91热爆

The Coll Show has been packed up and the debris stacked by the wheelie bin, and nothing remains but the funny bright green patches in the grass which mark spots where tables or chairs stopped foot traffic. Someone somewhere did something right because we had wall-to-wall sunshine and not a midge in sight. We also had a visit by Mike Russell ( MSP and Minister for the Environment), which is a bit worrying as everybody knows politicians only exist in the flesh when there is an imminent election. Actually he was very nice and I think he is 'a good thing (for a politician)' and at least he knows where Coll is and how long it takes to get here. We made him earn his keep by presenting the prizes and judging the pets. I'm sure 'prize-giving' is a one week compulsory subject in the year-long 'how to be a politician' university course and he breezed through it, but pet judging, that is a different matter. He very astutely asked if there was someone who should win, but I assured him we don't do that kind of thing on Coll, so he was on his own. After much deliberation the tarantula was awarded first place. Second place went to a pair of garden snails and their courgette, although they were not very tame yet, having only been captured that morning. Third went to a furry four legged canine (FC would approve of the placings). He bottled out of awarding Best in Show to a bug, and the veteran dog walked away with the Skinners Simply the Best Trophy.

Elsewhere, my courgettes won and the calabrese was left at home (too yellow) and I got second with my French beans. It takes a lot of beans to get six the same size! And now we have a house full of cake which I am allowed to eat at last, preferably on toast. He entered two loaves in both classes (white and brown), but one mix was much wetter than the other (he is reading a very technical book recommending wetter dough mixes) and there is a big difference in the texture of the two loaves, although they are both very good with cake! And the fireworks were brilliant, very noisy, and finished too quickly.

As an experiment this year, the dance was held the following night. The band came over from Tiree (we get all our bands from Tiree, it manages to produce a new one every couple of years, we heard Skerryvore first too!) and they were brilliant. I can't give them a name check because my gaelic spelling is atrocious and I got bored trawling through the search engines, I'll just wait for the comments. The dance floor was permanently full, mostly of teenagers (where did they all come from?), and, as the night wore on, it got harder to tell band from dancers, as the band marched around the floor, and then someone in the audience produced another set of pipes. I love the pipes, especially this new habit of playing them topless, it was a brilliant night (even the beer lasted for most of it). Seriously, anyone needing a ceilidh band to dance to, who enjoy playing music as much as the dancers like dancing, and who really know how to entertain, call Tiree.