That's shallots

It's my birthday, and it was very kind of the village to lay on one of my very most favourite events as a special treat - though maybe it was just by chance that the 68th annual Linton and District Gardening Club show fell on this day.

It was a great chance to catch up with many old friends. The show itself was excellent, as always. Not too much participation in the vegetable section it has to be said, but a strong floral showing, and very high standards in all the children's categories, especially Class 111: a Creature made with vegetables and/or fruit.

The friendly competition is open to the whole village, though it was the usual suspects who carried home most of the cups and trophies - and I don't think anyone would want it any other way. There was a moment of controversy during the award ceremony. A particular cup was for members only, but the judge had accidentally alloted it to a non-member (without even nominating a runner-up) and then gone home! What to do? A hasty compromise had to be made: the non-member was presented with the cup in honour of her shallots, but her name won't be engraved on it for posterity. A frisson of excitement momentarily swept through the village hall...and then it was all over and time to call the raffle.

How could anyone not love this show?

This evening we've been dining with friends, laughing and laughing, feeling like we've never been away.

Eastward-ho!

Our lovely stay in Devon came to an end today. On our way out of the West Country we detoured off to Wells in Somerset. This was very good in terms of seeing my brother and his wife, but not so clever when it came to finding a convenient route to our next destination. Though it's not marked as such on the map, it turns out that Wells is actually the furthest point in the UK from Linton, Cambridgeshire. Who knew?

But after a loooong car journey, too much of it spent semi-stationary on the A303 and the M25, we finally arrived safely in Linton. A welcoming cup of tea awaited at our friends' house, plus a set of keys to another house where we're now settling in for the night.

Devon rocks!

We've had another fun-packed day in Devon, featuring (for various combinations of us) pony-care, model railways, mini-golf and rock-pooling, and ending up with fish-and-chips all together on the beach at Beer. The sun has shone and the sea air has left us happily tired out.

Beach boys

We've had an action-packed day. After a comfortable night and good breakfast in Taunton (thank you) we set off towards Exmouth this morning. On a whim, and because we weren't expected at our next destination until lunchtime, we detoured off to a National Trust property, Killerton House.

We knew nothing about it, so it was just a piece of luck for us that in the grounds of the 18th century house they have laid out a Dragon's Trail to explore. We followed a map around an area of woods and meadows discovering various wooden structures with a dragon theme - this one's allegedly a "dragon's skull". We had a good long ramble, and enjoyed coming across views of lovely Devon countryside in the sunshine.

Then we pushed on and arrived (by chance, really, as we'd forgotten their address) with our friends and a whole bunch of their relatives. We made a trip to the beach where the kids and their friends and the friends' cousins build a sandcastle then later tried to keep the waves at bay by lying down in front of them (didn't work).

That was followed up by dinner and a lot of trampoline action...and yet our children are still awake at 11pm.

On the road

We collected a car, loaded it up with luggage and kids and hit the road. First stop Reading, for lunch with the Man's parents (very nice) and a trip to the local playpark where we picked some enormous ripe blackberries.

All too soon, back into the car again for two or three hours on the way to Taunton. More food with relatives, this time the Man's brother and his wife. Again, very nice.

And now it's late, with more travel and fun ahead of us tomorrow...

Good Lord's

My cousin's daughter came to stay last night and has been here all day, so that was our kids' entertainment sorted out. So the Man and I sneaked off to London again for the afternoon.

We started out at the British Library and visited an exhibition highlighting the historical, political and cultural significance of maps. Lots to look at. I also enjoyed a much smaller exhibit featuring different artistic interpretations of one of my favourite books, Alice and Wonderland.

From there we made our way to Lord's Cricket Ground and took a tour. I'm not a huge cricket fan (though I did discover Brian Lara - that's a long story) but I still found it interesting. Our guide gave us lots of information in a lightheated way, she wasn't too slick or stuffy. The Man was impressed to stand in the Long Room of the Pavilion and imagine all the great batsmen passing through on their way out to the crease. Reaching out to American visitors (though I doubt there are so many of those) there was a big exhibit about baseball in the museum.

We managed a couple more sights, then we had to squeeze ourselves onto a series of packed trains to make our way back to Watford in time for dinner. Tomorrow we'll be picking up a car and setting out on a bit of road trip...

Balancing act

It really was an excellent party last night, with about 90 guests from around the country (and some of us from around the globe), all having a fun, relaxed time. A fair number of the same guests turned up at the house this morning for champagne and coffee, and by the time I got up after a lie-in (what with late-night parties and such, that jet-lag fast-track recovery thing hasn't exactly worked out) the kitchen and garden were crowded.

But by late morning the house was relatively quiet again. In the afternoon we insisted on dragging the kids out to the park - they'd been glued to the telly for about five hours solid. It was fine weather for being in a park, and the rest of Watford was there too, but it was good to be out and I enjoyed chatting with my nephew as we walked along the river.

We ended up having some fun in the playpark on this rolling balance beam, before making the long walk back to the house. Maybe all the exercise will help us finally to get a good night's sleep?