Hobby Horse

Can't resist a country show, especially the one in Longtown, just over the English border. Our London friends, Sarah-Jane & Jonathan, adored everything, from the prize for the Best Presented Bale of Hay or the finest home-made hobby-horse to the sack races for 4 year olds & ofc the ice-cream cones (Rowlestones, yum).

I loved meeting the lynch-pins of the Longtown Historical Society, who showed me the coins they've found over the years: I like the Saxon ones best, purely because I've been listening to a great podcast (Fools' Gold) about the Herefordshire Hoard. My new friends knew or had dealt with many of the characters - including the villains - & described metal-detecting as "land-fishing". I clearly have to watch The Detectorists now...

On to Abbey Dore, a glorious Cistercian abbey surrounded by orchards, where we marvelled at the apple crop and the calm clear soaring space of the 12th century transept.

And then home to feast on slow-cooked shoulder of lamb & hedgerow pie - mulberry & fig - with visiting-from-Brooklyn younger brother & sister in law. Brother, just possibly being provocative, said he moved to the US aged 17 & never regretted it because Britain was & is "too provincial".

I choked & was speechless, but recovered enough to laugh.