This England

Here's Rachel with Alan Titchmarsh at Chatsworth Country Fair yesterday. I wasn't there, boo. But what a nice fellah he was, with a proper manly handshake, according to FiL Eamon Curran. Chatsworth is one of those brilliant country events and Alan, as I think I have earned the right to call him, given his new found friendship with my family, is the president.

It represents another England from the urban concerns that usually occupy our thoughts through the year, even in leafy Marple.

He talks about the magic of country fairs in his column in Gardeners World in the August edition and warns that many are dying. The weather doesn't help, but the Royal Show has called it a day and as Al said to our Rachel: "It would be criminal if other shows went the same way."