Last week I had a little trip out to the Gardeners World Live in Birmingham. The weather had been pretty awful all week with torrential rain and gales a plenty. I lived in hope that by Friday the sun would have his hat back on. I have to say it tried but didn't all together succeed but that didn't stop me having an amazing time.
I hadn't been to the show in a couple of years so I was looking forward to seeing all the beautiful gardens and the displays within the floral marquee
One of the things I like about this show is that when you go through the entrance you are handed a free yes I did say free programme which contains lots of useful information not least two detailed maps. One for Gardeners World Live so you can find your way around all the gardens and stalls but also one for the Good Food show which happens to be on at the same time and one ticket gains you entry to both which to me is a fantastic bargain.
I have to say we were a little overwhelmed at just how much there was to see and we couldn't decide where to go first. As it was drizzling with rain we decided to head to the floral marquee and within minutes we were already mentally spending lots of pennies. By the time we had finished in there having not yet bought any plants, keeping our powder dry as my dad would of said, we ventured off to try and find the gardens.
This veg patch was part of one of the display gardens but it just reminded me of my little nan who came from the north east and was a no messing kind of lady and definitely didn't suffer fools gladly. She had two green houses and a veg patch just like this one but hers also had a chicken coop. It was definitely an alien thing to us to buy veg from the greengrocers and she had numerous fruit trees and bushes around the garden. I think this is probably where I get my seasonal foodiness from.
Making our way to the gardens we also spotted a bit of yarn bombing going on in this display and at one point later in the day there was a lady sat at a table crocheting away.
We came across the beautiful MS Society garden designed by Mike Baldwin and the young people of Derby College. Although it looks pretty empty I can assure you it was chocker block with people I just happened to get a reasonable shot with my camera but you can find out more information about this garden here.
Working within a Children's & Young Persons' Cancer service I knew I had to go and find the garden The Children with Cancer UK Humanity Garden designed by Ben Stubbs. The bell is very significant to children and young people with cancer as every child and young person who undergoes cancer treatment gets to ring the bell when they have completed their last chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment. You can find out more about this background to this garden here.
So this is just a snap shot of the gardens we saw there were just so many gardens and plants that I took photographs of but this would turn into a very long post if I were to show them all to you. If you didn't catch it on Friday night Gardeners World came from the show, probably filmed on the Thursday to give them time to get it ready to air on the Friday, but it was a really good representation of what was there and they went behind the scenes of some of the growers who were exhibiting at the show and I would say it was definitely worth an hour of your time to watch it on BBC iplayer if you missed it.
We did venture into the food show where there were lots of foodie goodness to sample and purchase especially if you like gin. It seemed to be wall to wall gin and lots for you to sample. Unfortunately I am not a gin drinker but I did try lots of other things and did enjoy a nice ice cream instead. Needless to say I didn't go home empty handed.
Now whilst I didn't get to bump into Monty in the tea tent I did catch a brief glimpse when he was finishing off one of his Q & A sessions and whilst I'd like to tell you he spotted me in the crowd and this is him letting me know he's seen me that would of course be a big fat lie........
If any of you are interest this is the link to the show programme which contains several free recipes by all the celebrity chefs who were in attendance over the four days as well as all the information on the gardens and exhibitors at both the Gardeners World Live and the Good Food Show.
My last photograph is part of the Macmillan Garden and I loved the saying. In case you can't see what it says, it says
To plant a garden
is to believe in tomorrow
and I suppose for many people going through any sort of treatment at the moment you have to believe this to get through each day.
Mx
Beautiful! We love watching any garden programmes on the TV, though we haven't been to a garden show since John won tickets to Southport Flower Show waaaayy back in 2012 ( my dad looked after Harlow for the day ) Now we don't have a dog and could do these things, somehow we just don't. Best, Jane x
ReplyDeleteD's not really a gardener he tends to either get into trouble(by me) for doing something without checking and then I get cross or waits to be directed as to what needs doing. I tend to go to these things with a good friend of mine who has the same interests as me so that's always a help isn't it. We also have three dogs so leaving them for a whole day doesn't sit well with me so we take it in turns if we want to do something that takes that amount of time unless we can take them with us. There are times when you think if only we had the time and when you do get around to having the time you just can't be bothered. I'm sure you'll get into doing things again one day soon.
DeleteMx
Mx
That looks like it was a good day out, I love the vegetable garden.
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving me a comment on my last blog post and I want to say thank you too for not suggesting my mood might be weather related. I love that you have given your feelings a name, perhaps I should do the same and trust that it will soon pass. x
My ex MIL used to say that I just needed a good tonic, god only knows where she got that from. There is nothing worse than someone trying to tell you a. how you're feeling because sometimes we can't explain ourselves so how's anyone else suppose to know. b. that you just need to pull yourself together.
DeleteMy mum used to say it was the black dog on her shoulder, which I think is what Churchill used to call his melancholy moments but I preferred Evil Edna who I think was a character in a children's cartoon :-) whatever way you choose to deal with your mood or feelings is entirely up to you but maybe giving it a name may well help.. I quite like being able to tell Evil Edna to sod off once in a while. She's not with me every waking moment of every day, sometimes she likes to sneak up on me when I least expect it. The main thing is that if she's around one day she may not be the next. I've come to accept that I can't make her go away forever but there are times on a stronger day when I can shut her in the drawer and turn the key. Just take each day as it comes and don't bottle up your feelings. I also chose to call her Evil Edna because I need to have a signal between myself and my partner that meant he knew I wasn't having a good day but also meant the children didn't know I wasn't having a good day. These days they would say they knew I got anxious about things and once told me that if I didn't have anything to worry or feel anxious about then I would feel worried or anxious that I didn't have anything to feel anxious or worried about. And they were probably right about that too. Thankfully Edna doesn't come to visit very often these days and I can usually keep her under control when she does which makes me feel a whole lot better as I don't like being out of control....
Hope all this helps in some way and pop by here anytime you like.
Mx
I'm glad you had a lovely time. I haven't been to the show for quite a few years now but it's such a good day out. We didn't get to meet Monty either but we did meet Joe Swift. I always enjoy seeing the vegetable gardens at these type of shows, my grandparents kept an allotment with chickens too, they never bought veg either and always ate from their garden.
ReplyDeleteMy old neighbours still grew all their own and would give us some of their over spill which was lovely. I had a go at grow your own about 15 years ago and a few bits grew but I don’t really have the time at the moment.
DeleteMx
Mum & Dad never bought veg or fruit except a few bananas and some citrus fruit at Christmas. Everything else came off the home land. With all the hard work that entailed too. Happy days. x
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother was renound for her plants. She took cuttings of everything and planted from seed. She used to have a stall at our school fete every year until she died.
DeleteMx
Sounds like you had a really fab day out. My daughter and I sometimes go to The Good Food Show in Birmingham. It's great, but fattening,, at least you don't eat the plants!
ReplyDeleteWe did Eloise. I didn't think the Foodie bit was as good as previously. It seemed to be wall to wall gin and I'm not a gin drinker and had to drive home. There was some sampling of food that took place and some cakes were purchased to take home. I did buy one or two plants which are now happily in their new homes in the garden.
DeleteMx
Thank you for giving a little tour round of your day at the show and pointing out what interested you. It's nice that you got to visit 2 shows in one ticket and had a free programme. I always felt miffed when visiting the theatre and feeling obliged to buy the programme, especially if you knew people in it and liked to know all about the performance. I know these places are raising money but... Cathy x
ReplyDeleteI think its the variation in price too. Some time ago now I went to see Cirque du Soleil Amaluna and for £20 you got a bag, a programme and a CD of the music played in the performance which I thought was really good value. I went to another Cirque du Soleil Valkeri I think and that was £20 for the brochure alone. It was two different venues but I think the promoters were the same so I couldn't understand that logic. I've kept the GWL/GFS ones as they contain plant advice and tips on getting the most out of your garden as well as free recipes by the Chefs in attendance which I think is great value especially as its included in the price of the ticket which I thought was also reasonable for the show. I do like to feel I've had a bargain....
DeleteMx