There are some days that just go right. The sun comes out, the company is good, the bacon sandwiches are exactly as described, and everyone goes home smiling. Our Plant Sale & Coffee Morning in May was precisely one of those days — and we have been smiling about it ever since.
Held in partnership with Belford Village Show, the morning brought together everything that makes community events in Belford so special. The plants were beautiful — a dazzling variety brought along by growers with obvious care and knowledge, ranging from the reliably cheerful to the genuinely unusual. Whether you were looking for something for a window box or trying to fill a south-facing border, there was something for you, and the people selling them were exactly the sort who would tell you honestly whether it was likely to survive in your garden.
The coffee was excellent. The bacon sandwiches were magnificent. The service was — we can say this without any bias whatsoever — fantastic. And the conversation flowed as freely as the coffee, which is, after all, rather the point.
Events like this one matter beyond the obvious pleasure of a sunny morning with good food and good plants. They are an opportunity for people to meet, to browse, to chat to a neighbour they haven’t seen in a while, to feel part of a community that still gathers and still looks after itself. Belford is a small town, but it has a generous heart, and mornings like this one are a vivid expression of that.
Thank you to everyone at Belford Village Show for the partnership — it is a joy to work with an organisation that shares our commitment to bringing people together. And thank you to everyone who came along, who bought plants, who drank coffee, who ate bacon sandwiches and who made the morning what it was. We hope to see you again next year.