A weekend in Brum

This weekend it was BBC Gardener's World at the NEC in Birmingham. We went to stay with M&N and I volunteered for RHS on Saturday in their Floral Pavilion while the others visited the Gardener's World and the BBC Food shows that were on together. It was a great show and they managed to buy some plants as well as fish cakes for our evening meal.

On Sunday, Father's Day, we had brunch in Kings Heath at the Kitchen Garden Café, which is a great place for food during the day. It has loads on in the evening, too - live music of several kinds, comedy nights and lots more. We had some porridge, a full English, hash browns, black pudding, bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese, coffee, tea, OJ - all absolutely delicious.

So now we had to walk it off, so drove up to Hanbury Hall, a National Trust property with some extensive parkland surrounding their lovely gardens and the Hall itself. We walked up to the church, then across the parkland to eventually enter the Garden via the gate by the Haha. We had time to enjoy the Garden before the second Birds of Prey show that was being held outside the Orangerie. There was some spectacular flying by several birds, with the Griffon vulture ending the show - it is an enormous bird.

And then it was the long drive back, along the A rather than M roads which were pretty clogged on Sunday evening.