Bloom 2017

Yesterday myself and Lucy headed to Bloom in Dublin. I applied for a media accreditation and was lucky enough to get approved so Lucy came along with me as my guest.

We got the train to Dublin, I won’t mention the fella on the train who was reciting The Bible all the way from Sligo (whoops I just did!)

There are regular, free, shuttle buses running between Heuston and Bloom, we got a brilliant bus driver called Declan who kept us entertained on the way.

When we arrived there wasn’t too much of a queue so we got in fairly quickly. I did end up chasing a giant potato!

First stop was the food village (naturally!), it’s such a good way to find out about producers that you might not have heard of and to sample something new. Be aware you may get trampled on in the rush to get to the Brady’s ham samples! I love the new Broderick’s B. C. bars and would certainly buy them again. I also really liked the Bluebell Falls Goats Cheese and the Keogh’s Shamrock and Sour Cream crisps. I was actually so full up from all the samples I didn’t need to have lunch!

The Irish Craft Village was next on our list to visit. There are so many beautiful products there and I now have a large wish list! Sligo was well represented with Martina Hamilton, she makes such beautiful jewellery and is well worth checking out. Annabel Langrish also had a lovely range of products on her stand, her love of animals shows in her beautiful work. As well as the stands there are different craft demos you can watch and workshops to take part in.

There’s a big picnic area with various food vans. I didn’t really check them out as I wasn’t hungry. In the picnic area there’s a stage with live music so that part had a lovely atmosphere – even with the rain. There’s a great kids section too and it’s worth noting that children under 16 get in to Bloom free with adults. I got to see a little bit of Scientific Sue in action, I’ve seen her at the Sligo Science Fair and she’s brilliant.

Now on to the Show Gardens, they were just beautiful, it was a pleasure looking at them. So many talent designers and gardeners and loads of inspiration. I would love my garden to look like any one of them. The bees were very impressed too!

I loved saying hello to the Dogs Trust dogs, my two boys would have enjoyed that garden. The Trócaire garden was lovely too and it was a very nice touch of them to give out seeds.

This is the first year that I haven’t gone into the Floral Marquee, it was just too busy for my liking and I’m not great with crowds at the moment. I’m sure it was beautiful though. We also didn’t see the food demos and Michael D. Higgins was on stage when we got there 🙂

So that was my day at Bloom in a condensed form. I’m sure Lucy will write her own post. If I lived in Dublin I would go back again this weekend, it’s a really enjoyable day out. My photos aren’t as good as previous years, my confidence has gone and I’ve lost my nerve but you can see all my photos here.

Bloom continues all weekend including Bank Holiday Monday. You can find out more about it here: http://bloominthepark.com/

Disclaimer Bord Bia kindly gave me a Media Pass so I didn’t have to pay to get into Bloom. My views are my own and I didn’t receive payment of any kind.