The schoolchildren from the Basque area of Spain paid us their annual visit in July, and we showed them around and gave them some sharp tools to play with in the Growing Area. They were most enthusiastic in their weeding and digging, and a few refused to leave (despite the pouring rain!) at the end of the visit, although they were eventually parted from their scythes and muddy holes.

Cheryll and Pete attended a talk on the 10th by Devon County Council's Graham Cornish about the future Wray Valley cycle track. It seems as distant a prospect as ever - there are still problems with the Lustleigh section. One new possibility is to route it along Knowle road for a while, to avoid the controversial village section, but this does involve a hill, and there are (more) objections from the folk of Lustleigh on the grounds of safety, as the road is apparently driven down at great speeds and has blind corners… Still it was good to see some plans and sense some progress.

Some of us built a demonstration bender at the South West Forest Woodfair near Okehampton. It was a lovely day, and there was a great deal of interest in the stall and the project. Cheryll picked up the art of making wood flowers from another exhibitor, and she has been whittling away in corners ever since.

On the 20th and 21st we attended the Summer Radical Routes gathering at the relatively close Keveral Farm (it makes a change from going to Bradford and Brighton). An interesting visioning process, several hot tubs, an environmental theatre showing and many workshops filled our time as we met up with people at the farm by the sea (its near Seaton).

And then after all the little shows came the big one, the Big Green Gathering. We put aside a week for our stay, including setting up a bender and a solar powered marquee. The sun shone down, the passers by passed by and sometimes talked to us and took leaflets, we ran around and caught gigs and ate fast wholefoods between sessions on the stall, and it was great and exhausting. The site was not as magical as the old Wiltshire one, and the event was very big (there were no compost toilets, cringe), but it was still a very good and useful time for us.

Right at the end of the month we were visited by a group of home educators and educatees, who had a good look round and shared lunch with us.