Stock Gaylard lived up to expectation again!!

Long post coming up!! We've had a lovely time, very hard work but thoroughly enjoyable. As in previous years the rain continued off and on right up until about 7am on Saturday and then, miraculously the sun came out! There was the odd shower, but nothing compared to the last few days - how lucky is that?!

We were positioned under a gorgeous old oak tree at the top of the "Oak Avenue". We had access to electricity which made our lives so much more comfortable overnight having lighting and a working fridge, it meant that we slept very well and woke up refreshed for show day - setting up for any event is always hard labour.

Here's a few photos taken just as the show began.

 The view we had from Bernard's ramp across the central catering area.

Looking down the beautiful avenue of oak trees.

Here we are under that lovely old oak.

And this is what the central area looked like at lunchtime! You can see that there is blue sky but also that most people had come dressed for the unpredictable weather.

We were kept very busy and only managed to weave one chair seat all day, but it is great to be out of the workshop and talk to people about weaving and restoration. We also had a massive surprise, two of our friends from the craftsforum came to visit! Not only did they visit they came bearing fabulous gifts.......

Lunch!!!!! Wow, we never normally get the chance to eat at lunchtime, what a truly lovely, thoughful thing to do, so kind of them. We had a great time, lots of laughter and chatting, (hope you're reading this P & M!!). AND there was cake!

But the surprises didn't end there, a blogging friend of ours Leanne also came to visit and she too came bearing gifts - my favourite - blackcurrant jelly, home made! Fantastic. We met Leanne through blogger after the Stock Gaylard show two years ago, she writes a fascinating blog about her life in North Dorset and we arranged to meet up this year for a cuppa. She has written a lovely post here about her day out.

It was really lovely to see you Leanne!

We were kept so busy that we didn't get a chance to see much of the fair on the day, but we did see Mike Abbott before the show opened and had a chat about his new book, then we had a chat with Fabian and had a look at his most recent work, but we never did get to say hello to Martin Symes the wheelwright our friend of many years, but we shall probably see him at Frome Cheese Show in a couple of weeks time. Never mind.

A truly great day, a wonderful show organised so perfectly by the estate owners.

So that was Saturday. We were packed and had left the site by 6.30pm. We returned home exhausted but happy. Sunday and Monday might have been days off for most, but we had more things to do - another trip to the Cotswolds to continue the saga of emptying Mother in Law's home......more of that when I've recovered from this weekends jaunts!!