Yesterday was the Cheltenham Horticultural Society Summer Flower and Craft Show at the Pittville Pump Rooms in Cheltenham and I got a little carried away on the entry form! I ended up with 9 entries  for cut flowers and fruit, and Cathy entered a beautiful babies dress and shoes she had crocheted, and four perfect ginger nuts in the home baking class.

I was in the garden at 5.30am selecting and cutting the flowers in my dressing gown and flip flops. Hope the neighbours didn’t see! Got three enormous buckets full and we managed to get them down to the show at 9am without spilling any water in the car, mainly because Cathy was holding on to them for dear life. We came away at 10.30am having fiddled and faffed about with the regulation vases, stuffing them with newspaper (poor man’s Oasis foam), and placing them artistically on the judging tables.

We returned at 2.30pm for the ritual insults and humiliation and were amazed and delighted to find that Cathy had won first prize in the handicrafts competition and I had won five second prizes and a third! Not bad for a first attempt. Can’t wait until next year!