a well known beauty spot at the foot of Newlands Corner.  It was a very hot day, but quite cool by the lake.  Some say that the ghost of a maiden can be seen at midnight - she was a woodcutters daughter who was abducted by King John.  She was forced into the deep water and was drowned.

We took a walk up the hill

View from half way

The trains, a Day by the Sea, and a small confession

Summer may have arrived here in the UK.   Hooray!   Everyone is so fed up with the dreary dull, cold and wet days we have had this year.  The coldest and wettest on record it seems.

So, as Saturday was to be a warm and sunny day, Brian and I decided we had had enough sitting around and took to the roads!   We decided that we would drive down to Bognor Regis for the day.  On our way down we always call at the garden centre at Pulborough for a coffee.  We were pleasantly surprised that the garden centre has had a makeover, including the restaurant, and it is now very swish.   There is a small model railway there which runs around the perimeter of the garden centre at the weekends.  When we arrived the enthusiasts were just firing up the engines ready for their first customers.   I asked if I could take some photographs and the engineers very kindly invited me into the yard and the 'shed'.

Oh - I bought  a couple of plants - a white French Lavender and a scented pelargonium "Geranium Fizz".

When we arrived in Bognor Regis I made for the shoreline and walked along taking photographs as I went.

  

Oh, I do love the seaside and it was wonderful to walk along the pebbly beach dodging the waves.  Thnere was hardly anyone else on the beach.  They all seemed to be in the town.  I know where I would rather be!

 Now for the confession.  I had to undo my crochet bag!!!  For some reason it just did not seem right to me, so rather than carry on making it worse I decided that I would start again.  This time I have taking my time and making quite sure I make a note of every single increase I make.    I have been making squares to keep up with GaD.

New project and a mail delivery

I have made a start on the bag I purchased the yarn for last week when I went into town.  It is made 'in the round' and I have to mark the first stitch I make in each round.  I have done this before and always just used a contrasting piece of another yarn.  However, this was not working on the cotton yarn I am using for the bag, and I kept finding the piece of marker yarn on the floor, or on my lap.  In other words, not where it was supposed to be!   A search on line came up with these marker pins and this morning they arrived in the post.

Those sharp-eyed amongst you will spot that there are only 19 in the above photo - I have used one already on the bag:-

I am loving working on this bag - although at the moment it does not much look like one.

Today I picked Broad Beans from the garden and blanched them for the freezer.   Have not got a great crop this year and the plants have chocolate rust on them so they don't look good either.  But it does not affect the beans snug in their soft downy pods.  I must remember to put the plants into the garden waste bag for collection and not put them in my compost bin.

More soon.

Pastel coloured granny squares update and a Garden visit

I am getting along well with the pastel coloured granny squares blanket for the  Granny a Day project.   Still yet to tally up all the squares that I have done, but must be pretty much on target now.   I am really really pleased with the way this is turning out - I love the join as you go method.  Thank you Ali (http://macscrochet.blogspot.co.uk/) for this.

Today I went into town on my own!  Being both retired now Brian and I tend to go out together, but he was taking a neighbour to hospital this morning so I seized the chance for a visit On My Own to the fabric and yarn store.   I have a project in mind - a simple crochet bag to keep my crochet in whilst I am working on it. At the moment I am using two plastic bags.  You will appreciate the scowls I get when I rustle the bags to get yarn out!

I had a cousin to stay for a few days last week (baby Cody's granny) and we went to visit Borde Hill Gardens in West Sussex.  It was a lovely day  - one of the very rare warm and sunny days we have had this year.  The rose garden was the rosiest and most scented I have ever been in. We could have stayed there all day.  I can't scentyblog the wonderful scent from the roses, but here are a few photo's.

Having dragged ourselves away from the roses, we came across The Italian Garden