The Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society Show

for 2020 was cancelled - because of Covid19. 

I wrote about this elsewhere but it really hit home this morning. This is the week all of us who work there in the Handicrafts area would have been really busy. It would have been the week lined the trestle tables with paper, accepted the entries and put them out grouped by their classes. The judges would have come in and examined every entry - yes, everything gets looked at even if it is obvious from the start that it won't win a prize. Good judges - and we have some very good judges - will often write a few words on the entry card telling someone how to improve. It is all part of entering something.

When the judges had gone we would have been attaching the ribbons to the cards and putting things in the display cabinets. We would be wondering how to fit everything in so that everything can be seen to the best advantage. We would wonder how the "window dresser" who always does the "best in show" cabinet would manage to bring together the usual diverse range of entries.  There would be anxious counting and moments of panic when something seems to have gone missing. There would be that sigh of relief when things are found again. 

   "Look at this!" and "How did they do that?" and "That must have taken months to make," would be heard over and over again.

I would not have needed to be anxious about the Senior Cat because someone else would be watching out for him. He would have been more than happy for me to miss a couple of days visiting. He loves the Show. Most people find it fascinating.

Tomorrow they will launch the virtual Show portal. It won't be the same. I'll miss the smell of baled hay and the noise of the forklifts as they set up the adjacent garden displays and, on the other side, the commercial vendors putting their stands together.

But in this morning's paper there was a spread about the other people the failure to have a Show affects - the farmers and graziers for whom it is a showcase of their work. This is where some serious buying and selling occurs. It is where the Country Women's Association shows people it is about much more than making scones and the Red Cross can explain the importance of donating blood and the St John Ambulance Service can talk to people about equipment that saves lives.  It is where people can see cows being milked and touch raw fleece and eat fairy floss while riding on a fairground ride.

I'll miss all this. The people I work with there will miss it too. Thousands of other people will miss coming along to see all our hard work. 

I wonder whether the Covid19 virus will be under sufficient control for a Show to go ahead in 2021. I hope so. We need such things.