A Jolly Good Time with Joules

I spent part of last week at Blenheim Palace. Tis rather large and rather wondrous.




The library was busy being set up for a wedding reception when we went around. Oh my word. Can you even imagine how much that must cost? I shudder to think.




Guys, it's a cake palace. It's made of CAKE. Who wants to help me eat it?

In short: the palace was most excellent. We weren't there just to look around impressive buildings though. During that week in September a whole other little city sets up camp in the grounds. A horsey city! We were volunteering at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials which has got to have one of the loveliest sporting backdrops possible.



Aside from the three phases of the main competition (dressage, cross-country and showjumping) there are tons of tradestands, a food hall, an attractions arena with loads of brill demos and displays, doggie agility, a funfair and all sorts of fun and games to take part in. My shopping mostly consisted of horsey related things and I can't in all honesty expect you to get excited about the martingale I bought (the blingy green browband perhaps - it's like Crown and Glory but for ponies!).

Gin and tonic sorbet though...



Also, Joules. We all love it, don't we?



Hello there, tempting tradestand. It's Joules' Jubilee this year, marking 25 years of deliciously colourful country clothing. As far as I'm concerned, they're are a match made in heaven for horse trials shopping. While I daren't even look at tradestands like Dubarry (eye-wateringly expensive), I know that there will always be tons of things to take my fancy on the Joules stand. I utterly lost my heart to their amazing new fox jumper.



Knowing that I was off for a weekend of horses and gallivanting around in tents and fields, they had very kindly asked me if I'd like to try out anything from the Equestrian Collection. I couldn't resist the mega comfy Hartland gilet and super stripy Cowdray sweatshirt (mine is the salt wash colourway but it doesn't seem to be available online any more).

I'm delighted with them both. There's the additional side benefit of the tongue twisting amusement of trying to say Joules gilet but even without that it'd be pretty much perfect in my book. I don't like my gilets too shiny or too padded (don't need to look any bulkier than I am!) and this one is soft, cosy and absolutely ideal for those autumnal days when the weather can't quite decide how warm it wants to be.

The sweatshirt is equally perfect for an evening sitting outside the tent reading and then cooking dinner.



Also loving the turn back cuffs. Ideal for those of us with short arms!



So what was for dinner? Corned beef mash, campsite style. I adore that little gas stove.



We had a smashing time. I can't think of many better ways to spend four days than camping somewhere beautiful and enjoying the very best in country shopping and sporting entertainment. Just to end up with a little bit of horsiness, here's my favourite picture from the weekend:



*[]*

Brilliant Blenheim

As someone who works with over 350 volunteers, I know full well that people who volunteer have a whole range of motivations for doing it. So what on earth makes me take a precious holiday day off work, give up a whole weekend and drive a round trip of 350 miles to spend three days living in a tent and getting absolutely soaked?

Well, we got asked to volunteer at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials. Can't say no to an offer like that, can you? It's the third biggest event in the UK and only Badminton and Burghley are more important. We started out as British Eventing volunteers last February for flips sake! I honestly never expected to be rubbing shoulders with people who'd worked at the Olympics so soon, if at all. It just goes to show that being dedicated (and also chatty on social media!) gets you noticed. Not exactly a case of who you know, but more a case of making yourself known, if that makes sense?

What makes us want to do it? Well, we truly love the sport and this is an amazing chance to be a part of it (and let's be honest, the chance to exchange a few words with fitties like Oli Townend and Andrew Nicholson when they're walking the course doesn't hurt either!). Fence judging usually means a long day but it's always a lively one. We had an enormous amount of fun at Blenheim and as the teams were a little bigger than at one day events, it meant there was plenty of opportunity to mix with other volunteers. We spent most of Sunday having a fab time and roaring with laughter with the three other fence judges at our fence.

Most events look after their volunteers really well but the team at Blenheim were exceptionally good to us. We got free entry and camping passes for all four days, programme vouchers, a cross-country course walk with the course designer, all sorts of brilliant special offers from their clothing partners, a fab goody bag (honestly, the way to my heart lies through pens and post it notes), as much coffee and cake as we could manage without bursting, branded clothing for the weekend and a lovely hog roast on the Saturday night. Who wouldn't want to volunteer?! It was worth every second of that extremely tedious drive down the M6 and M40 to get there.

Let me shower you with photos:

Our fence on the Saturday. Choo choo!

Our fence on the Sunday. A water jump!

Horses, horses everywhere. I was too busy fence judging to take cross-country photos so these were snapped on the Friday whilst we were wandering around.

Shopping happened. Behold my lovely new hat. A) it fits (this is rare when it comes to my enormous head), B) it suits me (also rare) and C) it's waterproof. As it rained pretty much all weekend, this was kinda important.

I did also wear the trusty badger hat though. It was cold as well as rainy. Stupid autumn weather.

The Mothership modelling her official rugby shirt and fab new boots.

Brekkie in the Odd Socks tent, accompanied by about 7 pairs of soggy walking shoes. Did I mention it was a wet weekend?

Well, one has to keep up one's standards, even when camping.