Botanic Garden Party

I passed an agreeable few hours at Belfast's Botanic Gardens this afternoon, the occasion being the Taste Northern Ireland Garden Party organized by Tesco and Belfast City Council.

My first port o' call was the Tropical Ravine, where the basement floor was open. I cannot recall ever having been in the basement before; just the gallery. They requested donations of a pound for some good cause or other; I'm quite sure I chatted to Frank Caddy at the door.

Outside in the Gardens there were enormous marquees and it was like London Underground's Piccadilly station at the rush hour in July; such crowds. Still, I had plenty to eat. Think Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game and trying to remember as many items on the conveyor-belt as humanly possible: Golden Cow garlic butter with bread; Coleraine Cheddar cubes; cocktail sausages; savoury sausage bites; sausage roll; Bailey's cream cake; Mash Direct leek-and-something; Irwin's breads; Ormo pancake; and more, like thimble-sized amounts of Black Bush whiskey, Bailey's liqueur and Smirnoff Apple vodka. I consumed that list, as if you didn't know.

I was given two 150g tubs of Country Kitchen Select Coleslaw and I mentioned the fact that their cheese variety is my perennial favourite and that I've already written about them and given them the sought-after Belmont Warrant (ha!). Irwin's Nutty Crust High Fibre also has the Warrant.

I concluded the afternoon with a brief visit to the Ulster Museum, which is also in the Gardens.