"Sausages"

Watch out for Knutsford and Tatton Park in the global (well, UK then) media, as the circus of the grand Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show comes to town for a few days, starting as of the 24th July.

Related to this is my view of our local 'Wood's Butchers' taken on me and Mrs B's walk out tonight for dinner to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary as of the next day. Sadly, I am away on business for a week startingas of tomorrow, so this was our one and only chance to let our hair down (OK, well for Mrs B at least then!).

We left J at home with a 99p Aldi vegetable pizza. I did allow her the luxury of a small tin of extra anchovies and one of my cheap bottles of beer before you comment.

If you ever visit, you will see that the butchers have like many shops in town taken this RHS thing to heart and tried to express themselves through floral displays. A Floriade I think the Dutch might call it. It is quite endearing really, as I don't think this is any kind of formal town undertaking, but is just a thing that propagates annually shop-by-shop. Not sure you can fully make out the flowery string of sausages here, but I thought it a charming idea. Be nice to report we also then ate sausages at our anniversary meal in Knutsford Wine Bar that night, but sadly they didn't have any on the menu, and am not sure MrsB would have been impressed if they had.

The Knusford RHS Show is normally the prompt for all local residents to get their 'own house in order' horticulturally at least as the visitors arrive en-mass by car to gaze over gardens as they queue up for entry into the park. Me? Well am afraid my good intention to get the front Lavender and side hedge clipped was only half-achieved before heading away: The front Lavender has certainly been well-tendered and judiciously watered to make it totally lush; but that infernal holly hedge of ours remains the unkempt beast and nemesis that it always is at this time of year. Thank goodness for the recent heatwave, as at least it has slowed it's infernal sprouting.

Wood's Butchers shop incidentally was once owned by the family of J's very old school friend Suzy. I also once won a free rack of lamb from here via a £10 voucher awarded for 'letter of the week' to the Knutsford Guardian.

Hey, but that is another story....