Smashing fete!

Behind every big event there's hours of planning and hard work . . . and committee meetings – for those of you unfamiliar with English village life, I can inform you that 'The Vicar of Dibley' is not entirely fictional. Our Village Fete is no exception – we have discussed, persuaded, painted, un-twiddled bunting and carried boxes of stuff up the hill; so it is with relief that Saturday afternoon passed without rain, hissy-fits, bad language or any falling out among friends and neighbours. In fact it was all jolly good fun with sizzling barbecued sausages and lashings of home made cakes and cups of tea.

(At this point I intended to show you a little movie of the smashing time we had, but after the fourth failed attempt to upload the file I've given in to Blogger's non-cooperation.)

At the end of the day Cliff and I undertook the marathon task of counting the money and producing a report for the committee at the after-fete supper. We've got this down to a fine art and after just under two and a half hours our sums showed a record breaking profit of almost £3,500 HURRAH! By next spring we'll have forgotten what hard work it all is and will probably agree to doing it all again.

So, with 'Village Fete' ticked off everyone's 2010 calendar, life returns to normal and I can concentrate on getting ready for next weekend's Saffron Walden Open Studios event. I will be exhibiting alongside Annette Jacob at her studio in Duddenhoe End, just west of Saffron Walden near Audley End. I hope that some of you can come along.


All flowers picked from the garden this morning.
Top: Sweetpeas, Sage, Alchemilla Mollis, Ground Elder, Geranium Psilostemon, Astrantia, Rosa glauca and a double white Rosa pimpinellifolia.
Bottom: Roses – the white one is 'Iceberg' but I don't know the names of the others, the deep pink one in the front has the most beautiful rich scent!