The Chilli Festival
Having heard that it was on, it just wouldn’t have been right to miss it! The 2006 West Dean Gardens chilli festival!
The gardens themselves are down south from London, just out of Chichester. So we had a nice train ride through some countryside for a change, and then a bus ride though narrow country lanes. Makes a change from the tube every day! Probably took us about 2 and a bit hours to get there, but not a bad trip.
So what was there? A lot of people, all enjoying chilli related activity, and a heap of stalls with all sorts of chilli stuff, of course! Lots of sauces, hot (temperature and spice) food, plants, crockery, tea towels, cards etc., bands and beer and cider… And a lot of plants and seeds to buy. Managed to avoid buying too much though. Only came away with a lot of seeds for next year.
It was also nice to wander around the normal gardens though. There were massive vege gardens, glasshouses etc. to look as well as all the chillis. But it was all soooo dry! Brown bits of lawn, empty pools and ponds. All a bit sad, but not surprising given the extremely dry and hot summer!
Really nice sunny day out in the country. Good fun.