Another scorching hot weekend - what's happened to the great British summer? The BBQ's been used more so far this year than in the whole of last year.
An encouraging moment at the market yesterday when one stall holder whom we've been trying to encourage to stock Fairtrade bananas complained that now we've really started something and as soon as he gets a box they sell! I'm instructed to get there first thing on a morning if I want to confirm that he's selling them because he can only get one or two boxes at a time. I regard that as something of a success story. I suggested that he keeps his eyes open for other fruits and expands his choice over the year. We shall see. He's a great character and very much part of Stockton Market. Long may he thrive.
The English strawberries he had on sale were small, juicy and bursting with flavour. Absolutely superb and a lot cheaper than the water-fattened ones in a supermarket not too far away. I love the soft fruit season. I'm watching the raspberries and cherries swelling nicely in the garden - not too long now before we can eat them.
Meanwhile residents continue to contact us about the issues that concern them - the uncertainties over the bus services, the perceived unfairness of having a service every 10 minutes during the working day on one part of the ward but only every hour on the other part, and so on. The next meeting of the Public Transport Users’ Forum for this Borough meets on 11^th July from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in ARC, Dovecot Street, Stockton, with John in the chair. This is the opportunity to get the latest information and make your voice heard.