The Parish Show

Yesterday was our Parish Show. There were a few 'Diblyesque' moments that made me chuckle throughout the day. It is certainly a day that a lot of people take very seriously. I can't begin to imagine the hours some people must have put into growing their crops, baking several cake in the days leading up to the show and making jams and preserves. A good few people won a handful of classes each.

We don't have the luxury of a huge amount of time, or an organised life and Friday's blog tells of what our days were like leading up to the show - not much space for proper preparation. None the less, we had a successful day. I helped Ellie make some mueili bars while Paul was putting William to bed on Friday. We also put finishing touches to bookmarks. Hope was up late making pizza on Friday evening - she actually deserved a prize for tidying up after herself too. William and I woke early and he made his chocolate chip muffins for the show, for breakfast and for him to smell. He did it all himself too with only a bit of help weighing and measuring. While they were cooking, I arranged some home grown flowers (I had to change class from mixed flowers to one as there was not much left!) with some home grown greenary into a vase and made a 'flower arrangement in an egg cup'. Then, Ellie and I went to exhibit our items.

We returned later to be congratulated on our success. As we wandered around we discovered that Ellie had two first prizes for her bookmark and her museili bars. William had second for both his muffins and his bookmark (not second to his sister, who was in the older age group class), Hope had come second to her pizza (to the vicar's son and she is already preparing her rematch next year) and I had come second with our flowers and third with my egg cup arrangement. I was pleased as I have never done anything like that before. I also got a 'highly commended' for some knitting. I have taken up knitting as a stress relief in hospital. I was doing something patterned but had to start again every time someone disturbed me so ended up doing the plain option. I entered it still on my needles with a note saying 'my new found stress reliever - ongoing!' I won the commendation for giving the judges a laugh!

The children were awarded a lovely collection of prizes, all relevant to the class they had won and I was awarded with certificates. Afterwards, we all bid on the produce in a charity auction. We bought some jams, a violet and apples and have the prize winning marrow - large enough for a couple of stuffed marrow meals this week. As soon as we got home William was back on his bouncy tiger investigating his winnings.

Hope and I are off now to an art installation organised by Royal Brompton and Harefield Arts. It is entitled 'Transplant' and the result two artisits in residence for a year taking photos and talking to patients. Look out for more on this later in the week as tomorrow's entry will be taken up with William's first day at school!