~of agricultural shows & an anniversary of sorts~

this week is a big week, eventwise, here in the new forest for we have the annual three day new forest show. held just about half a mile away from the village at new park manor which in 1666 was charles I favourite hunting lodge.

it is a huge event over three days with crafts, vintage farm machinery, last year a steam driven apple press was dishing out apple juice, animals of all shape and size,horse shows, wood chopping, all kinds of displays...the list is endless. this year they are doing a celebration of the land girls, with any old land girls being given the freedom of the show.

this year they are expecting up to 90,000 people to visit.
when i was small i dont think they had enough fields to use as carparks and i always remember the chaos of people parking almost right the way through the village and walking there, and my dad always dreading it, for as the village policeman he had to get out and keep the traffic moving instead of enjoying the show. he hated it!

i think there are only one or two years i have missed it over the space of 37 years or so and its a great experience.we always go on the wednesday and as usual this year i am packing a picnic to take with us~we always make sure the deckchairs and camping table is in the camper and we open up the back doors and have a nice picnic and cup of tea before going back into the showground, usually with a few people stopping to ask us about 'pippin'.

we also have an anniversary of sorts this week, for on friday we will have been in our forever home for a whole year!last year as we were coming over for the show two days before picking up our keys mum was kind enough to let us store a van load of boxes in her front room...




this is billy on guard duty...



driving through the forest to get to the car park...



soon this will be full of cars~we were there for 8.30!



wolf?















picnic time and cody was exhausted...







a wild flower meadow grown for the show~the seeds we bought there are the flowers we now have in our garden