Lacock Tripping and a Blotanical First

Before I get going with the main thrust of this post, I want to say a BIG thank you to my fellow Blotanical buddies who've voted Tuesday's Feeling Flat post onto the Top Posts page. It's my first time to make it there, so I'm feeling pretty chuffed! Special thanks go to Sylvia (sadly blogless, so I can't link to her from here) who started the ball rolling by being the first to Pick and to Stuart who fixed the problem with the Post's title not showing up pretty sharpish. So I started out yesterday feeling good about life and no longer feeling flat - thanks guys :D


S, one of my SUP buddies insisted we do lunch this week to have general fun and catch up on GW Live gossip, so we fixed up to meet yesterday. I suggested Lacock as they have a flower and garden festival, but I managed to get us there the day after it finished. We still had a great time though, it just meant we had to neb (i.e. be nosy) over the garden walls and gates instead of actually going in there for a good old root around.


But first things first - where to have lunch? There are a number of pubs and a tea rooms to choose from. Guess why this pub had the edge over the others.

I almost regretted the decision as the landlord tried to serve the businessman who came to the bar after us. However, the businessman was a gentleman (he may have also noticed my snort and dirty look) and insisted that I was served first. Afterwards I had a chat with the landlord, who visibly warmed to me when I admitted to having an allotment in a nearby town. His is in the Abbey's walled garden - a location I've already said I covet. However, it's apparently not all it's cracked up to be - any disease which creeps in such as blight tends to stick around for a whole lot longer as the air within the garden doesn't move around so freely as the windswept patch we have up at Hardenhuish.

Although the garden festival was over, the flowers at St Cyriac's Church (the festival's opening venue) still looked sparkling and fresh and there was still plenty to be seen out on the streets and over the aforementioned gates and walls - even if I did have to jump up into the air to see over some of them!

A couple of cottages were still having plant sales - with a refreshing 'honesty box' style approach to payment.

Local businesses joined in too - the above picture is at Quintessentially English - note the eco-friendly plant pot. Below is a good card/present idea for gardeners I spotted at the Bakery. I wonder if Richard Briers does the commentary in the style of Tom Good?


An artist group from Bristol were also placed strategically around the village. Two of them hadn't realised for a while they were below this house martin nest. Most of the birds had fledged and were darting in and out and making a fine old racket. This little chap was a little more timid.

Whilst recounting my GW Live experiences, I let slip there'd been no sign of Mr Darcy in spite of my trolling his book around the show in the hope of a signature. Sadly we'd missed him by one day - hey, there's a theme developing here with this post! So we had to make do with looking wistfully at this card instead at the National Trust shop before making our way home.