Seed Swap

This morning I went to a seed swap. Here I am setting up my trestle table with some of the many plants that seem to riot in my garden, Corsican hellebores, aquilegia  and the like. I also made up a good number of seed packets, all ready to swap! I am given a table next to a lovely selling stall, Thomas Etty Esq. He spots my blackcurrant plants and we immediately arrange a swap - my 'Ben Sarek' for his 'Lazy Housewife' and 'Drunken Woman'. I don't really need either kidney bean or lettuce seed, but who can resist names such as these?  

Cars have come laden with all sorts of goodies

and set up stall in the village hall.

Goose eggs.

It's treasure trove!

There's even music and dancing.

The female Somerset Morris group with their beribboned two metre wooden staves with distinctive brass metal heads. There are differing patterns for each village.  In other parts of the country the stave heads were made of wood and few have survived. 

The Somerset Morris musicians play to dances that originate from the Friendly Societies which were a vital feature of life for working people in the last half of the eighteenth century.

Members of these societies were given help in times of ill health and hardship and were also provided with a decent burial.

The Jubilee Morris Men take over the entertainment.

Wearing bells and waving handkerchiefs is such hard work

It's followed by the serious business of drinking tea.

Characters? Us!

A room full of gardening enthusiasts, what could be nicer? Now that we have our choice of seeds everyone is champing at the bit for the soil to warm up enough for planting.

Just look at the swaps that I brought home!