I was going to send you a whole page of photos about our success at the South West in Bloom awards ceremony in Truro last week. I came back lugging the most enormous cup you have ever seen outside the Football League. 

I was on the train and terrified someone was going to knock me on the head, as I had not taken a bag big enough to take it, and all the certificates. It is for Westfield Primary School, now officially the best in the South West. 

Two weeks ago, I found a picture of Mrs Ross and the gardening club in 2009 with just a small vegetable patch. Now they have each class with a patch, greenhouses, an orchard, a woodland area, a dipping pond and wildlife area, and a model coal mine garden. Needless to say, the parents are now highly involved too. No wonder the judges were bowled over. I shall be presenting the cup at a school assembly shortly.

Meanwhile, SWALLOW’s Gardening Club got an ‘outstanding’ award in the It’s Your Neighbourhood for their office garden, but also a special prize as the most inclusive project in the South West.  This is not to be confused with SWALLOW’S café, which is a separate team of volunteers and part of Radstock in Bloom.

All our entries got outstanding except the Fosse Way School, but they are only in the second year of entering, and grade 4 is pretty good for beginners. We sort of expect the allotments society to be outstanding.

Westfield itself got silver gilt, which was a bit disappointing, but we had all kinds of problems, compounded by my lack of IT skills and the distraction of elections.

So I want to put in an appeal for volunteers. We also have a bank account – donations would help.

It is so good to have some good news for once.

Someone came to my surgery on Saturday, thanks to the notice you published, with a problem so complicated it will take me a week to sort things, if I can. 

I would love to see anyone with an In Bloom idea, too.