Royal Cornwall Show

I've just spent two days at the Royal Cornwall Show. It's a long time since I've been to a show of this sort, and the first time I've been involved in running a stall there. The weather was pretty good; it was cold, apparently, on the Thursday when I wasn't there, but it got sunnier and sunnier and hotter and hotter over the Friday and Saturday, although there was quite a strong wind all the time. At least it didn't rain, which was a bonus.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We weren't there primarily to sell stuff, although we did sell a fair bit, but mostly as a public relations exercise, talking to current members, trying to get people interested in joining our society, generally doing some fun stuff (play giant connect 4, test your dog's IQ, quizzes etc) and showing people we're human. I think it worked on all those levels.

One plus (perhaps) is that I have had to get up a lot earlier than usual in order to walk the dog, etc and take a 40 mile slow drive to arrive for opening time. In consequence, I have seen the sparrow breakfast feeding frenzy close up. My two seed feeders are now being refilled to the brim each morning and are empty by the next morning. Still no takers for the peanuts, though - apart from the sparrows, the bird count for the garden is now blackbirds (at least two), a magpie, a couple of woodpigeons and an occasional herring gull.