Show down.

It's that time of year again.
The 21st Repton Village Show.
This year, we had 12 entries, and won 6 prizes.  Not bad, but not as good as previous years.  The new avenue this year was the photo competition - one of the most heavily-entered categories (that's lousy English, sorry...)
Entered a

'cold' photo and a

 'wildflower' photo.  Neither won anything, though the wildflower one was 'just pipped to the post' in the prizes, according to the judge's comments.
As for the wins, it was 1 1st, 2 2nds and 3 3rds (very neat)
1st prize - plate of 3 pears.
2nd prize - plate of 5 eating apples
2nd prize - 3 carrots
3rd prize -1 flowering pot plant (ok, so I dug it up that morning, and put it in a pot, but I had grown it from seed)
3rd prize - vase of 3 other flowers.
3rd prize -  (joint) jar of any other jam.
The 'Hunza chutney' narrowly missed the top three.  It was half a mark off the podium (so to speak).  I think the scores were 1st place, 19, 2nd, 18 1/2, 3rd, 18 and mine, 17 1/2 (or something along those lines)
Other entries were:
3 cooking apples
5 spuds
Vase of sweet peas.

All-in-all, this year was a bit of a disappointment on the garden produce front:
No tomatoes - they've just not played the game.
No courgettes - weird, I know, as courgettes are usually impossible to stop, this year they didn't really do much.
No squash/pumpkins etc.  Probably sown too late.
No beans ready (they were about 1/2 inch long on the morning of the show)
Beetroot wasn't presentable
Shallots failed dismally
Didn't have enough veg for 'any 5 different veg on a tray'.

I was pleased with the plum jam.

Next year, I'll have to get Big Boy working on some of the kiddie entries.  I also need to be more organised, so that things that can be done well in advance are!
Roll on next year.
Oh, and we also went to the Calke Abbey Plot to Plate show this weekend.  Not many entries in lots of the categories.  Might enter next year.  Not a single carrot entry, for example.  I'm sure we could have picked up a prize or two!

Calke Abbey's lone gingerbread man entry.

And some whopping great onions.
And an amusing vegetable animal to finish with.

Hoovering sucks. Mow instead.

I've had an idea.  And as ideas go, it's a cracker.  Probably one of my better ones.
I was inspired by the lawn. 
Well, sort of.  I was inspired by the pine needles on the lawn really.

Maybe it's not hugely clear from this picture, but earlier today, our lawn was hidden under about a trillion pine needles - a result of the big wind we've had around here (no, not from Little Boy - that's for another post).  I thought I'd take a pic, knowing that once the mowing was done, the lawn would be transformed.

And sure enough, it was.  It turned green again.
And that got me thinking.  You know how much of a pain it is having to pick things up when you're hoovering.   All those toys and CDs and socks and cups and saucers and the like.  Well, surely there's an obvious solution.  Stop hoovering, and start mowing indoors.  You'll never have to bend down to pick something up again.  Just mow it.  Sure, you'll need quite a heavy duty mower for some of the bigger items, but think of the time you'll save.  And anything that's mown up will NEVER have to be tidied away again.  It'll be gone from your life for ever (mind out for the pets...)  If you've got a petrol mower, you even save having to faff around with power cables and plugging and unplugging as you wander around the house.
New regime starts tomorrow.

Jersey.

I tried, but I couldn't think of a better title...
And by the way, yes, we have had another baby.  But I'm so behind with blogging, I figured it made not a jot of difference what order I blogged the last few weeks in...  So here's the Jersey trip.  Big boy and I flew over for a friend's wedding.  It was two weeks after Luke was born, and he and Anna stayed with her parents for the weekend, being very well looked after!
So, this is us heading to the airport (don't worry, Big Boy took the photo!  His pictures are getting a little less wonky and blurry...)

Mummy had wrapped some presents for Big Boy, and this is the first, being unwrapped over breakfast.  Cars from Cars2 (current favourite...)

Here's our plane!  Are we excited?  Oh yes.

Even more so once we board.

 There were more presents to open on the plane (including sweeties to share with daddy!) which helped us pass the time.  It wasn't long before we were descending on the island, and, having avoided hold luggage, set off to pick up our hire car.  It was a Ka.  I'm not a fan, but I have to concede it was nice to drive.  As we weren't in a particular rush, we decided to cruise the South coast of the island...  There was a deserted beach, so we hopped out.  Big Boy immediately equipped himself for an assault on the sea.

 Which he carried out with great aplomb.  It wasn't long before his shoes were sandy and wet!

Still not in a rush, we headed to Corbiere lighthouse.  (Friends got engaged there a few weeks back, so it was a little pilgrimage!)  The ice creams there were awesome.  This one cost £1.25.  Absolute bargain.  Apparently the seagulls are quite keen on them, so you have to keep your wits about you.  Big Boy managed most of it, but I had to help a little.  It's tough.  As you can see in the photo, there's a causeway which gets covered by the tide.  Thankfully, the tide was on the way out, so by the time we got down the hill, it was clear to cross.

This is Big Boy doing his 'I also do pensive' pose.  Looking out to sea.  If you look at the picture above, this one below is taken in the little 'dip' to the left of the lighthouse.

Believe me, there were a lot of photos we had to take of Big Boy and the lighthouse.  This was one of the nice ones.

"Right daddy, I'm off for a swim"  Amazing old defences (military, not tidal!) all over the island, with at least four on this particular bit.

This is the church, the day before the wedding.  I decided we'd scout it out in advance.  (I was nervous!)  Nice place.

This is the side chapel.

 And looking forwards...

Once we'd scouted the church, we went on to our hotel, and had a quick dip in the pool.  Yes, it was outdoors, and no, it wasn't warm...

But it was a whole lot warmer than this:

That blue pontoon you can see in the above photo was what we swam to on the second day.  It's a fair old way for Big Boy, who told me he was scared, but he did it anyway!  Very proud of him.

This is the view from the hotel restaurant.  Not a bad view to enjoy whilst tucking into a full English!

Back at the church in our smart gear (monkey came along too, though hadn't secured an invite)

 The wedding was lovely, if a little nerve-wracking.  (I was playing the piano for it - I don't just have a fear of weddings!)
The wedding reception was a the zoo (or, more accurately, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, of 'My Family and other animals' fame)  We had a free ticket to the zoo as a result, and Big Boy managed to find a playground.  He's got some sort of playground radar that's highly effective.

 The evening do was good fun, and Big Boy made a 'helicopter' for Mummy out of cocktail sticks and a cocktail sausage.  Sadly, we ate it (the sausage, not the sticks!) rather than packing it for the homeward journey.

 This was just a fun take away we found...

 And this was Big Boy and monkey scaring the pigeons.  Highly effectively, I might add.

Last day, looking out over Elizabeth Castle, preparing for our second ice cream of the weekend.  It was such a massive disappointment (£1.60 for a 'scoop' that I could have made with a teaspoon) that we had to go back to the lighthouse for a proper one.  It's just as well the island's small...

Do we have to go home?  Well, yes, we do.  But we're hoping to make the return journey with Mummy and Little Boy in the near future.

I might add to this some time to fill out the narrative, but the pictures are the most interesting bit :)