First I am told of Midsummer at the Manor, to be held at The Manor, West Lexham, on Saturday, June 28. It's a summer buffet with Pimms. Tickets are £15 and available from Ceres Bookshop, Swaffham, or by phoning 01760 440451.

This event is in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, and by kind permission of Viscount and Lady Colville. For those with sat navs I'm told you need to program your destination as PE32 2QN.

In case you wonder why I seem to push Macmillan Cancer Support so much, it's just that their treasurer has my email address, swaffhamturbine@gmail.com, in her address book – and uses it! So could you!

She goes on: "We are truly blessed to have been given this venue which is gorgeous. Lovely setting which slopes down to the river. Ducks, geese and pretty gardens. Couldn't be nicer. We have planned a delicious buffet and hope to have a great evening. We've even got a superb indoor venue should the weather thwart our plans."

• Last week I said I wasn't keen on seeing money spent on advertising the Saturday Market in Swaffham, but I was devoid of other ideas for promoting and supporting it. "Did I detect a note of defeatism in your article?" I was asked. Certainly, the 32 hours without sleep while competing in the Three Rivers Race didn't help my powers of inspiration.

"If I were looking to revive what was once a very popular and thriving market, I would be visiting other popular markets in the area; Wisbech Sunday market, Snetterton Sunday market, Fakenham Thursday market.

"None of them clash with our Saturday market, so I would leaflet every trader at those markets – and offer them three months discounted rates to attend Swaffham."

That sounds like a good plan to me.

The message continued: "Another idea may be to let the current vacant spaces be occupied by charity or church stalls at no cost – on the basis that empty spaces sets a despondent tone, and starts a downward spiral. Fill the gaps at any cost in the first instance, and then search for the traders."

I mentioned this second idea to someone with experience in the retail sector and they expressed doubts, taking the line that charity shops get benefits already, to go giving them free market stalls would make life even more difficult for normal traders. However, as a customer, I believe that there's nothing worse than finding empty shops in any street and much the same applies to stalls in a market. Once the number of stalls falls below a critical level then it's barely worth making your way into town to have a look at what's left. Hopefully, success with the first idea would make the second redundant.

As my correspondent said about his ideas, "It's not rocket science!"