16th May
We all turned out again this evening for the Basing Singers concert in aid of Naomi House, which was held at St Mary’s church. It was a shame that the folk of Old Basing decided to watch the Eurovision Song contest instead because they missed a treat. We particularly enjoyed the choral suite from “The Armed Man” by Karl Jenkins, which was interspersed with readings of war poetry, movingly read by members of the Basing Singers. Paul Wright on the organ, was as good as ever.
17th May
Violet-Elizabeth had insisted that we take her to the Gang Show auditions which were being held at Costellos. She was determined to be in the show this year, after having watched many of the previous productions. We took her along, armed with her packed lunch and left her there for the day, whilst we both worked in the Manor Gardens. Last year, I bought an apple tree form Blackmoor Nurseries over near Alton, to augment the Manor orchard. I am planning to enter class 24 in the Village Show this year, for the first time, which is 3 Dessert apples (not polished). Spencer was reading the description of the class over my shoulder, from the advance copy of the Village Show schedule that I have managed to get hold of, and remarked dryly that I should be able to manage that as not much polishing goes on around the Manor.
18th May
My diary tells me that today is the opening date for the Basinga Writing Competition. If you look on the website, you will find all the details. I haven’t decided whether to enter yet, but I sure have plenty to write about, and I might be tempted to enter some poems of my own!
21st May
Spencer has taken the day off work today, supposedly (as I thought) to help me to get the Manor tidy for the big day on Saturday. However, as usual he had other ideas, which first involved him getting his hair cut in town, then cutting the lawns, and so by the time he had done all that, it was time for us to go and collect our Silver Wedding cake. We are just having a plain white iced sponge but Paula Cosgrove the florist, is going to make an arrangement for the top, as well as doing all our flowers.
22nd May
Spent the day tidying up and getting the garden looking nice for tomorrow. Spencer commented that anybody would think that I was trying to emulate the gardens at Chelsea (which I have been trying to watch on the TV between organising the staff rotas).The forecast for tomorrow is not good however, and when the workmen arrived to erect the marquee, they were up to their ankles in mud, which they then trampled through the Manor, negating all my previous hard work.
The afternoon was spent at school Sports Day. Marcus is too old for all this athletics stuff now, and in his new role as prefect , had managed to land the plum job of serving the strawberries and cream to parents, so we went to watch Violet-Elizabeth perform. Unfortunately, she gave a whole new meaning to “falling at the last hurdle”, with a spectacular tumble whilst in the lead. I tried to console her by telling her that even Colin Jackson has a bad day, but it didn’t seem to work.