A grey bank holiday here

The seemingly unremitting grey dampness is continuing for the bank holiday in my neck of the woods. Prospects for East Devon in the lee of Dartmoor sound more promising but even just a glimpse of the sun here would be cheering. There is so much moisture around that some local roads have moss growing out of the centre of the tarmac where vehicle wheels aren't tracking! When I was a paid employee it was certainly frustrating to find oneself stuck indoors when the sun shone and then be greeted with rain at the weekend! Now at least I have a degree of flexibility enabling me to enjoy the sun when it does make an appearance; there is plenty of outside work that needs doing but the cloudy skies don't help one's motivation.

Having made a point about the rather depressing weather I am hearing the news of the devastating forest fire uncomfortably close to Los Angeles in which a couple of firefighters have lost their lives. Recently too there were bad fires near Athens and not so long ago the south end of the lovely island of La Palma in The Canaries also suffered a bad blaze. Having been to the last mentioned I can visualise where this was. In this instance it is believed a stray firework was the instigator of the fire. The news bulletins in the UK are good enough at reporting these fires but I never get a sense of how long it takes to get them finally extinguished. I suppose the problem is that when a fire ceases to threaten life and property it stops being noteworthy so far as the media are concerned.

So would I prefer to live in a hot sunny climate with my home under risk of being consumed in a firestorm or would it be better to live somewhere such as the Tamar Valley with less sunshine than one would like. A no-brainer really: I'll stick with my valley!

UPDATE: Monday evening. I shouldn't have been so pessimistic in this morning's post! At lunchtime it brightened up, all right not wall to wall sunshine but quite good enough to get some essential work done in the garden. I know that many people, especially if they have families living elsewhere, want to get out and about over the bank holiday but I've never felt the compulsion to use the extended weekend in this way. One reason being my dislike of crowds allied to the fact that I just don't want to do the same as the majority.

End of TV manufacture in Britain

This story has its main repercussions in Plymouth but was considered important enough to feature in a national news bulletin. It's all about the fact that the Toshiba factory in the city has ceased making TVs, manufacture now being transferred to Poland. Officially this means the loss of 270 jobs but it's thought that anything up to another 250 jobs are also at risk as they were dependent on the Toshiba factory. On the plus side of things some 50 employees are being retained to provide their expertise to staff in the Polish factory and also to carry out any refurbishment of returned products.

Prior to the Toshiba operation the Ernesettle facility was manufacturing TVs under the 'Rank Bush Murphy' banner. I'm trying to recall how long in total the place has been producing televisions - I have a feeling it's about 40 years, so quite a considerable time. It's the fact that it was the last factory in this country that was making TVs that led to the closure being an item on the national news.

Apparently Toshiba are cutting staff numbers left, right and centre worldwide as a result of the recession - little comfort of course to those Plymouth folk losing their jobs. The reality is that we are all in a global market place and it's just not possible for us to compete with the lower labour costs in developing economies when it comes to making consumer goods. It's in the area of innovation that the future of our country lies. When Blair became PM it was all about "Education, Education, Education" if you remember. Perhaps Cameron should start talking about "Innovation, Innovation, Innovation"! It might not sound very sexy with the voters but it is the way to our salvation surely. One of the things that bothers me about the knock on effects of the banking crisis is that not enough money is supporting the small to medium size businesses from which much innovation can come: all because the banks are having to build up their assets whilst developing businesses are being starved of funds.

For anyone desperate enough to want to see the last TV leaving the line at Plymouth's Toshiba factory someone has obliged by putting a video on 'YouTube' believe it or not. Go to that site and search for "last tv ever made in uk".

Well done England but please no awards

Although I hardly follow sport it would be churlish not to congratulate the England cricket team on winning The Ashes. Yes, well done to them! However I very much hope that this time round nobody connected with the victory shows up in The New Years Honours List. You might think I'm being small minded on this issue but let me explain:

Let's put aside for a moment my general reservations about the Honours System. For better or worse we have it and I'm sure that many of the recipients in the past have been worthy of some sort of recognition for their contributions to our lives. But it always seemed to me that quite rightly these individuals had to prove themselves over a long period of time. Obviously one has to exclude such awards as 'The George Cross' given say for a single act of great bravery. Run the clock back to 2005 and it will be remembered that England beat Australia by the narrowest of margins to gain 'The Ashes'. It was a very close run thing but nevertheless the English coach, manager, chairman of selectors and the then captain Michael Vaughan each received OBEs and the rest of the team MBEs even though some of the players contributions were very minor.

So what happened when England next toured Australia? They were absolutely thrashed 5-0 by the Aussies! It might seem ungracious to remind readers of the last mentioned fact at this time of England's triumph. The point I am making though is that the whole concept of honours is totally devalued by dishing out gongs on the basis of one test series being won. Just checking on the internet and I see that the successful England rugby team of 2003 received honours en masse. A similar situation.

Let me put it this way: a lollipop lady might receive an MBE after decades of seeing her young charges safely across the road. Would that gong be handed out after just one term - I think not! Similarly with sport, players need to prove their worth over a long period of time. I think this is the way it used to be and certainly seems to be how other human activities are viewed. The examples of rugby and cricket teams I've quoted seem to have 'Tony Blair' written all over them. Sadly it is the sort of populist thing he would recommend and to my mind an absolute insult to those people who have devoted a lifetime to a cause or a profession.

I hope then that those members of this Ashes winning side are not showered with awards as a result of what has happened this summer. Following the logic of 2005 they should be I suppose. But if this happens it will bring the whole honours system into more disrepute if that is possible!

A (too) brief glimpse of the sun today

While the spectators at the test match at The Oval were I'm informed enjoying hot sunshine as well as witnessing England's win over the old foe, here in Cornwall the weather was stuck in a rut. Today at long last the sun came out - well briefly after a wet start. As I type this mid afternoon the clouds have filled in and it is far from settled. Just after lunch I dead-headed my large white shasta daisies. These I inherited when I bought the cottage; I'm pleased to have them because they need little attention and seem to be immune from pests and diseases but I have noticed look very scruffy when they start to go over in contrast to the very fresh whiteness when they first bloom.

My 'shastas' attract a few insects but nothing in comparison with the golden rod, now coming into its best. These soft downy flowers absolutely hum with dozens of bees and hover flies and although the golden rod has become a little too prolific it is at least helping out the bee population and any assistance they can get right now is very valuable. The golden rod is following on from the marjoram, another plant very happy to self seed and again well frequented by bees, particularly bumble bees.

The pervading dampness and buoyant slug population discourages one from growing a number of flower species but I'm very happy to have an abundance of insects in the garden at least. The weather outlook for the rest of the month isn't too cheerful - perhaps we will have a nice dry sunny September. Still autumn days can be absolute gems so here's hoping!

Drivers need educating about tides

I have to say that all natural phenomena fascinate me, none more so than the tides. Partly because of this deep interest and partly because I grew up in a town on the Devon coast (Salcombe) I do, I think, have a fair appreciation of what tides are all about. However various mishaps that occur emphasise that some motorists just don't have the knowledge - or not enough of it at least. At the moment we are on spring tides which means the high tides are higher and low tides lower than normal. The other extreme when there is the minimum difference between high and low water are neap tides. But ... not all spring tides are the same, the current ones are among the highest and lowest of the year. For the Somerset coast up in the Burnham on Sea area for instance one should also note we are getting into the mouth of the River Severn and so we are talking about a much greater tidal range than other parts of the coast as evidenced by the proposal to build some sort of barrage across the estuary to generate electricity.

The reason I particularly mentioned Burnham is because a day or so ago five motorists had parked their vehicles on the beach that stretches north to Brean Down, strolled away and were somewhat astonished to find their cars swamped by the incoming tide when they returned. All that beach fronting Burnham, Berrow and Brean is absolutely vast so that at low tide you might well believe that the ocean's waters will never reach where you have parked. But it can as five unfortunate car owners discovered. This is not the first time this area has seen cars falling foul to the incoming tide but usually it is one at a time not five!

Other places where the motorist needs to be wary are the beach at Port Isaac on Cornwall's north coast and the foreshore at Golant part way up the Fowey estuary. Another place where one should be careful is the tidal road between Bigbury and Aveton Gifford in Devon's South Hams and I believe I read about a motorist at Dittisham on the River Dart the other day in similar trouble.

I also understand that walkers got cut off by the tide at Charmouth and had to be winched to safety, variations on a theme - I don't know the precise location but guess that the extremely high tide would have been part of the story. So the moral is: don't make any quick assumptions when dealing with this country's natural phenomena, apart from anything else it is highly variable from day to day and from place to place.

Gunnislake's Oasis Centre to close

Some very disappointing if not totally unexpected news this week. The popular Oasis Centre in the middle of Gunnislake is going to close at the end of this month. Set up by the Calstock Development Trust the Oasis Centre has acted as a place where people could acquire computer skills, gain help in preparing CVs and get assistance in any possible way to find jobs. In earlier years the Trust employed one paid person to run it with voluntary assistance but latterly it has been run entirely by volunteers.

The trustees have been working hard on grant applications but sadly to no avail. The major running costs appear to be the monthly rent, not regarded as excessive, and the broadband connection. I assume that the computers are paid for. What is so galling then is that whilst the facility is operating in a very minimalist way (there's no central or local government waste here), it can't access what in the great scheme of things would be a small pot of money to keep functioning.

Gunnislake is a substantial village and is in fact the largest settlement in Calstock Parish. The population of the latter was 6095 at the time of the 2001 census and would be more now. I point this out just to indicate that Gunnislake is a bit more than a large hamlet, much more in fact.

Bill and the other volunteers have done a sterling job keeping the Centre open for so long when they could easily have thrown in the towel months ago. It is such a crying shame that they have come to the end of the road on this after all the effort that has been made. We should be grateful for what they have done.

Cameron sees drink problem for himself

In writing this blog I try to read what other bloggers have to say but obviously time constrains one from perusing too many other blogs. One frequent port of call for me though is 'Boulton & Co', the political blog from Sky News in which Mr Boulton and his chums comment on matters of moment. I don't have 'Sky' on my TV nor do I intend to in the future but this blog on the net is always concise and very readable. This recent entry by Cheryl Smith was one I found particularly interesting: she is reporting on a visit by David Cameron to Hull in which he is shown some of the booze taken off the streets by the police and is told just how incredibly cheap it was to buy when you think of normal pub prices. In her piece Cheryl includes a 'WebCameron' video in which the Tory leader gives his reactions to what he saw and what he thinks might be done about the anti social drinking problem. To be clear about this: I'm not trying to cast aspersions on Hull - I'm quite sure that it is typical of many many other places!

Back in 2007 I had remarked about the occasions when Tory MP Ann Widdecombe had confronted the likes of hoodies and prostitutes, the results of which were shown in TV documentaries. To me it is so important for MPs to get away from Westminster and get an understanding of the real world. Now whether Cameron could come up with workable solutions to the malaise he saw is arguable but he is at least aware of this sort of problem. A couple of asides here - Ann Widdecombe is retiring to Devon as she is standing down as an MP in her Kent constituency come the next General Election (I should put retiring in inverted commas perhaps as it seems that she will stay very active and, I understand, she is writing a novel). The other point is that prospective Tory candidate for Totnes, GP Sarah Wollaston, has a particular interest in confronting the anti-social drinking thing.

I'm not attaching myself to any political party here (I am a floating voter) but have to point out that when the opinion polls are very much in your favour then you are going to be much more motivated to look at the problems at the sharp end and maybe propose radical policies as a result. Compare that with an incumbent government, tired and in power for too long. I well remember the fag end of the last Tory government when John Major said he was "fizzing with ideas" - total nonsense, he was deluding himself and the public in my opinion. In 1997 it was time for a change and the same viewpoint will surely appertain at the next election.

One final point about D Cameron: he has come from a privileged background and has never been beset by financial worries so far as one can tell. In the old days one would have perhaps expected a Conservative MP of his type to be cut off if you will from the sort of lives of the ordinary man or woman in the street. But he does seem to take the trouble to meet the average sort of person and should be congratulated on that at least.

Police chiefs pay and perks in spotlight

It was just a couple of months back on June 18th, link here, that I wrote about Heather Brooke, that very determined lady who successfully fought a legal battle to get disclosure about MPs expenses. Now this country's Chief Constables are in her firing line and rightly so because some of them are evidently getting perks and privileges that we, their paymasters, haven't been privy to. Even if these 'extras' were small beer we should be in the know. It sounds though that some of them are quite considerable in value. The fact that this information hasn't been put in the public domain as a matter of course or that they are getting add-ons courtesy of the tax payer is quite disgraceful.

Heather makes her case in a recent entry on her blog which can be read here. More power to her elbow!

'Red Arrows' return to Falmouth

It has been ten years apparently since folk at Falmouth have been able to witness a display by 'The Red Arrows' over the town but last Wednesday residents and visitors alike were able to see a thrilling display by the aerobatic team. There is a video giving a flavour of the event on the website of the 'Falmouth Packet', the relevant webpage being here from which one can click on the video. It's really good to see the traditional media getting internet savvy and having video on their websites. I don't know enough about it but would guess that such a website would have limited capacity and it might be that a video such as this would be taken down after a week say and something else put up in its place. As I say I don't really know, just making an assumption, so if it's not there in a month's time please don't blame me!

Now here is a thought - if The Packet does remove the footage from its site I wonder if it would be worth them considering putting it on YouTube. Good publicity for Falmouth and it would seem that YouTube have almost limitless capacity for displaying videos. Apart from a personal passion for listening to and watching hammered dulcimer music on YouTube (as I write there are 1890 results under that title, will I ever see them all?) there are videos of anything and everything under the stars. I have even watched some Dads Army clips! For my less than fast broadband it is better to use YouTube earlier in the day, otherwise loading can be dreadfully slow. Nevertheless it is a wonderful FREE facility!

Community shop open at Stokeinteignhead

Stokeinteignhead is a little Devon village idyllically located just south of the Teign Estuary and is sufficiently clear of the main roads from Torquay to Shaldon and Torquay to Newton Abbot to retain its tranquillity. I'm mentioning it today because it is a particularly special day for its inhabitants - the shop having closed along with the Post Office, the latter a victim of the Royal Mail closure programme, the villagers have got together to open a community shop. So today saw the ribbon being cut and this welcome facility is officially open for business.

Evidently the community spirit is alive and well in Stokeinteignhead, they have a recently rebuilt village hall, a church, school and now a shop up and running because the residents cared enough to input some money and also to run the establishment. They had some funding from outside as well including a useful grant from the 'Plunkett Foundation' whose website is here. I'll let you read what this charity is about from their home page but would just mention that they have a special interest in setting up community shops. A lady from their organisation was interviewed on the radio this morning and pointed out that Devon had more village community shops than any other county, no less than 17 in fact! Even allowing for the size of the shire and that it is predominantly rural in nature this is still a good achievement. Incidentally, when one links through to 'Rural Community Shops' from the homepage I notice that there is a picture of the new Berrynarbor Shop and Post Office. That village in North Devon, not far from Combe Martin and Ilfracombe and slightly inland from the coast, is another of those special places that abound in my two counties.

Back to Stokeinteignhead then. I notice that they have a very pleasing village website which you can see if you click here. At the end of the day it is the inhabitants that make an English Village. Certainly if I'm over that side of Devon I would want to visit the shop. They are keen to promote the produce of the local area and that is great to see!

NOTE: I ran through the facilities in this village in this piece but note that I failed to mention the pub! Tut tut! Plenty of info about 'The Church House Inn' on the village website.

Gay Pride Events in the South West

So the other Saturday there was a 'Gay Pride' event in Truro. Not long before that Torquay hosted something similar. Now I'm not on the inside track when it comes to 'Gay Pride Festivals' and don't really understand how they came about. I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) that they have been organised to enable gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people to meet up and celebrate their sexual orientation and to also welcome 'straight' men and women into their community.

As a heterosexual I have to say that I have no problem at all with gays or lesbians. I just treat people as I find them and the fact that their sexual preferences are different to mine doesn't cross my mind if I'm in conversation with such a person for instance. Yes I feel uncomfortable with the thought of two grown men kissing each other but where I live I don't see such manifestations of affection. Without doubt the increasingly open acceptance of homosexuality in society is one of the greatest changes to have occurred in my lifetime; there just aren't so many folk who will take their cue from some obscure verses in the Bible and consider that anyone who is gay will be cast into outer darkness when the Day of Judgement comes. I'm pleased in a funny way that some of our leading politicians are gay in that this minority of the electorate does need some representation.

What I find a little odd to say the least is this determination by gay people to highlight the fact they are different to heterosexuals. I would have thought they would have taken the opposite sort of approach. But as I hinted before I don't really comprehend the mindset on this. One particular facet of the Torquay event worth mentioning is that it seems to have been organised to attract people from all over the country so would have generated some much needed and useful income for businesses in 'The Bay'. A real plus there then.

Straw wrong about Biggs

The other day Jack Straw released a very ill man from custody - one Ronnie Biggs, the best known of the gang in the crime that became known as 'The Great Train Robbery'. So did Straw do the right thing? Having thought about it a bit I would say no. Even now he is out Biggs will have a poor quality of life such is the state of his health and releasing him for what would seem to be a fairly short period before he dies is sending the wrong message in my opinion. I say this because he has really been taking the mickey out of our legal system and furthermore has displayed absolutely no contrition for his part in the robbery. So, sorry, I don't think we should feel sympathy for him.

It's fascinating that there have been far bigger hauls in subsequent robberies but that we barely remember these. I guess it was the enormity of 'The Great Train Robbery' relative to what had happened before that made it so noteworthy and the subsequent escape by Biggs and his keeping just ahead of attempts to extradite him have helped keep the event in the public eye. Any attempt though to make him some sort of folk hero is just plain silly; he's an unrepentant crook plain and simple.

On the subject of crime I notice that the threesome involved in the death of "Baby Peter" have been named and their photographs are out in the media. Unbeknown to me this information has been on the internet for some time apparently. So on the basis of the statement in the last sentence there is an argument I suppose that there is nothing wrong in displaying names and photos in the way just done. A couple of points here: having this stuff in the mainstream media means that these people could be very recognisable if, as, when they are let out. That means I suspect that there will be vigilantes out to get them - so we are looking at the possibility that they will be given new identities at the very least. As important I think is the fact I read that the mother has other children (was it four?). A greater likelihood of them being connected with their natural mother now the mother's identity is known would be a disservice to them surely.

Going back to the vigilante thing for a minute I understand that one very good reason for not acting on pleas to release the 'Moors Murderers' was that their lives could be under very grave risk so unspeakably horrendous were their crimes.

Filming at Mount Edgcumbe

It doesn't take too much of an excuse to have a day out at the Mount Edgcumbe Country Park which seems almost within touching distance of Plymouth but in reality is separated from the city by the southern end of the Tamar just before it meets the sea. Having accumulated the waters of the River Lynher this last stretch of the mighty Tamar is known as the 'Hamoaze' by the way.

My friend needed to do some shopping in Plymouth on the way home and I wanted to pop into Debenhams so with a really good forecast for last Thursday we decided to sally forth. The itinerary then was up the hill to our station for the train ride into Plymouth, walk across to Stonehouse for the ferry ride to Cremyll and then perambulate through the Country Park to the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand. Such is the variety of walks at Mount Edgcumbe that one can vary the return route slightly if wanted. This we did.

Now we are in the school holidays and the sun is out at last it isn't surprising that the ferry is busy. We could both live with being fairly jammed in with our fellow human beings for the few minutes of the ferry crossing but with 865 acres of country park available once we alighted in Cornwall severe overcrowding is never a problem.

When we decided to go on this walk we were unaware that there would be a German film crew in the Park. The reason for this is that people in Germany are very very keen on the romantic novels of Cornish born Rosamunde Pilcher. In fact there have been a huge number of made for TV films of her works that the Germans had previously filmed and looking on the internet afterwards I could see that this wasn't the first time that they had used Mount Edgcumbe as a set. It was good fun to witness some of the filming as we sat on some higher ground eating our lunch. We saw several takes of a super slim actress getting out of an XK Jaguar sportscar which would date from the 1950's I guess and then getting into a more anonymous modern car. A long time back, probably in connection with Newquay airport, I had mentioned connections with an airport in Germany with a lot of the business on that route due to so many folk over there wanting to visit the locations they had seen in the filmed stories.

Once again we had an excellent walk in "The Park" but with the added interest of watching a film set.

Dr Wollaston gets the vote at Totnes

If you were to look back in this blog to just over a week ago, to Monday 27 July to be exact, you will see that I wrote about a very interesting political experiment that was being carried out in the Totnes constituency. Just to briefly recap: the sitting Tory MP Anthony Steen is stepping down at the next General Election, the local party had produced a short list of three as the next prospective candidate, and then they wrote to all the eligible voters with a freepost envelope to enable them, regardless of their political affiliation if any, to say which of these three would be their preferred choice to represent them should the Tory get in.

The results of this new exercise in democracy are now in. And the winner is ... Dr Sarah Wollaston, a Chagford GP. More about her career achievements can be found here from which it can be seen that she has done well in her profession.

One or two comments to make: firstly using the figure of an electorate of 69,000 for this constituency as being accurate means that there has been a response of about 24% which is truly remarkable. I think that the Tories reckoned anything over 15% would be very acceptable. So that leaves a nice little dilemma for David Cameron: does he repeat this quite expensive exercise in other constituencies - following the success at Totnes it seems difficult to deny others this American style democracy of 'open primaries'.

Dr Wollaston with 7914 votes got nearly as many as her two rivals combined (Sara Randall-Johnson 5495 and Nick Bye 3088). Both the two defeated contenders are currently in local politics - they are leader of East Devon District Council and Mayor of Torbay respectively. I think it is quite possible that the electorate prefer someone in a respected profession and in constant contact with a huge cross section of people rather than someone else who might seem to be somehow 'tainted' by the political process.

The fact that the previously political unknown Sarah Wollaston is now in the public eye should do her chances in the General Election no harm at all I would think.

CORRECTION: I'm not sure now where I got the information but it seems that the 69000 figure mentioned as the number of constituents for 'Totnes' should be 67000. This means the turnout was even higher than my calculator informed me - in fact nearer 25% than 24%.

Tancock is world champion with record swim

I had promised in previous posts to flag up any massive successes of sportsmen who come from Devon and Cornwall. So although I have absolutely zero interest in the world swimming championships in Rome I am at the same time pleased to note that Exeter's 24 year old Liam Hancock struck gold in the 50 metre backstroke the other evening. Not only did Liam win but it was in a new world record time! So congratulations to him.

Although I personally lack any sporting prowess it is still nice to be able to mention a sport of minority interest even if it doesn't actually move me. I think I've said before that whatever one's reservations about the London Olympic Games (I wish we weren't saddled with them) at least those sports that struggle to get mentioned in the media can, for a brief time at least, get some public attention.

I lead a walk around Calstock

I had volunteered (or been volunteered perhaps to be more accurate) to lead a special interest group around the village of Calstock as part of their outdoor evening event programme. Well yesterday evening was when it happened. In an earlier post today I described the less than sunny weather that we are experiencing right now but in fairness the worst of the rain had temporarily relented by seven o'clock, the start time of the walk, and although very grey throughout I was able to keep the brolly down for most of the time.

The intention had been to do the whole thing in an hour and a half. Who was I kidding? A good two hours I think it took and even then I skated over a lot of the detail. Really and truly one can't do justice to this particular walk in just one evening but at least it gave the participants a flavour of what Calstock is all about. I have to say that I was unnecessarily nervous at the start not helped by me getting a 'frog in the throat'! Once over the initial talking bit and on the road so to speak when I could point out various features things got better and my audience were very kind to me and posed one or two questions which demand further research on my part! Fortunately I don't take myself too seriously and am able to inject a little humour into the proceedings which always helps.

I think the thirty or so in the group went away fairly happy and thanks to their visit I am now able to give our Parish Archive a cheque. During the course of the walk I was able to talk to some members on a one to one basis - unsurprisingly this was more into my 'comfort zone'!

Gunnislake Festival seems to have gone well

For the last few years I have been Secretary of the annual Gunnislake Festival but at the AGM last November I decided to stand down as it was just getting too much when added to my other interests. Our Chairman and Treasurer both decided to resign from the committee at the same time - no animosity, just that we had all had a long stint at these jobs (all three of us are getting on a bit age wise!) and it was time for an injection of new blood. A couple of particularly stalwart members of the committee were prepared to continue and the presence of these two ladies I'm sure would have aided a fairly seamless transition in preparing for the 2009 Festival. And I honoured my promise of being available at the end of the phone should the new secretary want advice which understandably she did on one or two occasions.

This year's Festival, from Wednesday to Saturday last week, followed a well tried formula in the main. So we had the usual display from local artists in the Church Hall and Mandy's ever popular Local History Exhibition in the Public Hall. There are always lovely refreshments at the latter by the way and this year they bought in sponges from a cake maker in Tavistock. I treated myself to a slice and on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it 11! It was amazing! As is usual with the local history I found myself going back there because there was so much to see. On the Wednesday evening there is normally a talk worth going to and this year we had Bernard doing his slide show on the railway between Tavistock and Kelly Bray via Bere Alston and of course Gunnislake. I've heard it two or three times before admittedly but never tire of it.

The car park in the centre of the village was closed to vehicles on the Saturday because it is given over to public entertainment throughout the afternoon. On this occasion the forecasters were spot on - after a wet morning the clouds parted at lunchtime. We tend to be lucky with the weather for this outdoor part of the Festival, although it has been known to be a little damp on occasion I can't recollect a time when it has been a total washout. There were the usual mix of stalls and live music and although some of the latter wasn't to my taste the amplification didn't seem to be quite so excessive as sometimes. An innovation this year was a chap demonstrating falconry with a Harris hawk which the crowd found interesting. At the end of my involvement with the Festival we had stopped the scarecrow competition; in the first few years we had gained an enviable reputation with this aspect of our Festival but it seemed to me and some others that it had run its course but to my surprise the scarecrows were back this year albeit with a small entry. I think it was a mistake to do that and of course July's wet weather hardly encouraged the making of scarecrows.

All in all I think that the committee has reason to congratulate itself. I'm certainly pleased that the Festival has continued and hope to go to the next AGM to see how things have panned out, from the financial point of view especially. But I'm quite definitely not rejoining the committee!

And still it rains

The exceptionally soggy July has spilled over into August. Apparently down my way you would have had to go back well over a century to the 1880's to endure a wetter July! yesterday was thoroughly miserable weatherwise and there is no let up as I type this. However there is hope on the horizon: the Met Office reckon that the wet stuff will disappear east tonight and then we should have a few days of pleasant weather as high pressure tries to build from the south west.

Fortunately the flowers on my buddleia at the back of the patio haven't quite gone over so fingers crossed there may be a late surge in butterfly numbers.