Mud, mud, glorious mud

I'm back from the Royal Show although if you saw the state of my oh so slippery Vauxhall Vectra you would assume I have been on manoeuvres with the army on Salisbury Plain (and yes, I did need a tractor to pull me off the car park).
What a fantastic event, despite the deluge! I stood in my first poo within minutes of arriving and the fun just carried on from there. We started off at the cattle ring (hence the poo) and watched a judge agonising for an age over his choice of winner of the best team of three (a bull and two heifers) from Britain's native breeds.
And guess who won? Why, the Welsh Blacks of course, crushing rivals from Devon and Hereford. We celebrated later by eating parts of a Welsh black with some Chinese noodles, and very tasty it was too.
Away from the parade ring there's a host of weird and wonderful things to see. This is the country's biggest showcase for farm machinery and supplies. It's like walking round a car showroom but all the gleaming machinery on display is for doing various things to fields and crops.
You even have a rare chance to see all the marketing bull that farmers are targeted with, my favourite being a feed for young animals featuring the strapline "the best a lamb can get".
North and Mid-Wales cratfspeople and entrepreneurs were well represented in the craft village. One young lady from near Machynlleth was having the first outing for her fledgling business making jewellery from highly polished Welsh slate. It was beautiful and I needed the assistance of a burly young farmer to haul Mrs Editor away before she spent all my money on the one stall.
Our rural affairs editor Andrew Forgrave and photographer Robert Parry Jones have done a fantastic job covering the Show in the most trying of circumstances. Well done, gentlemen!
The big concern now has to be for the National Eisteddfod in Flintshire. I hear that the site is very wet and with 10,000 cars a day expected, the fear is that we'll have another mudbath on our hands.
It's a story we will monitor closely over the next few days.