It wasn't all eating!

time for coffee - and the most enormous coffee eclair

When you are tired, cold and have been working 'on the job' non-stop for four days, a little time off is perhaps deserved. Ours came unexpectedly after Malvern, for our motorhome was booked in for a service in Ludlow. Rather than travel back over the River Severn, and on eastwards to our home in the Cotswolds, and then take the three hour journey north west to Ludlow the very next morning, we drove straight from the Showground to the little campsite we had found on an earlier visit; that took us only just over an hour and we had Sunday afternoon to relax, after having had a delicious lunch in the Conservatory Barn Cafe at the Ludlow Food Centre.

goat's cheese quiche laced with spinach, and a delicious salad

That (lunch, and food shopping) was my treat to Raymond for struggling in the cold and rain of Malvern to take all the photos I needed (he took around 500) for the articles that were to follow, the first of which is already dispatched. I write the second today.

Up bright and early therefore on the Monday, we had delivered the motorhome by 8.30am, caught a bus into the town centre and were enjoying breakfast in the sandwich bar / cafe that we had also discovered on a previous visit. Then we had the morning to kill, so to the museum to escape the chilly wind; to a bookshop-cum-artshop for supplies; to my favourite little shop for unusual paper napkins for art-journaling; and to the market for the fabric stall that always sells bargains. This time, I found furnishing fabric for book covers and a roll of tartan voile for only £5.00! (So all my fabric book covers are likely to be lined with this for quite a while.) We had collected the van by 3.00pm and were home by 6.00, feeling remarkably relaxed and rested, driving through such loveliness as to make the heart truly sing.

Malvern Day Three

eating is just as important as buying seeds and gardening sundries

Another 'Goodwood' moment: long-term readers of this, my 'wild' blog, may recall our visits to Goodwood to prepare features on the estate's farm and its produce. So it was with some surprise - and delight - when wandering around the Malvern Show this morning that we spotted the livery of the Goodwood Burger Bar.

not Goodwood - but MALVERN

Essential that we sampled what I had previously written about, so a burger - which I normally do not like - it had to be for lunch. Even the baps were delicious, and as for the succulent beef, reared in the pastures on rolling downland near the Sussex coast, well that was truly something. Fueled with the comfort of food inside me, we are ready for a further foray around the shopping area of the showground. It's still cold, and still raining - yet our spirits are as high as ever. I'll post again this evening, my gardening news for the third day, once more on my new gardening blog. (And 'hello' to Rosie - 'a rambling rose' - who has asked me to say 'hello' to Malvern for her; the town where she grew up. Rosie, the rain is sweeping in from the north, with low cloud brushing the hilltops as I write; it's still quite beautiful and awe-inspiring.)

Malvern Day Two

Day two of the Malvern Spring Gardening Show - I had to take this photo of the backdrop of the hills (always theatrical), the visitors without which the Show would not exist, and one of the show gardens peeking through those walking past (spot the Morgan car in the background, who sponsored this garden - Morgan cars are manufactured in Great Malvern)

It's been a cold, wet and shivery day - unless you kept moving, which is not difficult if the stalls you want to visit are at opposite ends of the showground. I've managed to obtain continuous WiFi coverage and thus can post in a less frenetic fashion. What is difficult to do, is to provide all the links I would like to do as they lodge in my office back at home. (But it is an enormous thrill to be able to have internet access in the middle of a grass field, with the hills ahead of me - the motorhome cab makes a perfect studio.)

Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) arriving at the Malvern Showground today

It is the 25th anniversary of the Malvern Spring Gardening Show - and back in 1986, Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, opened the original permanent buildings. And today she came back. I've been on other press-calls when HRH was guest at some particular launch and was impressed at the time she gave to everyone she met. She is incredibly hard-working, and on this occasion (today) walked around the show-ground for nearly two hours (it was all very informal, though clearly well-managed), before driving herself to whatever was her next engagement. But I digress, this is a post about a 'garden show' and so, if you wish to continue, please click the link to my new gardening blog.

Malvern Spring Show

the Malvern Hills (just a part of the chain) on a brighter day than it is today

We're back here in the lee of the beautiful hills - I'm sitting in the cab of the motor-home as I type this, and hoping that my one-hour WiFi token will allow me to post what I write. It's been a really hectic two days (one on the final set-up day, and then today which is Day One of the Show).

A delightful spot in designer Deb's garden - I need to check her details and will put link to them when I am not against the clock for internet time

I will now try to post this, and if it works, will write a 'day one' report on my new gardening blog (and thankyou to those who have already posted a comment on that.)

I must be mad !

I should be packing for Malvern; I should be putting the final touches to a couple of magazine features; I should be cooking the lunch - and what do I do? I create a new blog !!!! When do I think I will find the time; what prompts these spur-of-the-moment actions; whatever possessed me?

Well it's done, or at least begun. Rushed and not yet tweaked or pruned; but like planting a seed, it will grow if cared for and nurtured. I thrive on challenges and hope you will share this, my latest adventure.