Gateshead Summer Flower Show

Even though we've had a lot of rain lately, there have been a few sunny spells inbetween the showers. Some of the bedding plants are looking quite bedraggled, but there are a lot of plants still flowering well, showing off their colours in the summer sunshine.

The Met Office have now said that it doesn't look as if we're going to get the BBQ summer that they predicted for us in May. The heatwave lasted for about a week here, and we've had showers and sunny spells since then. Ho hum, the great British summer. As a gardener I do appreciate the rain though, I just wish we didn't have so much of it all at once. I can cope with two days of rain if it's sandwiched around a day of lovely sunshine!

I'm hoping that the weather will be dry and sunny on Saturday as I'm off to the Gateshead Summer Flower Show with my mam and sister. We all love gardening so it's a great day out and a chance to spend some quality time together. The family gardening gene has missed my brother out though! He's a very creative person in other ways (working with wood and doing lots of DIY projects amongst other things) but he sees gardening as a real chore and would rather pave it all. He does appreciate a pretty garden though!

Back to the show - as well as the plants, garden furniture, sculptures, etc. for sale at the show, there's nursery and plant association displays, a huge floral art competition, a farmers' market, and a big craft marquee too. It's fab! I try to save my pennies for the show because there's some great stuff to buy - I usually start my Christmas shopping in the craft marquee! I'll definitely be taking my camera, so hopefully I'll post some images of the show over the weekend.

It's £7.00 to get in, which is a bargain really as it is a full day out, and there's so much to be inspired by. However, if you put an entry into one of the Amateur Exhibit classes you get a free ticket! It costs £1.00 to enter up to five classes and you could win a prize in each. There are 375 classes to choose from, ranging from 'a bowl of sweet peas to be viewed all round', to a 'basket of vegetables arranged for effect', to '2 jars of light honey' and many more. So whatever your talent, there's a chance for everyone to exhibit something handmade or homegrown.

I'm entering one of the handicraft classes with this crocheted bag that I made a couple of months ago. The design was in Simply Knitting magazine, issue 55 (June 09). The colours used in the magazine were very rich and vibrant, but I was making this bag for our holiday in Cornwall so I decided to go with creamy, icecream shades. I'm really happy with the way it turned out as it was my first real crochet project - and now I just can't stop hooking!