HIPPO HEAVEN -WASHROOM LINGUISTICS-FORECASTING FLOWERS

On Wednesday 15th July: Out with the local walk for health group, we walked at a reasonable pace - not too fast - for about three miles around the town.  The walkers always finish with a sociable get-together with hospitality provided by one of the local churches.  If you need to use a toilet, there are new, well maintained public ones almost next door to the church.

You don't expect to end up speaking French, a bit of German and Spanish,  do you, to a Canadian visitor in the washroom.  But there you go, that's what happened... Scout motto 'Be Prepared'!

Hasta La Vista!

On the 17th July, nearly all my Livingston Daisies were  wide open to the bright skies.  It is the very first time this summer season I have seen them openly smiling. It was one of our rare bright and mild days and that's what probably clinched it for them.  They knew it was safe to open up.

A cheerful sight

The County Agricultural show ground had been approved for use for Saturday 18th July, it was already sodden under neath a thin top crust... Most days in the week it had rained and sometimes it was torrential.  There was nowhere else that all the booked visiting traders, large agricultural machinery salespeople, woodland model makers, (very large models), the wood pulping, cutting, pellet-making machine demonstrations and other similar demonstrators could be catered for.  As we drove towards the show, we passed a lot of animal show traffic going the opposite way and earlier than usual. It was telling us something.

A Claggy Mire 

What a squidging, squelching, claggy mire confronted us. Wellies, knee high ones, were definitely the order of the day. Footwear departments and shoe shops sold out of their rubber boots stocks, which tells you how prepared show visitors had to be. In an instant my old boots were gunged up with mud that you sank in.  It was  hippopotamus  heaven.

Gingerly Stepping In

A Humungous Squelch

You had to be made of stern stuff to squelch through this.  It got tiring lifting feet held firmly by waves of mud. You could feel the pull on the boots.  This was no place for any kind of shoes.

DEFINITELY NO PLACE FOR THIS

A specialist mobile coffee seller goes to the shows: paying to go in to the ground just to have a wonderful cup of coffee is saying a lot, but it was soooo good.  However, it was such hard going underfoot, very tiring pulling up feet and legs out of the sucking mire, you just could not move at any speed.  When I eventually returned to the coffee van for another cuppa, it was shutting up shop....Shame, but that’s life.

SHOW-GOERS COFFEE TREAT

This picture was taken a couple of years ago on a perfect show day.  We do get them sometimes.    :)

All the pictures can be enlarged with a click or two.