Wasn’t that a great Ploughing? After the shocking rain on Monday evening I was sure we were in for three days of mud, but the sun shone most of the time. It’s a long time since we’ve had a wet Ploughing, so whoever is putting out the Child of Prague is getting results. I have to say I love the Ploughing. I don’t get to see much outside our own stand, but I get to meet the nicest people. It does my heart good and it’s such a pleasure to get so much positive feedback regarding Irish Country Living and Irish Country Magazine.

On Tuesday evening, we had the presentation of the FBD National Farmyard Awards 2015. This was a lovely event and the attendance gets bigger each year. Eleven families received awards and as the tears flowed freely, you could see how much the recognition of their great work, attention to detail and efforts on farm safety mattered to them. We will be profiling the winners over the next few weeks – see page 10 for the livestock farm winner.

As ever, Neven Maguire was a big hit on our stand. That man works so hard I don’t know how he keeps going. Every morning he was on the stand by 7am to get ready for the day. With nine dishes and three demonstrations, it was some job to prepare for.

On Monday night, I was at the launch of his latest book The Nation’s Favourite Healthy Food. It was launched by none other than Sonia O’Sullivan, who declared that: “Nevin’s recipes always work.” Sonia had spent some time in Blacklion testing out the recipes and she was full of praise for them.

Every year I promise to stock up on spring bulbs at the Ploughing, but I never get around to doing it. But after my good experience buying lily bulbs at Bloom, I was determined to get my hands on some fancy daffodils. I found the Beechill Bulbs stand, where bags of 75 Tête-à-Tête miniature daffodils were selling for €10. The large Bridal Crown and Winston Churchill daffodils were €5 for 40 big bulbs.

The trick now is to get them planted as there’s nothing as guilt-inducing as finding a bag of dried out sprouting bulbs next March.

One of the questions that I was asked most often at the Ploughing was when and where the “women’s conference” was taking place. So the conference itself takes place on Thursday 29 October at the Knightsbrook Hotel in Trim, Co Meath.

By popular demand, our keynote speaker is Majella O’Donnell, who we have profiled on pages four and six. I’m sure she will be a big hit with everyone. We will announce the full list of speakers next week and I can tell you we have a super lineup. See page six for booking details.

On the night of Wednesday 28 September, we will once again be holding our gala dinner and we also have the presentation of the Women & Agriculture Awards 2015. And a few other surprises are on the agenda, but more about that next week. Tickets are flying out the door, so be sure to book in time.