I know that yesterday and today I’ve failed to deliver a fabulous shot but in a strange way both have more meaning than the photo alone. Yesterday’s idea had been in my mind for a long time and managed to get bounced on a number of occasions – the last time on the occasion when I photographed the foal suckling. I know the lighting isn’t great in it but you can’t move the position of the sun and I had already missed its optimum – from the time I shot the pic on in it wasn’t going to get any better and it does show the scene now compared to the text for then as it were.

Today’s shot was the start of an intended trip around the garden with a wide-angle lens on my camera for the first time in ages but I was interrupted by DM running onto the scene in his wellies telling me that an important phone call that I’d been waiting for was here. By the time I got off the phone, I had again missed my moment.

So, ticks – tick, the entire veg garden is planted, so much so that the aluminium you can see near the top lhs of this shot is a huge jam saucepan that I’ve drilled holes in and planted my carrots in because there is nowhere else for them to go and I’ve got climbing bean wigwams in my flower borders for the same reason. I’ve worked like a dog to achieve this.

Crosses – of course our local and European elections. Our local election has been “rigged” by political big-boys because instead of our council being run locally, it’s been merged in with all of the other councils in Cornwall and run as a unitary authority. Basically this waters down the local aspect of politics because the increased size of the wards means that local independent councillors who’ve been representing their community well for years suddenly lose out because voters in the larger ward don’t know them. A case in point, our local independent candidate lost her seat to a candidate for a mainstream party by 36 votes because our ward had doubled in size to include a couple of big villages some miles from us where the voters had no idea of her good works and she didn’t have the resource to canvass them effectively.

On the other hand, local council elections have done my family proud because my little sister was voted a county councillor yesterday. My poor Mum ended up in hospital as a result of her tireless campaigning for my sister so Jan’s victory wasn’t without cost. Thankfully Mum was released later that night and declared to be fit and well, simply having had a scare. Phew.

Euro elections on the other hand have me baffled completely. We had a ballot paper that was about 30” or so in length and with candidates from 16 parties on it. They were:

1. British National Party – for anyone outside the UK the clue is in the name – nasty, vicious, racist scumbags….that’s my view anyway.
2. Christian Party – I imagine they’re trying to “do good” by espousing religious intolerance and enforcement of so-called Christian values……hmmmm
3. Conservatives – one of our “big three” parties
4. English Democrats – independence for England – yeah yeah yeah (is there one of those silly symbols for putting your tongue in your cheek?)
5. Fair pay, fair trade – sounds fair to me
6. Jury Team – and your political platform is what, precisely?
7. Lib Dems – another “big three” party
8. Mebyon Kernow – as Kernow is Cornwall in Cornish, I assume these folks are Cornish separatists?
9. No2EU: yes to democracy – oh please…..(can I have another one of those tongue in cheek thingys please)
10: Pensioners Party – again I suppose their platform is pensioners rights but who knows….maybe they’d have got in and declared the UK a nuclear free zone?
11. Prodemocracy:Libertas.eu – wake me up when I get to the bottom of this list please…..zzzzzzz
12. Socialist Labour Party – I think this lot think (rightly) that the Labour Party has lost its socialist roots. Too true. (No, seriously, too true!)
13. Green Party – it does what it says on the tin – raises awareness of and support for green issues.
14. Labour Party – you remember, “big three” but who’ve lost their socialist roots…..oh and probably their grasp on British politics for the time being at least.
15. UKIP – another bunch of anti-Europe nutters.
16. Wai D Your Decision – huh?

OK, now let’s see – we got canvassed by 1, 3, 7, 14 and 15 so we at least knew what they stood for. We also know a little about 4, 12 & 13 from the national media. The rest didn’t bother to canvass us and we’ve not got a clue on the whole what they’re on about. It makes you wonder why bother spending the money to stand if you have no intention of making the electorate aware of your policies and views?

I know you can probably see the candidates listed somewhere but for the average busy person, seeking out who's standing in order to make an informed judgement about who's the best party to vote for, being confronted in the polling booth by this list simply serves to make people vote for a name they're familiar with I suspect.

So, by the time I’d got to the end of this list I’d almost lost the will to live (but not quite) – I managed to get my cross onto a party and then couldn’t quite escape from the polling booth because the form was so huge it wouldn’t fit into the ballot box without a degree in Origami.

Thank goodness that’s all over for a while. I don’t think I can cope with another one of these for some time. I need a lie down!