As I was saying on Tuesday, Christine is ‘Dressing the Rooms in the Garden’ with items we have collected on our travels. Nothing unusual about this as most people bring odd things back from holidays.


You see people getting off the plane with the big sombrero or the stuffed camel, why are they always in shorts when they know it's cold over here, but not us we collect things for the garden.


Some of these things come back in the car boot when we have been driving abroad, hence the steamer chairs and the now defunct water feature mentioned recently. Nice and easy in the car. The bigger problems are the ones that have to come on the plane. This planter had to come back Easy Jet from Holland which perhaps wasn’t too bad compared to FMJ, the Metal Turtle who had to come The Bahamas.





FMJ was bought at a Wine and Art Festival which Christine and I and Alex and Dave went to, I knew nothing at all about the purchase until the next day. Some people have put it around the Island that David and I tried a few drinks too many, but I don’t think so, the fact that I slept for 14 hours after the Festival was because I was tired, it's not easy sitting in The Bahamas doing nothing, you know. Dave on the other hand ………?


There have been Conch Shells the size of footballs, paintings, baskets on long poles, even the patchwork quilt that had to be repacked at the airport.


But the problem of getting them back isn’t just the size and shapes it’s the bags they can and cannot be seen in, but that’s another story, perhaps tomorrow.


We have of course done the usual bacon to Minorca, Skelton’s Curd Cheese Cakes to Malta and sausages to France but just maybe the most surprised was the customs officer at Hull when we set off on North Sea Ferries to see Alex and Dave when they where in Holland. The large Volvo company car, also now confiscated when I retired, was packed. Two suitcases were on the back seat packed with Christine’s clothes, she had other clothes on hangers at the windows and shoes in a bag, Fired Earth of course, in the footwell, we were going for a long weekend so they were all necessary.
All my clothes were in a flight bag in the boot. So looking at the car from the outside it was full to the brim. The customs officer asked me to open the boot and in there was a Victorian doll's house laid on it’s back covering the bottom of the boot and packed around it were six very large frozen meat pies and six large cartons of frozen gravy. The custom officer looked in and then closed the boot but as he was doing it he says “Not what I expected, I must say, but I have to ask. What’s that about?”


I explained that the dolls house was for Amber our grand daughter and the meat pies were the world famous pies from Croft Garden Center in Tickton.



He smiles understandingly “And those will be the cartons of gravy with the meat bits in” he says “Best pies in Yorkshire” he says. Doesn’t ask why we have them and lets us on our way. We ate well that weekend in Holland, pies on Saturday and Sunday night. What more do you need.