Made it after all!

Well, I made it to Dig For Victory after all. It was a much smaller event than I'd anticipated, although there was a dance in Melksham yesterday evening and I suspect Saturday would have been the busier day. I didn't dress up; I've been too poorly to look at doing things properly.

We had a quick wander around the military displays, then sat and had a cup of tea in the home front tent, where there was (recorded) music playing. A couple came and danced for a bit on the dance floor, and then Mr Robot was asked to lend his light to light the 'incendiary bomb'! This was a smoking thing in the middle of a little Dig for Victory garden. Cue the ladies from the Land Army display, and one who I think may have been 'French Resistance', getting out the buckets and hand pump to douse it, after which a gentleman had a few goes at picking it up with the appropriate hardware before giving in and pitching it manually into a bucket.

I had a brief chat with a chap about why people do 1940s recreation as Germans - the ones at DfV got into it from collecting other stuff. It's good to see other nations recreated, whatever side they were on, because it's important to remember that wars involve real people, not faceless 'things'. I'd love to see a wider selection of Allied forces. We have a large Polish community in this part of the UK; it would be super if a bunch recreated one of the Polish air squadrons. It would also be fab to see the Commonwealth side of things represented. I guess that's for people to decide for themselves to do.

The ladies knitting in the home front tent were happy to chat to me about vintage knitting - like me, they love the book of resized vintage patterns, A Stitch in Time. I was tempted to ask for a riffle through their patterns, but decided against it, instead nattering about resizing, appropriate yarns, and the joys of getting patterns from car boot sales.

There were a few stalls, but we only bought one thing: a 1952 medium-format camera in a really adorable brown leather case. It needs repairing as the shutter won't open, but Mr Robot has an uncle who can keep a 1930s car roadworthy so we reckon he'll be able to give sound advice on repairing it. We bought a (modern) photo developing set up a few weeks back, and Mr Robot's wanted a medium-format camera for some time, so we'll have great fun with the whole lot eventually.

I'll put up a link to some photos, or post some here, once they've been sorted through.