A very British fete.

Dear Mummy, over the weekend we visited a village called Dummer in Hampshire. Across the motorway and fields from where we live. It’s like a different world compared to the city! Green fields as far as the eye can see. Old fashioned country signs and quirky cottages.

We drive down country lanes with large hedgerows and even larger houses. A duck pond, a red telephone booth, village church and a local pub. We pass some very large properties and country estates and take the scenic route through the Hampshire countryside to Dummer Village Fete. My Grandparents took me last year as they know the area rather well, having looked at properties to live in, but alas it wasn’t meant to be and they ended up living a bit further afield from my house. We follow the little white signs for the fete and it leads us up an impressive drive to a farm. A beautiful country pad in the middle of beautiful scenery.

We’re a bit early to enter the fete so decided to have a quick picnic in one of the neighbouring fields by the car and play catch with my inflatable ball. I have a whale of a time chasing Grandma around and sitting in the sun eating my sausages and fruit. *yes a weird combination – but I enjoy it*

Suddenly its a hive of activity as we see lots of people turning up with Land Rovers and convertibles filled with goodies from cakes to plants and bric-a-brac for the stands. Its like something out the Antiques Roadshow credits, and we half expect to see a sport car with a grandfather clock in the back seat! We pack up our picnic and enter the fete, we’re one of the first people here so it very quite and empty. It means we can get first dibs on the cakes and sit down and have a nice cup of tea.

Dummer Village Fete is held at Dummer Down Farm, the same estate that Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, lived at when she was a child. We enjoy a cream tea on the lawn and have a punt on the tom-bola. I eat a very messy chocolate cake as the icing melts in the hot afternoon sun.

After enjoying our cream tea and cake we explore the grounds and I have a go on the pony rides. I ride a very big pony! At least 12 hands high! My helmet is the smallest they could find and I bob up and down on the saddle. The views are beautiful.

For the rest of the afternoon we laze on the lawn. I drink squash while mummy and grandma enjoy a glass of Pimms. We watch a local children perform some ballet on the lawn in front of their proud parents. Music fills the summer air and we can smell the BBQ. It’s very relaxing and we could spend all day here! Such pretty gardens – I love to explore and look at the unusual garden ornaments and big planters. The roses and lavender are out and make the old house stunning. We find a hidden garden with a sundial and I explore it looking for snakes and being chased by a lion. My mummy giggles at my sense of wonderment and imagination.

We spend 2 hours at the country fete and I really get a taste of village life and the sense of community spirit. My Grandma was raised in the country and on a farm in Ireland and loves the feeling that she gets in the countryside. Who knows..in a couple of years we may live out here and I might have a secret garden of my own…

Love Bella x