Making life a holiday with interesting vacation and adventure ideas.

The PSP Southampton Boat Show begins its 40th year tomorrow, 12 September and runs through to 21 September 2008. Last year more than 127,000 visitors attended this popular boating show, which takes place next door to Lymington, home base for many of Britian's sailing stars.
UK sailors have returned from Qingdao, China, with the best Olympic medal haul for over a century and gold medal winners Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, will arrive on Mike Golding's yacht Ecover 3, at 10am tomorrow, together with other Skandia Team GBR members, to formally open the show.

They will be joined by boating legends and television personalities from the past 40 years to celebrate the Southampton Boat Show's forty year history.

Labels: 2008, 40, anniversary, England, exhibition, sailing, show, Southampton, Southampton boat show, UK

Biggest and best flowers and vegetables

The UK National Amateur Gardening Show is scheduled for the 5-7 September, 2008, at the Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset. They are usually blessed with glorious weather and offer spectacular garden displays, an abundance of flowers, fruit and vegetables, plus the biggest dahlia show in the world, organized by the UK National Dahlia Society.

The show is also home to the UK National Giant Vegetable Championships. Vegetables on display are not just big, they are monsters and, contrary to popular myth, having ejoyed optimum growing conditions they make good eating too. BigPumpkins.com provides an interactive web site for the giant pumpkin and squash growing community around the world. They help new comers to get started offer tips and even have a seed exchange.

Alastair Jamieson has just written an inspiring article about the Giant Vegetable Championships and the community of growers surrounding it.

One final note, the National Amateur Gardening Show also reckons to put on the best Bougainvillea (Paper Flower) display anywhere in Europe. Take a peek at a previous show on this video link.

Labels: 2008, flowers, Horticulture, show, UK, vegetables, video