Well, they weighed the pumpkins last Friday and ours didn't win. We were mildly disappointed but, on the whole, philosophical about it. Winner or not, it's a beauty.

Just one thing worries me, though. I haven't seen all the entries yet but I did see the winner. Now, ours is a deep yellow with a few darker orange patches but the winner is as orange as - an orange. It looks suspiciously like the ones on sale in Sainsburys which, I suspect, are a different variety from the ones we've been growing. Hmmmmm....................

But no, I tell myself, I must not start suspecting other parents/grandparents of skullduggery. How could I even entertain the idea that anyone would cheat on behalf of their child? Surely...

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Laura and her mum went over to Huyton today to visit Amy, the dog they sponsor. On the way they stopped at the pet store and bought her a couple of tennis balls and a big, roasted marrow bone.

There are only 2 sponsor dogs at the Huyton kennels, Amy and Zak. The other dogs in the place are to be rehomed but with Amy and Zak it's not possible because of their temperaments. Both, it seems likely, have been ill-treated in the past and both can be snappy but the Dog's Trust won't put a healthy animal to sleep.

Amy was in her cage, which is a run outside her very comfortable kennel. There was a sign on the cage saying, "Do not put your hand inside this cage". Of course, Laura's mum didn't see the sign until...

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Over the last 10 weeks the pumpkin has been conceived, midwifed, nurtured and guided. It grew from a small yellow swelling to a big orange-yellow gourd. Through the hot weather it was watered twice a day. It's been fed with tomato feed and Miraclegrow, turned gently every couple of days, shaded, protected, encouraged and admonished.

On Wednesday it goes to school ready for the weigh-in next day so, tonight, we harvested it so it can sit on the garden bench in the sun and ripen a bit more. It's not a giant. Reading up, on the internet, it's not the sort that grows to gigantic proportions but it's big. On our scales it weighs 16lbs. 2 oz. and it's about one and a half times as big as a football.

I am reliably...

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My grandson has gone to university - at last. He's going to be 21 in November but he's spent the last 3 years, since he left Manchester Grammar, doing a BTech in Graphic Design at the local college. He's now embarked on a BA course, at Salford, in Graphic Design, Media and Journalism.

He moved into his room "in halls" on Sunday but he was back on Monday evening to pick up the ironing board he'd bought. His cousin, Laura, was ecstatic that he called here on a flying visit and very impressed that he has now left home and is "free".

Laura's definition of freedom. Peter can now stay out all night in the village - drinking wine.

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Laura has been enthusiastic about the Dog's Trust for a while now. They advertise on TV that they look after stray and ill-treated dogs that can't be re-homed and ask for sponsorship to help keep them. She has kept asking if she could be a sponsor.

I don't want another dog. I've been through the heartbreak of the final parting several times and I don't want to go through it again. There's also the fact that, no matter how much you love them, dogs take a lot of caring for and they tie you down; the number of times I've had to leave somewhere, early, because I had to get back for the dog.

So, last week Laura and her mum had a look at the Dog's Trust website. There were various pictures of dogs around the country...

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