There's nothing quite like an English village fete

There's been rain for the first time in weeks in this long, hot summer.

This morning, it belted down on the conservatory roof, filled the sides of our Dorset roads with streams and lashed the hanging baskets.

And then the sun came out.

Which was just as well because it was Loders Fete.

Set in the gardens of the lovely Loders Court, this typically English event feels like slipping back through a time warp into the fifties, sixties and seventies.

With a nostalgic soundtrack featuring Spanish Flea, Danny Kaye singing Thumbelina and the music for Muscle Man, the grounds are alive with shrieking children, ice creams, stalls selling bric-a-brac, antique valuations, Otter beer, teas, plants and a horde of home-made cakes.

There are racing ferrets, a woman dancing with fire, a fancy dress competition, a bouncy castle and three balls on the coconut shy for 50p.

The cars keep on arriving in the car park hours after the fete opens.

'It's a popular one, this,' says a lady as she crosses the ha-ha and pays her £1 entry, with her Panama-hatted husband by her side.

It's the quintessential English country fete, the backdrop for a Midsomer Murders scene and it's not changed a bit since the music on the playlist was first popular.

England at its best.

Beautiful.

That's about it.

Love Maddie x