Today brought the last show of the year and with it a wonderful sunny day.

“I always feel that the whole of the year has been building to this show and the chance to show off what you grew or bred”, I said to Martin as we stood under a blue sky watching the cattle being judged.

We’d agreed last year to come here alone, the day’s too long for the kids and we needed a day for us where we could wander slowly, drink a few beers and eat too much from the stalls and that’s what we did. Sausages, Simmental beef, cider and Guinness all kept us from hunger and thirst throughout the day.

We watched the show jumping, tried out new cars and took the time to talk to anyone who wanted to sell to us. Most amazing was the man from Happy Tortoise Trading who had two new teak loungers on display for the public to comment on. Tired and jet lagged from his trip in from Bali he admitted that the selling was what he liked least about the job and judging by the finished product he was clearly very good at the design and the production. “See that piece of furniture at the back?”, he asked me. “That’s the last piece of new teak I said I would buy, all of this is made from reclaimed wood”. Talking to him I was amazed at his lifestyle. Splitting his time between Bali and France his next job would take him to Switzerland. It makes my trips to office seem very banal.

As the crowds drifted away, following the hot air balloons towards the motorway, we sat and watched the display by the Kings Troop and then the ceremony of sunset. The flags were lowered and the band marched off.

It seems the end of another year. Next there’s the moments after the harvest as the countryside seems to take a breath and then the onset of Autumn. Let’s hope that it’s a slow and gradual thing and not the cavalry charge we saw today.