Side By Side

The Countryfile Live event was so very good but so very long and very tiring hence the backblip!

After getting ready and collecting Mum on the way I thought traffic would be clear and we'd have an easy journey but people were coming and going all day long and everywhere was busy busy busy.

According to 2 of the better-travelled gentlemen in my life the sat nav chose a silly route too, but, we had a super time and Stella didn't mind stops at the services both ways as we found trees and geocaches at both sites! 

In this area of the show it was like Crufts but the way I'd do it. Useful displays, a bit of shopping, and, ALL dogs welcome :) 

There was no time for much celebrity spotting but we did see Brian Turner doing a cookery display and the lovely Peter Purves was doing a superb job in the dog arena. Here he is side by side with a couple of gorgeous black labs (considerably more obedient than my own companion!) ready for a gun dog show.

If you follow me on social media you may have seen that a huge highlight was having an ice cream cone - mint choc chip ice cream made with goats' milk! It was so very good :) 

I was expecting to have a set routine as mine was a blogger ticket but the main idea was to publicise the fact that dogs were welcome here. That couldn't have been more evident and I had no problem sharing tweets and instagrams to that effect. There were set areas with dog water points where you could leave your poo bags and fill your water bottles along with drinking troughs and water bowls all over. 

When we were having lunch (a gourmet hot dog made with venison - scrummy!) a guy came over from the Belvoir stand with a filled water bowl for Stella as he hadn't noticed I'd brought one. Apparently several people hadn't despite the forecast being warm. She was wearing her yellow dog 'I need space' bandana too as I knew it would busy and that worked a treat as well as being easy to keep soaked in water so she was cool too. 

The extra is a collage of my iphone snaps throughout the day.

Still so very tired this morning but what a fantastic day :)