We all hate Mondays right? The Boomtown Rats iconic tune,  

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Today started  badly, I woke too early with appalling cramp in both my legs. It is oppressively close and humid outside. The sun hasn't shown its cheery face at all so far today - and it is so grey and gloomy.  I was actually wishing it would rain. A thunderstorm even, clear the air and freshen things up. Just something to lighten the day.

My wish was granted, but not in the way I was expecting.

I got an email from the lovely Michelle, over at Veg Plotting, telling me I was the lucky winner of her Yeo Valley fruit tree  competition! A big smile spread across my face, and the sunshine turned on inside my head instead.

I think I will pick the Victoria Plum whip as my prize - I am fan training it in my head already!  Maybe I do like Mondays after all!

P.S. The Conference Pear in the picture is one of the 4 double-U cordon fruit trees I had grown and trained in huge pots for more years than I care to remember. A few more than 10 years anyway. When we planted them in the ground last Autumn in Chicken World, having spent years in pots, I am convinced you could hear them sigh as they unfurled their roots and began to spread out. I imagined them feeling like we do when we get to remove our shoes on a hot day and just walk barefoot.