Sadly in the same email my friend also said that their lovely old dog had gone. Always a sad thing. Him Outside said taking our old dog Lucy to the vets a few years back had been the worst thing he had ever had to do. We buried her under a sweet chestnut tree and she has never been replaced. She was a collie cross rescued dog and was just SO clever, she seemed to understand everything that was said, there was never any need to raise our voice to her.
An email yesterday was interesting as it was from the Chair of the Suffolk Smallholders Society asking for our help in producing a booklet of memories to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Society which happens at the end of this year/ beginning of next. No one is exactly sure, because it took a while from the first group of people who came up with idea to the Society actually getting started. We got involved almost from the start and Him Outside was Vice Chair and then Chairman while I did the membership secretaries job for AGES! I also wrote a regular monthly bit for the newsletter for most of the last 20 years, until April when I decided that I was repeating myself just a bit too much and started blogging instead.
Sadly ( in our view) the Society has changed in the last 6 years. At the start it was quite a social group with regular monthly meetings where we had a speaker and then chance for a chat - a useful way to get to know fellow smallholders. We had an annual Smallholders Show which was brilliant for catching up with old friends. ( It was due to promoting the Society and the Show that we got ourselves into the East Anglian Daily Times twice! The second time the headline was 'The Real Good Life Couple'!) Now it is more of a training group, with courses run for new smallholders, occasional smallholding visits but no regular meetings and no annual show. There are over 300 families who are members yet they now have problems finding enough people to sit on the committee and some of the things that are organised are not well supported. The AGM comes around in September so maybe a new committee will be able to get things done. There was a mention in the newsletter during the winter of maybe starting some daytime get-togethers for those of us who work full time on our holdings and may not get to see many folk. ( Last winter was so long and cold that many people felt isolated) I hope this idea is actually acted upon.
This morning we got yet more weeding done and have nearly caught up with it all.Then two things that seem to mark the change from summer into Autumn, emptying a compost bin onto the rhubarb beds and taking the net off the top of the fruit cage.There is no getting away from the fact that Autumn is just around the corner with winter not far behind.
