Warning – long post!!
On Thursday my hubby and I went to the Devon County Show. This is one of the best days out of the year for me. It’s always such a treat, with so much to see, and lots of bargains to be had. I always vow not to spend so much but never keep to it haha!
We had a perfect day weather-wise. We picked the right day weather-wise, as it was overcast with rain the following day, and we had sunshine but not too much. It was lovely to see all the people out for the day having fun, and there is always such an upbeat, happy atmosphere. My buggy behaved very well and the battery kept going to the end, which was a relief to my poor hubby! The last thing he wants is to have to push me at the end of the day when he’s really tired after being on his feet all day!
We spent some time in the food tent, where there were lots of different types of produce on display and being judged. Here is my hubby looking at some of the gorgeous cheeses.
Flagons of locally produced cider. I love the variation in colour.
There was a lovely table full of fancy patisserie. I love all the multicoloured macarons.
Coming outside, we found the pens where the sheep were being judged. I loved seeing this little boy, proudly showing a Jacob’s sheep under the watchful eye of the judge. It’s so great that the kids are being encouraged, and given a real sense of pride in farming. I think this little lad looks so cute in his white coat! I think the man in the maroon shirt may be his dad.
Judging the cattle. I love to see all the farmers in their white coats, and all the animals spruced up for their big day each year!
As usual, we looked out for the tent with all the wrought iron work. This year they had a magnificent disc for the Wessex craftsmen. There is so much detail in this, with all the figures and other things depicted around the edge. I’m always amazed at the beautiful fluid forms that people can make out of such a hard, unyielding material.
We were very amused to find a stand displaying synthetic lawn material. They had made several objects out of it which were really fun. My hubby frequently pointed out during the day, the stands that had very few customers. He said the reason was they showed very little flare in their display, and not much interaction. The food stands which had the most customers were the ones with free samples to try, and any stand where the owner came out to speak to the customers always had plenty of visitors. This Easigrass stand had plenty of people wandering around and taking photos. I had seen synthetic lawns but on this occasion I was able to touch the stuff, and was amazed how lifelike it felt. I told the man he ought to have some synthetic dandelions and daisies growing amongst the grass for a bit of realism because it looked too perfect!
Throughout the day we kept bumping into this pirate character, until he said he was convinced we were following him! He and his wife were dressed in marvellous costumes, and he told us they regularly attended pirate festivals. I kept a safe distance from his cutlass and pistol! – and especially when my hubby started waving the pistol about!
Coming into the gardens tent, we were delighted to find this group of men just starting up, singing a collection of sea shanties. They were absolutely excellent, and of course we all joined in the choruses. It was such a rousing performance. They announced that they would be performing with many other groups at the upcoming sea shanty festival in Teignmouth in September – we must try and go to that!
Along with many others whose comments we overheard, we were quite disappointed in the displays this year. Usually Bicton College do an outstanding display that wins all the prizes, but they weren’t even here this year. Instead, there was a display on the theme of recycling and raising awareness about the plastic in the oceans, and they had made a little house out of recycled plastic bottles. All very commendable, I am sure, but the display itself was very disappointing, we thought.
In the rest of the tent, the number of displays was down as well. We couldn’t think of a reason why this should be so, unless the show committee have put up the price of exhibiting and are pricing themselves out of the market! If that is the case, it’s a shame. However, there were still some amazing floral displays, even if there were fewer than normal.
They had several themed classes, as always. This year, I loved the themes “Goblet of Fire,” “The Far Pavilions,” “Sea Life” (a display of miniature arrangements) and “The Enchanted Forest.” Here are some examples.
Goblet of Fire:
The Far Pavilions – this next one won the highest award in that class.
I love the bright colours of this one, also in this class.
There were so many intriguing details in this one that I took some close-up photos.
The person who did this arrangement very cleverly plaited the palm fronds together to get this amazing effect.
I love her use of peacock feathers. Note also the gorgeous little Indian box underneath, which you can just see through the palm leaves.
I suppose I liked this particular theme so much, because M.M. Kaye’s book The Far Pavilions is one of my favourite books.
Sea Life. This was a class of miniature arrangements, and I found them absolutely exquisite.
This next one was my absolute favourite. I love anything to do with the sea anyway, but to see how this lady had folded some palm leaves to give the impression of a group of fish was absolutely amazing. You can’t see it in the photo, but they were lightly sprayed with glitter so they shimmered in the light. The colours of this particular arrangement were so subtle and delicate.
While we were looking around, a lady approached us with a slip of paper and asked us to vote for our favourite piece in the whole display, and put it in the box on the stewards’ table. I had no hesitation in voting for this exquisite little depiction of sea life. I hope lots of other people agreed with me!
The Enchanted Wood. These were equally magical. In this particular one, the arranger had attached tiny little hand-blown glass vessels into which she had put individual flowers to keep them fresh. You can spot them if you look carefully. I love the way she has wrapped the twigs, and the colour combination is just gorgeous, as is the beautiful base.
I particularly loved this one, with the suggestion of a mysterious little path leading through the trees, to a fence at the end.
Here is a beautiful lady dressed in tree bark, branches and flowers.
I am amazed at the skill of people who can produce such fantastic creations in flowers, and so grateful to them for allowing us to see the results. I am utterly hopeless at flower arranging, but I love to see the efforts of others, and can really appreciate how skilled and creative they are.
In the same tent there were the usual displays from various commercial companies specialising in different types of plants. I was intrigued by the cactus display this year, and selected a few of the weirder ones to share – there certainly are some very peculiar plants indeed!
This one looks more like an animal than a plant!
I think this had to be one of the weirdest of all. These extraordinary pod-shaped things looked as if they were made out of plastic!
After looking around in the plants tent, we went in search of some lunch. We returned to the food tent and found a stand selling delicious salad boxes and we had one each – you could select what you wanted from a whole range of different salads including couscous, olives, and various mixed salads. It was all topped off with a couple of delicious falafels and a sprinkling of seeds. It turned out to be quite a substantial little meal and it gave me some ideas for my own salads.
After this we went outside again, and I was delighted to spot this pair of magnificent heavy horses.
This year there as a display of classic cars, all beautifully restored and maintained, so they looked like new.
I love this old MG, celebrating its 90th birthday!
Such an adorable couple of little boys doing what little boys love to do if there’s any sort of vehicle around – sit in the driving seat and turn the wheel and make “vroom vroom” noises!!
We saw plenty more things during the day, and I took a ton of photos but I couldn’t put them all on here!
We found the Macmillan’s Cancer Support tent and had such a lovely chat with one of their volunteers, a specialist oncology nurse. When she heard my experience of cancer, and life with a stoma, she said it was an inspiring story, and that it would really help others. She suggested I reminded the stoma nurse of my offer to volunteer as a buddy, because since I did that, really early on, I have so far had no takers. My hubby shared with her how he’d spent some years as part-time oncology chaplain where we used to live, and how involved he had been in the hospice movement, and also with his work with AIDS patients. She said she’d been very happy to meet us. She had done a lot of work with kids with cancer, which must be a very harrowing experience.
At the show, you gt to meet lots of interesting people – from oncology nurses to pirates! Sharing a lunch table with others, you get chatting and it’s fun hearing which things they enjoy best about the show. There was so much that we didn’t have time to see – only glimpses of the show jumping, dog training, motorcycle displays, and of course, all the animals. We did go in the poultry tent which was a new experience for us this year, and decided it was pretty noisy! We saw some newly hatched chicks (adorable), and there were some quite bizarre looking chickens, almost in the same class as the cacti and carnivorous plants for weirdness! The angora goats weren’t there this year, which was a huge shame, as I always love to visit the Corrimoor folks who make such gorgeous socks from their goats’ mohair. I never wear anything else. They usually carry off all the prizes with their herd. So this year, not visiting that tent, I missed out on the spinning and textiles on show. Oh well, there’s always next year, and there’s far too much to do everything!
As usual, despite my best resolutions, I ended up spending more money than I intended, but it’s only once a year, and I rarely get to go out shopping. We found a fabulous stand selling high quality kitchen stuff – this was a stand where the man was definitely engaging with his customers, and there was quite a crowd.
Two or three years ago I bought some new kitchen knives at the County Show. They are reasonable enough but not exactly classy. When I saw what this man had, I knew I had to upgrade! I bought this fabulous knife block with a selection of six very high quality knives. The handles are so comfortable to grip; they are heavy, but extremely well balanced, and my goodness, those blades are like razors! There is a knife sharpener built into the block which is a nice touch.
On offer to anyone buying this set was a free box of steak knives, but I said I didn’t want those because we wouldn’t use them. I had already decided to buy a saute pan as well, and not only did he reduce the price of the knives, but threw in a free mandolin slicer as well! The show prices are always much better than in the shops anyway, so I did really well.
These are quite the best kitchen knives I’ve ever owned. My hubby has been forbidden to use them lol! I’ve had enough trouble with him in the past, using my kitchen knives to open parcels with… I told him these were precision instruments and NOT to be used to pierce frozen ready meals (damages the tips) and most certainly not for opening parcels!
I love kitchen gadgets but at the end of the day, the best thing you can own in the kitchen is a decent set of high quality knives, and if you look after them, they should last a lifetime (until you get tempted to buy another set at the County Show!!). I find a lot of repetitive chopping extremely tiring and it makes my muscles ache with my ME, so anything that helps make life easier has to be a bonus. We eat a lot of vegetables and fruit and this does require a lot of slicing and chopping, and certain things just can’t be done nicely with a machine. These knives seem to glide through things as if they aren’t there. I can’t wait to try cutting the next butternut squash – they are always very hard work to cut!
Here is the knife block minus the knives. You can see the knife sharpener in the centre. To use it, you open the little flap to expose the sharpener, and you can also see that the stone is set at an angle of 15 degrees which is the optimal for these knives. The man said that after a few years, I may need to replace the stone, and he always has them in stock and I can order one online.
The slots for the knives appear to be magnetic, and they locate the knife in exactly the right position in the block. A nice touch, which makes them look nice an tidy in the block.
I am glad we found this stand almost immediately after we arrived at the showground, because at the end of the day, when we revisited him on our way out, to pick up our purchases, he told me he had sold all the knife blocks and most of the saute pans!
We also bought a gorgeous brightly coloured garden umbrella which was made in India, but I can’t photograph that at the moment because my hubby has put it in the garage. Once we put it up, I’ll show some photos. To date, we have not been able to sit in the patio in the summer months because it gets far too hot – it’s a real sun trap – but with the new umbrella I think we will end up using the table more often, and have our meals there rather than at the top of the garden. We shall see.
We also came home armed with a selection of delicious cheeses – the sort you probably wouldn’t find in the average supermarket. You have to get things when you see them or you miss the opportunity.
I hope you have enjoyed your virtual visit to our wonderful annual County Show – it is a day not to be missed.
