I think the reason that this day meant so much to me was because it was something that I'd been planning to do before my operation (you must know about my op by now, but if not, look here) but wasn't quite sure beforehand if I'd be well enough to do so, therefore being there and having quite such a wonderful day really meant a lot.
When we first got there, it all started with a wonderful walk along the river from the show parking. Shrewsbury is a beautiful town surrounded on almost all sides by the River Severn. I have written about it before as it's one of the towns close to my Uni and I love visiting there. We walked up and over to the other side of the river and down to Quarry Gardens, a beautiful gardens on which the flower show is held every year.
We started off in the Quarry Marquee. This was the marquee where professional companies and exhibitors show their works and my gosh it was fantastic. The standard was phenomenal and we spent so long looking at all the beautiful work people had created. Most of the work was tiered shelving full cut flower displays of the plants that people were exhibiting but in the middle of the marquee there were little show gardens that people had created. At each stand there was the fantastic displays of the cut flowers, which were all for sale at remarkable prices, but were all remarkably large, meaning we couldn't buy one as we had nowhere to put it. Next to this there was a stall for each person/ company where you were able to buy plants and seeds for your own garden. As our garden is potentially being quite drastically remodeled, Mummy and Daddy Bason didn't want to buy too much. We did however buy a new Passionflower to go in a pot outside our new front door that is being fitted soon. We bought a different type to the one we currently have out there and hope that with a bit of TLC the current one can thrive a bit more so the two of them can contrast nicely.
After this we decided to wander around the trade stalls. There were so many selling all manner of things, everything from the expected garden stalls to charities such as the RSPB, Wildlife Trust and The Guide Dog Association to clothes stalls, health stalls, insurance and finance and gifts, it was quite something. As well as these trade stands there was a large food hall and craft hall. We spent quite a bit of time in the craft hall and then proceeded to the food hall in search of lunch. The result of our search was rather tasty Cornish Pasties! We sat out on the grass to eat them and shortly afterwards the cookery display I was wanting to watch was starting so I went to take my seat.
I watched a fantastic display all about pudding! Julia from Toot Sweets in Shrewsbury was doing the display and made a wonderful looking Rose and Pistachio meringue layer cake and a chocolate bomb served with home made Ice Cream (I am planning on trying to make the home made Ice Cream tomorrow, there will be a blog about that and why I particularly made it tomorrow that will probably be written Tuesday). Julia is an award winning Chocolatier and I plan on visiting her stall in Shrewsbury Market Hall in the very near future. If you're local to Shropshire I suggest you do too! As I was coming back out of the marquee, Paul Hollywood of 'The Great British Bake Off' fame walked right past me. I wasn't too bothered about getting a book signed or seeing one of his displays, but it was a nice touch. Talking of famous people walking past me, shortly before this, Tim Stockdale (of Olympic Gold Winning Show Jumping fame) and his son had walked right in front of me too. It's the little things in life.
I went back to where my parents were sitting to find that my Aunt and her partner had joined them. We haven't seen her for a while now and didn't know they were going to be at the show, so that was a lovely surprise. Eventually we parted ways again and it was onto more trade stands and then to the Severn Marquee.
The Severn Marquee was the location for the Amateur Competitions. In here there were flower displaying competitions (as you would expect, with it being a Flower Show...) and they were truly wonderful. I loved everything that I saw, but I have to say it must have been a great year for growing Begonias that year as there 1) seemed to be more entries in this than anything else and 2) they were incredible! They're a beautiful plant anyway with big colourful flowers but not a single flower seemed to be blemished and I think it must have been just the right time of year and conditions for them. I was amazed. Not only was there a floral competition, but there was also a vegetable competition! I have no idea why, but I love vegetable competitions. I think they're fantastic and there's something rather British about them, the sense of achievement as you grow that perfectly straight carrot (or three if you want to show them) or marrow is something I have yet to achieve myself, but definitely aim to do in the future. I saw some of the longest carrots and parsnips, biggest leeks and most ginormous cabbages ever! The vegetable hampers were also a delight and the creations made out of veg were fab.
After this it was time for the Show Jumping. Mum and I knew it was a big competition and that a couple of the more famous show jumpers, such as Tim Stockdale had jumped there in the past, but in the end he, Geoff Billington and Steven, Joe and Ellen Whittaker were all there and it was a fabulous competition. 8 horses (7 riders) made it through to a jump off which proved to be an exciting one. All in all a good chunk of the afternoon was spent watching it, and sitting in the sun. A rather good way to spend an afternoon if you ask me.
Again after this we hit more of the trade stands and visited a family favourite 'The Yorkshire Clothing Company'. They trade at most of the big County/ Agricultural shows and Game Fairs and seeing that they were going to be there was fab, they sell a lot of Rydale clothing at fabulous prices and often have some brilliant end of line/ getting rid of stock bargains (did I ever tell you about my £20 tweed coat? No? Well it should have been £100 and I am very proud of that one). Yesterday I came away with a gorgeous new fleecy padded Gilet and a polo shirt for a grand total of £32. Hunting out bargains since 1992, I think you'll find.
We headed back to the Paella stall we had found earlier to grab some dinner and then back to the main arena (Well, Daddy Bason went back to the car for the second time to drop off our purchases, he's a good egg) for what was in our opinion the main event of the day. It was time for Bellowhead to perform. The stage was currently rather far away, at the opposite side of the arena, which was fenced off in an area big enough to accommodate a variety of things including a motor cycle display and the show jumping competition, you get the idea. But as they had informed us earlier in the day, the fencing was to be removed for Bellowhead's performance to allow us to stand right down at the stage and we were determined to be as close to the front as possible. By the time the fencing was removed Daddy Bason was back and once the fencing was gone, we literally ran down (along with a lot of other people, we're not the only crazy ones) to get to the front. We ended up in a kind of second row, and really that was fantastic for us.
If you live in the UK and haven't yet heard of Bellowhead, I'm half convinced you've lived under a rock for the past few years. On his show on Radio 2 on Friday Chris Evans described Bellowhead as 'The best band in the UK today and the best band I've ever seen live. Better than The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin and other great rock bands'. For my overseas friends, Chris Evans is the presenter of the most popular Breakfast Radio show in the country and Bellowhead, well, they are an 11 piece lively folk band who between them must play about 30 instruments. They are incredible and their live show is just something else. Last night was absolutely fab and the first time that I've seen them live. I am already looking to buy tickets for their show in November! Also, they dedicated one of their songs to me. Yes little me! There is a story behind it, to do with my heart stuff so if you'd like to find out (ooh, look at this little element of surprise for you!) you can head here to do so. In case you don't head over there, the links to the songs I put on there can be found here and here. 100% worth a listen. I can guarantee* you will like what you hear. *You cannot hold me to this on the slight off chance that you are disappointed.
Anyway, after an hour and half of singing, dancing, jumping up and down and attempting to join in with their traditional dancing (I wasn't great), I headed to the road running around the back of the stage to see if I could see any of them to say thank you. I was lucky enough to meet Benji (main instruments Banjo and Mandolin, I think) who was more than happy to talk to me for a bit, asked me how I was doing and told me I was looking great and that it was great to see I'd made it to the gig so soon after the op. He was also happy to let Mum take a picture of me with him and was genuinely a lovely lovely person. Thank you Benji!
Once we'd done this I was in need of a sit down! It was only 16 days after said op, after all! I was also really hungry again (ok, I admit, I'm a food lover and proud chubby) so we bought jacket potatoes and found a space on a bench. At this point the massed bands of... well lots of regiments who I can't quite remember were playing. They were brilliant and once we'd finished eating we went back onto the hill (the arena was back as a proper arena now and everyone had been sent back from the stage) to watch them. It all got quite patriotic at this point as they played Land of Hope and Glory and then were accompanied by local choir 'One Accord' in Rule Britannia and Jerusalem. I will admit, I got quite emotional when singing Jerusalem as it was the first time I'd sung it since singing it with The Tuesdays down in Kent. I miss you, The Tuesdays! They were then joined by Standard Bearers of the Royal British Legion and sung both the Welsh and English national anthems. I have to admit, standing on a hillside watching a Massed Band and Choir and having the few thousand strong crowd join in for the English National Anthem was quite special, it was getting dark and a taster of what was about to come started as the first fireworks were set off.
After the bands and choir had left the arena, the finale started. The Fireworks. What a show! They were put on by the company that did the fireworks for the London Olympics and they were magnificent. Set to music, thousands of eyes watched the sky glitter and sparkle for a full 15 minutes. Each time we thought it was the end, it started up again and by the time it got to the climax of the actual end the fireworks were absolutely spectacular. A very fitting end to a truly wonderful day. It really was the best day of my life, all of my favourite things, in one of my favourite towns plus the aforementioned dedication of a song by my favourite band. Perfection. I'm not ashamed to admit that at the end of such a perfect day, I cried, tears of pure happiness.
It's safe to say that I will be going back next year, it's so much more than just a flower show and next year, due to the sheer volume of things to do, I'm going to splash the cash and go for both days! If you feel like doing the same keep Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th of August 2014 clear in your diary.
I don't usually have my Facebook photo albums set to public, but I knew I wanted to be able to share the photos that I took with my blog readers as well as my Facebook friends so if you would like to have a look you can find them here. I hope you enjoy.
I told you this post was going to be a long one, so if you've made it this far, thank you! I hope that you've enjoyed it and at the very least haven't been bored to tears!
As always, if you're interested in my little life condensed into snippets of 140 characters, you can find me on Twitter, @Basonnn.
