the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Show Day

Well, those of you who keep up with our frighteningly active social diary will know that yesterday was the day of the Clackmannanshire Horticultural Society Annual Exhibition and Show. It was held in the Cochrane Hall in Alva which is a very attractive old hall, if somewhat off the beaten track.

This is the first time we've ben involved. Dan's been helping the Committee buy some IT equipment and set up some software to manage the show entries. Since entries are taken on the Friday before the show, from 7pm to 10pm and from 7am on the Saturday morning, it's been a long weekend for him. (He also ran the City of Stirling 10k road race this morning and has now gone to Tesco. What a guy!)

We'd talked about entering but as usual left it to the last minute. Therefore, Dan was digging vegetables at 10pm on Friday and was up at 5.15am on Saturday preparing them.

Well, the upshot was that he won "Best Novice" for his display of five vegetables - which was pretty good considering no-one but us knew what the Mangel Wurzel was. He was second in one of the potato classes with Pink Fir Apple (my Desiree were unplaced) and third in the rhubarb class (my entry, again selected by my husband on my behalf, was unplaced). I got third place in the jam section with a jar of blackcurrant - which according to the judge's scribe woudl have won, had there not been a slight bloom of penicillan on the top. Dan chose that particular jar from a dozen others. Do you see a pattern emerging here? I will sort my own entres next year!

It's not what you would call a thriving show. Which is a pity because a lot of people put a lot of work into it. I've threatened Dan with standing for the Committee - it's time the Society had a website and I know just the man to do it!

Bye, Kenny

Well, Kenny the Landrover has gone. We haven't bought anything else yet so we're managing with one car. We can manage just now but it gets harder as the nights get longer because one of us ends up doing all our chores in the dark.

Our car will also get ruined - we're not the most careful owners anyway, onsofar as the Sunday wash is a pipiedream - but muddy boots, horse rugs etc are the way to ruin. So something will have to be purchased pretty soon.

I'd loke a Fiesta van but they're like hen's teeth. Or a pick up - but I always get the impression that they have very hard lives.

It's so hard...

Land Rover for sale

No, we're not dead, just busy! We've also decided to take something of a sabattical from the smallholding next year, to allow us to concentrate on other things - Rosemary endurance hosre-riding, me the Lisbon Marathon in April.

So, we're looking to sell our beloved Land Rover so we can buy something more practical for longer distances. (Not that it doesn't do long distances, just that it doesn't do them particularly quickly or cheaply!)

I've knocked up a page with details of the Landy together with a few photos - the rain was lashing down when I took them so they're not the best. If anyone is interested in what we think is a bargain (but then we would say that!) please contact us.