It’s very easy to lose heart on the morning of the Flower and Produce Show when the talk is all about the damage done to dahlias by the previous night’s biblical downpour, the blight affecting tomatoes and the field mice developing a penchant for peas and beans.

Heavens! Will there be anything to fill these tables?

You’d think I would have learned by now to know that the villagers would have been sewing and reaping, baking and kneading, knitting, drawing and painting for the past few months and that in spite of the mice and the vagaries of the British weather they would turn up trumps.

This year we had eleven awards kindly donated by individuals and by the Parish Council and the Women’s Institute as well as the Village Hall Committee.

Our Judges from Flore and Church Stowe had the unenviable task of deciding whose sponge was lighter, whose jam was fruitier, whose courgettes were the most uniform and what entry was The Best in Show, in their opinion. This year that accolade went to a superb red gladioli grown by Ian Weaver.

The sun shone, the bunting fluttered, the kettles boiled making gallons of tea to wash down scones and jam and cream. A perfect English Bank Holiday afternoon, a perfect village occasion.

I would like to thank the judges, the Committee members for all the effort they put in on Sunday and Monday, the people who donated lovely trophies but most of all the people who came and made the show by entering into the spirit of the thing.

So, next year maybe? What could you plant in your garden? Curl up in front of the fire this autumn and look through the seed catalogues. Or get out your recipe books and knitting patterns.

There will be a new schedule next year so maybe there’ll be something for you!

Isy Shackleton
Chair, Village Hall Committee

31st August 2016