Three activities I'm thoroughly enjoying

• "Pottery in the Park"
• The allotment
• Flowering plants in Mill Dam Park

The first, last Saturday was brilliant.

Yes, it was far too hot and this meant that relatively few people turned up.

But those who did gave a lot of enjoyment - some great conversations because there was time for this. Met some very talented people I've not come across before.

Perhaps the 'adverse' conditions meant that people with engaging characters came along!

The allotment is such a great place to go to. It's a very different environment to being in town.

Everyone is really friendly and helpful. Lots of advice if you want it but people hang back with their criticism.

There is total honesty. Nothing on your patch is touched by other people.

We're all struggling to deal with the soil and a large number of pests. Most of us are there because it's fun - the actual achievement of growing stuff is secondary.

However there are people who know exactly what they are doing and have great success for the amount of effort they expend. Some of them have techniques that allow them to achieve a lot in very little time - a lunch break from work or a quick visit on the way home from work.

I marvel at how responsive, in the right hands, the soil is to producing vegitation; already there are plants eighteen inches high and heading skywards at great speed. Some people with years of experience know the tricks of the trade.

Meanwhile I'm very much on the learning curve and still struggling to prepare the soil for planting - something that really needed doing by February. Never mind - do better next year.

If I come up with anything this year it will make me content!

Then Mill Dam is gradually getting planted out with all the plants that are bursting out of my greenhouse with the cry "Space, space, SPACE"

Flowers from these plants are just beginning to show and the two tons of compost we spread all over are bound to bear - flowers. Keeping up the watering is important.

Looking very promising. Just keep soldiering on palnting and watering every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 4 till 6 till the job is done. Sixty more plants in yesterday about four hundred still to go! - be done in less than three weeks!