The produce show

Once a year, our village holds a produce show so that we can show off our vegetable/flower/herb growing skills, craft and photography expertise. There's the usual raffle, tombola and white elephant stall as well. We have managed to dispose of quite a bit via the junk stall and, amazingly, all items seem to have sold.

Genearlly, I only grow potatoes, apademek grows everything else. This year wasn't good for (my) potatoes - I was late getting them planted out and they were caught by a late frost that put them back by several weeks. I grew three types, Anya, Swift and Pentland Javelin. The Pentland Javelin were a heritage variety and they didn't crop well. The Swift kept pushing themselve out of the ground in the allotment and kept going green. Only the Anya did anything much so I entered them into the white potato category. We put our entries out fairly early on the Saturday and there were three other offerings of white potato, all much larger and all looking really good. Needless to say I didn't even get a third place.

My other four entries were in the photography section and I went in for birds, four-legged friends, bridges and Winter scene.


The Winter scene was easy - all I had to do was select from some of the ones from January when we got 20cms. of snow. Several other people had (a) the same idea and (b) better pictures. apademek was one, and she won first in class with her picture of our bird table with a snow covered roof and the rest of the garden (taken from the warmth of the dining room).

I entered a picture of a cat standing on top of an opened out beach umbrella for the four-legged friend, apademek entered a picture of an iguana taken in Yucatan. She got a first, I got nothing.

For the bridge category I entered a picture of the remains of the main road bridge at Monte Mario, São Tomé. Ths had been damaged by a torrent during a tropical storm and it was impassable. During the dry season traffic had to drive sdown into the river bed and up the opposite bank. It would be impassable when the river was in spate. apademek entered a shot of the Bridge on the River Kwai, and got a first.

The one picture I had hopes for was my picture of a brown pelican. This shot was taken in Guatemala at a bar where the drinking area was built on stilts above a lake. The beer came with free nibbles, deep fried shimps, so it was obvious that such an inedible offering had to be for enticing the local wildlife. This pelican duly came over and looked hopeful. A steady stream of shrimp kept it within range whilst I took its photo.



When I put this one out, there was a gorgeous picture of a fledgeling robin just coming into its first red breast and I knew I had a serious rival. The robin won first place and I got a second for the pelican.

If you want to know about  all the other first and third places apademek got for jam. marmalade and chutney, ask her!