Inaugural Competition

On Thursday evening Farmer Franz cut the grass for our haylage. Given the weather it could possibly have been ready to press Friday evening but we wanted to make sure it was drier than last year, added to which the bale machine contractor didn't have a free spot until today.

This morning Franz went over the field and made rows to preserve a bit of moisture and then somewhat delayed, the press arrived at 15:00 and within an hour we had 8 bales stored in a corner of the garden. We still have 4 bales from last year which hopefully will still be good in the autumn. Can only feed the haylage in cold weather as it can start to re-ferment once opened. Thank you Franz - normally he would have been the Blip today (as last year on 7th June) but I knew I had a special Blip to come.

Today at long last got around to having Mr&MrsB over for a meal and of course a glass of Pimms. As always they turned up armed with pressies for us all. Elephant size bone for the dogs, lots of bits for Angie which she hid from me and I got a lovely Honey Teddy Bear and a clay pot of earth with Edelweiss seed to try and enrich our alpine garden!

Also as usual, they came armed with Pimms, this time a bottle of Blackberry & Elderflower. This whole Pimms thing started in July last year and as they are both interested in the UK traditions later cricket and croquet joined the list of topics of things to be explained one day. I am sure it won't be long before they visit the Isles - a good friend of theirs has just returned after a 1st visit to the UK - well still at least, Scotland to be precise and he was really taken by the place. I think there are Ryanair flights from Memmingen to Glasgow, so maybe they will take the plunge soon. Still need someone to sponsor a shooting or fishing event, then there would be no holding them back.

We didn't get together until 20:00 as the weather today was again hitting the 30°C. But armed with a glass of Pimms, I then led the party to the result of last nights secret mission - the freshly prepared croquet field and I tried to explain the rules which I vaguely recall from the last time I played over 40 years ago. After about 30 minutes, MrsB shooting way out in front and MrB unkindly hammering my ball in to the dense undergrowth, I broke off the match before things got ugly. Angie as always produced a great BBQ meal, I hit the Pimms bottle again and as usual lost all my coordination of word & action - despite my age still haven't got to terms with getting drunk after a pint of shandy! I enjoyed it though. We sat outside until the early hours, the first time for Angie & I this year.

The croquet was fun, the field adding to the challenge. A horse field quickly mowed with a tractor doesn't make for an ideal playing field, added to which the 9.99 Euro croquet set I happened to see by chance a week ago in Lidl, isn't what I remember as being a full size solid set. Still MrB got the idea and seemed quite taken by the complexities of the game. The Lidl instruction set is about 30 words long basically saying one goes through the hoops one after the other. No mention of any of the nasty tricks. Will have to repeat it soon but have to tie one of MrsB's hand behind her back.

A nice way to celebrate a special day but am posting this late to avoid certain comments ...I am not a worthy Bliper at the moment!