My 1st Mid-Somerset Show Experience

Sunday 21st August 2016

What a day for an agricultural show! This year marked the 164th year and it certainly was a busy one!

The show was running from 9am till 6pm, I was up early enough at 7.15 but as I wanted my husband to join me I let him sleep in and we didn't head off until 11am.

We decked ourselves out in wellies and waterproof coats in case the weather was a bit naff. To be honest it wasn't so bad. It was a bit drizzly and windy at first and during the Equestrian Heavy Horse judging it cleared up slightly. The horses were stunning and magnificent beyond belief.

After a while we made our way round the vast amount of stalls and local businesses. We ended up at the Brother's Drinks company and tried a blend of cider called Toffee Apple cider. It was so sweet and went down very easily!

It was a very busy lunch time so we headed over to another field section known as the Vintage field. It was filled with vintage and older generation engines and vehicles mostly.

Absolutely love the colours on this engine and very well and simplistically decorated.

This is a Millars Cement Mixer fitted with a Powell 1 1/2 HP petrol engine 1925 exhibited by Graham Trott Taunton

And of course Somerset's key vehicle through the years... the trustworthy tractor!

Once we had a nice look through all of this we then went through to where the good stuff was... the Arts and Crafts and Food Marquees! There was some fantastic creations which were all made earlier in the morning during some classes and they were then judged on their efforts. These ranged from children's classes to adult classes and some of them were beautiful.

This community clearly has some extremely talented individuals!

The detail on this teapot is right up my street!

The detail on the cups was even better and more colourful!

A stunning floral decorative display which won 1st prize by Mrs Ann Smith in the Split Level Arrangement Class

In homage of the Queen's birthday this year this beautiful piece won 1st prize by Mrs Sylvia Ingham in the Congratulations Your Majesty class

In the food marquee we were bewildered with the amount of cheese that was displayed and judged!

We also came to this local Devon business called Flapjackery and it looked and smelled amazing, it tasted pretty great too.

It was getting late so I picked up some naughty lunch of chicken nugget and chips to eat while we watched a falconry and gun dog show.

Most beautiful 8 week old English Springer Spaniel puppy I've ever seen, extremely smart and obedient and made me exclaim "aww" an awful lot!

 Finally my hubby was getting tired and ended up heading home but I wanted to explore a bit more until 5pm. So I wandered around for an hour and came across some show jumping, gorgeous fudge and a lovely gentleman from the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Quite happy with my photography skills taking these shots and the riders were brilliant.

The stall I brought some homemade fudge from.

The mouth watering pieces of fudge included the flavours; clotted cream, vanilla, butter tablet, caramel and Oreo cookie... *drooling*

This was the stand set up and I spoke to Steve. A lovely bloke and I hope to maybe work or volunteer for this trust in the future.

So all in all it was a fantastic day, thankfully the weather got better but I'm glad to have attended my first country/agriculture show in such a lovely town. I'm sure I'll be going many times in the years to come. However, it is sad to me that they will be moving it into a new field area as the area used this year (and probably many previous years) will be turned into 500 homes. The planning is in place but they are still waiting for public opinion to be voiced and see the results.

Stay posted for another post later this week which will be about our trip to the smallest city of Wells.

Until the next post, take care and be happy!

Christine x

Slowing sinking into Somerset life

Another month gone but I'm back sooner than expected!

We're finally in the beautiful countryside town of Shepton Mallet in Somerset! Hooray!

The moving part was so stressful though. No matter how much planning you do, no matter how prepared you think you are there is always something that pulls that confidence away on the day. Things get tense, time based and worries fly.

Moving day was Tuesday August 2nd. We were up early at about 6am and finished up last minute packing which was stressful in itself. We spent ALL of the day before just packing things in boxes, pulling down furniture and trying to get objects in as many small areas as possible to make it easier to get into the van in as little time as possible. But even doing that we had 3 areas of stuff to move.

Our van driver popped round at 8 and then we went to the Choice Vehicle Rental in Spindle Way, Crawley. http://www.choicevehiclerentals.com/ I highly recommend them if you are based in Sussex, they have branches all over and were one of the cheapest rental companies around in my opinion. The team that dealt with my queries via email and at the branch were friendly, professional and very helpful.


We were there by 8.45 and picked up our van which we decided on a FORD TRANSIT 350 LWB EX LUTON.

Image taken from http://www.choicevehiclerentals.com/vehicles/bj57-azx-ford-lwb-tailift

It was really reasonably priced at £66.50 per day with a £100 deposit on top. We filled out the forms on arrival and it was a quick and easy process with a reasonable £5 charge to get the drivers details checked with the DVLA as we hadn't had time to print off the driver check form ourselves. We only had a 5 min drive to the flat and we began packing everything from about 9.10. It was hard to keep everyone motivated so we weren't getting through the loading as quickly as we'd liked. I was on van watch duty as it had to be parked a bit further back and you can never be too sure if a random stranger would do the dirty and take something! We had to get things moving so firm words were had and we were finally packed by 12. The rain didn't exactly help the mood either. But we left by about 12.30 and were thankfully traffic free all the way there. 

We arrived by 3.30 and unpacked which funnily enough only took... 1 hour. That's versus the 3 hours it took to pack the damn thing! To be fair it was much like Tetris when loading it up. We had some lunch courtesy of Rob's Mum and I had a quick unpack/ sort out for an hour before I drove back to Crawley with our van driver.

You may be wondering why I drove back to Crawley. Well, we had to not only drop the van off but the next day I'd made myself available to the landlord to have our out inventory done and I wanted to carpet clean that evening and then fully clean the flat Wednesday morning before they came out. I know I must be mad, but I wanted to leave it in a good condition. Our landlord has been really good to us and I wanted to make sure we get all of our deposit back as it was quite a hefty amount.

On the way back to Crawley we took a detour to Glastonbury accidently but it was nice to pop down the high street and see the uniqueness of the town. But that meant I was mentally realising I was behind my schedule. So I got a bit stressed. We were back in Crawley by 8.20, but I was planning to be back at 8. I hurriedly rushed to Asda to pick up a Rug Doctor which I booked online at £23 for a 24 hour period. Luckily I was able to wheel it round to the flat as it was quite heavy and I don't drive. I then rushed to clean the bedroom and living room carpet before 10pm as I was aware it's very loud and didn't want any complaints. I just about managed it and was sweating like a pig! I then got a lift from my Step Mum in law and stayed round her house for the evening. I had a well needed shower and was treated to a hot chocolate which made me very sleepy. I was asleep by midnight and tried to wake up at 6- not gonna happen! I eventually woke up at 6.30, had some breakfast and was back at the flat by 8.45. I had a VERY DEEP CLEAN of the entire flat. Skirting boards, floors, walls, every little detail. It took me 4 hours. I then had a spare 30 mins to do a final top up of the electric, take the rug doctor back and buy some lunch to have before the landlord arrived at 2.30.

All was well and good, they were happy with everything so we signed the documents and I then left the flat for good. It was a bit of a sad moment. But I then had a few last minute errands. I tried to go to Choices to hand in the return of deposit information documents as I'd had them all printed to then be told no you have to email them to customer services. So that was frustrating as I had to get everything scanned and then put into a email. I finally had to go back to Choice Veichle Rental to get the deposit back. We only lost a few quid because of our accidental detour to Glastonbury but I was glad to get it back. I only sat down to have a coffee and chat with my father in law and step mum in law for 20 mins before I then had to go and get the train to Shepton!

I was on the 16:44, changed at Gatwick and then Reading, got off at Castle Cary and had a taxi taking 20 mins before I was finally in Shepton Mallet. I was wrecked and exhausted by this point so had a drink and then went to bed!

We've been here for almost 2 weeks now and just about settling in. Rob has picked up agency based temp work which is a start and I've been applying for jobs when they've been popping up. But as Shepton Mallet is such a small town, jobs are few and far between. But once something pops up and we have money to learn to drive then we will have more options open to us to be able to find something further out if we need to. Public transport here is quite minimal so the need to drive in Somerset is a must. One step at a time though! I've been keeping myself busy with housework and exploring the village.

I will be trying to blog more regularly though so keep an eye out for my next blog which will be a factual and personal exploration blog post on the town of Shepton Mallet. So if you want to know more then come back for more within the next week! Finally if you want me to cover anything or if you have any questions please comment and I will do my best to reply!

Sending love and positivity your way. Have a good week!

Christine xx