This is just a quickie. Here we are on Easter Saturday parked in a Wal Mart car park, the only place we could find in the middle of Harrisburg, PA. Something tells me it is not going to be a peaceful night as it is 9pm and the place is still very crowded and noisy.

First of all can I say a big ‘thank you' to everyone who supported me by writing to their MPs and filling in the government questionnaire regarding Statutory Regulation for herbalists. The good news is that all your efforts have paid off as it was announced within the last couple of days that the Government have approved Statutory Regulation for herbalists. This means that we will continue to have full access to all our herbs and that the public will be able to continue to consult qualified medical herbalists in the UK! Well done everyone and thanks, once again, for putting yourselves out for me and all the other herbalists who have been working so hard to bring this subject to the attention of both the public and the Department of Health

Now back to our US travels. We left Oak Grove RV park in Hatfield, near Souderton, this morning and drove over to the warehouse to load up. I can't believe how much stuff we put in the ‘garage' area of the ‘toy hauler' but we had to load enough stock to hopefully be sufficient for both the Equine Affaire show, in Columbus Ohio, as well as the Rolex Three Day Event in Lexington, Kentucky. The drive was uneventful enough and the truck and RV purred along, we are very glad we went for the Ford 550 pickup as anything else would have just not been up to the job.

We meant to take some pics for Easter but I'm afraid events overtook us, sorry, will make up for it in the coming days. One thing that did happen is that we found the most amazing artisan baker in Souderton, of all places. Each time we have visited Souderton over the past 12 months I had noticed a small bakery, placed on its own, in a residential area of the town. Finally on Thursday I made Tony stop as we drove past and we went in. Well, what a find! it is the most amazing bakery, called Bakery on Broad because its on Broad Street. It's run by a French artisan baker and his American wife, and they have been open for four years. We bought Foccacia, a whole-wheat beer bread, and some Croissants. The owners are very friendly and were fascinated to hear that we are devotees of Max Poilane, the famous Parisien baker (sadly deceased), whose boulangeries are located in Paris and whose sour dough breads and almond croissants are always bought whenever we do the Salon de Cheval show each December. Imagine Tony's joy when he saw on the baker's flyer that he also makes almond and chocolate croissant! The first purchase lived up to all our expectations and we made a bee line to the bakers the very next day to buy some of the said almond and chocolate croissants. Tony pronounced that it was' like being in France', a quote that the baker's wife immediately added to her quote board that she has outside the shop. We will certainly be going back there as soon as we get back to Souderton and only wish our RV's freezer was larger!

!!!!!???

Anyway that's about if for now, will send more news once we arrive in Columbus and start setting up the show.

Cheers

H & T