Little Owl won third place for her vegetable robot at the Allotment Association Show last weekend. Her’s was the cucumber one. She won a whole pound coin in prize money. Finch’s chest heaved as he wrestled with his pride of his sister and his own hurt feelings at not being placed. He was somewhat mollified when he learned that Mummy’s beetroot hadn’t been placed either. We were losers together but we had a lot of fun taking part.
I discussed the beetroot category at length with another entrant who hadn’t been placed and who I had thought was a shoo in. This lady had entered a rainbow selection of beetroot: a deep red one, a golden one, and a stripy one. She, on the other hand, had thought I would win because mine were by far the biggest. As we looked at the category description again we realised what we had missed. They had wanted three matching beetroot, and ours were most definitely not matching. Ah well, there’s always next year.
The allotment is all about flowers at the moment. I have a small section I’ve grown for cutting but lots I planted as companion plants to my veggies and which have carried on merrily flowering long after their companion vegetable has been dug up. There has also been tons of stripy cinnabar caterpillars munching away on the groundsel weeds. They turn into a beautiful grey and pink moth that flies in the sunshine. A great excuse not to do too much weeding!
We are away on holiday in Wales next week so no post from me. See you on my return!
Hmmm – thought I’d left a comment here. Well done Little Owl, what fun. It’s so easy to miss the exact instructions isn’t it? At least there were two of you working to your own rules.