Climbing a mountain…

Sue has volunteered along with several of her work colleagues to participate in a physical endurance challenge for charity.

 

The company is Learning Tree International and their Tri-Challenge includes a 40 mile cycle ride around Mt Snowdon, climbing the Pyg track up the mountain and back down again to race in canoes across Lake Gwynant. Sue is planning to do the climb and the canoe event but not the bike ride as she can’t be trusted out on the roads.

The sponsorship will be split across three charities; Children with Cancer, Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation and the Pilgrims Hospices.

For my part I will be acting as support crew, driving them up to Wales and ferrying them around the events.

Training has been to walk across the hilly Ranmore Common from our house in a circular route and I must say I am certainly glad I am not going to do the challenge myself.

Go ride your bike…

The Prudential Ride London – Surrey 100 and the Surrey Classic bicycle races came through our village on Sunday 4^th August with the some 16,500 amateurs starting in the morning as part of the Surrey 100 and then later in the day the 150 so professionals came through as part of the Surrey Classic. Our village of Westcott is about 60 miles into the 100 mile course and is just before the challenging Box Hill stage. Somewhere amongst the amateurs was Boris Johnson – the mayor of London.

Harvest Time…

After a long cold winter and a poor spring we have eventually started to see some decent plant growing weather settle in for a while and the veggies in the garden are responding to the warmer temperatures providing us with some long awaited produce. We have dug all of the potatoes up even though they might have grown larger because the plants have been raided by a badger - we think (the clumsy brute has done as much damage by stomping through the crops as it did from digging up the tubers).

We had some early beans a while back and are now on to the main crops, also we have raised our onions and garlic with mixed results – the red onions are always a struggle with their tendency to bolt and the garlic suffered a little with the wet weather, some of it rotting off, but the white onions and shallots did quite well.

We have high hopes for the squashes and pumpkins that seem to now be doing well, and the new greenhouse is full of healthy looking tomatoes, chillies and even a few exotics such as a watermelon a regular melon and a couple of cape gooseberries.

We have enjoyed a couple of meals now where all of our veggies came from the garden including a roast on the weekend that included various types of beans, carrots, chard, broccoli and cauliflower, courgette and potatoes.

Costing up the price of the seeds, compost, tools and other materials used without even considering the labour effort we are never going to see a commercial return for our work, but in terms of the rewards in the satisfaction of growing and serving friends with our hand reared food, and the exercise we gain, then we are quids in.

More of wot I have seen…

StrauBenZee

This band played at Bertram Bees on Friday night to an enthusiastic audience. They play skiffle versions of well known pop songs including Walk of Life by Dire Straits, Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival blended together with I’m a Believer by the Monkees, Three Little Birds by Bo Marley and Nutbush by Ike & Tina Turner blended with Delilah by Tom Jones. The uniform for the band seems to be Hawaiian Shirt and linen suit with a hat, and the hats change with the songs – in the end half the audience ended up wearing a hat at some stage.

 

Ghost Town Showdown

We went to the small but perfectly formed Surrey Bluegrass Festival in Mickleham village on Saturday and saw plenty of banjos. One of the acts bowled us over, a three piece of youngsters who played some amazing original music and sang great harmonies and were called Ghost Town Showdown. They reminded me a little of Munford and Sons in their style and delivery.