A HOST of golden daffodils were outshone by the hats on show in the garden of one North Yorkshire hat maker.

It was a real sign of spring, as Beryl Otley, of Get Ahead Hats, hung out the hats on her washing line among the seasonal show of flowers in her Hessay home.

Beryl is a founder member of Get Ahead Hats, a farmers' wives co-operative of milliners, which runs 18 farm shops nationwide from Devon to Dumfries.

Beryl offers a specialist service at her farm near Poppleton, where she colour co-ordinates hats to match her clients' outfits.

It was some of these newly-coloured hats that she was giving a good airing to on a fine spring day.

She said: "We pride ourselves on providing a lovely service for people when they come here. This is easy shopping, we have lovely showrooms with lots of space and lots of time.

"And being able to see the hats like this, out in our lovely orchard on a beautiful spring day, just shows how different this experience is compared to high street shopping.

"We have been going for 18 years now, and it is more popular than ever."

Updated: 10:27 Tuesday, March 25, 2003