The Bath and West show – 150 years of rural life

It’s no secret that we love country shows. The best shows are the ones where we indulge our dream of having a small holding someday, by leaning against the sheep pens and imagining where our sheep would live. How our pigs would fatten up in the orchard on the fallers. (Although we all thought that they would probably finish their days there too. We may be too soft to be pig farmers.)

More realistically, how we would gather honey and spend time in our polytunnels nurturing all the homegrown goodness. I could wear this outfit, right?

We’d make cider and apple juice. Ah, all the ideas ………..all the dreams.

Also the best shows are the sort of shows where you come home, not just laden with ideas and leaflets for one day courses, but blocks of stone ready for carving, seed packets for meadows and chicken arks. Okay, the last item is going to be delivered, but I did clutch hold of the receipt.

The Bath and West show is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary. Happy times.  I wonder how many people it has inspired during all those years.

Just one last photo, which I cannot resist including as it makes me smile. Taken in a moment when everyone else, was looking at the sudden excitment at the other end of the show ring. All their expressions are so perfect. They’re all watching two pigs that got away.