Wensleydale Show

The Wensleydale is an agricultural show, and being in hill country, sheep figure strongly.

It is a great day out with lots to see. The vintage tractor display was interesting because it told the history of farming, with machines from Canada as well as from Yorkshire and other British companies. How dainty they look compared to the monsters of today that can't fit through the old gateways of our small, upland fields.

! like to walk with a stick on the moors, a useful aid for jumpimg over streams. (Not needed this year!) I've got a collection of sticks, a thumbstick that Himself made, my great grandfather's knobkerry and assorted others, but I'm always open to add to the collection. I saw the most beautiful duck head handle on display and asked the carver if I could buy it. Sadly, no, it wasn't for sale, but he was happy to tell me about how it was made. He is also a carver of decoy ducks which he was going to be showing somewhere downcountry.

As a child I used to help my uncle, a keen gardener, at the local flower show so the fruit and flower tent is always of interest. Flowers in a wellington boot seem to fit well with an agricultural show, and there hasn't been much need to be wearing them lately.

And the same could be said for umbrellas.

A bit of showing off in the veg department.

The competition entries that really make me smile are those for the children; a decorated biscuit, a painted stone, misshaped fruit, a sweet necklace, a garden in a box. Daughter and I are delighted, she has form in this area, as a child she was an expert at gardens in a plate!

I just love this creativity, it beats sitting hunched over a digital device any day of the week.

And in the misshaped fruit and vegetable catagory - what a cheek!