Das Fürstliche Gartenfest (The Princely Garden show)
Posted on:We returned to Gartenfest in Schloss Wolfsgarten after an absence of several years and it was as lovely a show as it was when we last attended. Quite a few people came to speak with us and pointed out our location in the show ground from our last attendance and said they had bought a Trug from us then and were very pleased with it! Wow! We made an impression then Andy Greenwood and I!
We met old friends amongst the exhibitors and set our our display under the shade of an overhanging tree that provided shelter from the sun (and a little rain) for Mike and Caleb as they worked and we laid out our Trugs in attractive semi-circles on the grass. The guy next to us was from Ireland! Everyone was so friendly at the show and we made a new friend in Hegwig! No, not Harry Potter’s owl but a real German lady who asked to have a go at shaving because, when she was growing up, her father insisted she was familiar with many types of tool. She did very well, making confident, deep strokes into the chestnut – see photo in next blog.
One man came up to us on the Saturday to say that he had read about our two day journey to get to the show in the major German national newspaper and had to come and see us! Mike, Caleb and our Trugs were photographed all during the show and there are some on an English resident’s website (see link). Gareth Tynan is a professional photographer and took some super photo of Gartenfest <<< click to see our photos and explore Gartenfest. Unsurprisingly there were many ex-pats from England and they all visited us, including one guy who previously hailed from Crowborough here in Sussex. We stayed in a wonderful house in the middle of a woodland nature reserve, next to a lovely lake and had the company of the owner's donkey in the field next to us. Not telling you where it is though as we want it for ourselves. The owner, Holger and his mother, offered superb hospitality and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in their house in Rossdorf. All-in-all a great show and we will be going back next year. Our sincere thanks to Dr. Miller and Anja Heil for their hospitality in providing us with a nice pitch. Thanks also to Deutsches Rotes Kreuz for looking after Caleb when he had dehydration on Friday. And, of course, thanks to all our followers in Germany who bought one of our Trugs or visited to tell us how delighted they were to have bought one the last time we went to Schloss Wolfsgarten.
