08-Jul to 14-Jul 2012

Sun 08-Jul: No wonder this photo is blurred... after a brilliant afternoon BBQ at Becky's & Barry's accompanied by my pina colada and tequila sunrise cocktails, there was more supping down The Legion in the evening competing at darts and pool with Andrew and John. Managed to stay upright long enough to win the evening after a playoff against John. Scores were me 10, John 9, Andrew 4 (the board shows 14 'cause he plonked a one in front of his score).

Mon 09-Jul: To round off a brilliant weekend's games playing, here's me and Andrew shaking hands at the end of a couple of rounds of pitch & putt. Following Friday's debacle I had him on the back foot and should have ended 2-1 up overall. But played true to form and missed an easy putt on the 9th to win the first round, ending up as a draw. On the second I was two holes and three shots up before fluffing it and ending up beaten. Bah! The whole weekend's games narrative will be on Allotment Heaven shortly.

Tue 10-Jul: After a fun filled and active weekend it was back to reality today and another trawl around the electrical shops for a fridge freezer. Here's a possible contender, but the options are small. Hardly any freestanding versions are 55cm depth, that being the standard depth of kitchen units. Why is that? And why such boring colours? So now opting for a 58cm depth. Yawn!

Wed 11-Jul: An enquiry this morning from an American reader of Allotment Heaven who's writing a book about the history of flower and produce shows in England set me thinking, and by the afternoon Linda and I were in Huntingdon library, where they have all the local newspapers on microfilm going back to 1875. The card index indicated entries in specific editions from 1888, 1908, 1912 and 1913. Here's the first part and additional columns to the right of the 1888 entry. It appears the first show was in 1875 and it was one of the two main events in the town's calendar, the other being the regatta. Amazingly, shops shut at 2pm to allow everyone to attend and there were fireworks and performing artistes as well as a section for singing birds. So our version of the show has some way to go to equal past events. Now set myself the task of documenting every article ever written about the show... as though I didn't have enough to do!

Thu 12-Jul: Into Cambridge by the guided bus this morning for some shopping and to see The Final Test at the Cambridge Ats Theatre. First time we'd been to one of their matinee performances and we're now sold on the idea... no more rushing for a late bus home afterwards, only to find we've missed it and have to wait another hour! The play, with ex-Doctor Who actor Colin Baker, was excellent... a great blend of gentle humour and pathos. Along with slowly paced shopping and lunch eaten on a seat amongst the flower borders of Christ's Pieces, had a very enjoyable day.

Fri 13-Jul: It's SuperWallpaperingMan to the rescue today, to complete the decoration of Becky's dining room with a wall of paper. Took almost two hours to get the first bit up and only finished about 20:00. Not exactly super at estimating the time therefore, since I thought it would only take a couple of hours or so to do the whole job!

Sat 14-Jul: Can't believe how wet the allotment is at the moment, and in July. Here's the pond this morning on a quick trip up before going off to the St Ives carnival... about as full as it's ever been.