The Royal Highland Show 2009

... judged by the company you keep!

HRH Queen Elizabeth II of The United Kingdom

Growing up, I heard my parents tell me to be careful how I chose my friends. “You are judged by the company you keep”, they told me.

In our business we are certainly privileged to 'keep very good company' by exhibiting our silver and gold jewellery at trade shows supported by various members of our British Royal Family. The 2009 Royal Highland Show, held in Edinburgh, was no exception. In fact this year we were delighted to meet with HRH Elizabeth II herself! She is the patron of the Show's organising body and this was her first visit to the Show in over twenty years. This presented the ultimate 'Royal photo' opportunity and I was pleased to snap the picture of her above - albeit from quite some distance away due to the tight security that surrounds her royal visits!

The Royal Highland Show saw a record attendance over the four days last week. In fact we discovered that the numbers had increased by over 15% with the highest ever visitor figure on the Saturday of 51,307. This was probably aided by the Royal visits which included not only HRH the Queen on the second day of the Show, but also Princess Ann who was in attendance on the Saturday.

Our customers at the Royal Highland show are largely from the farming community in Scotland. Many of them had no doubt as to which would be the champion cow this year. It was an impressive 'Holstein', bred near Annan, that was named as the interbreed champion at the 2009 Royal Highland Show. The judges were impressed with the size, power and sheer scale of her. She was well balanced and with a really good udder too. "A youthful cow with good legs and feet", one farmer told me!

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