Preparing for a Break

Well, can you believe it?   I have had some correspondence from an anonymous reader who doubts that I did indeed win with my Cheese scones at the Basingstoke show last week.  I think I might know who you are Sir, but just to let you know that we Paulet-Halts are always true to our word, I attach a photo of me wearing my third place rosette and holding my medal.

With only a month to go before the show things are hotting up at Paulet Manor.  We are all off on holiday to our estate in Cornwall and I have had to leave complicated arrangements with the staff at Paulet Manor to ensure that everything is kept well watered whilst we are away.

One year we returned from holiday to find that somebody had disconnected the automatic watering system in order to fill the pet rabbit’s water bottle from the outside tap.  That was a lean year in terms of the trophies won at the Village Show, I can tell you.  All my greenhouse tomatoes and salad stuff were frazzled to a crisp and most of my outdoor tubs and hanging baskets were ruined.  Needless to say that the particular member of staff concerned no longer works for us.

 I have spent this week dead-heading all my fuchsias, geraniums, roses and dahlias in the walled garden.  I have tied in all my tomato plants, cucumbers, peppers, aubergines and courgettes in the glasshouses and fed them with Tomorite and seaweed fertilizer as the fruits have now set.  This is a very time consuming job as we have such a large area on the estate given over to glasshouses. 

 In fact I have so much produce growing for the Village show that Spencer remarked dryly that it was getting nigh on impossible to get into the conservatory to read the Sunday paper because of all the vegetation.  To be honest, we shut the cat in there by mistake as he was completely hidden by the pumpkin and squash plants not to mention the coleus, fuchsias and citrus trees that I might be entering in the pot plant section.  Unfortunately my lemon tree isn’t doing too well at the moment.  It does have a lemon on, but has lost all its leaves. 

There are 8 classes in the pot plant section ranging from one specimen cactus/succulent (class 55) to any flowering pot plant (class 51) or a fuchsia (class 52).  There is a limit of 10” on the maximum pot size for displaying the plants. 

  There are two interesting classes for displaying flower heads.  Class 49 is a display of 6 fuchsia flowers (skirts up) and class 50 is a display of 3 clematis flowers.  Each display should be presented on a board not exceeding A4 size.  I have never entered the clematis class because all our flowers seem to have gone by September, but I have entered the Fuchsia class.  I used an A4 piece of polystyrene and covered it with black felt.  I then chose my six best fuchsia flower heads and affixed them with pins to the board.  Unfortunately I wasn’t clear about the instruction of “skirts up” and was disqualified on the day.  However, I am determined to get it right this year.  Some of the experts like Jeff Owen use small phials of water positioned behind the board to keep the flower heads moist during the show.  If (like me) you are keen on growing fuchsias, it might be a good idea to come and look at the displays this year with a view to entering next year.  (At least then this year I might have a chance to win!!)

6th August

Reminded Marcus and Spencer that they need to feed their Dundee cakes.  Noted that the level in the bottle had gone down somewhat after Spencer had seen to his cake.

7th August

Now that I seem to have perfected the recipe for cheese scones and cheese straws having won 1st and 3rd places in the Basingstoke show last week, I thought that I would have a practice at making Madeleines.  These are the English Madeleines, for those of you not sure, who may be taking my advice and looking at the Mary Berry cake book and wondering which ones to make.  Those of you not lucky enough to have a Mary Berry book, then you need special dariole moulds to cook them in.  Then you cover them with jam and coconut and put a cherry and angelica on the top.  The problem I have with these is that I only have 4 dariole moulds and therefore have to wait for the first batch to cook, wash the moulds out and start again, so it is very time consuming. Perhaps I will ask for some more moulds for my upcoming birthday along with the RHS book I mentioned the other week.  (I hope Spencer is reading this).   It is also very messy getting the jam and coconut on afterwards, but as Spencer has already told you, he is usually on hand to clear away any mess that I might inadvertently leave.

8th August

Any further thoughts of the Village Show must be put on hold as we are packing for our holiday.  Spencer is moaning as usual about the amount of stuff we are taking.  I have managed to sneak in my half finished rug for the Handicraft class 85, along with my knitting needles, watercolour paints, oil paints and my easel.  I don’t think that he has noticed.

 9th August

Gave last minute instructions to the staff about how to look after all my plants and produce whilst we are away.  I expect that they are going to be very busy at the Manor.

10th August

All packed up and ready to go.  Notice out of the corner of my eye as Spencer backs the 4x4 off the drive that a package, looking suspiciously like my easel, is left in the porch.