Today’s flower is a late blossoming rose. The leaves are looking a bit spotty to say the least.
We are moving up in the world, as last night’s visitor turned out to be the assistant of our local MP getting to know the constituency. I took the opportunity to let him and the MP, as he dropped him off, know that the important political decision of the moment relates to Mr Murdoch’s current attempt to get a complete hold on the British media. Nothing else matters very much. They both agreed with me of course. Politicians are so nice.
In the morning I took five photos up to the Langholm show to enter them in three photo classes. It was not a good omen when Mrs Tootlepedal reported that the photo entries were up by 100 this year. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to hang about waiting to collect my prize money after the show but my efforts were not noticeably worse than most of the others so I am encouraged.
Mrs Tootlepedal was judging a set of handcraft classes at the show so while she did that, I battled with the crossword for a while and then got on the bike for a short jaunt up the main road. I stuck on the main road because of the hedge cutting activities on the minor roads round about us. It was very windy again so I adopted my usual tactic of pedalling into the wind and uphill for ten miles very grumpily and then turning round at Mosspaul and whizzing back laughing like an idiot.
After a shower, I went up to the show field to find Mrs Tootlepedal and see who had won the photo classes.
She was watching the driving class where the people she meets at Hoddam every week through the summer show off their skills. They looked extremely smart as they trotted their traps round the ring.
She is seen here at the driving ring sensibly wearing wellies because although the day was fine, the ground is always muddy when it has been trampled by people, horses and all sorts of other animals.
On our return to the house, I had time to mow one of the lawns but it was so cold last night (3 degrees C) that there was not much growth and the time for constant mowing may have come to an end. Then I spent some time dealing with four photographs of a local family which a very nice lady from Australia has sent the Archive Group. I sent her one back in return. In the evening we watched a DVD of the Beiderbecke Affair by Alan Plater. This has a gentle pace pace which is most refreshing after the frantic cutting and music of most current TV. It’s grand to be an old fogey. It gives one a purpose in life.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Good to see it was a nice dry day for the Cattle Show