Wrest Park - St George's Day Festival

Wrest Park

Today we went to the St George's Day Festival at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire. It is probably something we wouldn't have normally done (because we have done a few of this type of thing before), but as I had won a family ticket we thought it would make a nice few hours out. And as the weather was so lovely, we were right.

St George and the crowd

There was a variety of things to see and do and lots of displays in several arenas and of course the main one was featuring the man himself, St George. We had a wander around some of the craft stalls, which always seem to be at theses events. Although there were one or two which were a little bit different, the one selling 'magic' or pagan type items, the one with the interesting looking Green Man and Herne figurines and the one selling a variety of weaponry, which was Jamie's favourite. I particularly liked the crystal/gemstone stall, the men who ran it were very knowledgeable and keen to share their knowledge. There were a couple of very appealing items, that I will be bearing in mind for future flower arranging plans.

There were plenty of people around to enjoy the day. There was such a lot to see with falconry, jousting, archery, equestrian displays amongst them. There was also a large living history display and the people who do those are always so knowledgeable that we all learnt about something we didn't know. We had a long chat to a lady cooking the medieval way and looking at her gorgeous ferrets, Stella and Mavis! and listening to soldiers from the Middlesex Regiment circa 1880 talking about their lifestyle and kits.

Medieval Fighting Display and Stella and Mavis

On the way home, we stopped for a spot of Sunday lunch and found a pub in Ridgmont. The Rose and Crown on the High Street. It did a very nice roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and stacks of lovely vegetables and the landlord, and his staff were incredibly friendly, a very enjoyable meal and a good find. We all had roast beef for mains, but Jamie had chocolate fudge cake, Mike had Eve's pudding and I had summer fruit pudding, for deserts all of which were lovely. I sort of let the side down because I decided I wanted a Guinness shandy (which you don't ask for in Ireland!) but asked for 1/2 pint of lemonade, 1/2 pint of Guinness and a pint glass and lovely it was too! After we had our meal we sat in the sunshine in the beer garden for a little while and Jamie played in the play area, so a very enjoyable time was had by all.

Jamie having a go at archery and in the beer garden

As we had made a nice early start we got back in time, for Jamie to go out on his bike and he was joined by Kian, I put some plants out into the front garden and Mike did a couple of maintenance jobs in the bathroom. I have now started to put in some plants which are going to be of use in flower arranging and today added chyosia, formium, ceanothus for flower arranging and honeysuckle to smell nice. I also started to add a few bedding plants and now I need to keep them all alive! That is the really hard part.

Mike has popped off to The Stables to see Katie Buckhaven, who he has seen before and Jamie and I caught up on Saturday evening's Robin Hood, so nice to see Guy of Gisborne back again!