Flower Show

I don't want to sound romantic and silly about this but, to my mind, there is something incredibly reassuring and comforting about the annual village flower and vegetable show.  It's not so much the show itself but the fact of the show.  They will have been taking place in villages and small towns all over the UK this Bank Holiday weekend.  I have been enjoying these occasions ever since I was a little girl.  It seems to me that as long as the British can put on a good flower and vegetable show once a year, everything will be alright.  

I LOVE flowers.  I love wild flowers, I love garden flowers.  I love the blossom on fruit trees and the funny little flowers which eventually produce wonderful vegetables.  At the flower show the vases displaying prize specimens from villagers' gardens and greenhouses are always joy!  

There has probably been much angst about the exhibits.  The roses and the sweet peas, will the blooms be perfect on the day?  Will it rain and ruin everything?  The perfect symmetry of the pom pom dahlias always amazes me.

I was rather amused on Saturday when the lady who won 3 prizes for the roses told me that she had just gone out into her garden in the morning, had a little mooch about and chosen a few specimens, cut them, and won.  I bet the runners up weren't so thrilled!  I wasn't overly impressed with her roses either but loved the kitten faces of the pansies.

I don't think there had been any sabotage going on with the vegetable exhibits and Miss Marple need not concern herself too much.  There weren't any giant steriod-laden marrows, although there was a whopping great cabbage and these leeks which you could feed a family of four on for a weekend!

I love the white cloth the exhibits always sit on.  Probably a sheet, lovingly ironed by someone! These little sweeties won favour with the judges.

There were other classes in the show - knitted hat and mittens, photography (I might give that a go next year), flower arranging (might do that as well), houseplants (definitly won't be trying that, I don't like houseplants) and children's crafts.  It's all so British.  They express who we really are and the shows in village halls up and down the country offer a little annual snapshot of our way of life that hasn't evolved out of all recognition! It's still all so familiar and that's what I find reassuring!

There was just one little indicator in the whole show that gave me a slight sense of unease. Hopefully this rather large lemon, entered into the 'Fruit' category, was grown in a conservatory.  I do hope so.  Otherwise - did someone mention global warming?  

Hey ho!