I've never been flattened by a steam roller, but having seen its effect on Mickey Mouse and his ilk, I'm guessing this is what it feels like. The cause, however, was something far less mechanical - I've just survived the pre-school summer fete.
Before you think I'm truly pathetic, I would like to point out that I'm in charge of the event, I hold it in my own back garden and we invite, not only the pre-schoolers and their families, but the whole village. Now do you feel my pain?
The trouble is these occasions are rather like childbirth - you have long enough between the events to forget the sleep deprivation, mess and agony and begin to believe you could go through the whole thing again.
In addition, this year, just to up the ante, I decided the children could run their own garden produce stand.
Our veg patch is going through a difficult phase. Successional sowing went a little awry so everything is either just going over, or barely visible. As such, we were scrabbling around for something to sell.
Thankfully I've been very slap dash with the dead heading this year and consequently we had a few flowers which had developed seed heads. So, for the last week, we've had paper bags filled with upside down seed heads scattered around the house and a seed packet factory (complete with child labour) on the kitchen table.
In the main the children stuck on labels and instructions - sometimes they were even straight - whilst I dealt with the seeds (partly because I didn't trust their numeracy skills in the face of something so small, but mostly because at least half of the seeds were poisonous.) In the end we had a good amount of stock which I then added to with pickled beetroot, dried allium heads and rhubarb stalks.
Was it a success? Well they made £24.70. This is an impressive but somewhat puzzling figure as everything on the stall cost either 50p or £1...
Also, there were some misplaced charitable donations ("we gave some money to Lucy because she didn't have any and we've got lots in our till!") - which we had to rectify.
Mostly though they were an impressive sales force. They began too shy to speak and ended up advertising their wares so loudly that I'm sure part of the till contents was literally hush money.
Also, they knew how to draw capture the crowds attention. After all, it's not everyday you get the chance to buy seeds from a Dalmatian-faced, lollipop-chewing boy with butterfly tattoos wearing a ball gown (there was a fancy dress competition so Oscar went in a fancy dress - he can be very literal at times).
Bravo for raising £24.70! from the seeds. Reading this post was a breath of fresh air, and I am still smiling.
K
Posted by: Karen - An Artist's Garden | July 14, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Hi Dawn - I like the seed packets, might pinch the idea. Karen did something similar when she sent me some seeds earlier this year and they looked fab. Hopefully this comment will give you my email so we can exchange yell experiences.
Posted by: Helen | July 15, 2009 at 10:23 PM
Thanks Karen. This time next year I'll be a millionaire!
Helen - bet Karen's looked better (artist that she is!)
Posted by: Dawn Isaac | July 16, 2009 at 02:56 PM