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 on 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!

Sunday lunch

Last weekend we were in the Yorkshire Dales with our elder daughter. We met her from the London train with the long Bank Holiday weekend ahead of us, ready to enjoy each other's company, good walks on the moor top and a trip to the Wensleydale Show. Just what the doctor ordered! We did a fair bit of pottling about. The Dales are usually full of the sound of water, streams and waterfalls aplenty, but this year the sound and sight was very much subdued, just a trickle wherever we went. Hawes.

We went to Hardraw for Sunday lunch, a lovely village and a popular pub. (I went in through the front door!)

Himself has placed his order and is waiting for his food, it will be coming with a large Yorkshire pudding and a lake of gravy!

A peep over the bridge shows another sad trickle of water.

It was perfect weather for walking on the moor.

Grandparenting duties.

We see quite a bit of our newly eight year old grandson in the school holidays, it's a wonderful age. He's dropped off at our house in the mornings before his parents start work. He comes with a load of equipment; paints, marbling kit, modeling clay, puzzles, construction kits. scooter, pogo stick, (I'm sure it has another name these days) the list goes on. I think how simple and uncluttered my own childhood was, post-war austerity left us to make good use of our imagination. So I was amused, and quite delighted, when he ignored his wealth of equipment and played for a long time with two of my clothes pegs. He has various jobs when with us, one is to set the table. As you can see in the photo, he made an off-the-table placement for his cutlery with the pegs and then set us the challenge to do the same but in a different pattern. I was only too happy to delay lunch, he was so involved and happy exploring possibilities with us.

Trips to the beach involve another load of clobber; goggles, snorkel, large flippers, body board, ball and bats. 'You want all that, you carry it' says Nana. And he does.

What does he play with the most? See the old metal spade with the worm-eaten handle, at least half a century old? That's the plaything that sees the action!

Another dry day

I went to the allotment to harvest some veg. What a sorry sight it is. I chucked a few buckets of water around the pear tree and under the squash plants but to little effect. Many of the plots look as though they have been completrly abandoned.

Daughter was home from London for the weekend so we packed our swimsuits and headed for the beach. We went early, before the weekend crowds and had a wonderful swim in calm waters. We set up a small windbreak but have yet to purchase a rubber hammer!

Aah, just the job!

We left just as it was starting to get busy and spent a lazy day at home.