The forecast was not good, there was early drizzle, and so the clover continues to thrive where there should be none. Maybe tomorrow.
Pauline had a task for me. It should be explained that I am not a practical person. That's why you have grandchildren, but they are all too far away, and so it was down to me. Helen had made Pauline a Roman Blind for the kitchen, and it needed to be put in place - properly! So I figured I ought to get up and do what would obviously take all morning. To my surprise, I finished in about an hour, and I'd done the job properly. I won't be making a living out of it, but I won't be too concerned if asked to do another.
I next went to visit a listener who couldn't make her Talking News work. Her daughter warned me she was getting grumpy, but it was all laughs whilst I was there. I told her I'd dealt with championship standard grumpiness and she didn't scare me.
This afternoon John Whitehouse collected me and we went up to Alrewas, which is 5 miles or 10 minutes away. We were there to help Barton under Needwood Lions with their tombola stall. Lichfield Lions used to do similar until a few years ago, but the practise had died because the show didn't have much substance and very little appeal.
The first thing that struck me was that the car park was full and the overflow had very little room, and that was twice as big as the car park. When we got into the field it was clear that this is a country show that has really grown, in size and popularity.
The show is held in a big field on the edge of the village. It is typically rural, and quite old fashioned in many respects. There were a few dozen vintage cars, an impressive display of ancient agricultural vehicles, a Punch & Judy stall, and dozens of stalls, some of them quite interesting. The fox hounds were trundled out but probably the most surprising stall was that of the local undertaker who was there with a selection of caskets, in particular an ecologically friendly wicker one.
We sold out. Never known that before. Peter Jones is a natural salesman and kept a steady stream of punters coming to the stall, especially after he heard me call out "Every winner gets a prize." That became his mantra for the afternoon and it brought a few smiles and plenty of participants.
From there we went to the Fradley Arms for a convivial meal. There were eleven of us, because Pauline came up for the meal. She hadn't met some of the Barton crew and spent lots of time talking and getting to know them. The meal wasn't that great, and Judi and Jilly complained that their pudding course hadn't arrived and everyone else had finished, but they were happy enough when they were given a bottle of wine each to go home with.
Every winner gets a prize
a tiger at the Lion's stall
They built them big
Plan ahead!
Where's Judy?