We attended the Longstock Plant and Gift Fair near Stockbridge, Hampshire. Set in the magnificent grounds originally owned by the eponymous John Lewis we had a great day. The sun shone and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Our day started with a wrestling match against an old style gazebo. Nick and I managed to win although the gazebo had some good moves.
The Longstock Plant and Gift Fair (now in its seventh year I think) is very popular for plant buyers and local nurseries provide a lot of the colour. Our neighbour at the event has a half acre nursery (that is small) and attends 50 Fairs a year!) A band played what seemed like an 8 hour set of popular ballads and the queue for hog roast never seemed to get any shorter.
The event was really well organised and is a great day out. There is an excellent café run by Waitrose and a Farm Shop. The Water Gardens are worth a visit tho we didn’t make it there so busy were we describing the life cycle of solitary bees.
We met a lot of lovely people a good number of whom bought Beepalaces (Dark Green was the favourite colour) and even more were quite gushing about the attractiveness of the design – all very encouraging. 
Here are some pics of the day.
Our next big day out is at the Weald and Down Museum near Goodwood on the 11th and 12th October.
