This time last week I was buzzing about, getting into a bit of a panic about the fete planning and the Hungerford in Bloom judging, which both happened at the weekend - you may have noticed.
Jamie and I did some final frantic clearing of Plot7 on Friday - Jamie's neat edging always makes it look tidy and the polytunnel now looks like a growing area, rather than a messy shed! We have three Aviditas tomatoes on the left and three peppers on the right.
The judge took 3 hours walking around the site, judging the plots and scoring them according to size - HAHA decided a couple of years ago that it was difficult to compare a 1-pole plot with a gardener who has 16-poles. Jamie and I only entered Plot7 into the competition - it's the only plot in my name (I don't know why that is, but it was a good job).
Anyway, because everyone who entered had made their plots look lovely for the judging, the site really was looking its very best for the fete on Sunday afternoon. And the sun shone - phew, it was hot!
We had lots of visitors - happy children when they saw the bouncy castle; happy adults to see the tables set out down the centre of the site and happy everyone when they saw the amazing stock of cakes and the barbecue.
We had several games as well as the tombola - Guess the Teddy name, treasure map (based on the site plot numbers), the spray boat and blow boat races went down very well. A little friendly competition between partners ...
..and friends. I beat Ivan. I won with dignity I feel :-D
The ping-pong pots game, coin toss and ultimate lemons (have you ever tried balancing a coin on a lemon in water?) proved popular too. As well as the FlowerPot pressies for children.
The wheel of fortune was an excellent piece of engineering and raised quite a bit too, drawing attention whenever it was spun.
And the Aunt Sally and HorseShoe tossing games also kept people entertained. The trouble with running a fete is that you miss out on so much of the fun yourself, don't get to take enough photos and it was exhausting. However, I managed to talk to lots of visitors (never managing to finish a conversation) and it was a pleasure when they marvelled at our site on its 10th Anniversary.
We were visited by ex-plotholders, local councillors, the local newspaper photographer as well as people who had never visited the site before. Also, Bill Ackworth who was a councillor when the site was sourced and first set up in 2009 - so lovely for him to see what a fantastic community he founded. It was definitely a great event for raising the profile of the allotments in Hungerford.
And finally, after our mad bit of tidying, planting, edging and clearing <drumroll please> we won 1st place in the '2-3 Poles' category in Hungerford in Bloom! What a welcome surprise!!
The song is by Jorge Drexler "Todo se transforma" which is referring to the site - because of the beautiful plots and also how different it looks when there are lots of people there!
Jamie and I did some final frantic clearing of Plot7 on Friday - Jamie's neat edging always makes it look tidy and the polytunnel now looks like a growing area, rather than a messy shed! We have three Aviditas tomatoes on the left and three peppers on the right.
The judge took 3 hours walking around the site, judging the plots and scoring them according to size - HAHA decided a couple of years ago that it was difficult to compare a 1-pole plot with a gardener who has 16-poles. Jamie and I only entered Plot7 into the competition - it's the only plot in my name (I don't know why that is, but it was a good job).
Anyway, because everyone who entered had made their plots look lovely for the judging, the site really was looking its very best for the fete on Sunday afternoon. And the sun shone - phew, it was hot!
We had lots of visitors - happy children when they saw the bouncy castle; happy adults to see the tables set out down the centre of the site and happy everyone when they saw the amazing stock of cakes and the barbecue.
We had several games as well as the tombola - Guess the Teddy name, treasure map (based on the site plot numbers), the spray boat and blow boat races went down very well. A little friendly competition between partners ...
..and friends. I beat Ivan. I won with dignity I feel :-D
And the Aunt Sally and HorseShoe tossing games also kept people entertained. The trouble with running a fete is that you miss out on so much of the fun yourself, don't get to take enough photos and it was exhausting. However, I managed to talk to lots of visitors (never managing to finish a conversation) and it was a pleasure when they marvelled at our site on its 10th Anniversary.
THANKYOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED, DONATED,
LOANED OR VISITED US AT THE WEEKEND!
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| Guess the weight of the cake! 1.8kg |
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| And we pulled our garlic |
Well done. Neat edges do make all the difference.
ReplyDeleteThanks - yes, and the plant labels; they may be a lot of beans and squashes, but they're all different varieties!
DeleteLooks like a fund day. Your plot does look good esp. with neat edges! The cabbage cake is amazing and so is your garlic!
ReplyDeleteYes, pleased with the fete and the garlic - rhat was from bulbs we bought from Waitrose!
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