Bishop Wilton Show
Seeing as Mum wasn't at work on Saturday, we took ourselves over to Bishop Wilton Show. The weather Gods smiled on us, as it rained all the way there, rained all the way back, but didn't rain at all in the 2.5 hours we were there. There was even enough sunshine for me to get a minor sunburn (it itches!)
There is nothing special about Bishop Wilton show, other than it exists, there are not many village shows any closer to us, and Bridlington's equivalent, the Crysanthemum Show, no longer exists :(
Note to self: Join the WI or somesuch for more access to this sort of thing
The competition tents weren't open when we got there (still judging) so we had a wander around. We saw some Show Jumping:
and some Morris Dancing (how terribly English of us):
and I got to see a sheep sheared:
This was fascinating to watch, but didn't result in any fleece for me, this was all going off to become carpet (the only way there is any money in it now, which is a shame) - the sheep are a cross between Scottish Blackface and Blue Faced Leicester.
What was really interesting was that the shearer took off his boots before he started shearing, and put on special 'sheep shearing shoes' - they looked like a cross between moccosains and turn shoes (for the re-enactors on the flist), and I suspect have not changed in design for 100s of years.
There was a sweepstake for how long it takes to shear a sheep. Care to guess?
Inside the tents were the usual array of classes. I was surprised to see no entries in the 'any knitted garment' class, and gently teased Mum she could enter the 'any handicraft by a senior citizen' class ;)
I particularly liked the Guinness arrangement in the 'arrangement in a beer glass' class (seen towards the back of this photo)
More unusuall there was a class for 'one bloom and one vegetable' (won by a lily and some beans), and this:
Yes, that does say '3 stems of oil seed rape - to be tied' (second place hadn't tied their entry ;) )
All in all we had a great time :)
There is nothing special about Bishop Wilton show, other than it exists, there are not many village shows any closer to us, and Bridlington's equivalent, the Crysanthemum Show, no longer exists :(
Note to self: Join the WI or somesuch for more access to this sort of thing
The competition tents weren't open when we got there (still judging) so we had a wander around. We saw some Show Jumping:
and some Morris Dancing (how terribly English of us):
and I got to see a sheep sheared:
This was fascinating to watch, but didn't result in any fleece for me, this was all going off to become carpet (the only way there is any money in it now, which is a shame) - the sheep are a cross between Scottish Blackface and Blue Faced Leicester.
What was really interesting was that the shearer took off his boots before he started shearing, and put on special 'sheep shearing shoes' - they looked like a cross between moccosains and turn shoes (for the re-enactors on the flist), and I suspect have not changed in design for 100s of years.
There was a sweepstake for how long it takes to shear a sheep. Care to guess?
Inside the tents were the usual array of classes. I was surprised to see no entries in the 'any knitted garment' class, and gently teased Mum she could enter the 'any handicraft by a senior citizen' class ;)
I particularly liked the Guinness arrangement in the 'arrangement in a beer glass' class (seen towards the back of this photo)
More unusuall there was a class for 'one bloom and one vegetable' (won by a lily and some beans), and this:
Yes, that does say '3 stems of oil seed rape - to be tied' (second place hadn't tied their entry ;) )
All in all we had a great time :)