Aftermath

I helped prep raised beds for the visit of HRH Prince Charles to Todmorden yesterday, but I decided not to observe the event. Above, Debbie, Pauline, Mary. Now they have really put in a lot of work for IET.

If blog readers want the fascinating details and photos they should read the Yorkshire Post and go to the IET blog

I was outside the Hippodrome theatre this afternoon taking Chris to see her podiatrist at Physio & Therapies. Courtesy of Marshals, several raised beds appeared on Tuesday, ready for school children to be planting out brassicas just as the royal personage happened to be passing. Well, this afternoon their planting was judged by me as slightly less than perfect and so I re-planted several seedlings. Things will get back to normal soon: litter, stones, plants failing, over or wrong-time cropping - and a general return to popular indifference. A nice thing happened over last weekend when I was alone in the apothecaries garden at the health centre. A group of the town drunks walking along the tow path talked about how they cropped IET fruit and vegetables and actually said 'you need to know how much what you lot do is appreciated by people in this town'. When I told Nick he thought they are curious ambassadors for IET - they'll stick up for IET against detractors in pubs and on the street, and out of self-interest will deter anti-social vandalism.

Actually on Monday we had a very good, if small, inaugural meeting of IET Community Growers Group. We have a slogan: 'Maximize Community Land'. If only HRH knew what some of us actually want to achieve.